Sony manager MR. Kimio is creating a lot of expectations! In an interview with the Japanese site Dc.watch (google translation here) he promised many “surprises” for the year to come. He could not say what exactly will surprises us but he stressed to say that it’s Sony goal to make thing really new. They will also focus on the High End of the Photographic Market and the A7-A7r are just the start of that.
All I can add as a “rumor guy” is that there will be plenty of new Sony E-mount cameras. And some of them are Full Frame and quite different from the current A7-A7r. Zeiss will support this system with the launch of five manual focusing and fully Zeiss branded and designed lenses. And it is also expected to see some nice Olympus tech coming in these cameras too.
But what could be possibly a surprise for you? Foveon sensor? A Full Frame camera for $1,000? What else?
10 Responses
I hope it will be a NEX-5 styled FF body with similar dimensions and no EVF 🙂
+1, I vote for this idea too: I bought A7 but is completely dissatisfied with fixed EVF, lack of touchscreen and general body shape, that makes it camera not so good for they way I make my shooting in. And let it be AA-less 24Mp sensor with no phase detect pixels: better performance with leica lenses (they are not legacy in my case) with better high ISO performance.
> Foveon sensor?
I have crossed my fingers for that so many times, that now you can braid them. 🙁
It does seem to be a big manufacturing problem to make a true-color sensor with at least decent ISO 1600.
> Zeiss will support this system with the launch of five manual focusing […]
Manual focus? Really? What year it is outside again?
> Manual focus? Really? What year it is outside again?
Simple: they don’t want to make massive lenses. Full frame AF lenses have to be big, especially wide ones and long ones. There’s no way around the physics there. You get a small improvement with the shorter flange distance, but not enough to make a lens that handles reasonably well on such a tiny camera.
Solution: drop all the bells and whistles and just include the bare optics. I think it will be a popular move on the A7, and I doubt we’ll see much uptake for massive AF lenses on this system, especially when it’s not that comfortable to grip in the first place.
To be fair, there are some great Sonnar designs they ditched when the SLRs came along because of the flange distance. 35mm f/1.0 and even faster designs are possible on mirrorless systems. Let’s hope they bring those back. 🙂
What I would like Sony to produce is a serious, well rounded and thought out mirrorless system. They have been playing with all sorts of ideas over the past couple of years, but nothing really sticks except the RX100(II) which quickly became a benchmark in the compact camera market. The FE system is interesting for sure, but whether it will revolutionize the industry is too early to call.
The lingering problem with Sony seems to be the optics it produces. Too many compromises, too many holes in the lineups and too much inconsistency in quality. Perhaps they should outsource their lens production and concentrate on their strengths. Another problem seems to be the constraints set by the E mount itself. It makes a shaky basis for their system, requiring such proficient optical design that only Zeiss can manage. The funny thing is Sony already has the perfect platform for FF mirrorless. It’s called the A mount. All they have to do is sort out PDAF and they’re game.
A-mount based mirrorless will be much less successful. You will lack all these enthusiast of legacy optics, all people who needs compact
they should surprise with some useable lenses for their lineup…
Some surprises are easy to guess. Say goodbye to the A mount, Sony will not be able to mantain 2 systems and with the reluctance of Nikon and Canon to embrace mirrorless, I think the A mount will have a nice chance to leave the scene without further embarrassment.
In order to generate volume for the FF sensor, it is likely that a sort of RX 100 FF makes an appearance, to step in the market share of the Nikon A and Ricoh GR. Nothing like the original RX, something smaller and much less expensive.
Obviously that a NEX7 spirutual successor is due to appear, but in FF. It will have the looks of a rangefinder, EVF for people that like that type of camera, like myself.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Zeiss started to market some Sony derived model under their own name, if Leica goes ahead with the same with Panasonic.
Last, but not least, perhaps some new lenses will be designed and built by Olympus, given their honeymoon.
Foveon, full frame for $1000 and perhaps MEDIUM FORMAT CMOS FOR THE PRICE OF TOP END DSLR? (that fits the old, top of the range alpha lenses please.)
RX1R in a smartphone with 4K (don’t know about the lens?)?