BH Explora finally informed us that the new Sony A68 is going to be sold in USA too. But there is also a caveat: Preorders will be available on March 1 2016 only according to BHphoto (Click here). I do hope if the A99 successor is really coming that we wont have to wait that much to get it in our hands.
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All those caveats, selling/not selling in various regions… It’s nothing like the agressive promoting policy for E-Mounts
Sony continuing their BS “life support” story
aps-c slr? lol – a mount is dead.
The A99 ssuccessor. ..the A9….should be an exciting new camera.
There will be no A9. It will never exist. No a9! A9 is the A7III, A7RIII and A7SIII…coming to a store near you starting late 2016.
Probably 2017.
Come on Barry. You said you have learned from your mistakes. Now you are backsliding again. You just can’t help yourself, can you?
Awesome. I think $600 is a good price for it. Great entry level A-mount camera. I hope A99II comes soon too.
Got a spiffy Holiday catalog from Sony. Filled with all sorts of TVs, cell phones, audio devices, laptops, home theater, action cams, cybershot cams, lens cams and a big middle spread on the A7rii and FE/Emount cameras and lenses. Guess what wasn’t in the catalog.
Got the same thing and I noticed that too. Oops.
“Oops” nothing. How is this some kind of an astute observation? It would be truly stupid for Sony to feature a camera in its “holiday catalog” that it is not accepting preorders on until March 1.
There were no A-mount cameras in the catalog.
Too bad for Sony, if they leave us A mount users alone I won’t ever buy anything with their logo. Howgh.
Still no revelation. The a68 is not yet ready. The a99 is reportedly out of production pending the imminent announcement of its replacement, and the a77mii is presumably about to be upgraded and will be essentially the APS-C version of the a99mii (as the a77 was essentially to the a99).
Sony has a lot of expensive a7riis and a7siis that it needs to try and move off the shelves without competition from a new flagship a-mount camera. Presumably the pool of buyers for those cameras has just about dried up.
Did you check the front cover? Dead center….
Here’s the online Holiday Gift Guide. See if you can find an A-mount anything.
http://www.sony.com/gift-guide
not even in the “photography buffs” section
http://www.sony.com/gift-guide#for-photography-buffs
Do Sony not realize that a product will not sell if it is not available …. and if there is no presence in shops.
Sony must not presume that there is no interest in bigger cameras just because of the current popularity (forced by Sony) of small cams. They should put A mounts in ALL shops in ALL countries …Then promote them!!!!!
And by the time March 1 rolls around we’ll have new offerings from CaNikon and the A7mk3. Its really puzzling as to who Sony is targeting with the A68, entry buyers are keeping the a6000 at the top of the sales charts. Nobody is going to buy one of these.
They will if they want to use A-mount lenses like Minolta. They would have to spend another $350 for an LA-EA4 with the A6000 which would set them back $750. Given that scenario the A68 is clearly the better choice.
Who uses A-mount lenses? Mostly people who already own an A-mount camera and a decent assortment of A-mount lenses. Anybody starting fresh is not likely to start with A-mount.
As an entry-level camera, the A68 is too expensive (compared to a Canon Rebel Kit, for example). A68 is not going to bring in a lot of new users.
That leaves people who already have a Sony A-mount camera that they want to upgrade. The A68 is a decent upgrade from the A58, and maybe the A3x family. The A68 is a step backwards in many ways from the A57 and even more from the A65, so it’s not going to get many upgraders.
If it was cheaper, it lure in beginners. If it was better, it could grab the upgraders. The way it is now, it appeals to neither group very well. I had high hopes for the A68 before they announced it. Now it looks like a big flop.
Chris and Bob Cox, your comments are just wrong. A-mount is still a good system for someone to start out with. Sure E-mount is popular right now but Sony has pledged to continue A-mount development and there’s a large assortment of older A-mount lenses from Sony, Minolta, and third parties. A-mount still dwarfs E-mount in lens selection. A lot of people don’t want to mess with adapters either. They just want something that works out of the box. And I think there’s going to be more people starting out with A-mount with an entry level camera like this because it’s lower cost and it’ll work great with cheap glass they find on eBay. Then they’ll get excited about A-mount and after that they’ll want to spend the big bucks on a FF A-mount. Not the other way around.
Your pessimism is a little premature. With this type of camera, it is all about price, bundle and marketing. Also, special incentives. Since no one yet knows how those things will play out in the case of the a68, much less how the competition will respond, no one has any concrete basis to predict how this camera will fare in the marketplace. Don’t let these “know nothing” trolls bring you down.
This is an entry level camera, how many people buying an entry kit are doing so to use Minolta lenses? My guess is none. Enthusiasts can find a used A77II for the same price this this is dropping for, and its a much better camera. CaNikon has better kits at lower prices, this camera is going nowhere.
The La-EA4 works more than fine on an a6000 with a Minolta AF 80-200mm F2.8 HS APO G it’s a bit lopsided, all glass and small camera but it was very fast so I disagree. The La-EA4 goes on special from time to time, try after Xmas.
You really don’t know what you are talking about do you? Do you really think Sony is going to drop an a7miii on the market 6 months after the a7miis? And if Sony did right after you just dropped $3200 on an a7mii, how ripped off would you feel?
Do you really think the a68 and the a7 are vying for the same customer? That’s pretty crazy.
The a6000 (which looks like a toy camera next to a DSLR) is apparently being phased out. A replacement may be on the way, but how much will that cost?
