[luftfluss]

https://www.sonyalpharumors.com/very-interesting-sony-manager-interview-a-mo...mpact-cameras/

In summary:

1. The A-mount system was a failure from a business point of view
2. In 2008 they seriously considered to join the MFT system
3. The E-mount system original idea was to create a super compact system. There was no plan to create a full lineup of lenses and also there was no idea to go Full frame.

[clackers]

https://www.sonyalpharumors.com/very-interesting-sony-manager-interview-a-mo...mpact-cameras/

Thanks for posting, Luftfluss, I love industry interviews!

[Jonathan Mac]

Interesting to see how thinking has changed. I remember the first Sony DSLRs and I got the impression they sold reasonably well, I certainly considered them before getting my first DSLR.

It's hard to imagine Sony jumping on someone else's wagon. Perhaps less so now, but back then Sony thinking was very much to design their own wagon and severley hobble it with in-house non-standard stuff (like Memory Sticks).

[clackers]

I remember the first Sony DSLRs and I got the impression they sold reasonably well,

Well, see Jonathan, this is what happens when we spend time believing the hype of Youtube reviewers and DPR and online 'news'. That we're all idiots for not buying what they're praising and spruiking.

Sony has the biggest, slickest PR budget of them all.

But the truth was they were always a failure. This is a manager revealing that years afterwards.

I would like to think Pentaxians are the kind of people who don't buy into hype, since especially for those of us outside of Japan we did not buy into the brand in the first place out of peer pressure or marketing.

[Rondec]

Sony was definitely a company that kept throwing stuff against the wall to see what would stick. Their alpha gear was fine, but it didn't stand out. Then, they came up with the SLT design -- those got crushed on the Forums because they lost a 1/3 stop of light -- probably not that big a deal, but for tech geeks, it felt like it was the end of the world.

Even when the E mount came out, auto focus was really poor. As I recall, it wasn't until they started incorporating` PDAF points on the sensor that they were able to improve things quite a bit. Maybe something like the Nex-6 or 7 was the first camera that seemed to catch on. Then, they managed to squeeze a full frame sensor in there and they were finally off to the races.

[luftfluss]

Deep pockets can overcome many mistakes.

Also, decisions at inflection points are not as obvious at the time as they are in hindsight.

[Jonathan Mac]

Well, see Jonathan, this is what happens when we spend time believing the hype of Youtube reviewers and DPR and online 'news'. That we're all idiots for not buying what they're praising and spruiking.

Back then I spent much less time online, none of it on YouTube and on DPR they were far less anti-Pentax than they were later on (and to this day). I used to see people with Sony DSLRs (and there are loads of used ones on the market still to prove they did sell) and they were in every physical shop. I suspect "failure" is a relative term for Sony and that they expect instant market dominance from day one as the electronic monster they are.

[Rondec]

Back then I spent much less time online, none of it on YouTube and on DPR they were far less anti-Pentax than they were later on (and to this day). I used to see people with Sony DSLRs (and there are loads of used ones on the market still to prove they did sell) and they were in every physical shop. I suspect "failure" is a relative term for Sony and that they expect instant market dominance from day one as the electronic monster they are.

I think the question with various brands has to do with whether you can sell your gear for a profit.

Olympus sold very well for years and lost money every single year on their camera division. I don't think Sony was in much better shape for quite a while. It takes a lot of money to launch a new mount (as Nikon found out). Getting your EVFs up to decent spec, getting auto focus functional, and launching dozens of new lenses all took a lot of money and Sony ended up selling a lot of deeply discounted camera bodies. People bought them, but that didn't mean that the company was doing well financially.

[clackers]

Back then I spent much less time online, none of it on YouTube and on DPR they were far less anti-Pentax than they were later on (and to this day).

I think the move out of the UK didn't help, Jonathan. There was a new attitude to 'journalism', not helped by guys like Rishi (who even came onto this site to engage in warfare).

Someone like Richard Butler was always quite reasonable, and he did continue to write for them from time to time.

I used to see people with Sony DSLRs (and there are loads of used ones on the market still to prove they did sell) and they were in every physical shop. I suspect "failure" is a relative term for Sony

It just shows how limited our experience is, how we can be influenced by our social circles or our immediate environment, the bubble, what we see with our own eyes, and think the world is like that too.

But Ishizuka-san states clearly: "I can say it now, although we made various efforts like this, they weren’t very successful, and they were in the red all the time."

[luftfluss]

I'm sure Sony had internal sales projections, and given the large amount of R&D expenditure necessary to develop the SLT bodies, those sales projections would seem mighty lofty to Pentax users.

Sony, of course, had gobs of money that allowed them to feel-out the market by introducing new products rather than relying nearly exclusively on careful study (à la Pentax) of the marketplace and key demographics. Pentax doesn't have the cash to withstand significant mistakes and can't depend on Ricoh to bail them out - things we should keep in mind when clamoring for new releases.

[clackers]

Pentax doesn't have the cash to withstand significant mistakes and can't depend on Ricoh to bail them out - things we should keep in mind when clamoring for new releases.

Yep, one mis-step like the K-01 and I reckon it'd be over.

They need to quietly go along without causing concern for Ricoh beancounters who scour the subsidiaries for anyone not giving an 8 percent ROI (which is perhaps no camera company anywhere in the world at the moment, and maybe ever again).