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The bottom line to me is that the camera companies have done a good
job of getting people to focus on high mp when looking at a camera.
This was a good strategy when going from a 1mp to 2mp or 2mp to 3mp
etc.
However, the real limit for these sensors seems to around 4 or 5mp.
Who really NEEDS 8mp? In my opinion very few people. Unless you are
doing some pretty drastic cropping, 4 or 5 mp is sufficient.
Phil has stated many times that he wished the camera companies
would concentrate on, accurate color, noise, etc. , rather than
increased mp.
Remember this quote?
Takashi Oshiyama, head of Canon's digital imaging business group,
told Reuters in an interview "Those companies out
there that have no experience producing film cameras have yet to
create a camera that performs like a real camera should. I won't
say who that is."
I think what he was really saying, was that technology is reaching
a point where traditional camera companies will have the edge in
overall image quality.
Over and over in this forum the phrase "Based on the 828 images
I've seen posted, I think the 828 takes great pictures".
I've seen some great 828 pictures posted, however these have been
by great photographers on this site, who could post great pictures
from any camera.
To be honest, I haven't seen any pictures that make me go wow, it's
because of the 828 that this picture is so good.
Also, a lot of the really good pictures have had post processing
done to remove CA and noise. For DSLR users, post processing is a
normal part of the workflow, mainly to bring out colors and
sharpness. I don't think most people who want an all in one camera
really want to go through all of that.
I respect the loyalty of Sony consumers, companies rely on these
folks for their future.
For the 828, I think Sony made a huge mistake taking these people
for granted.
In the end you have to provide the product to meet consumers
expectations, or pay the price at the sales counter.
--
Doug D.
'Promise a rainbow, and someone will look to the sky.'
Equipment in profile.
http://public.fotki.com/DougD/
http://albums.photo.epson.com/j/AlbumList?u=1681338
http://www.imagestation.com/member/
index.html?name=diamondspoint&c=201
http://www.pbase.com/doug_d
--Evil,
I agree that there have been decidely moves to improve the "bottom
line", and that this has put pressure on all facets of manufacture
of a new products. In the past, companies had time to get their
product dialed in. With competitive pressures, this is no longer
the case. Its easy to blame marketing, but in reality, the demands
of consumers and stockholders doesn't leave much room for error.
In the case of the 828, I think that the intent of building it
around the small imager was a fine effort, maybe it was rushed,
but, it didn't quite make it. In my case, I had been educated by
person's here to understand that noise would be on par or even
possibly a bit worse than the 717. This is in fact the case, and I
had grown to accept it.
Conversely, I had also been educated to believe that the CZ lens
would be top of its class. So far, I have found it wanting. Design,
or build quality, take your pick. Either way, this comes down to
cost and the final pricing of the product, as well as delivery
schedule. This issue is fixable to a certain extent in production,
I would argue, so things might get better. I would also argue that
there are potential firmware tweaks to the Real image processor
that can improve noise. Hopefully, later production models will
bear this out.
I have to admit that Sony has had problems since the death of
founder Akio Morita. Interestingly, he has been a model for Steve
Jobs (who has stated so much in the past), who seems to have
adopted many of Akio's qualities in product creation and design.
Perhaps, Sony needs to return to its roots, and truly become an
innovator again.
Either way, this isn't an end all for Sony prosumer cameras, but I
would hope that they get out front on a follow on design. Maybe its
time to bump up chip area.
BTW, I am in manufacturing, and what we call this recent phenomena
is "race to the bottom", where price, features, and time to market
make or break a product. Think of it as the WalMartization of the
world, and we, the consumer, are driving it.
tom
