DSLRUsers.com

Hey all this might interest some of you.

Sony is going to produce DSLR based on Minolta system

http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,17907220%5E15321%5E%5Enbv%5E15306,00.html

Which may strain the relationship with Nikon... Sony and Canon have always been neck and neck in the PHD sales race, and was pseudo against Canon in the DSLR realm having produced the sensors for Nikon, Pentax, etc. DSLRs... now if they're adopting KM's bodies on their own sensor, that leaves Nikon struggling to catch up developing their proprietary LBCAST sensor technology, or buddy up with Fuji - traditionally having superior sensors stuck in inferior bodies.

I'd love to see the newer generation of Nikons having Fuji's input in sensor design. Imagine the high dynamic range and low noise capabilities inherited from them, and the best in-camera JPEG conversion engine in the biz!

The sensor is only one part of a camera. Sony still needs a decent AF, image processing, metering and flash systems. That will take them several years to develop and get right. However, I hope nikon does have an improved version of their Lbcast technology.

Doesnt more than one Dslr use the same sensor as the D70?? Maybe they will continue to do the same?

Time will tell I guess, But Sony coming into the market they must see there is profits to be made.

MATT

nito wrote:The sensor is only one part of a camera. Sony still needs a decent AF, image processing, metering and flash systems. That will take them several years to develop and get right.

isn't that why they just acquired Minolta camera division ....

Whatever Sony come up with, it won't be no Nikon or Canon....

All manufacturers have their strengths & weaknesses, however I don't see anyone coming close to rivalling Nikon or Canon in the near future...

However, competition can only be good for the consumer

Sony have one major advantage over most of the other names - market position and general populace acceptance of the Sony name.

Minolta selling as Sony could very well work market wise

Who knows? Sony may become a forerunner in the top of DSLR in the future.

Aussie Dave wrote:Whatever Sony come up with, it won't be no Nikon or Canon....

All manufacturers have their strengths & weaknesses, however I don't see anyone coming close to rivalling Nikon or Canon in the near future...

However, competition can only be good for the consumer

But at least it will come with a MP3

I think Sony should stick to what they do best.... and that is....... umm...... hang on........ it's coming.........


ummmm... i know that they do make somthing that is good.......... arhhh..... it's.....


NA can't remember....

Wow! Sony DSLR with night-vision, image stabalising, mp3, mobile phone to upload to your PC.

It's good for consumers.

squid wrote:Wow! Sony DSLR with night-vision, image stabalising, mp3, mobile phone to upload to your PC.

It's good for consumers.

Like it and I'll buy one as soon as available.

squid wrote:Wow! Sony DSLR with night-vision, image stabalising, mp3, mobile phone to upload to your PC.

It's good for consumers.

And the battery will last just three months, and cost twice as much as the camera to replace.

And yes, it will take only a Sony MemoryStick, which means that in raw mode it has the capacity to store just 4 images at a time.

But what if they develope the ClearVid superCCD for still cameras

sirhc55 wrote:But what if they develope the ClearVid superCCD for still cameras

Yes, someone will regret!!!!!

gstark wrote:And the battery will last just three months, and cost twice as much as the camera to replace.

And yes, it will take only a Sony MemoryStick, which means that in raw mode it has the capacity to store just 4 images at a time.

Sony does have some inovations. I was most impressed with Sony 707 that could focus at night with some IR beams where my coolpix 995 couldn't even bother.

Yah, their assessories are $$$. Memory Stick Pro/Duo is up to 1 Gb now, again very $$$.

squid wrote:Sony does have some inovations.

Perhaps. Name three.

Regardless, the general quality of its products has been reduced to a level below crap, and they, by way of their arrogant pricing and marketing regimes, treat their customers with less respect than a politician shows for towards his constituents immediately following a big election win.

That is more than enough reason for me to consider very carefully any future purchase of any Sony product. One can only accept having sand kicked in one's face so many times.

And while I remember, please ensure that you put a meaningful location into your profile. It is a requirement here, and your cooperation is appreciated.

Let the era of disposable DSLR's begin!!!

gstark wrote:

squid wrote:Sony does have some inovations.

Regardless, the general quality of its products has been reduced to a level below crap, and they, by way of their arrogant pricing and marketing regimes, treat their customers with less respect than a politician shows for towards his constituents immediately following a big election win.

.

Like the time when they claim the reason why the PS2 wasnt exported to china is due to its super computer class processor which can be used to model nuclear weapons testing. Not because of china's piracy problem which would affect sony's current strategy of selling the console at a loss but make profit on the software sold.

And who can forget their innovative copy protection on music cds?

That conpromised the security of every PC that loaded their software onto it!


Yep, clearly a customer focussed and respectful organisation.

They used to make excellent DAT recorders. Before we could burn CD's, it was the only way to record digitally.

Not that i am a Sony fan, i think i have made that obvious on this forum before.

Their PS3 is going to get smashed by the Xbox 360 and they will lose far more market share and money than they can afford.

Perhaps a Sony DSLR is the last act of a dieing giant.

Indeed.

