Sony / Pentax Thread (Sony's new full frame 24mpix for $2k, +rumored 35 MP fullframe)

to follow that, Historical perspective on Minolta lens design philosophy

I've also read that the Sony A900 (their flagship full-frame, $2500) can use $50 1985 Minolta autofocus 35mm lenses and whip all comers, even the a700's best-in-the-business 24.6 mpix with the top of the line (and award winning) G lenses. And certainly the other guys as well. Without new, digitally biased lenses. '85 Minolta glass is that good - half of it came with kit lenses, you can buy them for $200 with an old 7000 on ebay, and they still ace the best sensors in the market.

 

I`m making a Pentax upgrade purchase from the K10 to a K20. The 20 has hit bargain prices since the new K7 has come out. The 20 I ordered comes with a 18-55mm lens for $699. I just couldn`t pass it up.

 

Amazon has the body for $631. Granted you don't get a kit lens, but if you're already shooting...

 

That looks to be a good price too. The one I`m getting comes with a 3 year warranty also (from QVC). This kit lens is supposed to be an inprovement over the K10 kit lens. We`ll see...
Another good thing about qvc is that I can spread the cost over a 4 month period.

 

Sony's a200 (like mine but w/o liveview...so the viewfinder is actually a little brighter - only difference) is at Target for $350, or some are finding it even cheaper if they get the sales model...in-body image stabilization, 10.2 mpix, compatability with a ton of cheap, great quality Minolta lenses...hard to beat.

 

Sony's thrown the full-frame camera world for another loop, putting out the a850 - 24.6 MP for $2000 to start ("only" around $5000 cheaper than the D3x, 2000 cheaper than 5d mkII).
http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/AA850/AA850A.HTM

if any of you are dying to be full-frame, this is a much cheaper but still very high quality way of doing it. I'd love to have the money, ability, or a reason to put this with my Minolta lenses.

 

http://news.cnet.com/crave/?keyword=full+frame



I gotta have one, one day. In a few years, I'll have a full compliment of lenses, with more fullframe lenses. And by then it'll hopefully be under $1300 or so.

full frame, though - I've heard it's a lot tougher.

 

I've started to worry that Sony looked to abandon the A-mount. Two reasons:
*the e-mount: their NEX cameras are fighting with the 4/3rds cameras - Olympus Pen for instance - that are electronic viewfinder only.
Since they're using a full aps-c sensor but in a tiny, mirrorless body the size of a point and shoot, They came out with the E-mount for it, but luckily they have adapters for the A mount (old minolta, and their SLRs).

*they tried to buy Pentax: there's a rumor that they, and Canon, both attempted to buy Pentax. That was probably before Pentax went back on the way up - those last two SLRs really saved them. Some say Canon wanted to buy it to kill a competitor, get some updated optics, and maybe get into stabilized bodies. Sony supposedly wanted the medium format technology, and there's the chance they wanted to kill a competitor, too.

At any rate, those NEX cameras are all the rave, boasting much larger sensors, HD video, and compatibility backward with old lenses.
They're getting a big following now for their ideal of being able to adapt manual focus to wide lenses from M42 to medium format without any real problems.


Now that they've stated they won't abandon A-mount, they have to earn their way back into the DSLR market - the low end models are all 14mp, which is fine, and there's plenty of midrange, but it's time for a higher end sports camera - and more megapixels in the APS-C range. Or, a lower level full-frame, though the 24mp a850 at $2000 is hard to beat.
But yeah, a 16-18mp 7fps high end APS-C body would go a long way.
Hell, looks like they're just now coming up with an aps-c type 16-70/2.8 zoom like the popular Canon (and Tamron in our equivalent mount).

Oh - they're also updating the old Pellix mirror idea for a DSLR. I guess canon had one in film days, before mirrors were that fast. Now the idea is getting the mirror to stay for high framerate video.

 

I held this at a chain store this week:

http://www.popphoto.com/gear/2010/12/2010-camera-year-sony-a55

10fps in a consumer body

 

shot freehanded with this in a 20+ knot wind in my face