I have been told that the new Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai in person pushed to change the E and A mount roadmap. As you know most of the cameras due for a 2013 release like the cheap FF-SLT and so on have been dropped from the roadmap to focus on a more “innovative” 2014 release. As I told you both the A and E-mount development will continue.
A couple of trusted sources confirmed the next camera to come is likely to be the NEX-7 successor. It is coming within a couple of months.
Personal note on the roadmap: Sony is still discussing with the partners like Hasselblad and Zeiss the future 4 years strategy. I will keep you updated as soon as something 99% definitive has been decided.
—
Reminder (SR = Sonyrumor):
SR1=probably fake rumor
SR2=rumor from unknown sources
SR3=50% chance it is correct
SR4=rumor from known sources
SR5=almost certainly correct!
104 Responses
Wooooooo!
I can not believe the SONY bill payers allowed the
Idiots of SONY marketing and engineering release so many products that do not sell and are
not competitive, not compelling, not sexy enough – SEE Amazon sales rank
and products that DO NOT actively cooperate with
SONY established user base
Third Party software companies (DxO)
Third Party lens manufactures – AF-D
Photograph Equipment reviewers (FredMiranda)
So many products with 15 month life cycle A37, a57 – It’s ridiculous
Sony product release Reek Market people trying to keep their jobs, but releasing as many products as possible to Stay Busy.
Oh Gee Boss – Look at how much work I have do, I’m busy.
As users we need real tools that
connect and are supported by
lots of third party things.
AND
Competitive value for each and every dollar
We spend on Sony platform products
“So many products with 15 month life cycle A37, a57 – It’s ridiculous”
Absolutely.
Fun Fact:
In 2012 Nikon released 5 DSLRs, Canon 6, Sony 3 SLTs.
If you want to look thin, hang around fat people.
Oh come on, seriously, you complain about releasing of 3 cameras in a whole year? What would you want them to do? 1 per year? And than constantly stay behind the competition with everyone whining that Canikon boys got replacements for their gear regularly and Sony got a huge gaps, like they did with A700-A77 gap?
That’s totally unreasonable.
So there will possible be no new A mount this year? Do you have any updates on A78/A88 previously mentioned?
Please, give us some news concerning this particular a77 replacement. (my a55 “needs” to be replaced quickly…)
+1
We haven’t got any new high-grade rumors about it. Neither in the “yes it will be released” nor “no it won’t be released” direction.
We’ll see how it goes. So far too many things are uncertain to speculate.
And while Sony waits their competition sells tons of “oldstyle tech” OFV cameras….but hey….wait all you want Sony….good call…not!
So then, you are personally concerned with Sony financials? What’s your angle? Because if you want the tried-and-true stuff that selling now, you know where to get it.
It is of course to the consumer’s advantage that some companies are willing to get a little wacky and try to do something innovative, even if it doesn’t always work out sales-wise.
It’s not just about trying new stuff, but making that new approach better for the consumer’s experience and, I would argue, a better product or tool. The SLT design certainly has some benefits, but it also has some weaknesses which are likely going to be a more significant consideration for buyers of higher end cameras (e.g., A77, A99). Add to that an arguably botched handling of the new flash shoe on the A99 and it frankly is no surprise that neither the A77 and A99 may not be selling particularly well (and I have both). My own view is the, at least for the higher end cameras, Sony’s move to the SLT design was premature as the drawbacks to the technology, at least as implemented by Sony, are foreclosing sales to potentially new users, and some upgraders. In the meantime, Sony has continued to lag on the lens front, offering less product and less flexibility for Alpha users (and NEX users), which also affects overall sales. From my perspective, it points to a company that still does not fully understand photographers, at least at the higher end of the market, and if it doesn’t understand its potential consumers and what they are looking for, it will be much harder to improve its market position.
It’s worth bearing in mind that photographers are notoriously reluctant to adopt new technology. I’m sure people remember the digital/film debate back in the day…
I’ve been looking at the alternatives in the unlikely event that Sony kills off a-mount bodies and they all felt like they were stuck in the past – I was amazed that canikon don’t have a single ff dslr with an articulating screen. As a macro shooter, it’s a must have! I read some of the discussions about this on the usual sites and the consensus was that it’s a dealbreaker for pros, as they’re too fragile (ignoring the fact that the screen’s perfectly safe docked)…
I can see why Sony is struggling to compete against that mindset but the real issue is less about product and more about marketing.
