«

The "new" Sony Alpha 390 DSLR has been given a "quick review" by
DPReview.com. The review is by Barnaby Britton who worked at "Amateur
Photographer" until recently.

The A390 gets strong criticism for being thoroughly out-of-date, with
the only significant upgrade from the A380 being a larger handgrip.
Apparently, even the new handgrip still isn't as good as the one on
the A380's predecessor, the A350.

The list of Cons is very long, with some serious deficiencies noted.
The list of Pros is short, with significant reservations.

Overall, the camera gets what I believe to be the lowest rating ever
given to any DSLR on DPReview.com: a truly pathetic 60%.

The Alpha range is dying.

On Thu, 29 Jul 2010 09:06:48 +0100, Bruce wrote:

> The "new" Sony Alpha 390 DSLR has been given a "quick review" by
> DPReview.com. The review is by Barnaby Britton who worked at "Amateur
> Photographer" until recently.
>
> The A390 gets strong criticism for being thoroughly out-of-date, with
> the only significant upgrade from the A380 being a larger handgrip.
> Apparently, even the new handgrip still isn't as good as the one on the
> A380's predecessor, the A350.
>
> The list of Cons is very long, with some serious deficiencies noted. The
> list of Pros is short, with significant reservations.
>
> Overall, the camera gets what I believe to be the lowest rating ever
> given to any DSLR on DPReview.com: a truly pathetic 60%.
>
> The Alpha range is dying.

I think it may have started 'dying' the day Sony bought it from Minolta.

"ray" <> wrote in message
news:...
> On Thu, 29 Jul 2010 09:06:48 +0100, Bruce wrote:
>
>> The "new" Sony Alpha 390 DSLR has been given a "quick review" by
>> DPReview.com. The review is by Barnaby Britton who worked at "Amateur
>> Photographer" until recently.
>>
>> The A390 gets strong criticism for being thoroughly out-of-date, with
>> the only significant upgrade from the A380 being a larger handgrip.
>> Apparently, even the new handgrip still isn't as good as the one on the
>> A380's predecessor, the A350.
>>
>> The list of Cons is very long, with some serious deficiencies noted. The
>> list of Pros is short, with significant reservations.
>>
>> Overall, the camera gets what I believe to be the lowest rating ever
>> given to any DSLR on DPReview.com: a truly pathetic 60%.
>>
>> The Alpha range is dying.
>
> I think it may have started 'dying' the day Sony bought it from Minolta.

maybe they should consider a Beta range, but then again beta is usually
thought of as work in progress. The Sony NIF (New improved formula) likm
they do with washing up liquid

"Gary Eickmeier" <> wrote in message
news:_gC4o.43021$ om...
[]
> I bought the Alpha 100 when it first came out, and it has been an
> amazing camera. Better resolution than any of the Canikons of the time,
> and still terrific. Great range of lenses. Intuitive controls. Still
> current, but I am interested in Live View and possibly video now.
>
> The Alpha range has had many innovations and is still in the forefront,
> except to Canikon luddites.
>
> Gary Eickmeier

In the forefront? Not sure about that.

Worth changing a complete system for? Perhaps worth considering if
starting from scratch.

Is resolution everything?

Cheers,
David

On Fri, 30 Jul 2010 11:34:10 -0400, "Gary Eickmeier"
<> wrote:
>
>The Alpha range has had many innovations and is still in the forefront


Complete nonsense!

But thank you for the best laugh I have had this week.

In article <_gC4o.43021$ >,
"Gary Eickmeier" <> wrote:

> The Alpha range has had many innovations and is still in the forefront,
> except to Canikon luddites.

Gary-

I have a nice collection of Minolta lenses previously used with a couple
of 35mm bodies. They worked perfectly with the Alpha 100, so I upgraded
to the Alpha 900.

I would be a Sony luddite if I hadn't also played with a Canon 5D Mark
II. The optics are no better or worse, but noise at low light levels is
much LESS noticeable with the Canon. Canon photos at ISO 3200 are
comparable to Sony photos at ISO 400, except that higher shutter speeds
result in sharper images!

I wonder if models released since the A900 are any less noisy at high
ISO? If Sony can't solve the noise problem, they won't stand a chance.

