what is so great about a "d"slr? & should i get one

[captaincrash]

Uh -huh...

yeah - I see now that Sony does have that sort of history - and I'll have to take a glance at the Sony interchangable lenses system - ut is this supposed to be a DSLR of sorts too?

O- well... it really does not matter...

Cheers~!

 

[Charade]

but it drives me nuts missing shot after shot due to the lag time

Here's an example (from my Nikon D70) that shows just how little lag time it has (which is about the same or a little faster that other DSLRs in it's class).
I prefocused on the spot between the signs and shot when I saw the car reach the mid point. Note that lag time will increase with different lenses on a DSLR (or any autofocus SLR for that matter) because of the mechanics required to focus the lens. A lot of newer lenses from Canon and Nikon have focusing motors built into the lens which makes them lightning fast and very quiet.

 

[boBQuincy]

I was referring to Sony buying Konica/Minolta's dSLR line and their plans to re-release it soon as a Sony product. I doubt the camera will be on the market for long.

Another Sony letdown: the original memeory stick which was quickly abandoned when it couldn't offer increased memory sizes. Then there's the rootkit viruses shipped on their music CDs, Sony lost a class action suit on that one.
I have Sony Soundforge and it tries to contact Sony every time I boot it up... for what?


I like their products but their customer committment is not there at all.


boB

 

[Kelly Grannell]

And Sony does have a long history of abandoning its customers.

Beta
Minidisc
DAT
UMD
Clié

Just off the top of my head.

Not really. I'm not a fan of Sony but they don't really abandoning those formats

Beta: still used up until 1994 (totalling more than 25 years of production) in most parts of the world with brand-new models coming out every year from Sony (I bet North Americans don't remember Sony's Super Beta Hi-Fi which in quality beats S-VHS hands down)

Minidisc is still in production, especially in Asian countries and Europe. In North America only the players and blank medias are available and they keep releasing new ones even to this day.

DAT have never intended to be a consumer product. My husband's recording studio (and any other recording studio including Disney) used them heavily up until 2000-ish (about 16 years). For long-time field recording (more than 1 hour long), DAT is still heavily used by professionals. New DAT machines are still in production.

UMD, they are still releasing new titles, however, the imminent failure in North America is due to pricing. They are far cheaper than their DVD counterpart in Japan and other parts of Asia, so it does make sense to buy UMD.

Clie is only a rebranding of Palm Pilot, nothing different other than the casing. I've been using Palm Pilot from their very first inception (low-res LCD, no backlight) to the newest one (WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS) with a Clie in between, they just dropped the line. Clie users can upgrade to Palm with no loss of feature whatsoever.

What I mean by Sony abandoning their customers are formats like D8 (why end it? it's the same codec as miniDV but using different tape size, that's all and more robust too), MicroMV (also same codec as miniDV, using different tape size, alas extremely fragile), their CD-based digicam (uses slightly different size than the regular 3" CD), and more 'unique' products like those.

 

[Kelly Grannell]

Charade,

lag time is not from the moment you press the button to focus until a camera takes a picture. Lag time refers to the moment you release the shutter (after focus) to the moment the shutter is actually activated. AF speed has nothing to do with lag time. Although, yes, AF on a point and shoot tend to be slower (but not always) than a dSLR.

 

[Kelly Grannell]

I have Sony Soundforge and it tries to contact Sony every time I boot it up... for what?


boB

Which version of Soundforge do you use? DH uses Soundforge 8 and Vegas too, and you can go to the option tab so it doesn't go to Sony to check for updates/patches.

 

[Anewman]

Not really. I'm not a fan of Sony but they don't really abandoning those formats

Beta: still used up until 1994 (totalling more than 25 years of production) in most parts of the world with brand-new models coming out every year from Sony (I bet North Americans don't remember Sony's Super Beta Hi-Fi which in quality beats S-VHS hands down)

Minidisc is still in production, especially in Asian countries and Europe. In North America only the players and blank medias are available and they keep releasing new ones even to this day.

DAT have never intended to be a consumer product. My husband's recording studio (and any other recording studio including Disney) used them heavily up until 2000-ish (about 16 years). For long-time field recording (more than 1 hour long), DAT is still heavily used by professionals. New DAT machines are still in production.

UMD, they are still releasing new titles, however, the imminent failure in North America is due to pricing. They are far cheaper than their DVD counterpart in Japan and other parts of Asia, so it does make sense to buy UMD.

Clie is only a rebranding of Palm Pilot, nothing different other than the casing. I've been using Palm Pilot from their very first inception (low-res LCD, no backlight) to the newest one (WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS) with a Clie in between, they just dropped the line. Clie users can upgrade to Palm with no loss of feature whatsoever.

What I mean by Sony abandoning their customers are formats like D8 (why end it? it's the same codec as miniDV but using different tape size, that's all and more robust too), MicroMV (also same codec as miniDV, using different tape size, alas extremely fragile), their CD-based digicam (uses slightly different size than the regular 3" CD), and more 'unique' products like those.

Guess it is matter of percecption.

The way I perceive it is that I can still go buy Digital 8 blank media anywhere from drug stores to Mega Club stores, not that I take much video anymore. But Where can I get MiniDiscs for that $200 player that my kid asked for a couple xmases b4 the IPOD craze?

I remember seeing music releases on DAT and Minidisc. And I was very Close to buying a car stereo with DAT, a consumer model. IMO DAT was actually trying to compete with CDs, but it did not work so they adjusted their plan.

Clié was just a name that popped into my head since several co-workers complained about Sony ceasing support and upgrades, I know not the details.

I can understand how there will be those with different point of views and availability, if you live in the US it may not matter to you that products are still widly available in Asia.

