Canon 50D Pentaprism, 95% coverage, 0.95x magnification

Nikon 90D Pentaprism, 96% coverage, 0.96x magnification

Sony A550 Pentamirror, 95% coverage, 0.8x magnification

The Sony A550 Is using a pentamirror, which is dimmer than a pentaprism, and it’s liveview system makes the viewfinder even dimmer still. The magnification is also much smaller. So NO the Sony A550 does not have anywhere near as good a viewfinder as the equivalently priced Canon and Nikon models.

“…thanks to new noise reduction it made quite a mess all over the net.” According to amazon.com and amazon.co.uk it does not even rate in the top 100 DSLR sales and it is the same story in Japan. That sounds like quite a mess to me also.

Sky_walker regardless of how much Sony flag waving you do, you cannot deny the fact that Sony’s DSLR division is in trouble.

“Sony only released a lot of bodies because” – I don’t care why. The fact is that they are the nr. 1 in that matter.

“liveview dimming and diminishing the viewfinder. None of the cameras were very interesting, none of the cameras generated much publicity” – A550? Huh? Have as good OVF as any other DSLR, and thanks to new noise reduction it made quite a mess all over the net.

“Sony delivered lot more than it promised in 2009, actually: it was the company developing most DSLR bodies of all.” Sony only released a lot of bodies because a) They released the A850 as a cheaper A900 to try and turn around very poor sales and b) they release two versions of each camera, with and without liveview due to Sony’s implementation of liveview dimming and diminishing the viewfinder. None of the cameras were very interesting, none of the cameras generated much publicity and primarily due to NO VIDEO, none of the cameras sold well.

Sony has abysmal DSLR sales and I stand by my comment that Sony will continue their trend and have a disappointing 2010. I hope I am wrong as I would like Sony to be successful.

“extreme vulnerability to damage” – it’s not ’70s, the materials science moved miles away from that time, so I doubt it would be a big problem.

“It can’t be cleaned, only replaced.” – Actually old pellice mirrors could be cleaned. both by air and in mechanical way. Just like we clean current DSLR sensors.

“but 2010 will be another disappointing year for Sony” – I wouldn’t say that in January. Sony delivered lot more than it promised in 2009, actually: it was the company developing most DSLR bodies of all. We also got few great lenses as Winedarksea told. So I hope Sony will surprise me well in 2010.

With Sony’s high ISO noise a pellicle mirror is not going to help as it requires a lot more light.

Sony touted their great viewfinder on the A900 and now most of you want to return to the dark ages, literally.

Sony are desperate to turn around their lagging sales but using a pellicle mirror is not the answer.

I really want Sony’s DSLRs to be successful but 2010 will be another disappointing year for Sony. The limelight will again be dominated by Canon and Nikon.

Another thing I hope a lot for are new consumer-level lenses. Hopefully some of them will be new, cheap primes or perhaps also variants of current primes with worse light but better price. Something to finally close Sony offer, so that they could experiment with new kinds of lenses (cheaper STF? f/1.2 lens? macro 2:1?), or offer more cheap stuff (nice sales of 50 f/1.8 could help it a bit)

In fact, Sony typically delivers more than they promise. They delivered a lot with the A100, the A700, and the A900. And with the Zeiss lenses and the new G lenses. Even with the new non-G lenses introduced in 2009, which were universally praised. Remember, also, the the best Zeiss zoom, the 16-35ZA, was introduced in 2009, alongside the 70-400G, one of the very best lenses introduced in 2009 by anyone. Yes, the cameras they introduced in 2009 didn’t hit the spot; even though the A850 and the A500/550 had their points, they were, one way or another, a bit disappointing. And certainly, they were not what we expected after the A700 and A900.

But Sony, and others, clearly expect that the new cameras for 2010 will bring excitement and fulfilment to Sonyland. Right now, most of us are very apprehensive–understandably so, because we have been waiting and waiting for that A700 successor and because Sony seems poised on the brink of introducing ground-breaking new cameras in three different lines. New tech always breeds apprehension. I feel it myself.

But I see two very calm oases in the midst of this apprehension. One is George Schaub, editor of Shutterbug, who is viewing Sony”s program of tecnological advancements with a great deal of pleasure and excitement. He feels that Sony’s implementations of HDR have been solidly superior to the others–and HDR is an area that is likely to grow in importance. Several times, he has expressed strong anticipatiion of the tech advances he believes that Sony will soon bring to the table. In his position, he may already know some at least of what it will be.

Another calm voice in the midst of all this apprehension is Kiklop, the owner of Dyxum, the most important Sony Alpha discussion forum. His tone is notably less shrill than it was when I first encountered it more than a year ago. He is advising patience, and asking posters on his site to understand that real innovation, which he has always called on Sony to give us, takes a good deal of time to work out. I expect that he knows much more about what is happening with Sony than any but a handful of others do, and he seems to be at peace with it. No one would have more reason than he does to be apprehensive. To judge from the tone of his posts, he is remarkable calm.

I am glad that Andrea clarified her post after the first several responding posters expressed so much apprehension. But I didn’t see the need for ao much apprehention to begin with. If Andrea’s post is correct, there’ll be three lines: FF, APSc classic cameras, and EVIL. And then there’ll be that new kind of camera, the A7xx, that will have the entire camera world talking (Gustav), and will be a camera to dream of (Sony Alpha’s head man). I’ve heard a lot of negative stuff about pellicle mirrors, so I am worried unless they bring out an A6xx that is a worthy sucessor simultaneously. But the pellicle camera may have us all in camera lust again by this time next year–or much sooner.

And when they keep their plans and finally present EVIL in a product line sometime in the future, it most likely will be highly-developed enough to find its buyers and lovers.