Sony UK finally rectified their misleading A-mount tweet from last week. At last the new tweet and the soon new A-mount camera announcement will give us some peace…for some time.
Sony UK finally rectified their misleading A-mount tweet from last week. At last the new tweet and the soon new A-mount camera announcement will give us some peace…for some time.
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113 Responses
Now this is a properly worded statement from a company like Sony. People
higher in the chain finally got notified of what their UK twitter/FB team
was doing and put in a proper reply.
Interesting what the troll party, spearheaded by Barry, is going to explain now.
Quite. Sony really need to get on top of their communications to send a clear and consistant message.
You keep trying to convince people of YOUR BELIEF that A mount will continue, how is that any differrent than my telling people it will not ?
The main difference is that I am actually listening to what the company is saying (very sensible thing to do), and secondly, to keep what they are saying in check, I judge by their actions.
Only a few months ago they updated 2 lenses 16-35/2.8 II and 24-70/2.8 II;
last year A77II and 70-300 II;
the year before that A58 and 50/1.4 ZA, 70-200 II and 70-400 II;
and the year before that A99, A57 and A37 also 300/2.8 II, 18-135 and 55-300.
This hardly seems like an abandoned system ?!?
At the same time you come up with conspiracies behind every word they are saying and conveniently forget all equipment announced in the last 2-3 years.
Stop listening ad start reading the writing on the wall.
Sony keeps asking E-mount to the dance and Amount is at home beievig that her time will come.
I clearly said I am looking at their actions to keep their words in check!
Can you read or you preferred to conveniently omit that?
The writing on the wall is 15 A-mount cameras and lenses announced this and previous two years!
And the year in not over yet. Better you start reading the writing on the wall.
The a58 (which was actually a downgrade from the a57) was released in February 2013 (alongside the Nex 3n). Since then the entry level e-mount body has been upgraded twice (a5000 and a5100). I think it’s pretty clear where Sony is trying to steer new customers. My guess is a-mount will continue as ff only going forwards…
Last year A77II was announced, but yeah, A-mount crop sensor bodies are more likely to be discontinued or reduced only 1 high spec line only. I agree here.
Show me the new A mount camera…!!!!
Assume if you were Sony and if you want to let A-mount die.
Is your last product of this dying system a body or a lens?
First I’ll make sure A-mount users have a very clear path to migrate to my other mount as market share is priority and it would be stupid to lose customers using my cameras, even if it costs me some cash in the short term.
The message from reviews and customers for the latest gen A7 cameras is very clear, many cutting edge and industry leading features, but a bit quirky for everyday ‘pro’ use (too compact for large lenses, battery life, weather sealing, RAW compression).
So I would make sure I address these in a ‘pro’ level E-mount camera with a 100% working option to use A-mount glass and announce the end of native A-mount bodies.
And there is very little to be done here, the biggest concern AF without mirror has been practically solved with the 399 PDAF points. They just need to put everything in a larger body, for those that need it, with larger or two batteries, weather sealing, second card slot and they have a winner.
What you are saying is true – everything.
And you still refused to answer my question: Is the last A-mount product a lens or a body?
Anyway – I think you gave a very good outlook to the next future:
Today Sony says, it is commited to A-mount products.
Tomorrow there is:
a) another A-mount body
b) A9 – with a screwdrive adapter and even better AF than todays A7Rii, and Sony claims that that this is defenitely the future of A-mount.
In both cases, todays Sony statement is true.
And I am quite sure as an owenr of A-mount-glass you have a much better future than all the Canon-FD owners same decades ago.
Sorry for missing off the question.
I personally think that there should be one or several A-mount bodies before they discontinue it.
Camera bodies are developed with a shelf life of about 2-3 years, while lenses aim at 10+ years at least.
So it doesn’t make sense for them to spend all the resources to develop a lens and announce it as the last A-mount item, when the bodies that would be existing at the time would be old in less than 2-3 years and there would be no incentive to recover their lens investment.
Also Sony is very good at developing bodies, so they should push 2-3 more bodies as A-mount last items, to fully capitalise on the lenses released before that.
