Image courtesy: ePhotozine
The new Sony 30x zoom compact cameras got a hands-on by many reviewers:
HX90V Hands-On Photos at ePhotozine, Amateur Photographer and Photographyblog.
WX500 Hands-On Photos at ePhotozine , Amateur Photographer and Photographyblog.
And the preorder ars up at:
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX90V for $428 at BHphoto (Click here) and Adorama (Click here).
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX500 Digital Camera for $328 at BHphoto (Click here) and Adorama (Click here).
The interetsing part is that I received a document disclosing why those 30x zoom cameras are important for Sony:
I am yet not sure but the graph is likely to show the market in Canada. Sony expects that 45% of the compact camera market will be “owned” by High Zoom cameras.
16 Responses
I think it is worth reiterating at this point that neither of these cameras are on the leaked release schedule from October, as I have said a number of times while very useful in showing what is coming it doesn’t mean that is ALL that is coming.
Sony’s still selling so much “others”?? And why does it say “Amount” on the title?
Amount, not A-mount.
Oh!…oh, that’s just plain weird, it sort of makes sense but nobody uses English like that.
It would be interesting to see the predictions of Sony for this segment for each of the past few years, vs the actuals. Then we can assess for ourselves the accuracy of the track record for this vendor.
Otherwise, camera vendor predictions about their own performance seem to be uniformly inaccurate.
The market share (percentage) is growing, but in a rapidly shrinking market (look at the values at the top). So, It seems that the superzooms are constant and only the premiums have real growth.
Yes, the zoom category is really shrinking in terms of value:
FY13 ($190M)
Premium 10% = $19M
High Zoom 35% = $66.5M
Others 55% = $104.5M
FY14 ($145M)
Premium 15% = $21.75M
High Zoom 40% = $58M
Others 45% = $65.25M
FY15 ($120M)
Premium 23% = $27.6M
High Zoom 45% = $54M
Others 32% = $38.4M
Actually, if you put CIPA overall shipment numbers (including 2015 estimates) against these, premiums show no shipment growth, high zooms show modest decline, and others show significant decline. Another graph brought to you by “How to Lie with Statistics.”
Exactly.
I hate those percentege graphs.
They really don’t say anything.
We can do that for the Japanese camera companies as a whole via the CIPA numbers. Each year they estimate in February and each subsequent February they report that they didn’t meet estimates ;~). This year they’re predicting 22m compacts, down from 29m last year, or a 24% decline. This represents a “tapering” of the decline in sales if it is met.
Where is access to the RAW files? I need ability to recover highlights, and argument that the quality is not good enough in pocket camera to care is lame. I preorder one today if it will be released with firmware implementing RAW file access.
Its a shame. The Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ70 has 30x zoom and RAW support. I don’t get what Sony is thinking.
Me to, Sony is acting like Canon with 75% market share, and playing games of crippling cameras to protect higher end models! Just so shortsighted, every happy customer you get now will return later for more.
Cute little cameras. Wish it had a secondary 9/1.4 lens
can anybody tell the difference between those two models?