bwana wrote:
Sony has been VERY good to me also, starting in 2013 with an A7S then an A7R followed by an A7 II & A7R II as well as a RX10 III & IV.
bwa
Sony is a giant company with huge resources. However, it's known for its mass-market consumer products.
And it only entered the high-end camera business in 2006, when it bought Konica Minolta's line of a-mount
digital cameras. Before that, it offered low-end cameras like the DSC series.
https://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/CorporateInfo/History/sonyhistory-g.htmlIt's first act in acquiring the Minolta product line was to leave millions of a-mount Maxxum film camera owners
in the lurch.. Orphaned overnight.
It's contribution to the Alpha line was the SLT -- replacing the swinging mirror with a fixed partially-transmissive
mirror. Longer exposure. Low-resolution, low-contrast, battery-draining EVF. But heck, what matters is
cutting manufacturing costs!
Konica Minolta's Maxxum DSLRs use a partially transmissive mirror for the AF sensor and meter, but it
swung out of the way for the exposure. And they have large, sharp OVFs.
In 2009, Sony cancelled the two best cameras it ever made: the a850 and a900 DSLRs.
As welll as all it's other DSLRs.
Currently, Sony only makes one FF camera: the a99 II SLT. FF is not important--because image quality is
not important.---making money is important! APS-C sensor is cheaper than a FF sensor.
If Sony put its R&D into making better cameras, it could be a great camera company. But instead,
it puts its R&D into cutting costs and marketing products which do not advance the state of the art
and in fact are moving backward -- to smaller sensors, lower resolution, etc.
Unfortunately, Sony's commitment to cameras and photography appears to be about the same as
Honda Motor Company's commitment to lawnmowers and water pumps. Great engine, but....
This shouldn't surprise anyone. Sony's best known product remains the Walkman personal casette player,
eleased in 1979 -- within a year or two of when Nikon released the F3 and Canon released the New F-1.
Minolta was a truly innovative camera company that invented many milestones--including the first SRL
camera with integrated AF and motorized film advance (the Maxxum 7000). Sony isn't.
Sony was the Budweiser of home stereo equipment. It was not in the same category as McAdcom, NAD,
Conrad Johnson, Dynaco, Nakamichi,Audio Research or even Harmon-Kardon. It was (and is) consumer crud.
Don't expect a leopard to change its spots.