It costs a lot to be present at PMA (the total cost, not including staff, is a significant fraction of a million dollars for a big stand like Canon/Nikon/Fuji/Pana), and the bulk of the people who go are photo enthusiasts. With the enthusiast models still months away, and nothing out of NDA, we decided it wasn't worth the cost this year. I manned the stand last year, and the amount of foot traffic we got over the course of that day... it wasn't nothing, but I had a hard time imagining how the cost could be justified.
Yeah, that's a fair comment as far as it goes. I guess the other side is that you have a certain amount of marketing budget for the year, and you've got to decide where it goes. If you attend PMA now, you have to run your TV ad in off-peak later... or whatever.
Ouch. I'm sorry to hear you say that- I think everyone here takes a lot of pride in the product, and they'd hate to think people thought otherwise. Of course with our last couple of releases for Alpha being targeted at P&S upgraders, I can see how it might feel like we're focusing on them to the exclusion of enthusiasts. That's not our intention- a lot of us are photo enthusiasts ourselves- but in the end, we've got to try to reach the people who are going to buy the product we have to sell. I think with our new cameras this year we'll be bringing our attention back to the enthusiast crowd, and it will stay there.
yup
It depresses me too! Training retail staff is a big part of my job, and I'm really hoping to turn around people's attitudes when we do our roadshow this year.
This is something we're working on at the moment. It's proving pretty tricky, but we'd like to have something up and running before xmas!I hope Sony can get a bigger following here in Australia. I don't know where you work or what position you're in, but if you have any influence at all please tell them to make rental opportunities available! There is no 'try before you buy' available anywhere for Sony products. I think it makes it really hard for people to get a feel for what's available and see if they might be interested in it
I can't really talk about prices, sorry! I do hear what you say though.
I understand! It's good to get this sort of feedback. What I read on here goes into my feedback when we talk about serving the enthusiast market, so your voice is heard.Sorry for ranting - that just really annoyed me. At this rate if anything is going to turn me off Sony it's the service, not the products
Thank you so much for listeningIt depresses me too! Training retail staff is a big part of my job, and I'm really hoping to turn around people's attitudes when we do our roadshow this year.
This is something we're working on at the moment. It's proving pretty tricky, but we'd like to have something up and running before xmas!I hope Sony can get a bigger following here in Australia. I don't know where you work or what position you're in, but if you have any influence at all please tell them to make rental opportunities available! There is no 'try before you buy' available anywhere for Sony products. I think it makes it really hard for people to get a feel for what's available and see if they might be interested in it
I can't really talk about prices, sorry! I do hear what you say though.
I understand! It's good to get this sort of feedback. What I read on here goes into my feedback when we talk about serving the enthusiast market, so your voice is heard.Sorry for ranting - that just really annoyed me. At this rate if anything is going to turn me off Sony it's the service, not the products
Best of luck training the retail staff & getting them a bit more positive & confident about products. Also I'll definitely look forwards to seeing some sort of rental system/try before you buy setup For sure I will. I'll be the guy who needs a haircut who's talking about cameras
Yeah, a lot of the Sony Center staff are really sharp guys, but they're not camera specialists. I only get a chance to train them a few times a year, and the F43AM kind of just rocked up between launches, so it more or less slipped through the cracks.
It's a nice idea. The hardest thing about doing something like that is actually communicating that it's happening to all the people who might want to come along. Don't suppose you have any ideas on how to send a bat-signal to all the alpha photogs in Sydney without breaking the bank?
Yeah, the rate of registration isn't huge, but that would certainly be the place to start. I might try to organize something like this for mid-October or something.
Am I the only Sony shooter in Melbourne.....?
At least if that's the case you'll have an easy time contacting me 
I'll keep an eye on the skies lolI might save you the trouble and put a post on a forum or twoAm I the only Sony shooter in Melbourne.....?
If we go to the trouble of putting together a complete accessory lineup you can bet we'll be doing our level best to get our time and money's worth out of it- we'd probably do all the east coast cities, and maybe Adelaide and Perth.