Dpreview (Click here) posted an interview with Phil Molyneux, President and Chief Operating Officer of Sony Electronics. I am going ot highlight the most interesting info only:
– He said there is no need to have touchscreen on the NEX-6 because “We believe their interest in touchscreen capability is far less than the user who shoots with the camera held at arm’s length.”
– It is possible to make a compact mirrorless NEX with FF sensor. The real challenge is “building the lenses that can cover a full frame imaging circle at that flange back distance…But it is possible“. He also said that much of the RX1 design could be used for an interchangeable version camera.
– pre-orders of the RX1 have been overwhelmingly positive.
In sum, I really got the feeling that Sony is aware of the benefits of making a Full Frame NEX system. And I pretty much sure that we will get some nice surprise in 2013!
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RX1 preorders at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, Wex UK ,Wex Germany and more links at Alphacameradeals.
NEX-6 preorders at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, Wex UK, Wex Germany Sonystore DE–UK–FR–IT–ES–NL–SE–FI–CH and more links at Alphacameradeals.
49 Responses
Looks like a FF E mount is not coming out soon.
Got the opposite feeling. But problem is that I also have “sources” influencing my perception. Maybe it’s that…
Have these sources already been published on SAR?
I can’t help but wonder what the definition of a NEX camera is as Sony see’s it.
Is it any small ILC mirrorless body made by Sony that uses an E-Mount?
What makes a NEX a NEX?
NEX is the E-mount.
I don’t see any reason why Sony can’t release NEX E-mount FF lenses, like A-mount, we have DT lens and full frame lenses. It’s possible 🙂
Obviously from the look of it, Sony paid more attention to the whiners about the size of the lens. In this segment, we should have quality lens so be damn with the size. The weight and size saving from the body alone should be enough, I don’t care if the FF E-mount will be just as large as the DSLR counterpart. They don’t realize that if they release a FF NEX right now, it would sell like hot cakes.
They can certainly do it. I doubt the internet will be happy if they introduce new lenses for it at the same rate they do for a-mount, however.
It’s NEVER coming, is that soon enough for you? 🙂
VG900 is a FF NEX
Good luck fitting it in your coat pocket, though.
TOUCH SCREEN can be useful – when focusing with manual lenses.
Using it – you immediately show where to magnify picture.
Um, why? NEX-6 has EVF, just one click of button to magnify? No need for touch screen.
He is right, camera with EVF can have touch screen as optional, but really not needed. Tho frankly I dont think touch screen is really “needed” at all. It always gets messy, scratched etc. and not much real use to it.
Touch screen to place where the focus point is.
I don’t think he has used one to see how convenient it would be. I’m shooting with a NEX-7, but I still want a touch screen for manual focus lens.
For street photography having your Iphone/Android/Ipad tethered with full remote control could be really interesting, could be great for a host of other camera control situations, tripod, or extended reach, i’d prefer that over a touch screen for the Nex 6. I think we are entering the world of full wireless connected “optic” systems. Its as valid for amateurs as it is for professional studio shooting. And a features Apps store is going to change things as they now are, they must just allow others to write apps as well and then its game on. One thing for those who want Geo-location in their current Nex systems you can use the Eye-Fi Pro X2 card, its available as a class 6 (8gbyte) or a class 10 (16gbyte) SD that connects you directly to your android or IOs device so you can geotag it right there. (automatically set the option as well I believe)
You are spot on and some of these answers are ill informed. There are times when you need a VF and other times when you need then screen, especially when shooting high or low. In think what Sony didn’t want to say but is the thruth was “you should buy two cameras, and not just one”
When I use my 5n with EVF, i often activate touch screen with my nose and for a couple seconds I have to shoot blind until the “you cannot use touch screen” warning goes away. Definitely annoying.
This is exactly my experience with the 5n and evf. My nose would clobber the rear LCD, and you have to wait for the message to timeout. I ended up turning it off in settings.
Blocking display with nose is not possible in NEX-6 because EVF is in top left corner…
TOUCH SCREEN – Is it a philosophic problem or just an usefull option which may be switchable On/Off? It is helpfull with MF. Has someone tried it with AF? It worked great, quick and snappy, at Photokoina with tke 16-50 on the NEX-5R! So, please Sony don´t patronise us with your “design philosophy”. But if Sony think there is a need for philosophic questions, here is it: what is a Smart-Cam without a Smart-Screen? NOTHING for WIPERS. But wipers will be the majority soon.