This is strictly a camera for a price/value sensitive consumer. Many of these people are not particularly into photography. They will walk into Best Buy and buy this camera over a low end Nikon or Canon if they are offered a better bundle at a better price. They may be swayed by features and specifications without really understanding what they mean. It’s really that simple. They won’t be fixated on the plastic mount unless a sales person points it out to them. Even then, it probably will not matter if the price is right.
Why do you feel threatened by this low cost a-mount? Ask yourself.
“Do you really think Sony is going to drop an a7miii on the market 6
months after the a7miis? And if Sony did right after you just dropped
$3200 on an a7mii, how ripped off would you feel?”
Welcome to the fast-paced, costly innovation world of Sony! 😀 How do you think all buyers from the original A7 felt when the high-res A7R has been announced just a couple of months later. And then the high-ISO A7S again just some months later. And then we had the A7II with IBIS, better ergonomics and faster AF just a couple of months later. And then finally the wonder-camera A7RII to end it all. The A7SII couldn’t really take off against the A7RII, but only for video and die-hard high ISO users. There’re a lot of users who have 2, 3 or more A7-series cameras because they made all sense. And don’t make me started about lenses!
Furthermore, the A7 has been announced in October 2013, the A7II in November 2014. Actually, Sony is a little bit behind with the A7III for autumn 2015. It would be no surprise if we see a A7III by March 2016. Actually, we would be surprised if not.
Ripped off. Unless money is no object (and that may well be your situation) why would I want to spend $3200 on a camera that I am expecting to be rendered obsolete in 6 months? It’s just plain dumb to be expecting an a7miii from Sony “any day now,” but hey, whatever floats your boat.
You’re all over the place and make no sense. I know the customer this camera is directed at, entry level DSLR buyers, but its overpriced compared to the better known and far better selling low end CaNikon models. They will sell very few A68’s, and its being dropped a couple months after the holiday shopping season, when camera sales are at their lowest. Dumb, dumb, dumb.
As far as the a6000, its the best selling Sony camera, by far. I shoot a A7rII/A7s combo, I really don’t care about the A68, and neither will the rest of the world.
The A7II is now a year old, given Sony’s update timeline with the A7’s, there will be a A7mk3 coming very soon. I won’t feel ripped off at all since it won’t use the 42mp sensor and I’m very happy with the RII.
But thanks for your concern.
Should be as small as SL1 or D3300.
http://camerasize.com/compact/#640,509,ha,f
It is a bit larger, but has a flippy LCD and a top LCD as well
This is true. I never use the LCD on top much unless I’m doing macro. I have to admit, the D3300 is a superb buy. It is so dang small- but not anywhere near as cramped as most mirror less. The price is cut throat and I think Sony’s going to have a tough sell against this. The Sony is certainly the better more well featured model though.
They tried that with the A3x series, but the A5x/A6x must have been the more popular one.
This is pretty weird. Either some part is severely constrained beyond their expectations or this is weird politics inside Sony, or some weird way to phase out A mount, or… But definitely weird.
If some enterprising outfit will offer a reasonably priced, metal replacement lens mount I will consider getting an A68 to use with my legacy A-mount (Sony + Minolta) glass. Currently I use these lenses on my A7m2 and A6000 with adapters. P.S. For many years I used the A65 to make a lot of money!
Maybe you can buy the a77ii front ring? Its the same mount
Are they available? Where?
Why bother? Just get the a77ii. You can probably get an used one for less than a68 which is not even available yet.
Good point! The A68 is supposed to be $600. A77ii is $858 new, $721 refurbished.
You can probably find an existing a mount camera being sold for spare parts.
Question. I currently use A7RmII + LA-EA3 + SAL 70-400 G2 for birding. I’d like a crop sensor a mount camera to get faster focusing and reach. I was thinking of the A77ii. Would the A68 be a good alternative?
The A77II would be awesome. I own the camera
A68 would be a slower fps wise a77ii, it also has worse evf and rear screen, but its positives are that it has the same autofocus module and same sensor.
We had an A57 for that purpose for a while, which broke because it got wet from the spray in the boat. We then got an A77 which now has over 100,000 clicks on it, has been exposed to the elements many a time and is still working fine. The A77 and A77ii are the only weather-sealed options in Sony’s crop sensor A mount line – probably something to think about when the camera is to be used a lot outside. A good used A77 sells for 400 dollars – about twice that for an A77. Happy birding!
Not quite right, there are no ‘weather sealed’ cameras by Sony, other than the ‘waterproof’ compacts.
At best they describe their cameras as “designed for optimal dust and moisture resistance” and will not repair them under warranty if the damage is caused by water ingress, as some have found to their cost.
That said, ‘weather sealed’ has no industry standard and it may well be that Sony cameras are as solid as either Nikon or Canon and I’ve no reason, based on my experiences, to think otherwise.
I had a Pentax K-5ii in my hands the other day. Now that was a weather-sealed camera. Yes, there definitely is a difference.
lol, I brought my NEX-7 into a hurricane, it was “pre-broken”–there were cracks in the chassis from taking too much pressure in my bag, yet it still didn’t malfunction after I wiped it clean afterwards.
Never been in a hurricane but my NEX-7 has been out in challenging elements, not to mention how many times I’ve banged it into something. A few scratches and some fading corners but still runs greats.
I’m seriously curious how well this thing sells.
This camera is obviously the replacement for the A58, and I doubt this camera will sell for anymore than $499.99 (with kit lens).