The Mac’s of the camera world.
Posted by Colin | Filed under Nonsense
Gearlust strikes again. I want more megapixels.
After reading the reviews I was open to the Sony a900. I’m not going to shoot movies, its low ISO image quality is fantastic and its high ISO performance outstrips my current Nikon D80 anyway. Plus it has in body image stabilization which is a nice touch.
I go down to the store and check it out with the legitimate intent of letting it convince me to stimulate the economy.
ISO, WB and IQ settings are nice and easy to adjust - important aspects for me. Love the feel of that big shutter flapping inside that body at the press of the button. One thing that is critical to me is easy LCD zoomability and it MUST zoom in on the focus point. I cannot stand scrolling around to locate the point of most interest - what I focused on - to ensure that its sharp. Lo and behold the Sony a900 has this feature… nice!
Ok lets bring up the shot on the LCD. Press the ‘>’ button. Two, three, four seconds passes. Finally after about 5 seconds the image appears. WTF? I retest, same thing.
Ok… this sales guy must have some ancient card in here. Let’s try the Canon 5D2. We transfer the card into the Canon, take a shot, review it and *bing* it pops up on the screen within a second.
Sorry Sony but this simply will not do. I review my pictures a lot and I am not about to wait 5 seconds to see it, particularly on a THREE-FREAKIN-THOUSAND dollar camera.
Bah.
Lets try the Canon, then (I really want to spend some money). Take a couple pics, go to change the ISO. Uhhh… what’s this? You have to contort your fingers into pretzels to adjust the ISO. Same with the WB. Lets change the focus point. WHAT? I gotta press TWO buttons for this? Ridiculous. Ok… last test. Let’s see if this three thousand dollar camera zooms into the focus point when reviewing shots in the LCD.
Nope.
Three thousand dollars and it doesn’t zoom into the focus point. Every Nikon above the D200 has this feature.
Nikon is the Mac of the camera world. It costs a bit more, but usability is far superior. Well thought out UI’s are worth money and Nikon delivers. Ive discovered that I will be sticking to the Nikon world.
Just one request, Nikon: please make a D700x. Pleeeeeease?!?!?
August 28th, 2009 at 6:41 am
Heya Col - made your decision yet? FWIW, Sony just released the A850 yesterday - 98% viewfinder instead of the 100% in the A900, less fps, same 24.5 mp, FF sensor, way cheaper. They have thrown down the gauntlet of consumer prices FF, should be interesting to see who follows.
Also, I just measured the times for pics to come up on my A900 - 1-2 seconds for my pics to resolve a zoom request (and you can scroll with the index wheel while zoomed in to see groups of pics at the same zoom point with no additional wait time); 3 seconds to appear on the screen after shooting (can vary if shooting with longer exposures). I’m using a ’silicon power’ 300X 32GB flash card.
August 28th, 2009 at 8:56 am
You have an a900? Cool - I didn’t know that I knew someone with one… thought you were a Pentax guy.
2-3 seconds for a shot to display is, IMO, ridiculous on a camera at that price point. I truly am interested in the Sony but you have corroborated my experience which is probably a determining factor.
If Nikon introduces the D700X above $4k then I will have to seriously reconsider whether the 2-3 second delay is a deal breaker. If its above $4k then I will be moving to Sony or Canon - something I don’t really want to do. Overall I preferred the a900 to the 5Dm2, but I must admit that I am intrigued at the possibility of making HD movies with nice lenses.
The a850 makes a Sony move even more interesting - for $4k I could get a body, a kickass lens and still have a few hundred left over waiting for another lens.
August 28th, 2009 at 9:38 am
I guess it must have been similar on my Pentaxes because I didn’t notice the draw time. I wanted FF with in-body SR for all my old manual lenses and Sony was the only one. No complaints here though, very happy. A tip - if you do consider to buy Sony, call Austin at Sony Style in Chinook and tell him you are considering switching brands and ask what Sony can do for you. He’ll know my name if you mention it. They will make you smile.
August 30th, 2009 at 12:26 am
I’ve been shooting Nikon since 1991! And they have never let me down! Especially when you are on the line shooting weddings!
Film cameras-FM2 then F-601-then a F4- Made my transition to Digital on a D200! Looking for a D700 but like you said I might be waiting for that D700X
Good luck on finding that camera!