I guess this kind of decisions is what makes them sell HQs to survive… go Hirai!
SONY CEO BE A CONTRARIAN – USE COJONES – Admit your pricing mistakes
Sony Camera chain of command – does NOT know how to both Deliver & Launch a product that can be perceived as
High Value, Sexy, Compelling and at a quality Competitive current price.
SONY A99 Failure – SHOULD BE a total embarrassment to
everyone associated with a overpriced non-competitive launch
Why should SONY release ANY new SLTs when A99 is a failure?? –
A99 should be the bottom yes Bottom of the
SONY FF-SLT functional feature line
To move it. especially with its highly proprietary flash, AF-D and Lenses
It has to be priced a a parelled D600 Level for the Body alone
The A99 is just NOT selling – Today it is Ice Cold, –
Sony CEO – Reteach your entire camera chain of command
How to Sell All the Value and Innovationof your platform
Ford Motors Mark Fields – Did it – GM just caved into the unions
ReLaunch A99 as the A77 replacement
i think… the alpha department doesn’t mean too much for Sony… it’s just a small part of a big business…
The digital imaging part is said to be one of the Sony key departments… however it doesn’t asnwer directly how large part of that Alpha is, since sensor making is probably also included in it.
As far as I’m aware: Sony Semiconductors is separate from Sony Imaging.
As expected bad news … Sony knows well to upset their customers … unbelievable!
He’s the man that has actually made an improvement in Sony’s finances and he is also the most pro-active CEO since… forever really, because he is a more engaging and far more charming character than his predecessors. He also ran the entertainment business for a few years successfully before being appointed CEO.
As a matter of fact, he is the one that created the new pillars of Sony’s strategy, Imaging, Games and Mobile.
Well, Idei could be described as pro-active in a manner. He made a swathe of changes that destroyed the profitability of the company.
Hirai is more in the mold of Ohga than Morika and Ubuka, seeking to expand into new markets, rather than fix the ones they’ve got.
The worst thing that’ll happen to A mount isn’t getting the chop, but instead ending up like the television division, something with no ambition or hope of a brighter future, pumping out a bunch of bland me-too products each cycle.
I don’t think you will see any more of the SLT as we know it.
The delay of the replacement flagship APS-C body looks to me like the end of the road for this experiment.
The next APS-C maybe called an A7
And yes, Nikon and Canon will continue to make a living selling the old tried and true technologies of the past as Sony does the heavy lifting bringing out new technologies to the marketplace.
Nikon and Canon can just sit back and learn and then use the Sony ideas that the consumers like into their cameras.
It’s a win for Canon and Nikon
I’m not so sure of that. However – to me it seems as Sony doesn’t in all ways develop cameras based on photographer needs, but have too much of “consumer electronic”/gadget stuff in their cameras. To me, one example of this is removing GPS and adding Wi-Fi to the Nex5…
Mayby im behind the timed but i have to ask
What is the function of wy- fy in a camera.
One very good thing I read about it is the ability to control the camera through a phone e.g
“I don’t think you will see any more of the SLT as we know it.” – I’m quite sure we will.
I guess the price drop on the a99 is supposed to keep us happy until they figure things out 🙁
I totaly would have bought a cheap full frame slt!
If you take the ‘Sony’ name out of the equation. Your an electronics company. You want to bring an SLR camera system to market that will turn a profit. There are already 2 very well established players in the market. So, what would be the point of bringing out a competeing product with near identical specifications?
Fuji & Minolta have already been down this route & look what happened. Pentax are trying to introduce a DSLR system, but, again, where is that going?
Change is good. Up until now each Sony department was a separate entity with very little communication. I believe that Hirai wants to change all that & I think if you look as the ‘skillset’ Sony posses as a company (Camera’s, computers, TV’s, Phones, Walkmans!!). If a single company with that much skill in all those areas pulled in the same direction, they would be unstoppable.
Apple stock has plateaued, Sony have the potential to be greater than Apple, it just requires vision & forward thinking.