 

[Kelly Grannell]

Is it that difficult to find minidisc in the US? It's fairly easy to find minidisc blanks in Canada. Even WalMart carries them.

 

[manning]

The Sony D-SLR is due out this summer and minolta's lens are to be compatible. There isn't much on the Sony site other than this

http://www.sony.net/Products/dslr/interview2.html

 

[captaincrash]

The general idea with the support issues and so on are that we have uge unviversal winners in the marketplace and the "others". Consider, Betamax faded against VHS, now VHS does not sell in thrift shops compared to DVD. And 2 months ago I noted (and began to covet) the new HD DVDs that were eing shown. YEAH... those HD DVDs have 1080p encoding - even though my HD TV is just 720p. I scoffed at the lack of programming or infrastructure for 1080p - but now I'm reconsidering a little.

Ahem, as I was saying... things come and go - and it is a matter of perception... as some may have noted - half full or half empty ... I say it has faded from general availability and hence has probably been supplanted by a new format. If support is an issue and you can't get it easily where you are then you are "tatooed" with a new book-end or paper weight for your desk. Frankly, I HAVE used obsolete gizmos as paper-weights! But whether or not an entire company can be viewed as the sort that abandon's its' loyal patrons (or not) is a matter of perception. I, for one generally admire the innovation and quality of Sony's products. I never thought twice about them abandoning their patrons. When something is out of vogue - and you can't get what you need than that's it... toss it out. I have ties that I do not dare show my kids, let alone my colleauges! Those ties should be thrown out.

So - I have digressed into the abyss of the frivilous... forgive me. I was just tssing in a neutral note of what I thought was "middle ground".

Cheers to all this holiday weekend! I've gotta go soon - I'm hosting a pool luncheon with a few friends and my daughter has to sign up for a community swim team - it will be her first organized competitive activity - but she's a fish in the pool. Oh yeah - she's already signed up for AYSO - but that is more about fun then winning and losing ... a nobel concept. So - I gotta run in a few minutes.

Cheers to all!

 

[captaincrash]

Here's a nice visual comparison betweeen the size difference between a DSLR sensor (the APS 1.5 crop sensor off a Nikon D100 - which is same size as all the Nikon DSLRs and the new Sony SLR) and a typical pocket digicam.

Think in terms of both having the same number of pixels - so that implies each PIXEL on each repsective sensor has a cooresponding size difference. The larger Sensor with larger pixels is more light sensitive and hence requires less apmlifaction or boost in low light conditions. And hence less noise and more shooting power.

Oh well... this is by no means everything that results from a DSLR sensor being larger - however, I had to post this as I ran across a nice image that illustrated my point and thinking.

Have a nice weekend folks!

 

[WillCAD]

Here's a nice visual comparison betweeen the size difference between a DSLR sensor (the APS 1.5 crop sensor off a Nikon D100 - which is same size as all the Nikon DSLRs and the new Sony SLR) and a typical pocket digicam.

Think in terms of both having the same number of pixels - so that implies each PIXEL on each repsective sensor has a cooresponding size difference. The larger Sensor with larger pixels is more light sensitive and hence requires less apmlifaction or boost in low light conditions. And hence less noise and more shooting power.

Oh well... this is by no means everything that results from a DSLR sensor being larger - however, I had to post this as I ran across a nice image that illustrated my point and thinking.

Have a nice weekend folks!

So , basically, in this case, BIGGER actually is BETTER.

 

[jann1033]

so when they advertise lens like the sigma 18-125 and 18- 200 as being made for "smaller sensors" would that be the majority of entry type digital slr cameras ( not meaning the $$$$ ones but the ones most amatures buy). i think some times they say aps(???) with it.

 

[bazzanoid]

Staying remarkably on-topic (unusual for me), what's the best dSLR on the market at the moment? I'm thinking of getting one to use in addition to my P&S (panasonic ls2, which has a very minimal lag time, especially if you prefocus, image stability, etc... i'm very impressed with it, in short!), and since i'm going to be over in the US in october, i can pick one up cheaper than over here in the UK....

 

[Kelly Grannell]

so when they advertise lens like the sigma 18-125 and 18- 200 as being made for "smaller sensors" would that be the majority of entry type digital slr cameras ( not meaning the $$$$ ones but the ones most amatures buy). i think some times they say aps(???) with it.

not amateur dSLR, but all dSLR with the exception of Canon 5 and 1 series are all using APS-C sensor. The proper size of APS-C sensor is 1.6x crop factor, Nikon uses 1.5 crop factor. Doesn't make much of a difference as long as they are using the pro-standard 3:2 aspect ratio (unlike Panasonic and Olympus dSLR, they use 4:3 ratio)

 

[Kelly Grannell]

what's the best dSLR on the market at the moment?

It's different for everyone. Some pro will say Canon 1DsMKII is the best, some other pro will say Nikon D2X is the best. To me, I ask the question "what is the best for MY NEEDS?" and the answer to that is Canon 30D. If you asked the question last year, it will be Canon dRebel (not even XT)

Yes, the difference between the 30D and 20D is minimal (30D has spot metering), but for concert pic taking, or odd-lighting condition, it allows me to meter the point-of-interest of the subject AND there is no use for me to use RAW mode at all (which in at the end of the day I have to convert all the RAW files into another types of files such as TIFF or JPEG, which is counter productive to me.)

 

[jann1033]

what is going on with this board now, when i hit normal reply it's just a blank page???


just want to mention that the Canon tutorial Kelly recommended ( canon website) is great. i think i actually get the 1.6 lense crop thing now

 

[Kelly Grannell]

I'm having the same problem all morning. It's getting more and more frustrating to post anything here. Too bad... it's such a nice place to hang out.