In addition even with today’s A7RII technology they have the option to put the same electronics in A99 shaped body with A-mount (with or without a mirror & PD sensor) resolving most A7RII criticism and this shouldn’t require a large investment.
I would have been about 10 years old when Canon FD – EF migration happened, but I’ve heard users were not very happy about it at the time 🙂
I would have been about 10 years old when Canon FD – EF migration happened, but I’ve heard users were not very happy about it at the time 🙂
That’s exactly what I meant. 30 years ago, Canon dropped old tech for new tech, while Nikon kept F-mount. But Canon-tech was superior to Nikon (e.g. faster AF with long Teles) and Canon become market leader. Now Sony has chance become market leader in mirrorless. And there will be the time when mirrorless are generally better than DSLRs. And then mirrorless outsells DSLRs and Sony is market-leader for ILCs…..
IF…. if Sony is not doing some Sonyish bullshit.
I heard about FD mount few years ago, when I was looking for some legacy glass to use on my NEX 5N with an adapter. People were saying “look for some Canon FD lenses, which are perfectly fine, just Canon dropped their mount some time ago, and all this excellent glass was dumped on the secondary market at a fraction of its value and at the expense of their customers”.
Pentax went for a very elegant solution at the time by keeping the same flange distance of the M42 screw mount, they were using at the time, just making their new K mount a bit wider so that all their old lenses can be adapted by screwing a tiny adapter ring.
Sony need come up with an A9 camera that’s taller, maybe thicker, but with weather sealing, extra battery and card slot, controls, and more responsive. Then make a new more solid A-mount adapter with full functionality, that not only attaches to the E-mount, but has 2-3 additional points where it locks to the body to take the weight off the mount and should be very usable and flexible with the two mounts.
An extract from a FB conversation
___________________________________________________
SONY UK on FB: Having checked, we can confirm that we have no full-frame A-mount
cameras planned. Whilst we appreciate it’s not your first choice, we
would recommend our Alpha 7 range, which is full frame and outstanding
quality. It is E-mount but with an adapter (LA-EA4 or LA-EA3), A-mount
lenses can be used.
ME: While
we cannot dispute the a7 series sensor tech, the form factor is
inadequate for many purposes such as long lenses for sports and
wildlife. The sad thing is that SONY cannot see that if they can put the
a7R2 sensor into the Rx1R2 then they can also put put one into the
a99MK2. They would sell more sensors and make more customers happy an
obvious marketing and sales success that SONY seems hell bent on
ignoring.
SONY UK on FB: We apologise for any misunderstanding. We do not comment on
future products but we are fully committed to the A-mount category and
continue with product development.
————————————————————————————–
For the actual transcript in its entirety check out SONY UK on FB for yourself.
————————————————————————————–
Meanwhile if there is an A99 MK2 on the way I am ready willing and able to purchase. Fingers crossed.
we can confirm that we have no full-frame A-mount cameras planned.
This means actually that there is no new FF A-mount camera announced yet. It does not tell if Sony is working on it.
The quote was “planned” — So either the original speaker misspoke, or he had no direct knowledge, of there are none PLANNED.
My guess — he had no direct knowledge of any future A-mount cameras. And he kinda assumed there were none planned, just like many people have made that inference. Someone then told him, “hey… that’s not the company line… go correct it”
I just think, if there is an A-mount body planned, nobody from Sony is allowed to talk about. Not even that it is planned.
Same for “under development”
Only after the announcement or a “pre-announcement” to rumor-sites, Sony employees are allowed to talk about.
Sony’s official position has been for a while they are still supporting A-mount and are working on new products. It is also obvious that the majority of Sony resources have been focused on E-mount, especially full frame E-mount. Hopefully we will get to see the new A-mount camera soon. To me it would be best if Sony focused the A-mount on the area that E-mount falls behind, sports and event photography. A high frame rate FF camera with a good focus system. That being said I do not know if Sony has any current sensors good for this. The new 42 MP sensor is great but I do not know if they could push it to 12 to 14 fps needed to compete against Canon and Nikon. I do not see Sony spending the development money on a A-mount only sensor.
