New FE lenses..#SonyCES @SonyElectronics @SonyAlphaRumors pic.twitter.com/TSex9qviC5
— LooseBalloon (@LooseBall00n) January 6, 2016
First of all: it was pretty clear in advance Sony would not announce a new Alpha camera at CES. We got no reliable rumors about possible A or E-mount camera announcement at CES. And Sony is known for launching major Alpha cameras “off” events to get the full media attention.
But: I saw the Sony CES event in live stream. And for more than 10 minutes Sony did talk about the “amazing” A7 series and so on. They did show many pictures and created a lot of focus on their cameras. And for a moment they got me and I was thinking “yeah hell!” something will be announced today! And than suddenly…after all that long talk they quickly skipped over to Audio products. So ZERO announcement. Again, I am absolute no marketing expert but I guess 95% of the people watching the stream felt like John Travolta on the video above 🙂
Summary: I am sure Sony will show us some real new camera soon. I am not worried about that. But I wonder what’s the “marketing point” of that CES presentation. Maybe it’s just me not understanding how corporate communications works? What was your “feeling”?
–
Message to Sony CEO Hirai: Usual marketing bla bla aside I have to say Sony CEO Hirai was the best performing CEO on stage at CES. Chapeau!
95 Responses
Pretty sure Sony is just letting Nikon having the spot light for few days.
i dont care about new camera, i already own a rock solid a7r2, I just want new FE lens, don’t quite understand why doesn’t sony release their new lenses, the like the previously registered 24-70 2.8 and 24-70 GM
There is no FE 24-70 f/2.8 so far. It was all rumors based on nothing.
Based on nothing….Just like your posts…
There was no rumor about the lens coming at CES!
“There is yet no image or other detailed spec of the [24-70 F2.8] lens but]if it’s listed it means it surely is going to be announced soon (between now and CES in early January).”
http://www.sonyalpharumors.com/sr4-new-sony-24-70mm-f2-8-fe-lens-gets-listed-at-sony-assist-system/
“Maybe January 5 at CES will be really the day to see those new FE lenses announced!”
http://www.sonyalpharumors.com/sony-artisan-jason-lanier-is-testing-new-top-secret-lenses-that-are-coming-out-soon/
“Sony press conference on January 5! Finally some FE lens news?”
http://www.sonyalpharumors.com/sony-press-conference-on-january-5-finally-some-fe-lens-news/
Totally agree, we’re practically awash with bodies, and now desperate for more lenses to go with them.
U just called ur toy cam rock solid ahahaha
He sure did. Mine has never needed an oil change or to have the AF module realigned etc etc etc. Rock solid.
Sony have plenty of models to showcase at an exhibition. A7s2 and A7R2 are great cameras still and for sure deserve some attention. RX1R ii is very new camera as well.
It would have been big marketing blunder to release any products at the same time as Nikon. All the pro photogs will be looking into the new Nikon cameras for the next few weeks. Having a Sony announcement would have diluted both.
I also assume Sony are not at odds with Nikon so things work great. Nikon for sure made huge splash and stole the thunder from Olympus and Panasonic that too announced great photography products. Evidently even Andrea did not notice the many announcements Olympus and Panasonic did…..
As with any company, the marketing execs will be out there talking about how great their products are, right up until the day they’re discontinued. Means nothing.
“And for more than 10 minutes Sony did talk about the “amazing” A7 series and so on. They did show many pictures and created a lot of focus on their cameras.”
Regardless of lack of news you should still take this as a positive sign. It’s a product line the CEO is very proud of and enthusiastic about, lots of kandou, and we can deduct from that the product line probably had excellent sales or profits.
It’s a fine little side business for Sony that synergizes well with their market leading sensor development and market leading sensor fabrication. So I think the future is very bright for Sony camera developments.
Its very true… They mentioned it becoz the board and CEO sees positive signs in that buisness.
Marketing point? Well, the CES is obviously e good platform to not only announce new things, but also to promote their existing products. Especially when a “famous” photographer is raving about a camera in front of all those people. I cant think of a better advertisement.
I’m also disappointed about no release after 10minutes of speech, but it’s true that sony had released new products one after another too quickly till now. It’s time to slow down for the sake of sony itself and for users ourselves. And we all had expected no release would be there on CES. It’s something usual
They can slow after the a6000 replacement
Sony fans be like: https://youtu.be/7RV7BdLhQ1Q
Sony’s marketing is always a disaster. I remember when A7S was announced they didn’t even tell people that this little beast has a silent shutter
What are you talking about? What people found out by accident? Yeah, no.
