Why canon and Nikon is beating out Sony ?

Canon and Nikon have been selling cameras for longer than Sony and have a loyal customer base. Many professionals like to stay with products that they know and trust, also they will have other bits of kit and want it to all be compatible.

The Minolta hot shoe actually isn't a disadvantage or Sony wouldn't have kept it. The design is proprietary but superior - it holds the flash on much more securely than the "standard" mount. All hot shoes are proprietary though because the connectors are arranged differently; so you can physically put a Canon flash on a Nikon but it won't work very well. Most people only know Canon and Nikon because someone who was shooting in the 1990s told them those are the two main brands, or some kid in Best Buy or Walmart told them to get Canon or Nikon. Sony has only been a player in this market since they bought out Minolta a few years ago. That was so recent that I'm 23 and my first DSLR was a Konica Minolta Maxxum 5D. Then there are the purists who will resist any change; these are the same folks that were bashing digital 10 years ago. IMO the future of photography is mirrorless and SLT is a stop on the road to a mirrorless alpha mount camera and then all the companies will be selling more compact mirrorless versions of their DSLRs retaining the same mount. Pentax is already putting out such a camera soon. The advantages of mirrorless are increasing steadily and the disadvantages are being ironed out. The OLED viewfinder in the a77 is an amazing thing already and that's just the first generation. Btw Canon and Nikon only outsell Sony on DSLRs. When it comes to the compact and mirrorless markets Sony beats out both, and Canon hasn't even debuted a mirrorless yet.

Don't have a clue, do you ? No pro is going to buy a camera that doesn't have a viewfinder that you can look through, as well as a hot shoe. You NEED both.

Ever see a pro, portrait or otherwise - say a news photographer using a Sony? Probably not. Sony has pioneered many great things but they are pretty new to the consumer / professional DSLR market. My opinion is, about the pros especially, when you invest that kind of cash in your gear you want to know that it will last you for many years. So far Sony doesn't have that kind of experience world wide where as Canon and Nikon have been making the world's best gear for decades... thus the trust factor. Sony is the standard for broadcasting. I know because I did a career in television news / sports photography and Sony is every where, especially in video handling... but not so much in cameras. Given all that stuff and other factors I'd say Sony has a long way to go to prove it's equipment can stand up to daily news gathering folks with news papers, magazines, studio work, etc.

The SLT has an electronic viewfinder. Lousy battery life. Sony is still not there with a decent lens lineup. However, if your main purpose is specs to impress your friends with then Sony is the way to go. If your main purpose is video then sony is an interesting choice.

Sony is basing it's future on the NEX cameras, not DSLRs.

Nikon has a history of making professional grade cameras since 1959, Canon since 1988. Sony has yet to produce a camera that has been embraced by professionals and have only been making dSLR's since 2005.. Here are a few reasons. * both Nikon and Canon have over 60 different lenses available including specialty lenses like the perspective control or so called shift-tilt lenses. * both Nikon and Canon have services for professional photographers called NPS and CPS. Ready access to repair and loaner cameras and lenses. * the best third party lenses (Tokina) are made for only Nikon and Canon systems * you can tether many Nikon and Canon dSLR't using Adobe Lightroom * try renting a specialty Canon lens from a camera rental company Some of the "features" you list are only of importance to amateur photographers (a hot video feature and large burst rates) I have a colleague who used Sony Alpha cameras for a year (on loan). At the end of one year, he went back to his old Nikon system and bought a Nikon D3s. When I asked him about the change, he just rolled his eyes. Photographers love to handle new equipment, especially when they do not have to buy it. Here is the deal. Cameras are only tools. If the tools a photographer uses makes their job easier, they buy and use those tools.

Sony is gaining the market tho. Their problem is the lack of additional pro gear they make. Many Sony pros were pissed the a77 could not shoot tethered... In addition the a900 had the best viewfinder on the market and with them going to slt's it is a huge letdown. Also some Ad agencies wont accept work shot on a sony (?). I have seen and met a few pros who shoot sony but they are far and wide. Lack of a tiltshift, 400 f/2.8, update to the a900 with liveview, and a few minor details like adaptability with pocketwizards (hotshoe) have turned off people from sony. In addition if one is set in a system they won't reinvest unless it greatly improves the workflow. Sony is not going to die anytime soon tho... Canon often has subpar products but fantastic branding and customer service, Nikon often exceeds expectations in their products but in turn has a horrible PR department and takes forever to fix a mistake. Sony has both great products and Great PR... they just need to keep pushing especially at the top...