So Sony has started manufacturing digital SLR cameras.  Good for Sony.  Really.  But I felt compelled to post this rant when I saw an advertisement for a new Sony camera proclaiming it was a "Revolution in Digital Photography".

Just how is a digital SLR a revolution?  dSLRs have been around for years, most noteably by manufacturers Canon, Nikon, and Konica-Minolta.

The way I see things, there are two main types of digital cameras.  There are dSLRs, and there are point-and-shoots.  The advantage of the dSLR is that you can control every aspect of how your photo is taken and thus take some absolutely incredible photographs.  The disadvantage to the dSLR is that by definition they tend to be big and bulky, but nearly anyone who's tried a dSLR agrees that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.  The advantage to the point-and-shoot, on the other hand, is that it's generally small, and easy to fit in a shirt pocket.  You might not have quite so much control, but if one isn't a professional photographer and just wants to, well, point, and shoot, a point-and-shoot is ideal.

Sony, apparently, does not see things the way I do.



I imagine a room full of Sony executives sitting around a big table wondering why Canon and Nikon's cameras were so much better than theirs.  These companies were coming out with some pretty impressive dSLRs that Sony at the time hadn't been able to match.  This would not do.  So, they came up with a solution.  The DSC-F828.

The DSC-F828 falls under the category of ABSOLUTELY HUGE.  When I first saw it, I thought it was an SLR, I really did.  Closer examination revealed that the lens was not detachable, the viewfinder was just a small LCD, the focus ring was digital, and there was very definitely no SLR mechanism.  This was not an SLR camera.  Then what was it?  I realized that the DSC-F828 combined the DISADVANTAGES of the two camera styles above.  It was big and bulky, AND it was a point-and-shoot!

Somehow, the Sony executives, in their infinite wisdom, decided that the reason dSLRs sold so well was purely that they were big and looked cool.  What in the world were they THINKING?!

Now, before all of you that own DSC-F828s start sending me hate mail, I will agree that the DSC-F828 is not a bad camera.  It does take decent photos.  All I'm saying is that I've found nothing it can do that I couldn't do with a good quality point-and-shoot, that will fit in my pocket.

Not surprisingly, the market agreed with me, and Sony had to come up with another solution.  So when Sony started advertising a "Revolution in Digital Photography", I was curious.  I wandered into a photo store rather excited.  I love my toys.  As those who read this blog will know.

I was disappointed.

The dictionary defines "revolution" as "a sudden, complete or marked change in something".  Their "revolution" was...a regular dSLR.  The dSLR I had at home could take better pictures than it could.  I took a closer look.

It looked just like a Konica-Minolta dSLR.

It WAS a Konica-Minolta dSLR.  With "Sony" stamped on it.

All Sony did was BUY Konica-Minolta's digital camera division.

Revolution, my memory card!