People found it in a long spec list which is in Japanese. It was not in the English version spec list and it was not in Sony’s presentation.
Thanks for the embed, ? Hopefully some lenses make an appearance soon!
with sony better expect nothing and you’ll be happy and 99% of the time ……… right 🙂
Sony now is as good as Nikon sealed the leak of up come product news.
We really don’t need new bodies, Sony bring out plenty of bodies (well, maybe the A6000 replacement) but we do need those 7 new lenses which were rumoured.
A6000 is what, 21 months old? No need to get panties in a twist just yet. That D500 admin is banging on about, is the replacement effective to a camera released in 2007… Yes, read that again… 2007.
One of the reasons this site, despite it’s good intentions, is utterly useless.
To be fair, I don’t think SAR ever claimed there would be a camera/lens announcement at CES?
Exactly.
Umm…
“There is yet no image or other detailed spec of the [24-70 F2.8] lens but]if it’s listed it means it surely is going to be announced soon (between now and CES in early January).”
http://www.sonyalpharumors.com/sr4-new-sony-24-70mm-f2-8-fe-lens-gets-listed-at-sony-assist-system/
“Maybe January 5 at CES will be really the day to see those new FE lenses announced!”
http://www.sonyalpharumors.com/sony-artisan-jason-lanier-is-testing-new-top-secret-lenses-that-are-coming-out-soon/
“Sony press conference on January 5! Finally some FE lens news?”
http://www.sonyalpharumors.com/sony-press-conference-on-january-5-finally-some-fe-lens-news/
He said “maybe” and then some of those were questions. He didn’t state it will be there.
Can you show me where in this statement he says “maybe”?
“it surely is going to be announced soon (between now and CES in early January).”
I appreciate everything this site does and don’t mind rumors being wrong, even the majority of the time. It’s a rumors site. You expect to get one hit for every 5 misses. But this latest trend of pretending that a rumor never even happened when it was wrong is bad. The tone has post-hazardly changed to one where the lenses were never expected to be announced by now whereas a month ago the tone was that it was almost certain they’d have been announced by now.
Like I said, I don’t mind rumors being wrong, but pretending they never even existed when they’re right here in writing is borderline insulting.
Lol…look at what you posted again. It says “maybe” in plain sight.
Right, Nov 25th it was “surely”. Dec 3rd it was “Finally?”. Dec 4th it was “Maybe”. Jan 5th it was “there was never any rumor or possibility that the lenses would be announced at CES”.
That last part is the problem.
Remember, the comment that started this was “I don’t think SAR ever claimed…”. On Nov 25th, in the link I provided, it was very explicitly claimed. And twice more after that it was rumored. Yet now the idea we’re supposed to buy is that it was never claimed, rumored, or hinted at, when it very clearly was.
Pretty much this. He’s been saying this.
Not useless to me.
And yet you are here. Mystery 🙂
Here for the comments, certainly not the ‘rumours’
I get bored sometimes and make mistakes. Only to find out nothing has changed here in years. Same dumb discussions, same suggestive ‘rumors’. Good luck and a happy new year.
Just like Sony’s toy camcrap
This is about the highest level of discussion you get on this site.
We’ve got to remember that unlike Canon and certainly unlike Nikon, Sony makes LOTS of non-imaging consumer electronics, and so it should come as no surprise that at a general show like CES Sony’s focus is not on imaging, but rather on other stuff. Yes, we’re all petulant children who want new toys at every occasion (myself included), but this non-event for photographers should shock no one.
I don’t see us as petulant. We’re photographers, and Sony is either in this market or not, it’s up to them. We want what we want, not what some manufacturer would like to sell us. And don’t appreciate ‘trial’ products that are ultimately just testing the market, even if they’re good ones, and I really hope it doesn’t turn out that the a6000 was such an experiment.
I frankly thought their CES marketing presentation was lame. Old news regarding cameras and although they had some new products in other areas, the hype and presentation format was boring. They could certainly learn a thing or two regarding presentations from Steve Jobs, Tim Cook, Google, etc. Regarding cameras, you have to give Nikon credit, they stole all of the attention and hype with the announcement of their 2 new DSLR’s. Well done Nikon (and I’m a Sony shooter by the way).
