As the author of two books on Sony cameras, I really wanted to see Sony become one of the big players in the DSLR market. But it seems that Sony is going to lag behind Nikon and Canon at least for the foreseeable future.

Sony had announced three new Alpha DSLR cameras today. The new full-frame A850  and mid-range A550 and A500 DSLRs.

The  A850 offering a slight reduction to the flagship A900, while keeping on the exact same 24.6 megapixel sensor but reducing the price by about a $1,000 or so. The A550 has a 14.2 megapixel sensor and tilt-out LCD for $950 while the A500 has a 12.3 megapixel sensor and a $750 price tag.  The problem is that none of the cameras include video. I personally don’t care about shooting video but when you are buying a new DSLR and the competitions camera has video and yours doesn’t for the same price point, the video enabled camera will win out.

Sony seems to be a generation behind the other DSLR manufactures.

sony-a850-pr-1