Apple has bank vaults stuffed with cash whereas Sony had to sell their HQ. I know whose boots I’d rather be in.
I think your analysis tells not the whole story. Minolta developed often cameras for engineers not for the photographers! Technically a step ahead, but to long periods of no update of their professional equipments. And often a bad interaction design with an eccentric material mix!
Sony really should show off the prototype & roadmap of alpha mount again. So we guys can feel how strong the confidence will be.
Why would Sony (or any other company) wanted to publically reveal their prototypes and roadmap? Showing it to you (mass public) = showing it to competitors.
Instead, they could e.g. have a C-level executive make an appropriate announcement without revealing too many details that would compromise their competitive advantage.
Come on, Canon Nikon won’t be interested in lens dummies, while we consumers do.
Put a1 dummy there without explaining what technology to be used in it. They can cover both biz secret & user confidence.
With all the talk about the newe ff cameras people may be forgetting or maybe not realize the advantages of c.
The smaller sensor means greater depth of field and a 1.52 crop factor. This is particularly beneficial for macro and telephoto (where big bulky lenses and shallow depth of field are a problem.
Although larger sensors have better iso it falls slightly short of being able to compensate.
For many types of photography (such as animals) where overall sharpness is the most important factor ff would need to be 56 megapixels to equal the losses.
This would match the pixel density and quality and iso of the a77 or new nex7n.
Simplified..24mm in c size is comparable to 56mp in full size.
For myself I will only go to full size when the resolution increases. This to me clearly makes the c size the current best value.
Sony needs to make the nex fully compatable with a mount including stabilization and better autofocus compatabiliy.
If it can be done sony should put an optical image stabilizing element in an adaptor that would work with all a mount lenses on nex bodies.
This would allow a seamless crossover to nex and greatly increase the usability of the entire system.
You are talking about a niche market. If sony is trying to make money, it’s not going to make money designing for a small population. Sure they could make a 56 mp sensor. They probably could have years ago. Just like point and shoots were throwing in 14 or 16 megapixels almost 10 years ago. But the low light performance would pretty much make this a day camera. Nobody is going to claim the 24 mp crop sensor has cutting edge noise performance. The 36 mp D800 sensor is considered just passing. If they build a 56 mp sensor, with current technology, it’ll be like an expensive point and shoot above iso 1000. Some people may not care but the general masses will.
Selling another 24mp full frame camera to someone who already has one is the nich market.
It doesn’t sell that’s why the a99 doesnt sell.
Higher mp is the future if sony doesn’t lead they will only sell to people who already have one and want another.
Youre asking for an a99 are you buying one? I didn’t think so.
The quality will be as good or better than a77 or nex7n including iso, probably better.
You also totally miss the fact that what you gain in iso with the larger sensor you lose in dof.
The net is little if any gain.
Resolution and sharpness are the most important consideration to many people. Otherwise why not get a really good 6mp camera.
24 mp can only make a good 16×20″print no matter how good you make the pixels.
You forgot the diffraction limit in your equation. Taking this into consideration, the difference is practically zero between ff and APS-C. Using focus stacked images is a different story, though. That’s where ff cameras could get an advantage, especially higher resolution ones.
24mp c and 56mp same pixel density same pixel size. No difference.
Difraction index is completely irrelevent.
There is absolutely no quality difference of any sort no matter what hocus pocus mumbo jumbo words you throw at us.
Hocus pokus? The maximum depth of field depends on the aperture. To get the same depth of field, you have to stop down more on a ff camera than on a APS-C sensor camera. When you stop down more, you’ll get even more far over the diffraction limit, whoch will limit resolution – pretty badly so in a 56 MP sensor, Doesn’t give you that mich more resokution in the end than a 24 MP PAS-C ized or a 24 MP ff sensor …
The pixel size on 56mp ff is identical to the a77.
The image can be cropped verticle or horizontal to match exactly what that camera can do.
Even stopping doen 1+ fstop more to say f11 would not even approach a diffraction limit.
It just is not a relevant factor.
Also I totally agree with your stacked sensor statement as it would quadruple the number of pixels without increasing pixel size.
This would make 100+ mp easily achievable if sony actually decides to use some of the patents they’ve been hoarding.
“Difraction index is completely irrelevent.” – BS.
Typo correction.