Well yes, but if they announced an A6100 that wouldn’t absolutely be the case. It is a bit strange Nikon announced those at CES to be honest with CP+ just around the corner.
Nikon got lots press outside of the photo world and dominated the announcements within the photo world. Since there was almost nothing else photo wise yesterday – as opposed to CP+ when there are tons of announcements – this was a great move.
For me at least become clear that now they really relies on the camera division and it is important for them.
I’ve been interested in an A7 ever since it came out. I will join in when then A7 iii comes out 😉
(you know, upgraded sensor and stuff, as the A7R ii was the only one in the ii series making some real steps forwards there, but it’s a tad too costly for me)
A7 III will be much cheaper but faster than A7R II, but lower res (and probably slightly different construction).
I think it will depend. Memory stacked on-sensor is bleeding edge technology. It might not be cheap.
I highly doubt it will be a stacked sensor.
Is there a reason why this doubt is High?
According to this roadmap, it will come eventually. It’s the natural next step after BSI:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-I2M7tAb_vvY/UTKG4ILDATI/AAAAAAAACTo/e3ajDVgS6Bk/s1600/bsi+to+stacking.jpg
Yes, eventually. It has just landed on 1″, there is still a way to go until it’s on FF and I seriously doubt it will be on the entry model first, because as you say – expensive.
So long as you keep in mind the challenges in stacking process is more akin to assembling the chip package. It won’t have the same yield challenges as BSI had when scaling BSI to Full Frame. Once they figured how to stack a 1 inch, the rest should come with more ease.
Second, I think we need to change perception of A7 being entry model. The resolution range the A7 series occupy is the same resolution range you find in the very expensive D5 and 5D series from the DSLRs. This range might not stay entry level for very long.
Unless Sony release another entry level model, the straight A7’s will remain their entry model.
This doesn’t mean it will always be spec’D behind the others, it is likely to leapfrog the R in terms of speed and the S in terms of resolution, in both cases because it isn’t specialised like those two. Still the entry model though.
A D7200 is faster than a D810, so is the entry models below that etc.
The first two were entry models, because Sony was stuck with old sensors in that range for a while. It won’t necessarily stay that way. Especially not if the A7iii will have a brand new bleeding edge sensor that will make the A7Rii look old.
I think you’re forgetting that Sony is using the previous generation as the entry level.
As seen in the A7 and A7ii. The A7 is still being produced, but is delegated to the affordable price point.
Sorry but this is just wishful thinking on your part. Will it have faster AF / fps? Yes. Other than that, no. It will be BSI at best.
Sony still makes a range of sensors, the A7 will use the ‘low cost’ sensor made (essentially) for wide adoption in models like the D610 replacement.
If Sony do a stacked blah blah sensor it will be for a) A9, b) some new A7x variant, c) some new A-Mount or d) A7S or A7R replacement. A7 will continue to use the ‘value’ range sensors.
I think you don’t understand the point of the chart. A7, A7R and A7S all of them will eventually have Stacked memory on-sensor. But I’m suspecting the A7 is the first candidate since its sensor is the oldest and it will be a long time before the A7Rii sensor is replaced.
Look at the RX100 mark 1 to mark 4. All of them are still on the market, The older ones and their sensors are simply used for entry level, and for selling to their partners.
Cheaper A7 sensors will still be produced since Sony needs the A7 and A7ii for the cheaper price points. And they keep them around to sell to their partners too.
I never said they wouldn’t.
Yes, but you seem confused by the lineup and indeed the sensor lineup.
What confusion? All the sensors from the old RX100 models are still being made and offered to their partners. It’s their age and capability that sets their pricing, not the lineup they are associated with.
Incorrect, only the BSI sensor used in the II and III is offered to partners. I also highly doubt the original is still being made. The mkIV, is the new high end model, not the new entry level model. There is no R and S versions.
“Incorrect, only the BSI sensor used in the II and III is offered to partners.”
You shouldn’t have shot yourself in the foot like that.
Please see: http://www.sony.net/Products/SC-HP/IS/sensor2/products/index.html
Look up IMX163. That is the original RX100 mark 1 sensor, Sony is a serious foundry, these types of products are supported for a long time for anyone who might need them in their products, even the old CCD sensors are supported to this day and offered to anyone who inquires.
“The mkIV, is the new high end model, not the new entry level model. There is no R and S versions.”