Just a shame no one pinned him down regarding proper firmware updates for existing cameras that people have been asking about for a long time rather than talking about Sony’s idea of firmware updates…namely new cameras.
I will say it again…no compact FF NEX until 2014. And the VG-series doesn’t count. Unless Sony want to introduce a compact FF NEX with just 1 lens and tell customers to buy other brands lenses.
All the flexibility you get with the VG900, in being able to use existing NEX lenses in crop mode, A-mount in ff, and legacy as well as 3rd party apply equally well to a compact camera. FF just provides options which some will pay a premium for.
They seem to have problems with full-frame PDAF EA adapter– no space for the mirror or something. This means no legacy AF lenses for the camera, i.e. no FF AF lenses at all. I personally would not mind to see a high-res adapt-all manual focus FF NEX but Sony is reluctant.
“The real challenge is “building the lenses that can cover a full frame imaging circle at that flange back distance”
That sounds like it won’t be really possible to use any third party old manual lenses with FF E-mount without any issues.
Or even current E-Mount lens won’t work with full-frame it looks like.
A different E-Mount, much like we have now with full-frame or DT lenses
All of the major mounts date back to film, is it likely at some point all of these will be replaced with new mounts designed for digital and sensors?
Of course E-mount lenses will work in crop mode on full-frame. It’s the entire point behind the NEX VG900 which is an E-mount full-frame camera.
Old lenses are designed for a large flange distance. Since any adapter can increase the distance, that is not a problem.
The issue probably is building small and compact E-mount lenses that cover FF.
Mike,
thank you for the clarifying
Who actually cares about E-mount FF lenses – Sony just give us a NEX FF body we will find the way how to use it=))
FF E-mount NEX sounds like doom for the FF Alpha and Minolta legacy. A dumbed-down A99 with AF points on sensor (obviously testing the tech for the NEX-9) is another indication of that…
Keep my fingers crossed that Sony doesn’t go down this way.
Dammit, there is a ton of manual compact ff lenses out there and I got a bunch of them, just build that ff Nex already! 😉 but the sad reality is that a billion of people not even remotely able/interested in buying a ff-Nex will damn it to hell if released without the impossible: pancake, pocketable, high quality+oss lens lineup…which i dont need at all.. my Nex lenses are mostly manual because the fly by wire stuff is horrible in my eyes
And they are small, light and have exceptional IQ.
Exactly in keeping with the SONY NEX philosophy.
In time, 3rd party manufacturers will supply full-frame AF options, just like Sigma did with their great 19mm and 30mm for crop e-mount.
I would like to see Sony repeat the APS-C NEX line in the Full Frame format.
An NEX-5 type model with Touchscreen and no EVF with 24MP Full Frame Sensor
An NEX-6 type model with optional Touchscreen and built in EVF with 24MP Full Frame Sensor
An NEX-7 type model with optional Touchscreen and built in EVF with 36MP Full Frame Sensor
Give people some choices, Sony! Price the cameras accordingly. Touchscreen operation is a great feature that should be on all cameras with the option to turn it off if the user does not want it. Touchscreen is awesome with manual focus lenses!
Given an option, I will never buy a camera with a touchscreen, when there are equal or better performing alternatives. I’m glad that Sony recognizes that there are different types of users out there and attempts to cater to each of them. I love the RX-1, almost manual everything, except focus by wire instead of mechanical focus. I’m not so happy with the performance of this focus by wire with the RX-100, but it is implemented better than others.
Perhaps you don’t realise how useful the touch screen is for picking the focus point when shooting macro on a tripod or copy stand.
Adding touch screen shutter release would be even more useful.
What’s so wrong with including a touchscreen and an EVF. Seems to work just great on the Panasonic models.
And if you don;t like it you can always turn it off.
Let the bleeding users decide what they want to do.
And then you’ll trash Sony for making the camera too big and heavy, complex navigation, too many/not enough buttons.
Yeah, users are never satisfied, but that’s human’s greed.
