itai195
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 Re: Official: Sony A7 and A7R Fullframe Mirrorless | |
philip_pj wrote:
\'What unique advantage does Sony have other than first mover status?\'
It is a big mistake to think CN can kind of click their technological fingers and churn out an a7r beater, or a RX1 beater or the RX100 beater, or whatever Sony\'s genius designer turns his hand to next year. These are all critical and market successes of some magnitude.
Are they really?Are there any numbers proving that these are market successes of the magnitude that the D800 and 5D3 are, for example? Have any of these Sony cameras been virtually sold out everywhere for six months? Don\'t get me wrong, I also like these products, but I think proper perspective should be maintained...
\'Nikon and Canon have the ability to pump out lenses when they\'re motivated to do so.\'
This one has attained meme status, closely related to \'Sony might abandon the mount in six months\' and \'Canon and Nikon are more reliable\' and so on and so forth. And my favourite: \'imagine releasing a camera with only one lens?\'
Facts are always interesting in assessing these claims. From my reading Canon released four, yes, four lenses in the last completed year - 2012. Could not find anything related to Nikon\'s output. Canon also released just four primes 135mm and shorter when they introduced the EOS system in 1987.
Nikon released something like 9 or 10 lenses in 2010, for example. That said, I\'ve never seen Sony commit long term to any platform in any product category. I guess the PlayStation would be the closest, but of course they get to start from scratch every five years so that\'s a bit of a different animal. I\'ve been burned by them several times, as I suspect many other people have. Once a company establishes a reputation for leaving their customers behind, it\'s hard to shed.
Motivation? The DSLR market has lost 20% to mirrorless. If you lost 20% of your income you might be motivated to do what you can to fix the problem.
This is a controversial point. Have these sales been lost to mirrorless, or is the camera market as a whole shrinking? IIRC, mirrorless sales are also down compared to last year. Also, lower shipments do not necessarily equate to lower revenues on a one-to-one basis... Both Nikon and Canon have been shifting emphasis to higher end products (e.g. full frame) for the last couple of years.
Sony, as pointed out are not lens makers - merely make the best sensors and pretty good cameras; and leave the lenses for the top end and the RX line to ZEISS, who churn out large numbers of ultra lenses on a continual basis. From mobile phone lenses to Otus and cine.
Absolutely, but Zeiss make lenses for a bunch of mounts, not just Sony\'s.
By the way, I bought an A7 and I want to see it become a successful product. But I don\'t think Sony is anywhere near the dominant position that some here seem to believe they\'re in.
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