Fred

Fred McKenzie <> wrote:
> In article <_gC4o.43021$ >,
> "Gary Eickmeier" <> wrote:

>> The Alpha range has had many innovations and is still in the forefront,
>> except to Canikon luddites.

> Gary-

> I have a nice collection of Minolta lenses previously used with a couple
> of 35mm bodies. They worked perfectly with the Alpha 100, so I upgraded
> to the Alpha 900.

> I would be a Sony luddite if I hadn't also played with a Canon 5D Mark
> II. The optics are no better or worse, but noise at low light levels is
> much LESS noticeable with the Canon. Canon photos at ISO 3200 are
> comparable to Sony photos at ISO 400, except that higher shutter speeds
> result in sharper images!

> I wonder if models released since the A900 are any less noisy at high
> ISO? If Sony can't solve the noise problem, they won't stand a chance.

They are less noisy. Check out dpreviews or any others.

--
Chris Malcolm
Warning: none of the above is indisputable fact.

On Fri, 30 Jul 2010 11:34:10 -0400, "Gary Eickmeier"
<> wrote:
:
: "whisky-dave" <whisky-> wrote in message
: news:i2upbf$eie$1@qmul...
: >
: > "ray" <> wrote in message
: > news:...
: >> On Thu, 29 Jul 2010 09:06:48 +0100, Bruce wrote:
: >>
: >>> The "new" Sony Alpha 390 DSLR has been given a "quick review" by
: >>> DPReview.com. The review is by Barnaby Britton who worked at "Amateur
: >>> Photographer" until recently.
: >>>
: >>> The A390 gets strong criticism for being thoroughly out-of-date, with
: >>> the only significant upgrade from the A380 being a larger handgrip.
: >>> Apparently, even the new handgrip still isn't as good as the one on
: >>> the A380's predecessor, the A350.
: >>>
: >>> The list of Cons is very long, with some serious deficiencies noted.
: >>> The list of Pros is short, with significant reservations.
: >>>
: >>> Overall, the camera gets what I believe to be the lowest rating ever
: >>> given to any DSLR on DPReview.com: a truly pathetic 60%.
: >>>
: >>> The Alpha range is dying.
: >>
: >> I think it may have started 'dying' the day Sony bought it from Minolta.
: >
: > maybe they should consider a Beta range, but then again beta is usually
: > thought of as work in progress. The Sony NIF (New improved formula)
: > likm they do with washing up liquid
:
: I bought the Alpha 100 when it first came out, and it has been an amazing
: camera. Better resolution than any of the Canikons of the time, and still
: terrific. Great range of lenses. Intuitive controls. Still current, but I
: am interested in Live View and possibly video now.
:
: The Alpha range has had many innovations and is still in the forefront,
: except to Canikon luddites.

I remember when Studebaker owners talked exactly the same way, as the company
circled the drain.

Bob

On 8/2/2010 12:02 AM, Gary Eickmeier wrote:
> "Robert Coe"<> wrote in message
> news:...
>> On Fri, 30 Jul 2010 11:34:10 -0400, "Gary Eickmeier"
>> <> wrote:
>
>> : The Alpha range has had many innovations and is still in the forefront,
>> : except to Canikon luddites.
>>
>> I remember when Studebaker owners talked exactly the same way, as the
>> company
>> circled the drain.
>>
>
> What circling? What drain? They are still bringing out new cameras every
> year - more models than anyone else. I am very attracted to the rotating
> hi-res LCD live view ones, but I wish they could experiment with video as
> well. Sony has always been in the forefront of video, too.

Sony brought out new Palm-based PDAs every year too. More models than
anyone else and better. And then one day they decided that they didn't
want to be in that business anymore and dropped the whole product line.

On Mon, 2 Aug 2010 00:02:13 -0400, "Gary Eickmeier"
<> wrote:
>
>What circling? What drain? They are still bringing out new cameras every
>year - more models than anyone else. I am very attracted to the rotating
>hi-res LCD live view ones, but I wish they could experiment with video as
>well. Sony has always been in the forefront of video, too.


You must be just about the only person in the world who believes that
Sony Alpha DSLRs are at the "forefront" of anything.

Self-delusion or wishful thinking? Or both?