Sony DSLR buyers, more "novice" than buyers of other brands?

I noticed on Ebay a real lack of Sony A100 bodies as opposed to A100
kits. This would seem to suggest that the Sony was sold to people who
were guided more by the store salespeople than their own knowledge of
DSLRs. Sony (AFAIK) didn't force people to buy the kit lens like
Panasonic does, so few bodies were sold to people who understood the
Konica-Minolta lens base existed, as was the case with buyers of
Nikon, Canon and Pentax who were likely more aware of the legacy lens
base for their DSLRs.

In article
,
RichA wrote:

I noticed on Ebay a real lack of Sony A100 bodies as opposed to A100
kits. This would seem to suggest that the Sony was sold to people who
were guided more by the store salespeople than their own knowledge of
DSLRs. Sony (AFAIK) didn't force people to buy the kit lens like
Panasonic does, so few bodies were sold to people who understood the
Konica-Minolta lens base existed, as was the case with buyers of
Nikon, Canon and Pentax who were likely more aware of the legacy lens
base for their DSLRs.

Maybe people recognize that Sony produces mediocre products.

RichA wrote:
I noticed on Ebay a real lack of Sony A100 bodies as opposed to A100
kits. This would seem to suggest that the Sony was sold to people who
were guided more by the store salespeople than their own knowledge of
DSLRs. Sony (AFAIK) didn't force people to buy the kit lens like
Panasonic does, so few bodies were sold to people who understood the
Konica-Minolta lens base existed, as was the case with buyers of
Nikon, Canon and Pentax who were likely more aware of the legacy lens
base for their DSLRs.

80 per cent of all Alpha 100s sold to previous or current owners of KM
equipment to Sony's disappointment - they failed to pull in the new
blood they wanted.

The Alpha 100 is discontinued and has been out of production since
October. It is possible that only kits remain. Store people rarely
advise Sony, they are brainwashed into selling Nikon or Canon by peer
pressure, and it can actually be an effort to get sensible comments on
any of the gear (whatever make) from many UK sales staff. They simply
have no idea at all except what's on the shelf.

The Alpha 100 single lens kits have persisted in UK duty free at
airports at £580 when the Nikon D40 kit is £290 and the Olympus 410 twin
lens kit £390. That's crazy and anyone who bought one would be made when
£399 is a more common non-duty-free price.

The Alpha 200 and 300/Ultra may change the sales patterns, along with
the 700. There's some serious stuff coming, along with the introduction
of Alpha lenses to the pro Sony HD-V video cams, but they still do not
really understand what they are up against.

David

David Kilpatrick wrote:

RichA wrote:
I noticed on Ebay a real lack of Sony A100 bodies as opposed to A100
kits. This would seem to suggest that the Sony was sold to people who
were guided more by the store salespeople than their own knowledge of
DSLRs. Sony (AFAIK) didn't force people to buy the kit lens like
Panasonic does, so few bodies were sold to people who understood the
Konica-Minolta lens base existed, as was the case with buyers of
Nikon, Canon and Pentax who were likely more aware of the legacy lens
base for their DSLRs.

80 per cent of all Alpha 100s sold to previous or current owners of KM
equipment to Sony's disappointment - they failed to pull in the new
blood they wanted.

The Alpha 100 is discontinued and has been out of production since
October. It is possible that only kits remain. Store people rarely
advise Sony, they are brainwashed into selling Nikon or Canon by peer
pressure, and it can actually be an effort to get sensible comments on
any of the gear (whatever make) from many UK sales staff. They simply
have no idea at all except what's on the shelf.

The Alpha 100 single lens kits have persisted in UK duty free at
airports at £580 when the Nikon D40 kit is £290 and the Olympus 410 twin
lens kit £390. That's crazy and anyone who bought one would be made when
£399 is a more common non-duty-free price.

The Alpha 200 and 300/Ultra may change the sales patterns, along with
the 700. There's some serious stuff coming, along with the introduction
of Alpha lenses to the pro Sony HD-V video cams, but they still do not
really understand what they are up against.


I agree, the sales of the Sony Alpha range appear to have been dismal
so far, certainly when judged by Sony's expectations of a 20% market
share. Pentax is in third place behind Nikon and Canon, and Pentax's
DSLR market share is only about 6% to 7% worldwide, so Sony haven't
even managed a third of their prediction. I don't see much attempt to
sell the Alpha DSLRs in Sony Centres either - they actively sold the
828, were unenthusiastic about the R1 and now appear indifferent to
the Alpha series.

There are strong rumours that Sony will announce an Alpha 900 at PMA.
There must be a limit to how many new DSLRs Sony can sell to existing
Konica Minolta users, so the sales of the Alpha 200, 700 and 900 to
new users in 2008 will surely determine whether Sony continues with
Alpha beyond 2009.

Personally, I think two out of Sony, Olympus and Panasonic will have
deserted the DSLR arena by 2010, and there will be no new entrants.