“building the lenses that can cover a full frame imaging circle at that flange back distance…But it is possible“
he should not said that… this phrase will be over-cited by idiots who fail to understand its meaning
@acolyte
The only greed here is on the part of Sony: this is another case where the marketing department messed up with what could have been a superb line-up.
– Nex F3 makes total sense: flip-up screen, cheap and cheerful construction, no touch screen or wifi
– Nex 5R: ie, the missing flash! Why Sony, why?! What is the point of going all wireless while making the user carry an extra bit of hardware?
– Nex 6: ie, the missing touch-screen. Why Sony, why? The 5R demonstrates that you don’t need to make the camera bigger to have touch-screen, so why don’t you incorporate this in your premium camera? (at this point no-one is buying a Nex 7 without a massive discount, so the Nex 6 is the top dog).
This is a whole list of consumer antagonistic “gotchas” disguised as “choices” which undermine an awesome little system.
If nothing else, Sony should make the Touchscreen option available through apps for the NEX 6 and NEX 7.
The Full Frame models should have it offered as an app, too.
Let endusers at least have an option to buy it for $5 bucks!
Why bother with FF E-Mount? Just make a FF Mirrorless A-Mount.
Because you can adapt pretty much everything on E-mount, DUH!!!
what a glorious idea.. only whats the advantage over a e-mount ff mirrorless plus alpha adapter? 😉
Sony, listen to us. We want FF. Maybe a firmware update, with an app, I don’t care, just do it.
Q&A with Sony’s Mark Weir: Will full-frame go mirrorless ?
DE: Does a full frame mirrorless interchangeable lens camera make sense?
MW: Well actually, we just introduced one. It’s called the NEX-VG900. Most think of it in the context of a camcorder, but it is also an admirable still camera as well, and it does have an E-mount and it does have a full-frame image sensor, and you can use E-mount lenses on it. Needless to say with an APS-C crop, or it’s also supplied with the LA-EA3 mount adapter, so it also offers an A-mount as well. But the idea of a full frame E-mount camera, yeah, we already announced it, it’s called the NEX-VG900.
DE: Well, obviously very different form factors. I guess the question is does a rangefinder-style full-frame interchangeable lens mirrorless makes sense?
MW: Well, I think everyone understands that if we can make the VG900, we could make a still camera variant of that. But what’s really on everyone’s mind, I would imagine, is an E-mount interchangeable lens camera together with E-mount full frame interchangeable lenses, and that’s a different discussion. But can the camera be made and can it use full frame A-mount lenses? Yes, the product in the context of the VG900 was already announced. We have them on display here. But I think what those who are suggesting that a full-frame E-mount camera be developed is a full frame E-mount camera together with E-mount lenses that would operate with it and offer full frame coverage. And all one has to do is to look at the RX1 disassembled model and see the optical challenge that would represent.”
http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2012/09/21/qa-with-sonys-mark-weir-will-full-frame-go-mirrorless-and-whats-the-deal-wi
Admin, the quotes you gave are not uttered by Molyneux, but by Mark Weir, senior Manager of Technology and Marketing at Sony.
They should release more lenses, not bodys.. interesting “semi-pro” e-mount aps-c lenses practically not exists.
I use the touchscreen on my 5n and my EM5, makes it easy to pick a focus point for stealth shooting, like when you don’t want kids or people to pose for photos. Just set your preferred aperture and tap the person you want to focus on, and you draw no attention to yourself when shooting. Its great when shooting on a tripod too. It should be an option on all cameras, if you don’t like it, don’t activate it, but its very useful.
I’m in the FF Nex is not coming anytime soon camp. The A99 shows a major commitment to the Alpha line. Sony is going to make more of a push to gain market share in the SLR world as Nex is doing great in the mirrorless side. There’s lots of talk about refreshing the A lenses and such.
Just look at the quote “building lenses” – Sony is not going to release a FF Nex with the LAEA3 adapter and Alpha lenses, it really defeats the purpose of a small camera. The Nex lens lineup is finally starting to take shape and the old Minolta holdovers need an update and more lenses need weather sealing to match the A99 – a third lens lineup would undoubtedly slow the E & A progress – which is something Sony really needs to focus on at the moment.