Dear Sony,

Please pass this on to the Sony Maxxum/Dynax/Alpha D-SLR design team.

You've decided to take on the Minolta Maxxum lens line. Good. Congratulations and Thank You for taking on this great system.

You've got 25,000,000 Maxxum AF lenses out there. Most of them are still working. Good.

You've got established SLR companies with great SLR and lens lineups. Be careful. You can't hope stay in the D-SLR game unless you meet Canon and Nikon on the playing field. Especially Canon.

And best of all, you have loyal Minolta users out here in the real world who have an investment in Minolta lenses. What a market! Do well by us and we will do well by you.

Your first step, if you haven't done so, is to buy a Maxxum 9 film camera. That should be your goal. To make the digital version of the Maxxum 9. It should be at least 10 Mpix, and 12 if you can manage it. Keep a full frame version (36x24mm sensor) in mind: lower noise is valuable to many shooters.

Your next step is to do better than the Maxxum 7D. Read the following page that details its good side and its shortcomings.

Your primary goal should be to MAINTAIN THE CONTROL Philosophy of the Maxxum 9 and 7D (with some minor modifications as noted below).

You need to look at the following as well as the "body" side:

• Lenses
  • maintain the existing stable
• New lenses
  • Perhaps cooperation with Tamron and Carl Zeiss
• Flashes
• Scanners
• Other accessories
• Repair of legacy Minolta products

DESIGN: DO NOT BURY THINGS IN MENUS. One of the best things about the Maxxum 9 and 7D is the generous provision of knobs, levers, switches and buttons on the cameras for direct control of those functions. Do not be tempted to save pennies by putting things in menus. Real photographers have no time for menus.

Next, Improve on the 7D as follows:

• Shutter delay to be 60ms or less.
• Do not have knobs that require holding down lock buttons to move (like the atrocious 7D exposure mode locks).
• Move the DOF button to the same location as on the Maxxum 9.
• Flash sync: 1/300
• Max shutter speed: 1/8000
• Viewfinder: 100% (or more if a cropped sensor is used)
• Improve the presentation in the viewfinder for exposure compensation. It should not be ambiguous. It should show meter reading and the set exposure value together. Both flash comp and exp comp should be visible in the viewfinder display.
• Flash compensation should be at least ±3 stops with 1/3 stop resolution.
• Fast buffering and storage of images
  • Minimum 3 frames per second sustained rate (suggested by: Radmius)
• Add a no-pre-flash flash exposure mode where the last flash setting is maintained.
• AF assist should have its own illumination source, not use the built in strobe.
• Flash sync mode should have its own switch, not be in a menu.
• Wireless flash should control two to three off-camera flashes. This could be based on a full exposure test sequence.
• A monitor preview could be considered. (mirror up/shutter open).
• Licence Olympus' dust cleaning system
• Make the camera work correctly when an angle finder is attached
• Increase the size of the histogram display and show color in the histogram display
• Do not focus the lens to infinity at startup. Only do that the first time a shot is taken if in autofocus and Anti-shake is on and then return to the previous focus setting.
• Add a pocket wizard transceiver
• P(P) is not needed as an exposure mode. Manual, Aperture, Speed, P and
  • NEW EXCLUSIVE FEATURE THAT CAN BE SONY'S OWN:
    • Alan Browne's "Composition Priority -TM" "C" exposure mode
• Total frames shot counter on startup/shutdown
• Add an LCD display to the top of the camera for settings
• USB upload to PC with camera off (power memory via the USB)
• Do not ignore the flash system. Make it better and more flexible to use. Concentrate on exposure reliability.
• A wireless "offload" to a backpack disk system would be nice.
• Maintain the compact flash (CF) storage format. We really don't like the "stick" format and we do like the choice offered by other manufacturers.
• GPS interface. Add a bluetooth or other GPS interface (non-Sony proprietary) so that images can have time and position data embedded in the EXIF file for documentary work. (Suggestion from Maurizio Rocco)
• Greater choice in bracketing (more steps, more EV latitude) (Suggestion from Mark Moerman)
  • For that matter, a firmware upgrade to the Maxxum 7D (and 5D) would be much appreciated.

But most of all: maintain the great Minolta control layout. This is essential to serious photographers who do not want to play around in menus. We want to focus on the subject.

Thank you,

Alan Browne

Lorraine, QC, Canada.

© 2006 Alan Browne. Sony, you are welcome to all the information above (except Composition Priority -TM) to further your design work and make an excellent product.

"Composition Priority" is Trademarked by Alan Browne - March 2003.

Everyone else, if you have more ideas to contribute, please send them to:

alan at aliasimages dot com

REV A 2006.03.23 Regular revisions to follow.