The reason I posed these questions is that the it seems highly likely that the shortly to be released "flagship" Sony a900 will NOT have live view. This is despite the fact that two of Sony's "entry level" models, the a300 and a350, have currently probably the best live-view implementation from any maker.

Bearing in mind what seems to be the consensus from this forum that live-view is not well regarded it will be interesting to read what the reviewers say of its lack in the Sony a900. They marked down the a700 for not having something it seems nobody much wants

Of course this is all conjecture and I may well have got it wrong and it does have live-view after all