Sony a850 Discontinued

As a matter of fact, I have a 70-400G SSM. A brilliant piece of glass .

Joris wrote in post #12937085
As a matter of fact, I have a 70-400G SSM. A brilliant piece of glass .

I'd like to try that lens for airshows. If Sony does come out with the A77, I might buy it along with the 70-400. Not that I'm giving up my Canon gear, just want to try something different.

Perfectly Frank wrote in post #12941190
I'd like to try that lens for airshows. If Sony does come out with the A77, I might buy it along with the 70-400. Not that I'm giving up my Canon gear, just want to try something different.

Cheers to that mate..the A77 looks like it could be cool for wildlife photography actually

Now Sony just needs some new updated SSM Macros!

I use it mostly for airshows, on my good ol' A350. I've been waiting for the A700's successor since like late 2009, so I'm really happy it's about to arrive. I'd love to try that new 500/4 G SSM for airshows...Great for those in-flight shots. I got a feeling that lens is going to be quite heavy though. The Sony 300/2.8G SSM is lighter than both Canon and Nikon 300/2.8s, so hopefully this one will be a bit lighter, too..(Can't afford either a 300/2.8 or a 500/4, but I can keep dreaming, right ?)

And they don't just need SSM macros...I'd add "some SSM Carl Zeiss primes". The current 85/1.4 CZ and the 135/1.8 CZ are still 'screw-driven'.

Their 24-70/2.8 Carl Zeiss (as well as their 16-35/2.8 CZ) is wonderful, too. Too bad their so expensive though.

I'd want a Carl Zeiss Macro Planar 100mm f/2.8 SSM

If Sony gave me that, I might actually get an A77 or A88 for it

But yes, my favorite wide is the 16-35 f/2.8 CZ believe it or not...love the look of the images from that thing...

themadman wrote in post #12476785
Well... I think this is not necessarily a bad thing. Sony is moving forward with their translucent mirror tech knowing they can't beat Canon and Nikon in the traditional DSLR game, why not just stop trying and cut your losses?

If anyone has the capability to beat Canon and Nikon, it's Sony!

I mean they have the means and the talent. What they could lack is a business case and/or desire.

Sony has historically been a consumer oriented company. I think their belief lies in average quality, high sale volume and high churn rate electronics. In my opinion, any product that only has a "miniscule" penetration and longer life cycles does not seem to fit in their business philosophy.

That said, it is a significant sized segment, $$ wise if not volumes wise. And presence in the pro segment always helps as a selling point in the consumer segment.

It's not clear whether they are exiting the FF segment completely or this is just a case where a specific product is EOL-ed because of diminishing sales and they are yet tom finish the design of the replacement!

dgsphoto wrote in post #12992266
Sony has historically been a consumer oriented company. I think their belief lies in average quality, high sale volume and high churn rate electronics. In my opinion, any product that only has a "miniscule" penetration and longer life cycles does not seem to fit in their business philosophy.

I don't think that is true. It is just that we wouldn't normally see those high end products. Sony has a big presence in TV production equipment for example.

tkbslc wrote in post #12992321
I don't think that is true. It is just that we wouldn't normally see those high end products. Sony has a big presence in TV production equipment for example.

Home Theater Setups and Audio/Video equipment happens to be my other hobby. You will be surprised by the churn and volumes in big screen TVs. The market for that is huge which makes it easy to present a business case!

And then, who's to say Sony has exited FF. They merely just killed one FF product!

They could even be seeing stereoscopic imaging as the norm in the near future and could possibly not want to invest in an ageing (to some radicals/visionaries that Sony has quite a few of) platform for still photography.

They have been pioneers with many eletronic technologies. Imaging is definitely one of their forte! They might just see it evolving differently!

When sony makes a split mirror FF a99, that has 35MP and 12 FPS, sports photographers, will have to give them a second look