You don’t think the A7s sensor would be absolutely ideal for this?
The limitation on a-mount is the aperture lever that is used to open and close the aperture. It’s probably not fast enough to cope with 10 or 12 fps. I guess thats why it’s max 8 fps without locking the aperture.
Why does the Aperture have to change between shots?
Because classic PDAF-sensors want to have the widest aperture possible in order to work fast and precise.
If you are shooting wide aperture this is not a problem, but if you shoot at f11, it can be an issue.
On sensor PDAF should work if there is enough light to make the correct exposure (accept in case of long exposure, but that would not go with fast frame rate), and Sony seems to have perfected Hybrid AF now, so I suspect that is why this (rumoured) camera has taken so long to develop. I think that they will do away with the mirror. That should eliminate the need to open / close aperture between frames during high frame rate operations. This will not be a DSLR.
Every PDAF suffers from stopping down the aperture. That’s because of the way it works. Technically, every PDAF system, regardless if SLR or on sensor, works like the split screen in your old film SLR.
Yes. But we don’t know how the degree that Sony OSPDAF suffers. I guess it’s smooth fading instead of abrupt ceasing of DSLR PDAF, and with good SNR (sunlight) it can still work at much smaller apertures than DSLR PDAF. We will know when someone actually measures and publishes angular response of OSPDAF.
Perhaps…but will conditions change between shots 1/10th of a second apart that require active aperture change?
That’s the whole point of continuous AF. Confirm the AF between each shot. And yes, it can change. But if you don’t want continuous AF, then you can just set your focus manually and shoot away at a higher burst rate.
Well yes, of course. But my question was in looking at 8fps vs 10fps, are you really losing that much if you can have dynamic aperture at 8fps vs. not having it at 10fps? I could see if the difference was between 5fps and 10fps, but 8 vs. 10 doesn’t seem like a lot.
It’s 8 vs 12 on the A77ii. So not 8 vs 10. Again, even 8 fps is pretty darn nice., but only slightly better than good traditional dSLRs.
Confirm the AF, yes…but I was talking about the aperture specifically.
It has to open the aperture in order to confirm focus. Thus, the reason it uses a locked wide aperture.
Understood. My question was about how much conditions change between 8fps and 12fps that would make a dynamic aperture so much better than a fixed aperture. Particularly in sports, where you are shooting at distance in relatively fixed lighting, it doesn’t seem like aperture is going to change much (or at all) between shots.
Not a matter of aperture changing. You can’t choose where to lock the aperture. Let’s say you want to shoot at f8 to get 2 players in focus….you can’t do that at 12fps, but you can do it at 8fps.
Fixed aperture isn’t the big issue (except maybe at an indoor sports event with lots of strobe lighting) — It’s the fixed WIDE aperture that’s the problem. There are times you want a smaller aperture, but you can’t do it. When I shot with SLT, I found I very very rarely used the high burst modes, because I wanted control over the aperture.
It has nothing to do with 8 fps vs 12 fps. Either way, I want the ability to set the aperture, because I want the ability to set the depth of field. But I lose the ability to control the aperture in the 12 fps mode — I am forced to shoot wide open, whether I want to or not.
If you want to have continuous AF for fast moving objects like football-players, cars or motorcycles: yes!
Ok, if you’re shooting at 10fps, how often do you need this at f/16 *AND* af tracking?
How about F4 or F5.6?? Plenty of times, shooting outdoor sports for example, where it’s nice to have more depth of field, to keep multiple players sharp in the shot.
That said… it’s nice to have the option to shoot super high burst rate, even with fixed aperture — No traditional dSLR in the same price category is capable of that feat.
PDAF still works at F4 and F5.6. No problem here.
Not with high burst rate on SLT, where aperture is locked open wider than that.
I’m sorry I’ve lost the track of conversation. I’ve never used a SLT camera, do they require to shoot fully open on max fps?
Correct.
Mayby Sony can find a way to use Time of Flight technology for autofocus.
