According to latest rumors posted by Andrea on SonyAlphaRumors Sony is about to launch a new NEX Full Frame system. I am trying to figure out if it means that it will use the same E-mount or some kind of other mysterious trick to make it work on an E-mount. No idea yet, but I think Sony is going to surprise quite many of us at Photokina if they bring it for real! It would probably the first cheap “Leica” alternative of the history 🙂
More info at SonyAlphaRumors.
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This is so hot! There is no doubt who is the driving force in the camera industry right now.
E-Mount is actually big enough for a FF sensor. I wonder how they will deal with corner problems if they want to make really small lenses.
fuji? making stange sensors with many issues is not really innovation.
It will require a new mount with either a longer flange focal distance or larger diameter.
sony is shit….
Really good news from my point of view 🙂
Yesssss! 🙂
not a trouble for those who shoot with legacy lens.
and imagine this with Sony Video capability + Hybrid AF, plus maybe another hack, this will be the ultimate video/movie camera?
I think all this means is a non-SLT camera for A-mount lenses.
When the rumorists call it a “NEX,” they just mean that it has a NEX-like rectangular form factor, rather than a DSLR shape. Presumably low-end models could have a back screen only, while higher-end models could have both a back screen and a corner EVF like the NEX-7. It would be about the size of an A-series camera, but without the hump on top.
This could be a very appealing camera concept to those of us who prefer the corner-EVF format. Presumably Sony has the same ability as Nikon and Canon to put phase-detect autofocus on the imager, eliminating the need for the SLT cameras’ partially-reflecting mirror and AF sensor hump. They already have all the rest of the technology they need, and a well-developed line of lenses to go onto such a camera.
That would be most sense making.
We’ve had plenty of rumours about Sony making their next 35mm sensor Alpha body without optical viewfinder and releasing body design from constraints of mirror box would be natural step forward in that.
Sony has lot more knowledge and capabilities in electronics and semiconductors than Canon and Nikon together (both have used plenty of Sony sensors in compacts) so wouldn’t wonder any if Sony has functional focal plane PDAF ready. They surely must have researched that from the start as alternative for 30% light loosing SLT mirror.
Still semi analog design of DSLR/SLTs definitely needs work in ergonomics:
When you look target with level gaze and then try to lift viewfinder in front of eye nose hits to camera’s body.
Rangefinderish corner viewfinder avoids that completely but has one problem to avoid:
NEX-7 and A77 have same OLED viewfinder screen but A77’s viewfinder image is lot more comfortable to look with its bigger size and eye relief because NEX-7’s viewfinder crammed into tiny space doesn’t have same size optics.
Then again there’s certain symmetry in viewfinder above lens but even that could be improved. Pre cheap DSLR era (Konica)Minolta Dimage A1/A2 had form factor without that problem and DSLRs could have copied similar body ending next to lens mount design if Canikon (and reviewers) just hadn’t been so film era fossils.
Great Cameras, great sensors, nothing new so far from Sony… how about some lenses…?
This system needs good quality small lenses, cause i don”t see much of a reason to go for this unless the quality is better than the current nex line-up or in fact the line-up of the other companies.
Imagine how gigantic the 24 1.8 FF version would be!
That smells like Sony anticipates that Samsung’s upcoming cameras bodies are going to be Full Frame.
I can’t wait to buy one! hopefully its priced at around $1500
An affordable FF Nex camera with Leica mount. Think of the possibilities and the consequenses…
Now maybe Leica will have to drop the price of their new M10 🙂
They will probably increase even before launch. Mechanical (albeit very hybrid) marvels need to be set apart from run of the mill, plastic, common, cameras. 😉 😉
would be good digital body for leica glass owners. i really hope they design this with corner performance in mind.
I can’t imagine they would increase the size or change the e mount, they will leave E for aps-c, have LA-EA3 for full frame alpha, and be able to adapt every lens ever in their native length. Hello nice Canon FD lenses
Boom there goes the competition if there was any.
Fingers crossed. My Leica lenses are waiting. Especially the harder to focus long lenses. My 135 Elmar is hard to focus at closer distances. Focus peaking would be a godsend.
Sounds good to me. It could be like Nikon with their dx lenses that can shoot on fx cameras just with a crop…
Wait, aren’t you Andrea from SAR? I thought you wonder around commenting on other rumor sites. And who is the Andreas that made the bad ebay search ting?
the Body only purchase should come with a Leica M mount lens adapter thrown in, just to rub salt in to the wounds….. lolololol
That would really be great. I have an M8 and 5n (and RD-1) for my 6 Leica M lenses and 2 CV lenses. I could really not afford the M9 or the upcoming M10. The only thing I am really hoping is that they will not stick an AA filter in front of the sensor. If they will, at least I hope the camera will lower the price of the M9 once it is (and the M10) are out.
No, this site is run by the same person who runs 43rumors.com. SAR is run by Andrea. A different guy
http://dc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/news/20100929_396897.html
Sony says that it’s possible to put full size sensor on E-mount.
About Leica prices: A representative told me they wheight (over time) the price of cameras towards against average salary (in Germany I guess). According to him the current relation is the same as in the 50’s.