That’s what I’m saying. The RX100 is one single product line that covers entry level to high end. The RX100 does not need any R version or S version, they just use older generation for cheaper price point.
This is the same with A7 lineup. They don’t need a new entry level lineup, they just use the older generation for entry level. Do you understand now?
*sigh*
Ok mate, I hope you get want you think you will.
Well it could go either way. It was just a guess and I was curious about the “highly doubt” part.
Just as a last example, the A7R series wasn’t always at the 3200$ price point. The original A7R was about 1 thousand dollars cheaper at launch. So these “sensitivity”/”resolution”/”balanced” series aren’t price point designations. They are simply sensor capability designations, and the pricings will be adjusted for each camera depending on how market conditions.
So you think it is likely that the next A7 model is going to be their most expensive in the range? How does that bode for the theory that the old models are their entry models? So when the A7 III comes out at $3500-4000 (say), then in a generation or two’s time (when A7 originals and II are truely expired) then their ‘entry’ model will be the $3000 A7S II?
While I understand that the old models are being treated as ‘entry level’ they have to actually keep producing entry level models to replace the entry level models. Also this policy is not so much to produce more entry level cameras, but to avoid deep discounting in outgoing models that traditionally hurt a lot.
“then in a generation or two’s time (when A7 originals and II are truely expired)”
This is not a good argument to make. The original RX100 mark 1 is still on the market competing against the Ricoh GR. Sony will leave the A7 and A7ii on the market for as long as they are needed.
Secondly, the A7S could eventually drop in price and become entry level candidate. The same would be true for the A7Sii in the faraway future.
This is simply how Sony functions.
Ricoh GR and original RX100 are pretty far from related. The rest is equally wrong. In Australia the A7S II is $4800, the A7 is sub $1000. The A7S II is not replacing the A7 in their lineup anytime soon.
This isn’t ‘how Sony functions’ there is literally NO examples of this.
What you are suggesting is that Toyota is going to make the Corolla higher end than the LFA and drop the price on the LFA to Corolla levels, because by then it is ‘old’.
A7 is the basic model, end of story. Any advantage it has over other models is purely a byproduct of its relative simplicity and generational changes.
“The A7S II is not replacing the A7”
I didn’t say it would. The A7S would obviously drop in price sooner than the A7Sii. But I think you are way off if you actually believe the A7S won’t eventually fall into a lower and more affordable price point.
I don’t understand why it’s so hard for you to see that A7R, and A7S will eventually reach very low and affordable prices and that it’s how Sony does things.
I hope you realize that the A7 wasn’t always a sub 1000 dollar camera. It was originally a Sony high end camera. But now it’s adjusted to be down there at the entry level.
the way from 1″ to FF is infinitely long… until it is suddenly there…
The A7S sensor is also still very new and breakthrough in its own niche. It’s really only the A7 series that are behind now.
I think they’re just pitching a great set of cameras to an audience that is still quite a bit unaware of them. No need to pitch anything newer than the mark 2s to that audience.
Exactly.
These events are where you would always toss out some new product… When a company fails to do that it means that they have either gone into downsizing mode and cut development of new products or the product/s they planned to roll out had some sort of problem that caused them to be delayed….Neither of those two things will be something they would mention so instead you just get a blah blah blah this is what we have already done thing.
Nonsense! Absolute crap!
Apple (yeah that little brand) do a long and rather boring roundup of all their products during big keynotes, even if there are NO new products in that category to be announced that day. Believe it or not, it’s an opportunity to talk about their whole product portfolio, not just the products they are announcing.
Sony ain’t Apple… You can believe any BS you want but reality is Sony failed to capitalize on an opportunity to use the CES to announce something new… Sony is trying to compete with Nikon and Canon – both of which had new products to throw out there… Sony isn’t making any headway with nothing but blah blah blah about old news.
You’re an idiot. What did Canon release other than some crappy Elph cameras? Besides, Sony made huge headlines competing against Canon and Nikon last year… Not a single one associated with a trade show, let alone something as irrelevant as CES.
No Sony aren’t Apple, who don’t make anything other than expensive jewellery these days.
Yes, I’d expect them to announce SOMETHING, even if it’s not a spectacular new camera body. They need to show that they’re actively developing new products, not just talking while remaining in gridlock internally. Otherwise why come to the show?
Release a new camera iteration every year, everyone claims Sony releases cameras too soon. Miss a major show or two and everyone goes haywire.