….and you get locked out at 3.5.
It can do 4k. Therefore…
I agree with most of what you said but It’s not all about fps just to compete with Canikon? Frames per second does not make the camera, it’s the combination of many things. 3 Fps is perfectly fine for most work excluding sports (which is a very small portion of camera use).
True but we’re lacking access to some of Tamron’s newer lenses and Sigma has been dragging their feet. We also aren’t getting much needed updates to the 135 and 85- besides, what a grim selection of premium Zeiss glass. I mean, 4 freaking lenses. It’s pathetic, but I see where you’re going with this. It suits my purposes but for those coming in- why bother is the issue.
Trust me, these marketing people have ZERO idea about upcoming product development.
An actual new A moint camera with the layest best technology, not yet seen in E mount will convince me that Sony is still commited to A mount.
Anything less will not convince me.
We have heard this same TALK for years.
(SR992): A99II no longer runs out of battery because it has mini fusion reactor.
Actually…
New lithiun ion battery is 10x the capacity of current litium ion batteries but not yet available.
When they do become available consumers will be glad E mount has such a small battery, and it will have plenty of power.
No – When E-mount can shoot 3800 shots with a single battery, Canikoners are moarning that 3800 is far less then 10990 shots in their DSLRs.
The one thing Barry has said that actually makes sense and he still gets it wrong. Solid state Lithium ion batteries will have much greater capacity soon…but not 10x. They will however make a huge difference for the number of shots you can take with one battery.
10x ??. Do you have a source link? I would be very interested.
That means the next MacBook will last 100 hours nonstop. Cool.
Read it abour 2 years ago…don’t rember source but first use will be in cellphones and yhey claim you will be able to use it for a month on a single charge and jump start your car with your cellphone.
There are many articles for more powerfull batteries
On tha stood out is
Extremetech.con April 17 2013
Clains to be 2000x the capacity of current batteries and charge 1000x as fast.
I dont necessarily fully believe thier claims bu there are many powerfull new battery desighns in the works.
The one ” guest ” refers to is a Samsung battery.
I was not specifically reffering to his battery but cannot find the one I was talking about.
Yeah, they’ll be glad but they won’t get them. You’ll have to buy their newer A7IIIIII which just so happens to use a slightly tweeked battery compartment that will only allow for the newer designs.
Watson can make them.
I think you are what we can call pessimistic regarding a-mount future. Fact is this is a rumor site and every thing has to be taken with a grain of salt.
In the mean while my a900 is well and alive and Sony is still producing and developing a-mount like they have said a dusin of times. When the new a99xx, a77xx or a58xx will come only Sony knows.
This is completely the same story from when the a700 didn’t get an update after it was discontinued or like the a900 users had to wait 4 years for the a99. The a900 didn’t even have video which the 5DMkII had.
We also had to wait what seemed like an eternity for the a100 when Sony took over from KonicaMinolta, and it was a big dissapointment for all the D7D users which had to wait many years for the a700. Many at that time feared the a-mount was dead.
So in short I am sick and tired of all you self proclaimed a-mount is dead prophets!!!
Yes we had this TALK for years. What does the years gone by prove? They prove the fact that the a-mount is well and alive!!
Well, either Sony f*cked up by having a track record of not providing the a-mount bodies in time that the market demanded, or the a-mount customers were just not buying enought to make it worth while for Sony. Or both.
But that a-mount is well and alive.. hmm, more dead man walking, and wellness is just so so.
I’d rock the a900 but check online. I’m fairly certain Sony is not providing support for that camera. If it breaks you are SOL. I believe they had a flood at a plant in 2012 which wiped out most of the parts for both A900 and A850- only seven parts are different between models if I’m not mistaken. I would have loved to just keep rocking it but 800 bucks turning into a paper weight doesn’t settle well with me.
But you stated that there will be no new A-mount camera.
You were extremely clear about this.
Show me tje new camera!
@LotusEater
The minute Sony announce an A99 successor, Barry will be saying there will be no A-mount camera after that.
