Sony just announced the new Sony A5000 (specs and preorders here at Amazon US). This was the camera name leaked through the Indonesian agency. Still, cannot understand why they dropped the NEX brand name 🙁
Press text and hands on: Engadget (hands-on pics), Dpreview (press text), ThePhoBlographer (hands-on), AlphaNumerique (French), DSLRmagazine (spanish).
4 Responses
I owned the R-1 until I recently gave it to someone.
It was a great camera with a great lens.
The only problem is Sony never updated it.
My friend who first introduced me to digital photography once remarked ‘Sony never follows through with thier cameras’
And time has proved my friend to be right.
My guess is that Sony walks a thin line between being a camera company and being a supplier to a camera company. (eg. Nikons with Sony sensors).
This arrangement was workable, strictly in my own opinion, due to Sony agreeing to limit its flash to a proprietary nature. It may sound crazy but this is my hunch.
Today things may be different but this is why I ignore any of Sony’s offerings.
“My friend who first introduced me to digital photography once remarked ‘Sony never follows through with thier cameras’
And time has proved my friend to be right.”
I completely agree. Sony have some great products but a lot of muddled thinking too. There are cameras like the NEX7 which was very promising (imo) but lacked the right lenses. There are a lot of almost adequate but not terribly good lenses with one or two good ones sprinkled in to add to the frustration. They have also been very slow in introducing them.
I think that Sony is confused over the market they think they are going for or at best there is some internal politics that is causing this affect. One minute they bring out a plethora of entry level cameras and a few cheaply made optics then they bring out something like the NEX7 and just the 24mm Zeiss for a very long time. Where was the 12/14mm prime, the 85mm prime? I know there was a 50mm Sony but it took ages to arrive and then take the 30mm macro; who is going to use a 30mm macro (I tried and abandoned it quickly). Also why all the silver lenses.
Sony, in my experience, make promising starts and then fail to deliver. Take the A7/A7r, will there be any prime lenses other than the 35/2.8 and 50/1.8 Zeiss anytime soon? I don’t think so.
I think that Sony will continue to introduce entry level cameras and the odd lens and maybe in about 20 years (if they survive) there will be a reasonable system to choose from but I won’t hold my breath as they likely as not will will have gone off in a completely unexpected direction and will have abandoned all their fans.
I’ve just packed and sent off my last Sony. A bitter-sweet moment for me as I liked the camera and the Zeiss 24mm but that was all there was to the system and it just wasn’t enough for me.
“A5000” is a stupid naming. Why on earth did they drop the very popular “Nex” brand name? It was way more attractive, sounded much more modern and stylish than the very technical 4-digit “a5000”. Also nobody will understand for a while which camera is to be put where in the product line.
Very strange behaviour…. It will cost them popularity and sales numbers…
I wont be purchasing a sony camera, if they so blind to see that NEX was a good name, then they are blind to see many other things about my photography needs, thats how it feels to me anyway.