By Sony’s timeline the a6100/a7000 is overdue…pretty sure that’s why many people are let down.
Nikon releases 2 big boy cameras while Sony shows some pictures a kid took with a toy A7rii. Come one Sony, Where are the professional cameras?
Im with you but in defense of so y it is the CES show, which is consumerss. They kept using the word enthusuiast which means no -pros who want expensive gear. It isn’t the Pro electronics show.
Marketing strategy aside, one thing that struck me is the gap between Sony’s ability to communicate their lineup in the English speaking world and that of Nikon. Don’t get me wrong, I am not one to mock people for not being fluent in foreign languages or having strong accents of one sort or another. My English has a disturbingly strong (for some folks) American accent and there is nothing I can do about it. And I do most of my work in Japanese, which is my second language and clearly not as good as my English. Nevertheless, Sony has an incredible asset in Kazuo Hirai. For a native Japanese person his English really is good and he is rather eloquent as a public speaker. Nikon, on the other hand really struggles here, at least based on what I saw at CES. Senior VP Nobuyoshi Gokyu is profoundly hard to understand for many, and the teleprompters were painfully obvious. He was wise to hand things over to Tadashi Nakayama who was a bit better but still a far cry from Hirai. Nakayama sounds like the typical Japanese who spent some time in the U.S. as a small child in that he is capable of correctly pronouncing the “R” sound (the ultimate litmus test for many Japanese trying to speak English) but only on occasion. He still frequently gets his “R” and “L” sounds mixed up, and it is an unfortunate coincidence that talking about modern cameras requires one to use one of the hardest to pronounce words ever for Japanese speakers, “mirrorless”. Predictably, he slaughters it… Anyway, not to put down Nakayama or Gokyu, but Hirai really does shine. How many American business executives can communicate as well as he does in a foreign language?
“Mirrorless”. LOL
Regardless of the language facility – the Nikon guy had something to say, the Sony guy did not.
True. I have to say though…Kazuo strikes me as pretty gangsta…
I agree it’s very rare to see Japanese of his age with excellent English.
There is another example within Sony, I’ve been told Andrew House has decent Japanese as well, which is fun to see since he looks western.
Being well spoken in both English and Japanese seems to be appreciated a lot at Sony.
Oh dear, this all looks so familiar. the a900 replacement that was rumored for years and never arrived. if past history is anything to go by we will be waiting a long time for the a99’s replacement
.
Waiting for new e-mount lenses is like waiting for Godot. Even the ones that are in production like the Batis and Loxia 21mm never seem to arrive.
That was a crap presentation.
Bottom line, CES is a SHOW, not an open mic night. It’s supposed to be an opportunity to unveil new products, not just gush about what we can already see in the stores. If you have nothing to show, why get up there and talk? Journalists and other interested parties spend money to be there – why alienate them by wasting their time?
Exactly! I could not have said it more presicely!!!
When they talk confidently on stage and don’t introduce any new product (camera, …), means they probably have something in their sleeves to show later.
Or they were just told to get up there and talk confidently about the existing products Sony wants to push.
Terrible. That’s over an hour of my life I will never get back!
Full of Marketing jibberish with no real content. What’s worse was that I stayed for the Q&A at the end and those answering the questions obvously had no idea about what they were suppose to be experts on. The Camera ‘expert’ didn’t know here shutter fro her iris.
It’s not just us Alpha people that feel disapponted by Sony. Go over to some Playstation boards and read how angry people are on the lack of their Virtual Reality announcement. They even had VR booths and teasers all through out the show. There is outrage over there…lol. I won’t lie I’m a kid at heart and was hoping for a release in that department too. I’ve been waiting for real VR since I was a little kid. One thing I do know, to wait as long as we have for the next A6XXX, it’s got to be one hell of a little camera, or at least it better be or the company is going to start losing fans and going in the wrong direction.
I was honestly pissed off that Sony would waste our time like that. I know they weren’t going to announce an a7iii or anything, but why display a camera next to that new handycam and get everyone’s hopes up? Just seemed like a stupid ploy to keep people watching.
whrer is the 4k aps-c 499,- cam?? we have 2016 and this bulshitpissofshitter Sony is
not able to bring its 4k wrongcolor 8bit lowtrash shit?
so since 2012 another yewar nothing to buy from sony..
fuk off withn this shit rumor side this wastes time and is for nothing… okay.
ion one yerar 0 % worth information!
sony = shit = sony