He’s a complete troll, just writing to annoy people.
Show me the camera !
Barry may be a little “special”, but I wouldn’t call him a troll. He’s actually far from that.
he’s not a troll, just SAR addict.
I agree A-mount does not make sense long term. But I’d say the same for SLR/SLT technology as a whole.
However, Sony needs a clear and simple path for existing A-mount users to E-mount, so until we see that they’ll keep A-mount alive and after that people will accept its end easier.
And latest gen of A7 cameras is nearly there. Most complaints are for practical issues that are straightforward to solve – larger body, weather sealing, larger or second battery, second SD card slot.
Even if they release only 2 more A-mount flagships this is 6-8 years of shelf life.
There is obviously no new camera at present. But why are you wasting time speculating about the technology if you KNOW there will be no new A-mount cameras?
” There is obviously no new camera”
So you agree with me.
I would like to be wrong in this prediction, and you would obviosly like me to be wrong too.
This is not like you lotus, usually you only answer my comments to dissagree with me.
You cut my quote short, which is pretty disingenuous even for you. I said, “at present”.
I don’t agree or disagree with you because I do not know what Sony’s plans really are, and neither do you.
However, you have continuously made definitive statements that there will be no new A-mount camera, so I thought it was strange that you are now speculating on what technology would be inside one.
You’ve basically changed your stance by now saying that only the best technology will convince you of Sony’s commitment to A-mount. You’re trying to cover yourself in the event that your statements turn out to be wrong – an ego damage limitation exercise.
You cut mu comments short…
Most indicate that I would not believe it until I see it or that I do not believe it.
That is consistsny in my book.
Speculating about what I would want IF the camera came out is also consistant with noy believing it will.
And lastly I would like to be proven wrong, snd see a new better A mount camera but do not expect that to happen.
Lastly…if a new A mount camera came out AND met my needs I would buy one.
Those needs would include a new A mount long lens to go with it, or compatability with Canikon lenses.
I cut nothing short. You have said there will be no new A-mount camera many times (as recently as two days ago) – that is a definitive statement.
Are you now saying there might be a new A-mount camera?
I did not say there might be one, just speculated what if.
I’ll take that as a yes.
And I will take that as the kind of twisted statement a little fish might say.
Oh dear, we’ve resorted to that, have we?
Yeah I just saw you ranting a couple days ago about never a new A mount? Switching the story already?
You’ll have to elaborate. Where did I say that?
Sorry Lotus, not you. I meant to reply to animalsbybarry above.
It’s funny… whenever asked about FE, they give fairly specific answers (we are developing X… working on Y.. if consumers demand Z….) Whenever asked about A-mount, it’s “we don’t comment on future products.”
Ok genius, ask them about A5, A9 and how many mp A7III will have.
You are wrong. They haven’t said anything about e-mount camera development only about their lens road map and about the lens road map they have only said things like large aperture prime.. all the a7x cameras have been a complete surprise, especially the a7rII and the a7S
That’s simply false. They have given answers repeatedly… Not exact details or release dates. But far more than “we don’t comment”
For example:
“When asked if we can expect to see a new A7sII Mr. Hori answer is: “I hope so. *laughs* Of course I cannot comment but you can imagine, before today, the people wanted in-body stabilisation for the A7r. That was the most frequent feedback from the consumers. So we made this A7r II with even higher resolution. But I cannot comment on future products.”
(basically… I’ll comment but then say I can’t comment)
Or:
Uncompressed RAW:
DE: Yeah, well 14-bit is OK, but many people are asking “could we please have uncompressed RAWs?”
KM: Sony RAW is compressed, not uncompressed. But if we’re getting a lot of requests for it, we should make such a kind of no-compression raw. Of course we recognize that. But I cannot give you a guarantee when we’re going to fix or not fix.
DE: Right. When you’re going to address that, yeah.
KM: Sure, sure. And so we recognize the customer’s requirement, and actually we are working on it.
(That seems like pretty detailed answers!)
Those are just a couple of examples.
