Anyone here interested in Sony cameras?

[gavinlg]

I personally find the sony DSLRs very plasticky and typically modern sony - junk. The a700 is basically a crappy version of the nikon d300. The d300 uses the same sensor but MUCH better processing on the images. It's less noisy, sharper, and has better colors. Plus the d300 is weather sealed and has the famed nikon ergos. In terms of image quality the 5d knocks them both out of the weeds.

This new a900 is interesting, especially the zeiss lenses, but I doubt I would ever give up nikon or canon or olympus for the sony stuff.

The nikon d3x should be announced this year - full frame 24mp is what's circulating at the moment... If that sensor is as good as the d3 sensor nikon will have a winner.

 

[jtzordon]

They all feel really plasticy to me. I have a 5D and hope that Sony comes up with a viable option by the time I need to replace it. The current specs are fine with me; I just can't handle the feel.

 

[Avotius]

Me too!

Someone at dpreview should write an open letter to SONY (Open letters to companies are quite regular, over there) which would go like this:

"Dear SONY, Please change your name and I will buy a camera from you."

The problem is people generally dont associate such names like Sony with pro photography. Happens with all the new boys when they get into the field. Plenty of people said the same thing about Voigtlander a few years ago.

 

[Bill58]

The path is - Konica -> Monolta - > KM - > Sony.
/QUOTE]


Sorry--but you should have taken a detour to FUJI. the only way to go w/ digital. 'Got two of 'em--an ole' 2800 Zoom and a recent purchase NOS F30. Fuji digital is inexpensive and fine quality (or as good as it needs to be for me).

 

[Holmz]

I do have an interest in the Sony, but suspect that it will all be a proprietary lens system SLR... If they did a 24Mp FF RF... I will likely be getting one.

In the mean time I just ran my first roll (in 35 years) through a Argus super mimar. with it's whopping 40mm f2.8. Looked OK with the negatives the right density, but the printing a bit suspect.
Tried the focus close medium and far with decent results.
Did seem to be a bit of flare that was disturbing though.

I guess I will need to upgrade at some point.
So I am awaiting what happens at Photokina this year.

 

[Avotius]

I do have an interest in the Sony, but suspect that it will all be a proprietary lens system SLR...

Sony already has many dslr's out, and its mount is no more proprietary then canon's. Thats the way all the cameras that have come out have been. I dont think I quite understand what you mean here.

 

[infrequent]

i think he means a familiar / established mount and not proprietary (because they all are until the patent runs out). unfortunately not all can be as common as the leica m-mount or nikon f-mount.

 

[slm]

I'm anxious to see how things turn out too and also have a dilemma. My film slr kit is the Canon Elan 7N. Love it. My dSLR kit is the Minolta 7D. Now I'm questioning, should I consolidate into one kit, one set of lenses (less to carry, I use slr's for landscape) ?

A really BIG plus for Minolta/Sony, it's really easy to find good lenses on the used market at very good prices. At the recent Montreal camera show (photo flea market), there was like 3 EF lenses and a gazillion Nikon & others lenses.

Regarding the Sony name well my impression is when Sony bought the KM camera division, they got the KM engineers in the deal. The A700 is a very Minolta-ish, manufactured in a Sony way.

 

[Leighgion]

I'll admit I have some anti-Sony bias, but in my defense I don't think it's unfounded.

Once upon a time, I felt that Sony electronics went for a premium but were worthwhile. Over the years since then though, I've watched their general quality slide and also their undying penchant for always, always wanting to create a new proprietary format. If there was 1000 perfectly good formats of something out there, Sony always had to create the 1001th.

With CF very well established, Sony had to go make Memory Sticks.

With MP3 taking over the planet, Sony crippled their already wobbly attempt to revitalize the minidisc by saddling with their own ATRAC audio compression format.

I grant that with Beta vs VHS, they had the superior product, but again they shot themselves by being too greedy. This kind of consistently poor business attitude rubs me the wrong way and makes me not want to buy their products. That and the fact that my mother has not one, but two Sony stereos and both of them suffer from the worst cases of ground loop hum in the history of the two universes. The house wiring isn't great, but other non-Sony units don't have near such a horrid problem.

All this has nothing to directly to do with Sony's acquisition of the Konica-Minolta technology, but the fact is a Sony SLR that's simply "as good as the next," isn't anywhere close to good enough for me to consider checking out (I've cast my die with Nikon) or even recommend to other people just getting into SLRs. Nikon, Canon and even Pentax and Olympus are simply much more established and reliable in this area. If it had been Sony that created the D3... maybe... but even then, their credibility will keeping things up is weak to me.

 

[rolleistef]

Could be interesting for all my old Rokkor MD's... not before there's a FF the price of which isn't ridiculous/ludicrious because I like wide angles.

 

[Holmz]

Sony already has many dslr's out, and its mount is no more proprietary then canon's. Thats the way all the cameras that have come out have been. I dont think I quite understand what you mean here.

Meaning if it was to be available in LTM - then I would get it.

 

[ankaka]

I'm a Nikon user.😎