skieur said:
The point of the SLT should be obvious. The flipping mirror is dead as are reflex cameras. How can you miss the fact that the A700 was replaced by the SLT A77 and the A900 will be replaced by the A99 with an even more advanced SLT design? No wonder, you are impossible to get through to!
skieur
The "point" is that Sony's d-slr sales are still poor compared to both Canon and Nikon. Sony had 11.9% of d-slr's sold last year. Nikon had just under 30%. Canons made up around 44% of all d-slr's sold last year. World-wide.
Sony is banking on their new SLR technology to attract customers...because they have been getting their asses kicked in the d-slr marketplace. Reflex cameras, with moving mirrors, began in the 1890's. That's not a typo--
eighteen-nineties!!!! By 1959, with the Nikon F, the "modern" d-slr with instant return mirror and fully automatic lens diaphragm was a reality...fast forward 38 years or so, and the Ninon D3 and D3x had become the standard.
One thing you do NOT seem to understand skieur, is that there is no real technical superiority driving this...camera manufacturers have ALWAYS, and I mean ALWAYS, sought to create what is called "the next big thing". When sales go flat, or profits grow thin and hard to make, the camera makers have ALWAYS resorted to creating "all-new" features, or entirely new "types" or "styles" of cameras, as a way to get people to BUY NEW GEAR!!!! YES, the A700 was replaced by the a77...Why? Sony is trying a new sales approach!!!
I have worked in the camera retail business, and have SEEN the way new technology actually affects consumers. First-hand. Real people. People with money in wallet, and credit cards in-wallet, and looking to BUY. The reason Sony has gone to the SLT system is that there is always a good percentage of people who love the technological side of camera gear. These people love high-tech and new-tech stuff, good or bad. They will buy just to say they have the "new thing". As most photo industry writers have noted, the A900,and A850,and A700 were poor sellers, and Sony went to the drawing board and came up with the SLT system, hoping to get better sales. Your statement that "the flipping mirror is dead" is patently ludicrous.
A much,much more accurate statement is this: "If you cannot win at the game, then find a new game where your skill set will let you win--or at least have a chance to win."
Sorry bud, but Sony could not compete in the traditional reflex market; that market is mature, with MOSTLY committed owners, and so trying to battle two companies that control roughly 75% of ALL d-slr sales was foolish for Sony to continue doing. Sony is trying to find a new poker game, as it were.The product line and the actions of a company with UNDER 12% of all d-slr sales is not indicative of what the market is doing. Sony sells a little over one out of each 10 d-slr's sold world-wide. It sounds a lot like you own an a77 and realllllly need to justify your purchasing decision. To a degree that I am really surprised by. I hope you enjoy your a77. It looks like a nice camera. But until Sony's d-slr sales threaten those of Nikon or Canon, I do not expect ANY movement toward SLT technology from Nikon,Canon,Pentax, or any other camera maker. Sony has very little to lose in this segment. Nikon and Canon have a lot to lose.