He also added “all the others have gone much cheaper of course”. 🙂
A Leica camera is a conservative brass box, developed as little as possible. It’s main purpose is to carry all the excellent and profitable lenses.
A camera with a D800 type sensor designed to carry Leica M lenses could cost half as much as a Leica, still cost a lot more than the D800. A great thing for all who owns Leica lenses and do not need AF.
I remember when I my Leica was not museumed: Had to have it sent in for adjustment of the RF system about once a year. – Always after discovering out of focus issues, sometimes coming home after a vacation trip.
Leicistas claim/brag they focus faster than AF. This is not true! Add to that AF nailes right more often…… My source here is a professional having M9 as his main work tool and comparing is with Fuji X-Pro 1!
I don’t know about German salaries, but remember that Leica M6 cost a little more than two month salaries at introduction. A month salary now is four times as much, as is the price of the mechanical M7 and MP.
The digital M9P do however cost three month salaries! The same goes for the lenses. The new ASPH lenses are considerably more expensive than its predecessors. If one take inflation in account a Summicron 90 ASPH cost twice as much as the previous non asph. To buy a 90 mm Leica lens today for the same price one have to accept the slower 90 mm Summarit 2.5 aperature. So YES! Leica has become more expensive and less affordable.
My observation of other camera (and lens) producers are the opposite. There the prices are about the same or cheaper compared to 25-30 years ago. Especially the lower priced kits selling at a discount can be had very cheap now compared to before. There is now also a lot of used lenses that in most cases are more cheap than before. The gap between Leica, not only in price but in technology as well has increased a lot since the middle of the 80’s.
I would not trust a Leica representative’s claim about prices! Sure Leica was expensive in the 50’s as well. However salaries was also generally lower in that time. Not “everybody” with a work could afford a car as today. Just look at how much the western world evolved since the 50’s and then look att Leica!
Leica is the dinosaur of the camera world, a living fossil!
All very well, except that the Leica M is not made in Germany, it is made right here were I live in Portugal. The camera is sent to Germany to receive the sensor, leather coverings and have the range finder calibrated. Wages in Portugal are 3 to 4 times lower than in Germany. There is no excuse for them to be as expensive, except lack of sales, and poor marketing vision, not to mention product line-up, that’s a different story.
Frankly, when I read about this full frame NEX, I did not think of Leica at all. The world has seen some cameras like the M before(Konica, old Canons), but, I think the M concept is dead. The M is not for serious shootors, but for rich investors or collectors. Apart from them, frankly, I seriously doubt that there is a large market for the FF NEX, except if the digital sensor market moves completelly to larger sensors, cheap compacts included, thus pushing the NEX and all others to go FF.
I have the NEX 7, I´ve never thought of myself as a poor man’s Leica user. I know that I would make the same photos with the M, perhaps less sharp and more grainy…
Sony has the following secret long-term strategy:
1. Cell phones with 2 cameras. One with 28 mm lens. Other one with 75 mm lens. Pixels will have diagonal arrangement and with digital zoom, there will be resolution over 4 MP from 28 to 200 mm. It will be superior system to the Nokia one camera cell phone.
2. Small sensor ultrazoom cameras
3. 1″ system, fixed lenses, zoom and ultrazoom
4. NEX system
5. NEX FF system. That is the FF NEX system described in this article. Sensor phase detect autofocus. Short NEX flange distance. FF sensor. Inexpensive adaptors for FF and APC Alpha lenses. NEX and APC Alpha lenses will produce about half the resolution, because they will not cover the whole sensor area. The reason Sony is slow in developing lenses is because future lenses will be either NEX, with emphasis on collapsable, and FF with short flange distance and built-in image stabilization. They will mount directly to the hybrid camera NEX mount and with an adapter will mount to Alpha bodies. The FF NEX cameras will have in-body image stabilization, which will be defeatable or could be combined, for super results, with stabilized lenses.
FF and APC Alpha system will eventually, but very slowly, fade away. Nikon and Canon, will follow Sony, but will hang on to their current system much longer. Sony system will be superior especially because it will better integrate the video function and there will not be mirror shake. Consumer level camcorders will become the thing of the past.
FF is a waste of time. In a very few years the quality of APS-C and smaller sensors will make FF redundant in the quality stakes. Save your dosh and stick to APS-C or m43. It will be interesting to see the main camera makers back tracking from FF.
By the way, all formats that use the entire sensor are full frame, regardless of the sensor size.
Sounds like sour grapes to me and obviously “full frame” here is in comparison to the size of 35mm film.
Wasting of time is that you are doing here. APS-C is almost reached its limit in current configuration (CMOS, bayer color filter). It’ll die most probably, because it’s significantly worse than 36×24, but not much better than m43 or even cameras like RX100.
Today, even on the computer screen, medium format sensors have a quality that can be seen that’s not found with smaller sensors. The physics says it all. Why all of sudden will a smaller sensor yield better results than a larger one, I wonder. It’s all about signal to noise ratio and dynamic range.
lol they can barely satisfy new lens demand for the existing NEX E mount. now they think they can provide lens support for 3 (or 4, i think) different systems? sorry sony, you don’t have the resources. or at least you haven’t been using them.
i’m sure the bodies will be awesome, but assuming pros/higher level enthusiasts will be investing in this, they will also want lenses that can handle the high res sensors.