bad news for Konica-Minolta fans...

[SensoVision]

I'm one of these fans actually at least I was before Dynax 5D appeared which doesn't look appealing if compare it to Nikon D50...
But anyway 19 January Konica-Minolta announced that it's closing photography business and gives it to Sony...
Now I'm really glad that when I was choosing camera I had limited cash and couldn't go for Konica-Minolta Dynax 7D and buy Z3 instead. Now I'm not tied with this company and could choose dSLR basing on the market trends, hope that till time I can afford all dSLR they would improve noise levels to something like D50 has now and would be reach in features e.g. ultrasound sensor cleaning (like Olympus had) and live preview during macro shots like new Pansonic dSLR have

BTW here is story about Konica-Minolta:

This has to be the biggest and most shocking news before the upcoming PMA show, Konica Minolta has today announced that it is withdrawing from the camera and photo business. They will be transferring assets related to their camera business to Sony who will continue to develop digital SLR's based around the Konica Minolta lens mount. Konica Minolta it appears will continue to work with Sony (a relationship announced last year) in the development of digital SLR's and lenses but they will not be branded as or be sold by Konica Minolta. Full announcement and details of the Sony asset transfer inside.

source: http://www.dpreview.com/news/0601/06011901konicaminoltaout.asp

[12noon]

It's not that much bad news if Sony have just taken over and are still going to make the same camera and camera mount and all lenses will be backwards compatible. In fact, the price of the old Konica-Minolta should drop, but you should still be able to get lenses and stuff from Sony i think.

[Hope]

Hey Denis, I love my Nikon D50. It is a midrange dSLR and works great. I have purchased 2 additional lense for this camera. I will not change this camera for a long time. There are many advantages to this camera. If you want to see what the high res looks like, please let me know and I will upload a some pictures for you with the different settings. I have some high res images take by this camera that are close to 3 MB in size.

I had almost bought a Konica-Minolta, but decided on the Nikon based on consumer feed back. I am glad I did.

[SensoVision]

I think that wouldn't go with Konica-Minolta anymore, as I'm almost sure that Konica-Minolta products support would be ceased in one or another way in favour of Sony made cameras. Also Maxxum 5 or 7 doesn't meet my requirements in terms of digital noise. Also prices doesn't drop at least here, as I see Maxxum 7 in one shop for about two years and it still have same price. Also having dSLR here is a tricky thing since finding lenses of any brands except Nikon or Canon made is very tricky, they simply not shipped to our area.
As for new models from Sony I'll see what they come with, maybe they beat D50

Heidi, I'll appreciate if you can upload sample pictures, as I even have CD with test shots from sites like DCresource with samples of different cameras, as people here sometimes ask me for advice about choosing right camera and these photos come in help.

[design1]

That's a bummer to hear!  I love my Minolta cammera I purchased two years ago. It does a great job for the price I paid then.  Hmm, I guess we shall see what Sony does with this.  I have always been a pretty big fan of Sony quality, so hopefully the future is still bright.

[SensoVision]

I think future would be good overall for dSLR users now when Sony, Panasonic and even Samsung did their first dSLR. So I hope that having so many competitors on market would stimulate companies to lower price on their production and I can finally get myself dSLR
Also it would be good to see image stabilization features on Nikon cameras(as right now I was looking at side of D50) but now when Sony, Pentax implemented built in anti-shake maybe it become must have feature like in compact cameras...

[Andy]

Is it possible to make a compact dSLR camera?

Since I like taking night shots, image stabilization and low noise would be a priority in a future camera purchase.

[SensoVision]

Is it possible to make a compact dSLR camera?

only to some level I think, smallest one done by Pentax at current moment but they still bigger than compact cameras.

Since I like taking night shots, image stabilization and low noise would be a priority in a future camera purchase.

that was my priority as well when I was choosing my camera.
Andy, actually there are some good compacts which have very low noise and/or image stabilization. Check models from Fuji, they seems to have very low noise ratio...
Or you're looking for other features of dSLR which are not available on compacts?

[Andy]

I'm not looking to upgrade for a few years. I can take some nice pics with what I have now so it's OK.

p.s. here's a local reporter that showed up to take pictures of our post river-cleaning lantern festival:



He even has a laptop for live checking of the pictures. Even so the picture in the paper was not so great.

Here's one of mine: