Sony A100 selling well at Ritz

[robert_paul1]

Well, today I was able to get over to the Ritz Camera store near my home. I

got there in the early afternoon. I couldn't find the A100 in the showcase,

although they had the 75-300, 18-70, and a flash in stock, they didn't have

any bodies available. The store manager said the camera has been selling well,

and that they sold two of them before I got there. He also said that the sales

have been of the kits, and not just the body. Later I asked a clerk if they've

been selling any other lenses, and he said they only sold 1 Sony 75-300, but

they did sell some of the K/M lenses in stock. He volunteered that the Sony

lenses are expensive compared to the K/M lenses they replace and most of the

buyers of the A100s are to current users of K/M.

 

At least Sony is off to a good start.

[camiren_e]

Damn right!

[peterblaise]

.

 

Thank you Robert for chatting with the Ritz folk and reporting back to us and NOT burying it in what photo.net considers the ancient history of the original thread!

 

Too bad photo.net doesn't allow easy linking of this thread to the older related threads:

 

- Sony grabs 22% of Japanese DSLR mkt by .[. Z (2006-08-27)

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00HnhB&tag=

 

- Something good to report about the Sony Alpha by Jedidiah Smith (2006-08-26)

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00Hng0&tag=

 

- Sony promotional items? by Robert Paul (2006-08-25)

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00Hmxx&tag=

 

- Sony-brand "fire-starter" batteries?!? Apple recalls 1.8 million Sony batteries by Peter Blaise Monahon (2006-08-25)

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00HmPG&tag=

 

- Let the price war begin by Robert Paul (2006-08-24)

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00HlvG&tag=

 

... and so on, back in time, all related threads and more.

 

==========

 

Sadly, photo.net only displays the Minolta forum back to 2006-08-05, and older threads, well, you have to know their addresses from your previous experience or you have to accidentally find them by searching for something that happens to be in their contents. Hmmm ... any ideas here for Philip Greenspun

http://www.photo.net/shared/community-member?user_id=23069

to incorporate in his revisiting of photo.net's resources?

 

I suggest a few things:

 

1 - keep unanswered posts sifting to the top of the forum list, not just at the [unanswered] button (which, by the way, I think is a genius idea, BUT this came up today for [unanswered] http://www.photo.net/bboard/unified/q-and-a-unanswered "Problem with Your Input

We had a problem processing your entry: This feature is disabled" -- ARGH!) .

 

2 - return a thread to the top of the forum list each time it gets a new reply -- it is, after all, therefore, a current, living thread.

 

3 - multi-display in a variety of forums any thread according to it's contents. That is, if I mention Canon and Nikon in a post, that thread should then also appear in the listing of the Canon forum and in the Nikon forum. Don't duplicate the thread, just allow it to appear in multiple lists. How many [General] questions really belong in a specific [Minolta] or other forum, for instance, once we ferret out the answer? For instance, this thread should be automatically cross-listed (NOT cross-posted) to [photo.net Site Feedback]

 

==========

 

Back to the Sony Alpha A100:

 

I'm looking for a few improvements to the camera now that I've had extended experience with non-SLRs, namely TTL EVF through-the-lens electronic viewfinder cameras such as my fantastic Minolta DiMage A1:

 

1 - DO EVERYTHING THROUGH THE VIEWFINDER: Display capture settings changes through the viewfinder as I make them so I can keep my eye on my photographic subject -- there's room beside the direct view image frame in the viewfinder of the Sony Alpha A100 for this.

 

2 - MAKE ALL CONTROLS UNAMBIGUOUSLY MEMORIZABLE: Make the knobs have either a stop or a definite center of rotation so I can tell where I am and memorize the number of clicks from one feature to the next again without looking away from my photographic subjects. I noticed that the Sony Alpha A100 knobs rotate round and round, yet the control knobs on my Minolta DiMage A1 do not - they have definite stops so I can always count -- click, click, click -- which setting I'm using. Also, with in-the-viewfinder display of the knob setting as suggested in #1 above, I have confirmation of the items I'm changing without taking my eye of my photographic subject.

 

3 - DIRECT READ-OUT KNOBS: like Minolta re-introduced in 1995 with my Minolta Alpha/Dynax/Maxxum 507si/600si/650si so I can tell what setting the camera has been set to just by looking at it. The + / - compensation knobs on that series through to the Minolta Alpha/Dynax/Maxxum 9 and 7 and Konica Minolta Alpha/Dynax/Maxxum 7D were superlative! Bring 'em back!

 

4 - ENABLE DRO+ IN RAW: Dynamic Range Optimization Plus is great, but it's only for JPG alone, not even for RAW+JPG, so one incredible feature / benefit of the Sony Alpha A100 is LOST for those of us who always capture RAW -- we want automatic and intelligent optimization of the dynamic range, after all, we paid for it in the camera purchase! Either keep it in at least the JPG partner of a RAW+JPG or also encode it as a settings overlay reference in RAW (layered RAW?).

 

5 - DISTRIBUTE SONY RAW CONVERTERS FREE: Get ARW into every utility out there, including free Picasa http://www.picasa.google.com/ and free Irfanview http://www.irfanview.com/ NOW! I can't open my ARW files that I brought home from a camera test at the store -- I'm glad I shot RAW+JPG, but, as mentioned, I have NO DRO+ samples! :-(

 

I'm sure there's more, but otherwise, I'm sure I could get familiar with what I now consider the compromises of the Sony Alpha A100.

 

I won't mention LCD PREVIEW or MOVIES ... oops - I mentioned them! ;-)

 

Click!

 

Love and hugs,

 

Peter Blaise peterblaise@yahoo.com Minolta Rokkor Alpha DiMage Photographer http://www.peterblaisephotography.com/

[mark_k3]

Thanks Peter

Luckily you are still with Minolta/KM and now Sony

I am shocked by the noise level in A100 and I prefer to wait for an upgrade from 7D. Meanwhile I am trying Canon and they are great in image quality.....

[andrew robertson]

Canon isn't #1 because they have an aging bald tennis player as their spokesperson...

[greg_heil1]

<i>> I won't mention LCD PREVIEW or MOVIES ... oops - I mentioned them! ;-)</i><p/>

Peter, That was evil, just plain EVIL.

[chris_harley1]

Maybe it will help them pay off the expected $100million their battery fiasco is likely to cost them. Thats roughly a quarter of their annual profit according to the source I read in the UK.http://shopping.guardian.co.uk/computers/story/0,,1861274,00.html

[robert_paul1]

I was reading a story in 'USA Today' about how retailers try and get you in the mood to buy when you walk into their stores. Some of the ways they do this is by "lighting to floor color to music to how goods are displayed..."

 

"This is how Sony does it- "At a Sony Style store, for instance, the subtle fragrance of vanilla and mandarin orange--designed exclusively for Sony--wafts down on shoppers, relaxing them and helping them believe that this is a very nice place to be.

 

Everything in the store is designed to encourage touch, from the silk wallpaper to the smooth maple wood cabinets to the etched-glass countertops. Products are displayed like museum pieces and set up for you to touch and try.

 

Once you touch something, Sony figures, you'll buy it."

 

So, if you walk into a Sony Style store, don't touch anything unless you want to buy it. : )

[alex_massengale]

The A100 is a spectacular camera for the price. I can't imagine ever going back to my old

camera having now owned the A100 for a month. Image stabilizer, anti-dust technology, and

10.2 megapixels for under a grand! I've taken some spectacular images on it.