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Author Topic: Sony A900 -Just delivered!  (Read 14612 times)

Quentin

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Sony A900 -Just delivered!
« Reply #40 on: October 11, 2009, 06:02:53 am »

I agree that regardless of the theoretical advantages of the Sony/Monolta hotshoe, Sony should have dumped it and reverted to the standard ISO arrangement when they took the brand over.  I use the Sony Adapter which is OK, but its a kludgy solution.  Unfortunately I suspect we are stuck with it  

Quentin
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Quentin Bargate, ARPS, Author, Arbitrato

Prognathous

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Sony A900 -Just delivered!
« Reply #41 on: October 11, 2009, 07:06:44 am »

Quote from: Quentin
I use the Sony Adapter which is OK, but its a kludgy solution.

Was there any reason (other than the "Sony" label) that convinced you to pay $130 for the Sony adapter instead of going with a $7 third party one?

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PLLove

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Sony A900 -Just delivered!
« Reply #42 on: October 11, 2009, 09:12:12 am »

Quote from: Prognathous
Was there any reason (other than the "Sony" label) that convinced you to pay $130 for the Sony adapter instead of going with a $7 third party one?

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I went with the Sony because I needed it right away, and my local camera shop had it in stock.  If I had the luxury of time, I would have bought the 7$ option.
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aaykay

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Sony A900 -Just delivered!
« Reply #43 on: October 11, 2009, 11:00:43 am »

Quote from: Quentin
I agree that regardless of the theoretical advantages of the Sony/Monolta hotshoe, Sony should have dumped it and reverted to the standard ISO arrangement when they took the brand over.  I use the Sony Adapter which is OK, but its a kludgy solution.  Unfortunately I suspect we are stuck with it  

Quentin

I agree that we are stuck with this "superior" hotshoe and also agree that Sony should have dumped it when they took the mount over.  I am assuming that some of the decision makers at the time of the takeover were former KM employees, and thus did not allow much daylight to shine on this aspect.


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aaykay

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Sony A900 -Just delivered!
« Reply #44 on: October 11, 2009, 11:10:53 am »

Quote from: Prognathous
So you'd rather have the vast majority of Sony's user-base be forced to use a poor solution just so that you won't need to buy adapters? I think Sony is smart enough to weigh the benefits to their various user sectors. In short, the Minolta-type shoe isn't going away any time soon.

No, they will simply get used to the "poor solution" that is in use by every other dSLR manufacturer on this planet, accounting for over 95% of the  base of dSLR users.  They will be able to use their current flashes, as long as Sony provides an adapter to make it work.    

After all, if Sony depends on the tiny slice of former Minolta/KM users to move their business forward, it will be a sure-fire recipe for disaster and oblivion.  Sony's move forward is dependent on getting NEWER users into the fold (including people like myself who had no such KM/Minolta background), who in turn would not form the  NEW "vast majority of Sony's user base".  Even if I have to buy an adapter for my current F58s and F20, I would still advocate Sony dumping  this "superior" hotshoe design and moving to the design used by everyone else.
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Prognathous

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Sony A900 -Just delivered!
« Reply #45 on: October 11, 2009, 12:26:41 pm »

Quote from: aaykay
No, they will simply get used to the "poor solution" that is in use by every other dSLR manufacturer on this planet, accounting for over 95% of the  base of dSLR users.

You could say the same about M42 screw mount when it was the most common method of attaching lenses to cameras. Luckily, all camera brands saw the light and switched to far superior bayonet mounts. Too bad they each chose a proprietary option, but this is very much the case with their current hot-shoes. After all, other than the physical shoe, the electrical contacts layout and protocol are all proprietary, which means that the devices most users care about ("smart" flash units) are not interchangeable anyway. For the few who need to connect other devices there are plenty of solutions - with or without adapters. For example, studio lighting and triggers can be connected to the camera PC sync socket (available on all Sony DSLR which are likely to be used with such gear). Spirit levels are available for Minolta-type shoe. This is all much ado about nothing.

Quote
After all, if Sony depends on the tiny slice of former Minolta/KM users to move their business forward, it will be a sure-fire recipe for disaster and oblivion.

I don't think Sony cares so much about current Minolta users, as they're selling a lot more cameras than Minolta ever did. The number of people still using Minolta's 6MP DSLR (many with first-black-frame issues) must be negligible compared to the numbers Sony has sold since acquiring Minolta's camera business. Sony just had the IP rights to a better hot-shoe, so they did the right thing and used it, to the joy of most alpha-mount users.

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Sony's move forward is dependent on getting NEWER users into the fold (including people like myself who had no such KM/Minolta background), who in turn would not form the  NEW "vast majority of Sony's user base".

The vast majority of Sony's user base doesn't include people who care about professional studio gear, and the few who do can use $7 adapters.

Quote
Even if I have to buy an adapter for my current F58s and F20, I would still advocate Sony dumping  this "superior" hotshoe design and moving to the design used by everyone else.

Feel free to advocate, but don't expect Sony to throw away the usability, speed and security advantages of the new shoe for the sake of a few grumpy pros who are so hooked about the 1913 ISO kludge. It's not going to happen.

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« Last Edit: October 11, 2009, 12:27:23 pm by Prognathous »
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Prognathous

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Sony A900 -Just delivered!
« Reply #46 on: October 12, 2009, 06:17:32 am »

Rumor: Sony mirrorless APS-C camera

Anyone wants to guess which hot-shoe type it's going to use?  

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