Between their policy on dead pixels on the PSP and how "well" they're doing against Nintendo in that arena, the massive delay and price hike they're taking on the PS3 (as well as its lack of innovation), the Blu-ray drive fun that'll take place this year, the massive DRM issue they keep killing customers with, phones that in theory are nice but are plagued with bugs and crashes, and an attempt to pull in on the DSLR market... this year will be a fun financial hit and miss, I suspect, for the Japanese giant.

And... they came up with the Walkman, the compact disc (together with Sony), and the mini disc... which was a nice replacement to DAT.

Nnnnsic wrote:And... they came up with the Walkman, the compact disc (together with Sony), and the mini disc... which was a nice replacement to DAT.

Leigh

I was going to say I hate to be picky, but the reality is I don't

I think in the quote above you probably meant to say "the compact disc (together with Philips)" otherwise there'd be no together at all

C'mon Guys! I think you are all being a bit picky here! They make great ads.

Electronic rice cooker
Trinitron
Betamax (better quality than VHS)
Video 8 Handycam
SPDIF (with Philips)

I'm not defending Sony. In fact their DRM and other anti-piracy devices/policies are p off consumers. They are just getting too big and too greedy.

On the other hand, consumers are going to benefit when DSLR manufacturers are responding to Sony's DSLR threat.

I heard the Sony DSLR will come with remote access facility so Sony can tell where the user is at any time and remotely retrieve and view all your images if they want to, without the users knowledge!

stubbsy wrote:

Nnnnsic wrote:And... they came up with the Walkman, the compact disc (together with Sony), and the mini disc... which was a nice replacement to DAT.

Leigh

I was going to say I hate to be picky, but the reality is I don't

I think in the quote above you probably meant to say "the compact disc (together with Philips)" otherwise there'd be no together at all

Indeed. Long day.

stubbsy wrote:

Nnnnsic wrote:And... they came up with the Walkman, the compact disc (together with Sony), and the mini disc... which was a nice replacement to DAT.

Leigh

I was going to say I hate to be picky, but the reality is I don't

I think in the quote above you probably meant to say "the compact disc (together with Philips)" otherwise there'd be no together at all

Self flagellation persists at Sony. That explains quite a bit, methinks.

squid wrote:Electronic rice cooker
Trinitron
Betamax (better quality than VHS)
Video 8 Handycam
SPDIF (with Philips)

I said "innovations" ....

in·no·va·tion n.

1. The act of introducing something new.
2. Something newly introduced.

Kindly advise which of those is new.

They were new at a given point.

And Blu-ray is new. And theirs.

Blu-ray dvd PSP
UMD
SXRD

Blu-ray, yes (although it remains to be seen whether it will survive against HD-DVD). PSP... no. It's not an innovation, but rather a portable Playstation... nothing really new about portable gaming, especially in the incarnation that Sony have given it.

UMD... nope. UMD is Sony's reinvention and bastardisation of the original mini-disc format and by making UMD, they've not only killed any chances MD's had of being used again but have also made the disc more exposed... good work, Sony!

SXRD is an innovation, yes... but much like Blu-ray, since it hasn't really done anything for the market yet, it remains to be seen whether it's an innovation anyone really cares about.

The paper specs are all well and good, but sticking the technology in a device that you need fifteen thousand dollars for won't exactly spark anyone's attention. This is kind of like the problem with Blu-ray and the high cost of the drives Sony are currently facing in the battle against HD-DVD.

Look at SACD, Sony's innovation and competitor to DVD-A: no one cared about either.

I mean sure, SACD was nice with how it ran on every CD player and didn't require a separate unit like DVD-A, but only a few cd's chose to take advantage of the technology and most people won't buy the SACD's or DVD-A's because both are either too expensive or just don't care.

I've got one SACD, and since I don't want to go out and buy an SACD player to listen to it in 5.1, I can only listen to it in stereo.

SXRD may well just be another SACD.

In terms of photography, sony's top of the line PS, freezes when shot in burst mode. An injection of KM's technology is definately needed if they are going to enter the dslr market.

I'd be very surprised to see Blu-Ray get anywhere in the market. But putting the Bluray in the PS3 will put a Bluray drive in millions of homes. Many movie studios are planning release of Bluray format movies which will help the format immensely.

However i reckon HD-DVD and it's Chinese equivalent will push Blu-ray out of the market very quickly except for a few niche products due mainly to backward compatibility with DVD. China will be the player in the production of cheap HD-DVD players/recorders and that country itself is 1/3 of the world market.

Sony has already laid-off tens of thousands of workers worldwide and i predict they will do some more this year.

That is my prediction.


Some interesting reading.

Walkman Factory Closure
http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/12996

HD-DVD camp: Fox can add proprietary DRM to Blu-ray discs
http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/12949

Beta-VHS clash offers insights into coming DVD war
http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/12998

Porn studio to release movies in the Blu-ray Disc format
http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/12955

While some predict PS3 to be $499, price may vary drastically
http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/12941

Can Microsoft's clout boost HD-DVD to triumph over Blu-ray?
http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/12850