Sorry but I don’t agree! He gave zero details about the cameras. I don’t think any of us doubted they would bring out an a7sII with stabilization. Regarding uncompressed RAW he only said he could not give a guarantee only they was working on it.
Further more you have to remember who they asked. The person speaking about the a-mount in the recent messages from Sony UK is not at the level of Mr. Hori and can there for not comment like he does even though it’s very vague.
Previously Sony (Mr.Hori) stated they would still produce a-mount cameras:
ML: The new autofocus system on the A7r II allows for an easier use of A-mount lenses even without the LE-EA4 adapter. This means better compatibility with A-mount lenses, so we could actually call the A7r II a “hybrid” camera. Is Sony still planning to continue with the development of the DSLT line in the long term?
YH: I would say, yes, we can call it a hybrid camera because this is the first attempt to fully use the functions of the camera with the mount adapter. But the SLT cameras still offers some advantages like longer batter life, better grip, and whole functionally is still like DSLRs. We believe customers are still there and that they will love these DSLT cameras. We can’t comment on future products but we are still continuing to produce these A-mount cameras.
All this is imho very vague.
As I said, they give answers like: “we are developing X… working on Y.. if consumers demand Z…” when it comes to E-mount. I then posted direct examples of those types of comments.
When then asked about A-mount, they shut it down with a quick, “we don’t comment on future products.”
We know they *currently* produce A-mount cameras, but absolutely no comment on whether they will in the future.
Anyway… current rumor is November…… Let’s see what happens..
My “prediction” is one of several possibilities:
1 — Rumor is simply wrong, and there are no new A-mounts. OR
2 — They do indeed produce another dSLT. Basically a full frame version of the A77ii, maybe with a few newer features. If they go this route, I doubt it will be a big seller, and I suspect it will be the last A-mount.
3 — They do a fully mirrorless A-mount. I don’t know how the market would react to this. It would generate a lot of buzz among current A-mount owners though.
4 — What I would do, depending on feasibility of price — A hybrid viewfinder. Use the A7rii focus system, to work in “mirror up” mode, as well as a hybrid EVF. Then have a traditional mirror-down mode, for use when shooting bursts, and saving battery power by using OVF. This would generate a lot of attention — First product that can essentially be fully mirrorless or fully traditional, in the same body. Whether it would actually “sell,”… that I don’t know.
the 4) is not a possibility, it’s your wish regardless of Sony actions 🙂
But I like your idea.
It’s certainly technologically possible. But I don’t know the cost, and whether consumers would react at the cost.
If it had to be a $5000 camera… versus a $2500 or $3000 camera, the market would react pretty differently.
EVENTUALLY — Canon or Nikon will release a camera just like that. Might be in 2 years, might be in 10 years. The Canon 70D was a step in that direction — no hybrid Viewfinder, but dedicated OSPDAF for use with mirror up, and a traditional AF module for mirror down.
Once OSPDAF becomes really good enough and affordable enough — why would traditional dSLRs continue to use contrast-detect live view modes? They will stick the OSPDAF onto their live view. And once that happens, there will be a question of whether to keep the mirror at all.. whether to offer hybrid viewfinders, whether to offer mirrorless dSLRs.
actually canon x00D used to have ospdaf long time ago, it’s just canon 70d which has the best implementation.
On a second thought, it’s not fully mirrorless camera at all. It doesn’t accept lenses for mirrorless. You can have it (almost) now by attaching a loupe to 70D LCD.
The lenses that happen to fit the mount aren’t relevant to whether it is mirrorless. If they did a mirrorless A-mount, with the A-mount flange distance, it would still be mirrorless — whether it accepts FE lenses or not.
I didn’t know a hybrid viewfinder was possible. Oooh….that would certainly get my money. That would be a sick brick of wonder as a camera.
Every DSLR already has kinda hybrid viewfinder with LCDs and LEDs in it.
Now just put a modern display instead of old fashioned 7-segments indicators there… Simple, eh?