Thats 24mp c and 56mp ff are the same.
And yes larger format higher resolutions do have an advantage.
“As you know most of the cameras due for a 2013 release like the ***cheap FF-SLT***”
Did I miss something? All the rumors in here that I have seen were speculating on a ***higher end*** FF SLT, above the A99.
Admin got into a habit of not-posting all of the A-mount rumours separately, and posting a news about every single metal ring and any other tiny bit released for E-mount.
It was mentioned before, but just as a tiny thing somewhere between other rumors. Seems like SAR isn’t SAR anymore but rather Sony NEX Rumors as it’s focused more on NEX than anything else at all since Admin bought his NEX7.
Amen
I am so glad i jumped fom the sony ship.
So glad that you can’t resist coming back, hoping to see confirmation that Fuji was the right choice. Doesn’t sound all that confident. 😉
busted
😉
I wonder if they’ll return back to the idea of Digital Zeiss Ikon with ZM mount. Would be really great if Zeiss could force that – Leica would have to think twice next time they release sub-pair camera like M8.
I welcome a breather from the flooding of nearly identical cameras. I have all I need for now… I would concentrate on NEW GLASS.. I am all for effective FW updates and having cameras last 2-3 years before a replacement is developed.. Maybe more like 2.5-3.5 years… and with that new camera comes some serious upgrades and advantages… the A99 makes some serious additions to the flagship model and look how long that took to come out… We need 4 maybe 5 Yah 5 levels from Entry level to Pro Stick with that and have a CLEAR price point and advantage… A5x, A6x, A7x, A8x, A9x or swap the 8 for the 9 and have A1 Okay maybe we need 3 FF cameras… One sub $2000 FF Just make sure there are CLEAR distinctions and advantages to each model… NO MORE A77 vs A65 or A37 Vs A57
A37 vs A57 was actually a very clear distinction.
One was mini-SLT at very low price point, another was mid-range SLT with normal-size body.
Sony had a great thing’ going with the A900 but then decided that change for the sake of change was a neat idea. I don’t know the sales figures of the A99 but it would appear to be a complete and total flop in the market. Just as a reference:
BH Customer reviews:
D800 – 509
5D III – 784
A99 – 27
In my particular case I’m quite content with my Alpha system but the future doesn’t look very stable.
Sony is very unpopular in US. Nothing new here. They got far better market shares in Europe or Russia.
Sony isn’t doing itself any favors in the European markets, believe me. $3,600 BODY ONLY for the a99, making it a full $600 more than the D800e or 5dM3. $700 for the only native mount flash available, and no triggers / 3rd party accessories fit properly. Lenses without IS for A mount are far more expensive than their Canon / Nikon counterparts which include IS.
I would love to continue milking my (apparently misguided) A mount investment, but Sony is sure making it hard to stay onboard….
Admin comments system doesn’t work properly again.
Why are you ignoring this?
I’d say Sony needs quality glass that are in level with Canons L f4 series. Cheaper quality glass! For many consumers the fast lenses are WAY too expensive…
+ 999999999999999
+555555555555
Yeah, this is something Minolta understood that Sony doesn’t. Minolta had the “beercan” series: 35-70/4, 70-210/4, 75-300/4-4.5. Good quality glass that got you started for cheap. Then they also had their f/2 glass (28/2, 35/2, 100/2), which were more expensive but gave excellent performance. You can make 2.8 zooms and 1.4 primes all day long and will satisfy only the few who can afford all of them. Having something just beneath those gives people a chance to buy into the system at a price point they can afford, cover a broad set of focal lengths, and then upgrade as they go.
Exactly! That to me makes it seem as Minolta was a photographers company while Sony remains an electronics company. SONY PLEASE LISTEN TO YOUR CUSTOMER BASE!!!!
+1. But note that glass itself won’t do the trick. They need wireless radio-controlled flash system (SYSTEM, not just 3 random flashes with useless hotshoe!), they need a range of dedicated accessories, and a bodies that are “best” in something meaningful for photography – be it either dynamic range, FPS count & buffer size, high-ISO quality, video (no moire, no line skipping, quality, sharp frames instead of what we have now) or resistance (bodies build like tanks with at least basic set of lenses to follow).
