Official Sony Press Release (New Bodies, Lenses, Flash)

[dr4gon]

Personally, I find it rather amusing that the ones whining about "no video" inside are the Canoikers, not SONY DSLR owners.

uhhhh .... I've been saying it. I would like video and it's been quite a disappointment.

Obviously, 'Rooz' ... you are projecting ... which is your way, I suppose and you are entitled to it.

I have been rather consistent in my personalizations and am not asking for your agreement or otherwise. I still own my A700 (SONY's Gen I Prosumer DSLR) and have not felt the need to "upgrade" from it, unlike the 3 Prosumer upgrades that have followed the Canon EOS 20D, from roughly the same period.

I am not complaining about much of anything, short of a better noise-resolution algorithm for the sensor. So, beat up on SONY as you want ... they still stuck it up the big two's rear-gear with one humdinger of a DSLR and its big, relatively lost-cost, anti-shake brother (A900). It was worth the time ... go Minolta! Oops, SONY!

I can only imagine SONY's reintroduction of their A200-300 series was to correct and provide some capability that was overlooked in the previous edition. Instead of the infamous Mark II or III chosen by some companies ... they rolled the models up a notch. I am pretty sure the P&S converts will appreciate the improvements, overall, despite not be able to image and produce a mini-movie inside private locations.

and finally, no, I am not anticipating the purchase of any of these "new" camera bodies. I have already learned my photography lessons for the decade.

Anyway, from the WHAT IT'S WORTH Department ... the New α380 shooting through some newly released glass (<- click on this link) versus the older 18-70 "PUG"

The cameras really are a mark 2 revision. It's the same internals, different body, new kit lens. (Which looks considerably better, thanks for the link.)

[DonSchap]

Ryan ... I have to tell you, buddy ... "no pain here." Wait ... let me check again ...

{Final Jeopardy Theme plays}

Nope ... sorry, I do not miss VIDEO not being in my DSLR. I bought the camera to be ... a camera. Who'd have thought!?!

And a darn good one it is, too.

[dr4gon]

Ryan ... I have to tell you, buddy ... "no pain here." Wait ... let me check again ...

{Final Jeopardy Theme plays}

Nope ... sorry, I do not miss VIDEO not being in my DSLR. I bought the camera to be ... a camera. Who'd have thought!?!

And a darn good one it is, too.

I know you are content. I was just pointing out that I've been whining (are you listening Sony?)

[Rooz]

Nope ... sorry, I do not miss VIDEO not being in my DSLR.

yet you still cant answer my point. why was it so bad according to you for canon to make small increases yet sony does even worse but its all ok. this is not JUST about video. this is about the performance of the cameras as a photographic tool...no changes at all. how do you explain that ? you;re after a better NR algorithm ? how about better handling of the nosie to begin with WITHOUT the NR ?

and sorry, you may need to refresh my memory with the sony model that stuck it up the big 2's tail end. i;m not familiar with that one.

[dr4gon]

DCRP News Post with big pictures

DPR 3 New Cameras
DPR 4 New Lenses

Very point and shootish with less buttons and a simplified design. I'm all for it, but three models is overkill. SD cards is welcome, I guess? But I do like my fast large CF cards.

[Rooz]

ohhh...they come in brown aswell ! i take it back, sony are making innovative new designs. not as ugly as the silver rebels or the gold edition d60 or the white pentax but a good effort nonetheless.

[Jeff Keller]

Hope he has one on hand, brought it on vacation, and posts something tomorrow.

Nope, don't have one, but I did play with them a little over a week ago.

[K1W1]

To me these cameras represent a massive back down and loss of face for Sony.

To go to the SD card format developed by their hated rival Panasonic is nothing more than to accept that the end game is in sight for MS.

Sony were given the opportunity to join the SD development program at the very early stage but elected not to on the basis that their ideas were better and would become the de facto standard so once again Sony did the Betamax trick and decided they knew best for the world and it's come back to bite them.

If you own a Sony product that uses MS stock up on media because in 3 years it will no longer exist, actually in 3 years it's unlikely Sony will still be manufacturing DSLR's but that's another story for another day.

[Elisha]

Rooz....Sony didn't make a small increase, they made a big one especially aesthetically!
i don't mind the look but they really didn't need to make it so darn small. but i guess it will attract the ladies who want something stylish.
as for features.....they didn't do too much other than re-arrange a few things!

[dr4gon]

To me these cameras represent a massive back down and loss of face for Sony.

Rooz....Sony didn't make a small increase, they made a big one especially aesthetically!
i don't mind the look but they really didn't need to make it so darn small. but i guess it will attract the ladies who want something stylish.
as for features.....they didn't do too much other than re-arrange a few things!

Well I think Sony will attract a lot of newcomers withe these cameras. They rearranged quite a bit actually. Here are a couple hands-on previews and comparisons.

http://www.photoclubalpha.com/2009/0...-a350-or-a380/

http://www.alphamountworld.com/previ...-a380-previews

They've really made it more user-friendly which consequently watered it down and made it less SLRish with less control over more advanced features.

Things that suck are a different weaker battery (to make it smaller), lack of wireless flash (now that blows), weaker flash, no AE lock button, and no external remote port (it's been around since the minolta 7000!)

A few things that are welcomed: smaller, lighter and SD card compatibility (good and bad here, but I do have a single 8gb lol).

Overall, still not that great IMO (although I do want to try it out for myself), they could've put all this in ONE new low end model.