A Quick Report from PMA
February 1, 2008: Michael and I are attending the second day of PMA, too busy to do much blogging. We’re seeing lots of interesting things, though. There’s so much new technology!
Camera are sensing when the subject smiles, alerting you if your subject blinked in the shot, magically determing if you’re shooting a portrait, macro or landscape shot and adjusting their settings automatically, setting the optimal focus and exposure settings for up to 15 faces in a single shot, shooting at frame rates faster than a digital video camera (60 frames per second), automatically fixing red eye in camera immediately after you’ve taken the shot) - the list could go on and on, but I’m getting tired!
We’re interviewing people for the show and getting a bunch of prizes for the listeners who attend our meetup tonight (send us an email if you’re interested in joining us; you can contact us at thedigitalphotographyshow@gmail.com).
Michael was up till midnight last night posting some shots of us at PMA. You can find them at http://dps.phanfare.com/album/561709.
We’ll try and write more when we can.
Sc0tt
February 2nd, 2008 at 6:07 am
I really enjoyed listening to your last show about the new products from Canon and Nikon, and was very surprised by the current market share percentages.
Sony. I do think that you are correct in assuming that if anybody, Sony can ramp up the production and get camera out to the public.
In defense of the market share, we have to realize that Sony’s background is based upon the troubled past of Minolta or Konica-Minolta. One of the biggest reasons that Sony/Minolta is so far behind is that the internal management and Mergers of the past. If I remember, Minolta was ready to release a new DSLR years ago, but that was put back until the Konica-Minolta Merger was finished. We all know that this takes time!
I have been stuck in the Minolta camp for over a decade, just because of the amount of big, good glass that I own. I patently waited for the Maxxum 7D and when it arrived, it was a champion. Like every camera, it is not 100% perfect, but very good. I think that Sony is still trying to play catch up and this years PMA should prove that they are poised to be a real competitor. 3rd party manufactured like Tamron, Sigma, Etc, have been in a state of limbo regarding the future, but things should be getting better for them and they should have a clearer picture of Sony’s position.
One thing that I think Sony needs to watch very carefully is pricing. The pricing on DSLR bodies are not too far out of line, but their standard Sony Lenses, seems to be a bit out of control. 2 years ago you could buy a basic 70-300mm for about $160.00, now with the Sony Logo on them they are running about $230.00 and up. $6000 for a 300 2.8? Canon’s Is under $4000. $680 For a Sony 100mm 2.8 Macro. I bought a Minolta Branded 100mm 2.8 for around $400 about 2 years ago.
The other thing they should really consider is that photography is much more than just a Mega pixel/Feature war. Take the Maxxum 7D. I have used and shot with about 5 different DSLRs and by far the 7D was a Photographers camera. The controls we perfect and just about every feature was available at the touch of a button. I am hopeful and excited about some of the upcoming bodies and am looking forward to an upgrade in the future, but I need to be sure that it can be justified by the price.
Keep up the great work!!! I’ve been listening since episode #1. You guys have done an awesome job!
Jordan