Right now Sony doesn’t any anything from these. Image quality is sub-pair to Nikon and Pentax (and in Full Frame: even sub pair to Canon with it’s nearly decade-old sensors tech), video quality is rather poor, FPS count isn’t best and shallow buffer or/and tiny AF-area kills any usefulness of that, resistance is… well… A58 was a very bad idea, A77 and 16-50 f/2.8 was quite good idea.
They don’t try to be BEST in ANYTHING. That’s the problem Sony got. There’s no discipline of photography where Sony would be best. Canon got astrophotography, sports and video, Nikon got landscapes and…whatever else. Pentax got best set of travel gear – WR lenses, resistant bodies, great high-ISOs. Sony is best in what? Being Sony? Having Zeiss AF glass? That might be enough for some, but it won’t make people switch from any other brand, not even Pentax.
I think you sum it up very well Sky, really. I seriously wish some Sony people who make decisions can see your post!
Sony is best at photo of moving children. You need to get the camera down to the childs eyelevel while composing, and you need to be able to move at the same time.
Sony is best at flexible shooting position. You can put your camera flat on the floor with your lens straight up and still compose the image, and you can have the camera on a tripod held in your hands and supported on your shoulders and compose the image from about three meters above the floor.
Sony is best at macro photo where EVF with light boosting and focus peeking is fabulous.
And of course Sony is best on useless image-filters in jpeg-mode 🙂
“Sony is best at photo of moving children.” – only there are no mid-range lenses with SSM for amateur photographers that would help with tracking AF. SAM lenses are (usually) loud and poorly build. For being best in that discipline there would need to be lenses supporting that, not just bodies. Right now Canon and Nikon offer better gear – if in mid-range and low-end cameras AF is equal to Sony’s – the lenses amateur can buy are better, so I hardly would state that Sony’s best in that.
“Sony is best at flexible shooting position” – assuming you got A77 or A99. Every other camera can be matched by competition.
“Sony is best at macro photo” – Sony is the WORST choice for macro. There are only 2 macro lenses now in the offer: Plastic 30mm which focuses few millimetre in front of the lens being useless for pretty much everything, and 50mm which is an old construction without internal focusing and rather sub-pair performance. There’s no ~100mm nor ~200mm macro lens at all. The only longer macro we had, Minolta’s 105mm was discontinued over a year ago.
There’s no macro with 2:1 or greater magnification,
there’s no macro with SSM,
there’s no macro with internal focusing,
there’s no macro with weather-sealing.
EVF won’t do anything on it’s own if you have no glass to use it with! Not to mention the fact that Sony doesn’t have ANY bellows NR extension tubes, and for a new hotshoe there’s only one flash that might be useful in macro, HVL-RL1, but… but wait, it’s not even a true flash! It’s a Ring Light! So there’s exactly ZERO flashes for macrophotography.
Again: Sony is the WORST choice for macro. If not 3rd party gear it wouldn’t be possible to do any serious macro work at all with A-mount.
*NR -> NOR
* another correction: it’s 100mm macro that Sony had, not 105mm – 105 is a new Sigma (that they finally released for A-mount) 🙂
I see Macro as a bit more of a DIY area in photography 🙂 I use reverse mounted 30 and 50 mm on extension tubes, and either a selfmade 12V lamp mounted on the front, flash connected with cable to camera or a reflector box mounted on the flash. Using reverse mounted lenses is notoriously dark, but works nice on Sony. Even with a real macro lens I think it’s better to move my head/camera slightly than to rely on autofocus. So maybe it is more correct to say Sony is best at one area within macro photography (and I’m sure it wasn’t intentionally from Sonys side) 🙂 But it is a serious area within macro, and there are professional people shooting macro with reverse mounted lenses.
Tore – having fun with DIY is fine if you don’t need a reliable kit for serious photography or when you need greater than 1:1 magnification and no access to macro lenses offering that – that’s why you see professional people shooting macro with reverse mounted lenses – poor Nikonians don’t have any choice to achieve 2:1 or 3:1.
But to call system BEST in anything I would need to see a gear supporting that. Sony has NOTHING with exception of EVF. Nikon got wide choice of flashes and 1:1 macro lenses. But the BEST system for macrophotography is Canon, hands down. Nothing can compete with them.