Definitely possible… Fuji already does it:
http://fujifilm-x.com/x-pro1/en/story/chapter4/
Nikon has a patent for a hybrid VF:
http://nikonrumors.com/2013/01/12/nikons-patent-for-a-hybrid-viewfinder-ovf-evf.aspx/
As I said…. it’s probably coming. Maybe in 3 months, maybe in 10 years.
What would prevent it from coming — If the traditionalists decide it is more cost effective just to go to full EVF, and if their buyers will accept that.
But if hybrid can be made cost effective, it will be a huge plus for buyers.
I was told by a sony rep they tell about 6 people whats really going on. He also told me they said there would be no camera announcements for the rest of the year then they dropped the A7rII a7sII and rx12. Sony does not share info like they did before, even insiders don’t know whats really going on because they feed there own people false info.
This statement can’t possibly be reconciled with the previous ones from UK Australia. My guess is that the earlier statements reflected reality, and this latest corporate-speak is damage control.
This is just fuzzy corporate speech, which exist for only one reason: Answering a question without saying anything. It does not negate the previous statements on facebook.
Sorry guys, but this is not a rectification of the previous tweet. In fact… nothing is being told here.
Shows that they cared enough about A-mount, to somewhat correct the statement. Suggests they aren’t quite ready to officially kill the A-mount. Doesn’t really tell us one way or the other whether there are affirmative plans for the A-mount.
I’d like to think that too but it is equally possible they do not want to hurt body & lens sales of existing a-mount equipment since educated consumers will avoid buying into it.
Personally, my 24-70 2.8 II upgrade is on hold until a new body is announced.
C’mon, that’s just common sense, can you really imagine Sony replying “no, we are not committed anymore. A-mount? What’s that?”. It’s just a standard reply, it means absolutely nothing.
Sony is just holding out to give us something amazing in A-mount. 🙂 They know they can’t realistically compete with Canikon (& soon Pentax with their new FF DSLR) in the pro sector with their consumer market E-mount cameras. That’s why A-mount is being refocused for professional photography. And because that’s the case, they don’t need to release new products often like they need to for the consumer market.
You already commented which negates this comment. Come on Sony- get yur facts straight! Is it or isn’t it!
Sony is such a tease 🙂 The whole “will they / won’t they” thing
Was it misleading or did the Sony accidentally reveal Sony’s truth? If Sony doesn’t release some genuinely new a-mount gear soon (not SSM motor updates) then it will have been pretty accurate.
Sony
We need to correct our previous comment
The corrected comment is “No comment”
I think “we are fully committed to the A-mount category and continue with product development” is more than “no comment”.
C’mon Barry, give them a break.
calm down everyone!
can’t you read guys?! they say, we are committed to a-mount, we continue with the product development.
stop over thinking. (with apple it was the same – every time every year, pc geeks where like – “apple is dead” – look where is now!)
so back to a-mount: uk sony statement means exactly: a-mount continue.
do you want have phrases like: yes we have plenty of a-mount plans…
hey this is Sony, they actually are well teasing the new a-mount camera – this is going to be a bomb, certainly more if everybody thinks, oh a-mount is dead… and boom, a-mount super pro body! everybody will wows! =more buzz!!!!!!
Oh yeah — a58II is coming!!!
We are fully committed to selling you this bridge…
The boy who cried Wolf?
Yes – absolutely. My legacy glasses are all Canon FD and Minolta SR. I refused to buy any old Nikon F glass, because the focus ring turns in the opposite direction than Sony/Canon/Minolta & much more.
But thanks to mirrorless systems, legacy glass isn’t as cheap as it was some years ago. And I am not that impressed about the optical quality. Especially the coating causes ghosts.
But compared to the prices of the Loxias, I am very happy to be able to get same cheap lenses – even if the Loxias feel better, are ligher and small and optical superior.
Whew, happy to hear this! I would have been realy angry to Sony if they discontinue the A-mount stuff. Meaning that I would never ever again buying any Sony stuff, even its twice as good and half as expensive as others. Just sold my a900, having lots of A.mount glass and waiting for something nice! And waiting.. and waiting.. and waiting! Listen Sony: Our patience is already quite stretched!!