why would nikon offer a 24 mp ff camera in the same price range as their 12mp ff offering?
Because the Sony with the same chip will be retailing for $3000 to $4000 with built-in antishake.
the fact is that every company prices items where they believe the market is. one could make the case that inspite of it's robust features , that $5000 for a 12mp ff nikon might be pricey given the fact that there is a 12mp ff canon currently selling for nearly $3000 less.
I never said the D3 was a bargain.
The Alpha 900 at 24MP and $3000-4000 will be though, and it will force the other players to adjust pricing.
the market however, clearly says that plenty of people do not feel the nikon is overpriced and the long line of people waiting to take delivery of the 1ds3 suggest that there is indeed a market for the canon flagship. for those who do have issues with how canon and nikon have priced their flagships, they can elect not to buy them and/or look at other options that are more in line with their pocket books and /or needs. if we think the price is too high, no one is putting a gun to any of our heads and forcing us to buy the item.
If Sony delivers the 24MP for $3000 (that is the rumor, so low I find it hard to believe, but it comes from someone who has been spot-on with other Sony rumors in the past) they will sell way more of them than Canon sells 1DsIIIs. Canon will be forced to respond.
while sony may announce a 24 mp ff camera, i believe their lens lineup falls far short of the offerings from nikon and canon, which should be a consideration for anyone considering a ff alpha.
How many lenses do you think a landscape photographer needs? Come on! Tons of enthusiasts will buy a 24MP sony at $3000 who would never pay $8000 for a camera.
given the fact that sony has priced their alpha bodies to date at the same level as "comparable" offerings from other maufacturers, why would they price a 24 mp ff body so much lower that nikon and canon? are they not profit driven too?
I don't know, but the rumor from (so far) reliable sources is $3000. That is so low that some people are suggesting closer to $4000, but the most reliable source says $3000.
Apparently Sony is trying to compete with the 5DII.
The rumor could be wrong, but that is what the rumor says.
It also seems to be a stretch to "round up " the $7900 price tag of the 1ds3 to "almost ten grand."
It's not much of a stretch, $8000 and $10,000 are pretty comparable in terms of how many people are willing to spend that much on a rapidly depreciating camera body (answer: not many).
There are droves of enthusiasts willing to spend $3000 on a camera body that is worth it, witness the massive success of the 5D in the landscape market where it has outsold the 1DsII 5 to 1 or more.
Anyway, if the rumor holds true and Sony releases the Alpha 900 with 24MP at $3000 (and I hope the 900 also has the Sony live twist-and-flip LCD leaked in pictures of the Alpha 300 back) I think this will be a serious game-changer for the high-end dSLR market, the way the original digital rebel at $999 was a serious game-changer for the dSLR market as a whole. The camera makers have been charging far too much money to people who need maximum resolution, and bringing the price down to a reasonable level is good for everyone.