– Their cameras can be remotely controlled from PC allowing perfect focus stacking.
– Canon is company currently manufacturing macro lenses with magnification greater than 1:1
– They got best choice of flashes usable in macrophotography (incl. radio-triggered flashes)
– They got the best choice of regular macro lenses, all of them equipped with USM, some of them additionally got weather sealing
– Canon offers Tilt-Shift macro lens – something Sony users can only dream of.
– Canon is one of a few manufacturers offering macro lens brighter than f/2.8
Sorry, but Sony doesn’t stand a chance as a “best system for macrophotography”. It’s not even remotely close.
Tamron makes excellent 60mm 90and 180mm macro
The 60 is not hsm but even so focus is super fast. great lens for a77
Sigma also makes some excellent macros including 150 an 180.
These third party lenses leave nothing to be desired in terms of quality and will stack up favorably against anyones macro lenses regardless of cost.
We are certainly not limited to camera makers lenses.
I don’t need a new APS-C camera from Sony, instead I’d like a bit more of support for it’s products. Instead of just adding support for new lenses, I’d like to see some changes in the firmware. Many of the issues and wishes had been gathered on this site alone. Sony – make us believe.
Agreed. I’m tired of the fire and forget attitude that Sony has of late. Why do I need to have -1.7 flash comp permanently dialed in on my a65? Seems like this should have been fixed in FW long ago.
What makes you believe Sony CAN fix the problems via firmware? In a lot of cases, the system must be designed that way i.e. you need to have the platform architecture set up to to make the changes later. It may be the Sony design is not that flexible/smart…
@AK-77
Once upon a time I read about this long time problem in Gary Friedman’s book so I set the flash comp to -1.7 and have had perfect flash exposure since. Something like that should definitely be fixable in FW.
Coming from a HW background I’m continually amazed how much can be fixed in SW if one puts one’s mind to it. Seems Sony would rather release new models to get the revenue rather than fix existing models. This model can work against them since I’m hesitant to buy anything Sony since I know the replacement is just around the corner – not to mention that most all releases seem to be lacking something vital (and obvious) that magically shows up as the killer feature in the next model.
I want a better Nex 7 & I want good firmware improvements. In software developing it*s common to update your products with bug fixes & improvements!
Rumors said that Sony’s change of plan was caused by Sony’s plan to acquire Sigma hehehe…
Looks like he’s doing a Good job of making Bad decisions…..
But hopefully he will be smart enough to end the SLT experiment and produce a few Quality FF Alpha Bodies that are closer to what they are capable of producing and no more of this ‘Slightly better’ crap ANYMORE…
What’s up with OLYMPUS??, I think this partner is most than Hasselblad.
The market is declining, their profits the same, it is right-minded to reduce haste.
The market needs more radical products. For example: an Android Nex or an…
E mount Xperia!
It is possible, you need 21mm the lower half, just 10mm more than model S!
I do not understand what the purpose of an android camera is.
Why would i want google on my side camera or for that matter any sort of internet or wy- fy.
Isnt that already what your cellphone does.
I use a camera to take pictures. Please explain why you eant this stuff in a camera.
A lot (like me) use the camera as an “always carry”. Most of their components are the same or can be the same. Then why have a second apparatus? In any way i wouldn’t ever need to use both functions in parallel, so as to need them separated.
As for Android, well, one of the best OS’s so far. All cameras have an OS with a file system, memory management and all. What is the point of keeping an OS that needs Sony’s (comparatively) large expenditure in order to stay in row, in its non-settings part? Is it sustainable in the long term?
“As for Android, well, one of the best OS’s so far” – BUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Good joke man. Keep them coming.
If not Google and the fact that so many companies develop phones using Android – we’d consider it the worst system on a market.
Well, it is Sony’s choice after all. I wouldn’t mind for anything widely acceptable, accessible (not necessarily open) OS. It would open possibilities not imagined in the present. But my main point is: Interchangeable parts (already existing) integrating even the phone. Not both involved by just one(1) app.
It sounds like you are not a software developer, right?! IOS is not better than Android… for sure!
Eisenvater – surprise: I developed apps for Android, iOS and Windows Phone. And yes: iOS is MUCH better than Android. Especially when it comes to developers support and income from the apps themselves (even though there are far more people with Android – they don’t buy almost anything).
