Today: Nikon D2Xs vs Canon EOS-1D Mark III. Tomorrow: Sony A1 vs The Great Wall!?

Some time ago (or much – how old I am!) I used to visit special stores which sold consumer electronic devices. I was young, I was a poor student of the Technological Institute (not in Massachusetts, unluckily) but how much I got to know about my famous Akai from salesmen! Those guys knew everything about the gadgets they sold. Yes, the prices were deadly for those days. But now we have innovation, technological progress and hard competition on the consumer electronic market. And have a look at the prices: is it what can make us happy?
Of course the situation with digital SLR cameras or HD camcorders isn’t as critical as two years ago. Today we have many excellent and not expensive devices at less than $1000: Nikon D80, Canon Digital Rebel Xti, Sony A100, Pentax K10D and Samsung GX10. There is a table of this cams specificatios in my previos post. We are offered a little from Panasonic-Leica marriage: Lumix DMC-L1 which is worth too much for those who want to be an owner. Besides, there is one personally from Leica, M8 at “modestly” $4800. Somewhere we find Olympus with EVOLT models: E510, E410, and E400 etc. at unjustified high prices for noisy images it takes ($800 - $900). Ah! This photo giant is floating on the surface. It is General Electric holding its Digital SLR device (Olympus SLR clone) in one hand and former Olympus top manager in the other hand.
Moreover here are guys rambling about from Fuji with Fujifilm FinePix S3 Pro (or S5 Pro) for$1300 in their backpacks. I think that Nikon is here, too because they not only “sharpen” their lens thread under Nikon F mount. They also “sharpen” their “teeth” for buying Nikon. It is globalization, men, f…ing globalization!
Then we have middle class models: ‘Good morning!’ from Nikon, D200 for $1700 (it’s a nice morning), ‘Good afternoon!’ from Canon, EOS 5D (it’s a splendid afternoon for $3000!) and ‘Good night!’ from the same Canon, 30D for $1200 (I don’t want to sleep). The peaks of this “mountain” are two cult models: Canon EOS-1D Mark III for $4500 and Nikon D2Xs for the same $4500. That’s all, guys! Instead we have two promises from Sony: A1 and A10 (look at “Battle of the Giants”) but between campaign promise and fulfilled can slip by an epoch!
Also there are some “hybrids of an elephant and a turtle” – Digital SLR-likes cameras. Once I had a pleasure to take pictures with Nikon 8700 and it was a really great device. But the last year’s one kilo Sony DSC-R1 was to excess! These gadgets can be useful for many people especially for risky travelers if its size will be under that of Canon Mark III. In my previous post I assemble most attractive SLR-like cams to the table. Look at their prices. They are true for SLR cameras and do not arouse optimism in anybody.
Straight away, nevertheless at a lower level has found room the market of Compact Cameras. It's disgraceful, though numerous. They use every trick to capture money from naive amateur photographers. New models are so quickly that things are dancing. In return all of these bagatelles extremely need the ten or more mega pixels sensor and an anti-shake system. As he is – “His Highness” modern Compact market, let’s glance at the prices! $400 for Sony DSC-W200 or $600 for Canon Power Shot TX1 is not a limit! If it can take a picture better than my Sony Alpha I’m Bill Gates’s prodigal son!
It’s not yet an evening! There are billions of mobile phones here. Some people eagerly need a build-in camera. It is not surprising if anywhere there is a lavatory pan with a build-in water resist with 12 megapixel sensor!
And at the same time mobile phones with cams are announced as compact and Camcorders killers what is more. It would be better if they were announced as prices killers! But it’s impossible. You ask: Why? I’ll tell you. We must pay money for nothing! Moreover we must pay for marketing, advertising and other parts of progress, which are dancing around us with the main purpose: to sell. It’s not a problem. But they don’t know anything about devices which they are selling and it’s a trouble. The battle for our money is fought by long-legged girls (it’s every nice but unfair) and advertisers. But where are the engineers who make progress? Where are consultants who can explain to us the specifications, the drawbacks and other features of the camera we want to buy? May be they are in the Net because I have not met an efficient salesman in modern stores for a long time. There are no specialized superstores and sellers. We are in real need of those who know anything about everything.
As for my headline, I present “The Great Wall” as a possible brand for the new Digital SLR not as a joke. Chinese mfrs. don’t pay for marketing and advertising. It horrifies those specialists because there was an old rule: good wares can sell themselves. And all we know: they can make good wares. They are apprentices of the best manufacturers of consumer electronic because all of them have facilities in China. They make cameras for some mfrs. They can make some DSLR themselves. Why not? But what this fact can perform in the Digital Cameras market!
As for SLR cameras and lenses, HD camcorders and prices and what the right choice is I’ll write in the next post.