Standard industry practice? Are we bagging Olympus for producing a
dedicated bayonet instead of a universal mount? They even modified the
M42 mount so that it was unuseable elsewhere. OEM companies almost
always protect themselves in this way, don't they? (yes, I know that
there are exceptions) and then claim that it's so that people don't use
substandard peripherals, or accesssories, or parts, or inks. There is
an element of truth in this justification, as well as considerable
self-interest, as many people have managed to clog their inkjets with
cheap and nasty inks, for instance.
As a mere consumer, I've bought a number of Sony items and borrowed
some off friends and have usually been impressed by the quality. I'm
looking directly at one of their monitors now. It was my understanding
that the Beta tape system mentioned here was superior to VHS, smaller,
more robust and more reliable due to a less convoluted tape path. And
that it appeared almost simultaneously to VHS but that the latter
reached the 'tipping point' earlier and Beta was driven out by the
video hire industry. Isn't that why the ENG industry still uses Beta?
It's harsh to criticise a company for being innovative and failing,
surely, even though the consumer gets burned at times. Popularity is a
poor measure of success at times. If it was, we'd all be singing the
praises of MS instead of cursing the fact that far superior systems are
not the industry standards.
AndrewF
On 05/03/2005, at 8:50 AM, Jon Mitchell wrote:
>
> Sony are far worse in the broadcast industry. In one particular
> example, they got a well-known connector manufacturer (HiRose) to alter
> the pin position of one of their plug/socket combinations just enough
> that you couldn't use anything else. Then they got HiRose to agree not
> to sell the altered one to anyone but Sony.
>
> So, when you have a damaged viewfinder connector for a Sony broadcast
> camera, you can't buy a standard HiRose connector for about 5GBP, you
> have to buy it from Sony for over 60GBP. Yes, that's more than 10
> times
> the price.
>
> That's not the only example either. Just one that sprung to mind
> easily.
>
> Jon
>
> <snip>
> I have never, ever bought a Sony product precisely because of this
> penchant to try to nab the consumer with their stupid, proprietary
> standards. Our friends at Olympus are sometimes not much better with
> wonder products such as XD cards.
>
> Chuck Norcutt
> </snip>
>
>
>
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