It is old news that when it comes to willingness to spend money on software, then Apple-people > Windows-people > Linux-people. That isn’t the same as software quality though 😉
For a mobile phone/camera it makes sense to have an OS that is running all the time, but for a camera without the phone part, I would like to turn the camera completely off. Then boot-up-time/wake-up-time is one of the main features for a camera OS. I’m not sure which (if any) of the phone OS is best at (with some modifications) turning the camera instantly on from a state without battery drainage.
An interesting fact to add: android originally was designed as “a camera platform with a cloud portion for storing images online”, according to its co-founder.
Finally there is someone at Sony with a clue. You have win by innovating not by trying to be a me too product. Let’s face it, the innovations in the Alpha line wasn’t enough to sway people from the big two DSLR players. The NEX line is the only area where they can come out from under canikon’s shadow. Even Alpha owners will grudgingly agree. There is only so much they can budget for camera development. They are just being smart by investing in what is working and reducing funding to areas that aren’t. You have will get your upgrades, but you will just have to wait longer. Don’t blame Sony for your mistaken choice. You decided not to get competent DSLRs from canikon for a reason. Perhaps those reasons turn out to be weak, but that was your own fault not Sony. You chose the camera with way more expensive lenses and smaller lineup. You must live with that choice. We NEX owners do not want to pay for your mistake. Sony needs to fund NEX or die in the camera space. The decision was clear to anyone not vested in either camera lines. Its clear to alpha owners too so stop whining!
“Kazuo Hirai in person pushed to change the E and A mount roadmap.”
Drove it off the cliff.
More innovative 2014? Man we are on 2013! I need a new camera NOW! Not a year later! T_T
I wonder if Sony will be introducing a “LA-EAX Adaptor” along with the Nex-7N, because the Nex-7N will have built in improved Phase Detect AF making the Translucent Mirror in the LA-EA2 a bit redundant?
You made a point that I particularly do agree with.
A stacked sensor can fit 4 sets of stacked pixels in the space of a single bayer array pixel.
This tecnology opens up great possibilities for high resolution sensors.
A 25mp sensor in bayer array eould be a 100mp sensor if stacked and the pixels would ne the same size.
Beware that fovion counts each of those pixels 3to times so if we count pixels that way the 100mpthe sensor would be CALLED a 300mplarger sensor.
I hope sony is actually planning to make stacked sensors instead of just hoarding sensor patents until they expire.
You guys should make a table (wiki) for Sony that lists all the pros and cons. Something that would be a buyers guide with recommendations which one to buy and when would be helpful since there are so many models.
Good:
+ Sony has Alpha, NEX and RX series cameras. Each line has it’s merits
+ Sony has an edge over competitors in sensor output.
+ Released some nice lenses with good value, such as 16-50/f2.8
+ Added DMF to some lenses
Bad:
– Mediocre Jpeg Engine
– Firmware updates lacking
– Remote flash issues
– Sold their best sensor to Nikon competitor
Okay, you all can finish this….
Kazuo Hirai knows sod all about photography and the needs of these buyers.
That’s why Sony are doing so badly they need people who are experienced and know what A mount users want.
At least we get to find out something of the new CEO’s view of photography. Though I’m not hopeful
He is more attached to Playstation and Xperia. If 7n was an Xperia he wouldn’t hesitate a minute.
The series timing from a year and a half is going to two years for now, probably even more for the next wave. Quite late to what we are accustomed till now from all. Maybe we should expect the same for the “6” and “5”‘s.
I was hoping for a cheap SLT-a85 as an alternative to the current a99. Getting an a850 is enough for certain situations in daylight and studio, but in low light is a no no for me most of the time so a cheap a99 alternative with the same great sensor could have been a good move… really don’t get their plan
The Nex7N = 1 point better in DXO Mark test…. Less than a firmware update would accomplish…. Wake up people…
DxO rates cameras before they are released or are even announced? That’s amazing!
He read it on the internet, it must be true!
It’s funny how back in advent of digital Sony fired the engineering team working on first digital sensors and they had to smuggle parts out and work at home on proof of concept cameras.
lol @ Sony’s “vision”….