Giving some sober serious thought to K/M/S cameras

[beachluvr]

A few months ago, when Konica/Minolta announced that Sony would continue development of their long history of superb digital SLR cameras the news was greeted with scorn by the followers of some of the older photographic“names” but newbies to digital technology like Nikon, Olympus, Canon and others. Many were outraged that Sony would dare to invade their hallowed turf, despite the factual reality that Sony practically invented digital cameras with Mavica years before Nikon, Canon, Olympus and others even had a clue what a digital camera was.

That scorn turned to some pretty nasty hate-posts on this website by people who carried some deep personal emotions about Sony as a company and were highly protective of the companies that they supported. Their whole story was that Konica/Minolta “failed” and that Sony had no business trying to be a camera company. Ignoring, of course, the fact that a digital camera is more an electronic device (which Sony is an acknowledged master at) than a photographic device (which Nikon and Canon used to be good at back in the day).

So guess what? Sony has kept the course, announcing their Alpha line of digital SLR cameras (yea, my Konica/Minolta lives forever) and they are, um, exactly the same as what made Konica/Minolta one of the best overall digital SLR cameras ever made. Sony modestly (ok, not so modestly) proclaimed a few days ago that they were going to own the DSLR market and I believe it. Nikon, as much as I love them, is so steeped in their ancient-history traditions they just refuse to understand that a DSLR is not the same thing as a 1960’s film camera. And Canon continues their merry way of ultra-hyping everything they make to the point they win a few diehard brand loyalists who will never in a lifetime get beyond factory published specs that make their products actually sound like they have a chance against real thought-out engineered technology. In other words, lots of people eat at McDonalds and lots of people buy Canons … get it?

The battle is just beginning. Those of you who were scared off from buying Konica/Minolta product by the brand loyalists need to look very hard and what the most revered name in consumer electronics (Sony) is doing with their newly acquired Konica/Minolta technology. The answer is they are basically keeping the best of the best, all the scare tactics are insanely false … your Konica/Minolta investment is totally safe with Sony … and they are backing it with one of the most successful technological engineering companies in history. Sorry, Sony haters, you don't get to be #1 by sucking at what you do. Tough and oh so bad if you had a personal bad experierince but Sony aims to own the DSLR industry and I have no doubt they are the right company to do so.

Be happy Konica/Minolta owners. You ended up on top by a landslide!!!

[DonSchap]

as SONY is notorious for short-falling their consumer product warranties. 90-days and you're out of there, without a purchased extended warranty.

I admit, I'm a little warranty-happy, but 90-days does not make me happy. :mad: If the product stands the test... that's one thing... but an unknown like the ALPHA (based on current KM standards for the 7D)... it's just too soon to tell. I'll look at it in a year... if there is anyone left to compete (the entire dSLR market... hmmm, that's most ambitious, I must admit ;) ).

[beachluvr]

:) as SONY is notorious for short-falling their consumer product warranties. 90-days and you're out of there, without a purchased extended warranty.

I admit, I'm a little warranty-happy, but 90-days does not make me happy. :mad: If the product stands the test... that's one thing... but an unknown like the ALPHA (based on current KM standards for the 7D)... it's just too soon to tell. I'll look at it in a year... if there is anyone left to compete (the entire dSLR market... hmmm, that's most ambitious, I must admit ;) ).

Agreed this will be a most fun thing to watch, but being totally objective it's good to see the best technology assimiliated into all of the choices we have. I have been a loyal Nikon owner for a long, long time and I haven't given a lot of thought to how long a warranty lasts, since I EXPECT my camera to live a long, long time after the manuf support ends. Truthfully I have never used a camera warranty service, I think most traditional and digital SLRs are built to long outlive their warranty.

Sony is successful, no doubt, they almost own certain segments of the market. I am absolutely convinced they will be a considerable force in the DSLR market now that they own Konica/Minolta's technology. We can rant all we want ... the final verdict will be a very strong tie between Nikon/Sony/Canon. If I'm wrong I owe you lunch :)

[Rambler358]

I'm quite happy with my Maxxum 7D, and you'll have to pry it out of my cold, dead hands before I give it up. :D However, I'm reserving judgement and speculation until I see what Sony delivers next month.