On Tue, 15 Jan 2008 09:38:00 +0000, Tony Polson wrote:

There are strong rumours that Sony will announce an Alpha 900 at PMA.
There must be a limit to how many new DSLRs Sony can sell to existing
Konica Minolta users, so the sales of the Alpha 200, 700 and 900 to new
users in 2008 will surely determine whether Sony continues with Alpha
beyond 2009.

I wonder to what extent Sony sales have been hurt by people just not
liking *Sony* in general. The Alpha 100 seems perfectly decent to me...
but I perceive Sony as a clueless company with a history of screwing its
customers over and locking them into proprietary media formats and stuff,
so I didn't even consider it in my recent DSLR purchase.

If they were still sold by Konica Minolta I probably would have looked
into them more.


Personally, I think two out of Sony, Olympus and Panasonic will have
deserted the DSLR arena by 2010, and there will be no new entrants.

My money is on Olympus surviving. The Panasonic DSLRs seem overpriced and
not all that well-reviewed, while the Olympus DSLRs seem quite nice to me:
small size, good live view, low price.

I also hope that Pentax survives and grows. I love my K10D and I want
future lenses for it!!

Dan

In article , Daniel
Lenski wrote:

I wonder to what extent Sony sales have been hurt by people just not
liking *Sony* in general. The Alpha 100 seems perfectly decent to me...
but I perceive Sony as a clueless company with a history of screwing its
customers over and locking them into proprietary media formats and stuff,
so I didn't even consider it in my recent DSLR purchase.

BINGO!

If they were still sold by Konica Minolta I probably would have looked
into them more.

Well, I wouldn't stoop that low into the gutter.

On Jan 15, 12:58 pm, "Mr. Strat" wrote:
If they were still sold by Konica Minolta I probably would have looked
into them more.

Well, I wouldn't stoop that low into the gutter.

Did Konica Minolta not have a good reputation either?

All I know about them is that my dad and grandma both have old Konica
film SLRs which they liked a lot... and I know Minolta's MF SLRs were
highly regarded as well.

Dan

In article
,
Dan Lenski wrote:

Did Konica Minolta not have a good reputation either?

Konicas were OK, but not in the same league as the bigger names like
Canon and Nikon.

I've never been a fan of anything Minolta. Their 35mm line was just
weird, and their quality wasn't that great.

"Dan Lenski" wrote in message
...
On Jan 15, 12:58 pm, "Mr. Strat" wrote:
If they were still sold by Konica Minolta I probably would have looked
into them more.

Well, I wouldn't stoop that low into the gutter.

Did Konica Minolta not have a good reputation either?

Konica and Minolta both made excellent cameras and lenses. After they
merged, the Konica Minolta cameras were actually Minolta design for the most
part, which was fine. There's nothing wrong with Konica Minolta cameras, but
their dropping out of the camera market left something of a mess for Minolta
enthusiasts. It remains to be seen how good Sony is for support.


All I know about them is that my dad and grandma both have old Konica
film SLRs which they liked a lot... and I know Minolta's MF SLRs were
highly regarded as well.

Minolta 35mm SLRs were absolutely great, but they never made a medium format
SLR (if that's what you meant by MF). They did make an excellent 120 twin
lens reflex though.

After using half a dozen other makes of SLR, I switched to Minolta about
1975 and bought practically nothing else right up into the digital age. Last
one I bought was a Konica Minolta Maxxum 5D (the basis for Sony's A100 when
KM sold Sony their camera division) and that's a really nice DSLR which
allows me to use all my large collection of Maxxum lenses. But more recently
I've switched to Nikon.

Too bad about Minolta getting out of cameras, but that market is so
competitive it's killed off quite a few excellent camera makers.

Neil

On Jan 15, 5:06 pm, "Neil Harrington" wrote:
Konica and Minolta both made excellent cameras and lenses. After they
merged, the Konica Minolta cameras were actually Minolta design for the most
part, which was fine. There's nothing wrong with Konica Minolta cameras, but
their dropping out of the camera market left something of a mess for Minolta
enthusiasts. It remains to be seen how good Sony is for support.

Gotcha. If I understand correctly, the K-M and Sony bodies and lenses
are interchangeable both ways, right? So unless Sony does something
stupid to break compatibility (it is Sony...) then hopefully you won't
have too much trouble there.

All I know about them is that my dad and grandma both have old Konica
film SLRs which they liked a lot... and I know Minolta's MF SLRs were
highly regarded as well.

Minolta 35mm SLRs were absolutely great, but they never made a medium format
SLR (if that's what you meant by MF). They did make an excellent 120 twin
lens reflex though.

Ah, yes, I meant "manual focus"... sorry for the confusion.

Too bad about Minolta getting out of cameras, but that market is so
competitive it's killed off quite a few excellent camera makers.

Yeah, the one thing that made me queasy about buying a Pentax DSLR was
that they're a small player, even though the #3. Hopefully for me
they are on the upswing rather than the downswing :-)

Dan