Mr. Kenta from Sony has been interviewed by Dpreview and he spilled out some info particularly about the next generation E-mount FF:
1) We will try to get A6000 AF performance on the next generation FF E-mount cameras
2) New generation of Full Frame E-mount cameras is coming very soon.
3) we are aiming sport and pro photographers with the next generation(s) of FF E-mount
4) We are seeing the transition from DSLR to Mirrorless happening. DSLR will remain in a very high end niche.
5) The Telephoto prime lens (300mm) is something we get asked to make from our users
6) We don’t know if A and E-mount will merge one day. For now we keep developing booth.
7) The number one key tech to acquire customers is develop autofocusing
8) Next generation FF E-mount cameras will get more customizability
So what are yout thoughts about that interview? It’s very clear Sony is betting high on the new FF E-mount generation cameras. And like I told you many times in those weeks…something big is coming early 2015! Stay tuned on SAR!
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That means we’re NOT getting the much needed firmware update.
You think you’d get a6000 AF with a firmware update? Or what do mean?
No, not the AF update. There are tons of well documented needs for fixes all around, which will never get fixed.
Welcome to Sony.
Yes, no Kaizen here !
Kaizen, lol.
Isn’t it onvious. Sony made a good move with the first FF mirrorless. Their current advantage is very fragile as only Canikon has to put a decent FF mirrorless on the market that is compatible with their existing lenses and Sony’s lead looks a lot more bleak as they only just started a FE lineup. If you were Sony would you put your lens developpers on FE or on a bunch of whining A mount users?
If i was sony i would develop E-mount lenses because profit can be made now. But for me, the day i buy full frame i will buy a-mount glass in order to make it compatible with more system cameras. E-mount glass only fits 1 system, boring.
What does that have to see with my comment?
well it’s physically possible… while it’s unlikely Sony programmers can deliver it, we can’t deny the probability
If it’s announced in March 15, release “officially” in september15, and available in january 16, I still have plenty of time to use my A7. But anyway, it’s some good news, let’s see Sony’s new toy !
so actually everything as expected and already said before
I hope that they are also working on IBIS as well as Auto-Focus speed. And the XAVC-S firmware update for A7/r would be welcomed as well.
Sony said IBIS on E-mount FF is not possible.
I know that is what has been said in the past, but Sony is good at developing breakthrough technology, so there is a chance that they will be able to find a solution one day.
This excuse doesn’t apply for APS-C.
And at worst, with FF corners will be blackened (makes little relevance for portrait shots where it’s bokeh anyway)
I think most people would agree optional 1.1x crop with IBIS worth having it
Having IBIS on APS-C and not on FF wouldn’t make much sense. Cropping also isn’t a great idea.
Having fast AF on aps-c a6000 and not a7x makes no sense.
Having 11 fps on aps-c and not a7x makes no sense.
Why do you think smaller cameras should be denied improvements?
Huh? How are you going to design an e-mount lens which goes on both FF and APS-C bodies, if only the latter have IBIS?
The same way they are designed now
Not much of an answer. If you design a FF stabilized lens, then the IBIS will be redundant and APS-C users will complain about paying twice for the feature. People are whining about the naming of current Sony models being confusing, imagine what will happen when they will need to figure out which lens does what on which camera and which system to switch on. You will also be developing and implementing two redundant technologies. Nothing to see with your AF and fps examples.
No-one asking to add IBIS in entry level e-mounts, in one or two high-end cameras will be enough.
Panasonic did it with GX7 and no one whines.
It’s not implementing redundant technologies because Sony already have it in A-mount.
Flat out rejecting something without explanation doesn’t make much sense either. What is wrong with IBIS on APS-C?
I just explained my position, but I’ll do it once more, because apparently you didn’t bother to read – having IBIS on APS-C, but not on FF, where they share the same mount and lenses, will present issues. Hence my initial comment that it doesn’t make much sense to mix the two techs. Better to stick with either IBIS or in-lens for the same mount.
Sony never said that. They said that full frame IBIS may be more difficult than for APS-C, but they never ruled it out completely.
What ever happened to sensor shift on the Z axis to provide Auto Focus on Manual lenses.
That would really shake up the industry.
I have something about this. Coming this week 😉
Oh god, please, NO! There’s an entire line of lenses missing! FFS don’t bring more cameras until you get at least these: FE 14..15mm/2.8, 21mm/2.8, 24mm/1.4, 35mm/1.4, 85mm/1.4 and 135mm/2.0
Because out of all lenses there’s only one top performer (FE 55mm f1.8), one good lens (FE 35mm f2.8) and one worthy zoom (FE 70-200mm f4.0) …… and 3 cameras…..
There is a 24mm 2.0 announced, 35 1.4 announced, 16-35 zoom announced, 90mm 2.8 macro announced and I’m sure sure Sony is busy with the wide angle and portrait primes.
Could you kindly let them meanwhile improve AF on their FF bodies please, thank you!
28mm, not 24mm. And if Sony is planning to kill off A-mount, they better hurry up and release all the same focal lenghts covered in A-mount for FE cameras.
you missed FE16-35. based on the reviews I read, this one is definitely one of the best UWA
I’d rate the 35/2.8 as better than a good…
So, out of the 6 lenses released in the span of one year, there are 4 very good ones (I am throwing in the new 16-35, as it seems to be a good performer), one kit lens and one mediocre lens. Basically, a new lens every two months with most of the lenses being good performers. The horror!
“Oh yeah Sony please stop developing cameras and teach those camera engineers how to make lenses. If your lineup is as big as Canons in 10 years you can start bringing the next camera.”
Said no one ever…
35mm/1.4 FE is already announced 😉
Andrea you did write early 2014 instead of early 2015 🙂
lol. I live in the past 🙂
Hehe! 🙂
Way to kill sales of the current product, just in time for the year end rush, Kento.
“We will try to get A6000 AF performance on the next generation FF E-mount cameras” Use of weasel word “try” means he knows they will fail.
“We are seeing the transition from DSLR to Mirrorless happening. DSLR will remain in a very high end niche.” Kind of a self-fulfillng prophecy when the DSLR line is deliberately hobbled, while more margin is forthcoming from the their lower cost to produce mirrorless line.
Sony is doing something they did at the time they gobbled up Minolta/Konica: They are leading with lower prices than the other guys. They got away from this philosophy for a while, but are now leading again by being the price/performance leader.
This is what Nikon did with the 1 series: bought the market by slashing prices, to the point where it became the number 2 or 3 mirrorless manufacturer in most markets.
Let the price wars begin. The consumer will benefit in the short run. Hopefully the niche ,relatively low volume mirrorless vendors: Olympus, Samsung, Panasonic, Fuji, will survive.
“Way to kill sales of the current product, just in time for the year end rush, Kento
I agree with you completely, Ronin! This is a very odd thing to say indeed.
Everyone knows that there is continuous development and that this year’s top camera is next year’s joke (certainly in the field of digital photography!) but, with the A7 line track record of significant benefits for each new version, to announce that the next model is just about ready to release rides a coach and horses through any sales plan.
Also, I have to agree with the other commenters that suggest more lenses is more important.
Perhaps Sony have found that they have got some real impetus to become market leaders and are terrified of losing that advantage. I’m not sure this is the right policy, though. Only time will tell…
It’s not difficult – keep releasing high quality lenses and cutting edge bodies, all at reasonable prices. Sony already is the market leader in the FF mirrorless market, but I doubt it’ll stay a 1 horse race for long. The tech has to be there but they need to ensure they also have the best available lineup of native lenses. Sony can’t afford to fall into the apsc e-mount trap of prioritising bodies over lenses.
Peter… Sony has a shorter release cycle, that’s all. There is already plenty of lenses for the FE system. Sony FE, A mount (with adapter), Canon lenses, etc. We can’t ignore this.
Regarding ronin comment “”We will try to get A6000 AF performance on the next generation FF E-mount cameras” Use of weasel word “try” means he knows they will fail.”
I am not sure if you ever work in a PR position. There is bit and pieces that you usually can’t disclose unless ready. Try means that this is a priority and they will launch when it’s mature.
“”We will try to get A6000 AF performance on the next generation FF E-mount cameras” Use of weasel word “try” means he knows they will fail.””
I swear half the people here have been lobotomised.
Maybe you could explain the technical reasons why Sony will not be able to manage this… then again, no, forget it.
I’m confused by Sony. I’m not excited by their lenses. Noisey ass shutter. Terrible battery performance. Non competitive 4k recording. Even my phone records 4k internally. Maybe if Nikon makes a A7x version I’d buy that instead. Guaranteed Nikon will have a full spectrum of fast mirrorless lenses. f4.0 is way to slow.
Kenta is a pretty cool guy. I can almost forgive him for killing NEX. Almost. But he is still cool. My wish list: true successor of NEX 5T with a6000+ performance, proper touch/full swivel screen. Pop-up viewfinder optional.
Isn’t the A5100 already filled this gap?
I’m waiting for true NEX-5T successor A5500 too 🙂
A5100 doesn’t have:
-top mode dial
-larger 5N/5T grip
-screen doesn’t tilt down
And 4K on internal SD is a must have now. Been watching a lot of 4K videos lately: FZ1000, GH4, GoPro Hero 4, Galaxy Note 4. Now Everyone has it except Sony. 4K quality simply obliterates 1080p and already makes the latest RX100M3/A6000 obsolete. In 6 months 4K will be everywhere and you will want that in your next camera.
I will be peeved if they do release a new AX series but then I will also upgrade. The A7R is awesome but the handling and usage is not, so anything that fixes those issues and keeps (improves even) the quality is a buy for me.
Don’t you just hate consumerism…
What about STABILIZATION (IBIS)? does no one ask about this issue anymore?
This is E-mount, it uses lens stabilisation. Give up asking for IBIS on E-mount cameras.
Panasonic also used to produce IBIS-less cameras because their lenses were stabilized instead. But then they decided to release cameras with IBIS (like the GX7) as well.
Sony could very well leave IBIS out of smaller, cheaper cameras (like the A6000 and bellow) and then add IBIS to their top-of-the-line cameras.
Nope. They will keep revising lenses have have lens stabilisation. It’s not the way Sony think.
Panasonic is in a different situation. They have native non-stabilized Olympus lenses to account for.
To be honest to Sony, no other APS-C mirrorless cameras have IBIS either.
(the exception was the Pentax K-01 which was basically the same size of the K5 less the viewfinder)
Still, it *could* be done. But most likely it isn’t.
SELs which lack IS: crop: 16,20,24,30 FE: 35,55
So? It does not change the point that E-mount is not going to have IBIS as it uses LENS stabilisation.
so you like paying for your stabilization duplicate tech in every lens?
They made add electronic stabilisation for video, but I doubt we’ll see it for stills. It won’t make much difference for most reasonably fast primes under 50mm…
it makes a whole lot of difference, its a completely different way of shooting. you can use 3.5 stops of ISO lower.
Sony reckons 2 – 3 stops, but on shorter primes like my 55/1.8 I’ve had go maybe a stop higher to get sharp results.
i have shot 1/10 and got sharp results with the minolta 100mm f2.8
Do you remember when Minolta killed the MD mount in favour of the A Mount. There was no way going back. Something similar is happening to the A Mount now. I understand Sony won’t make a lot of money with people like me that mainly shoot good to excellent minolta af lenses in favour of their overpriced zeiss stuff. I think good lenses should last you a lifetime. Sadly i don’t see the minolta heritage in their cameras any more and I don’t think that EVF is the right way to go. So when my a850 seizes its work one day i know what i will do.
What? Buy the latest A-Mount body available?
There are going to be plenty of A900 and A850 bodies around for many years. Give the EVF a try, it gets a lot of bad press from people who have never used one at all or used one outside of trying for five minutes it in a shop.
Stop doing photography? You might not have much choice if all the major brands have turned to EVF.
1. You are only assuming that a-mount is being killed.
2. How is that similar to the switch from MD, when you can just buy an adapter and use your lenses on e-mount?
3. Minolta lenses weren’t cheap. How exactly did you compare them to conclude that Zeiss is cheaper?
4. I also think good lenses should last you a lifetime, but in this fly-by-wire age it won’t happen.
5. EVFs will dominate the market, sooner or later. Overall, they are the better choice. You will have to either switch or use the few remaining overpriced OVF alternatives that will still exist.
“We are seeing the transition from DSLR to Mirrorless happening. DSLR will remain in a very high end niche.”
Maybe in Asia, but not the rest of the World. The reason Sony SLT doesn’t sell well is because Sony doesn’t have a marketing department. Meanwhile Canon and Nikon are doing just fine churning out their “high end niche” dSLRs like the D3300 and 1200D.
The guy is an idiot.
Yeah with the a6000 being a massive hit allover the world and actually knowing how much they sell instead of some internet comment “fact” he is the idiot… sure.
do you have sales figures? please share.
The A6000 is a drop in the ocean compared to the bazillions of CaNikon dSLR sales that happen in the rest of the World. Yes he is an idiot if he can’t see that and so are you!
Remember when Nokia used to sell “bazillions”?
Yes but the comparison isn’t valid as that was a wholesale shift to a pocket-able web browser/music player that also made calls. Nokia clung on to an outdated OS (however you might also be surprised by how well the new Microsoft branded phones sell one day).
If the A6000 allowed you to Facebook and send tweets you might have a point as it would then be something more than a camera, like the iPhone was something more than a phone. There is no merging of gadgets in your comparison, the A6000 is only a camera and one that their wedding tog doesn’t use so obviously isn’t a “professional” one.
My comment wasn’t made in order to make a direct comparison of two completely different markets. It was intended as example of what can happen when a company becomes too arrogant and doesn’t innovate.
You should be careful whom you call an idiot…it might very sonn bounce back!
how? lawsuit?
Yeah I’m sure CaNikon are losing sleep over Sony sales figures.
I don’ t have an issue if they dropped A-mount if they had a plethora of lenses ready to buy, with every single option available and with ultra fast AF and OSS (since we will never see IBIS on FE cameras). But nope, they don’t have the same lenses from A-mount made into E-mount, they won’t be making f2.8 zoom lenses ever since those would be extremely big and heavy and would defeat the purpose of having mirrorless cameras, and right now, they can’t make use of the fast af from the a6000 with A-mount adapter. the LAEA4 adapter is a joke.
It seems they want to kill off A-mount without having a proper successor, for both lenses and bodies.
I’d also disagree with the name calling. I’d argue that Canikn doing well has nothing to see with DSLR vs mirror less, it is simply about brand name.
I was quite impressed with that interview. It was good to hear their plans and the knowledgable answering of questions.
So, a few months ago it was ‘A mount will definitely stay’, now it’s ‘maybe we’ll merge it’.
Merging it doesn’t mean that they will kill it. It could be that hybrid/moveable mount that used to be a rumor here a long time ago.
There was a rumor but not a patent or even a drawing.
I think it’s not effective to develop dual AE mount. Ah, if Sony engineers knew in the first place 🙂
I thought there was a patent already. But those things have been mentioned so much long ago that I don’t remember, so I could very well be wrong 🙂
if you see a way to do it in a small place with few moving parts — please share your thoughts
If Sony were Apple, they’d already kill A-Mount last year in a heartbeat, never looked back, and told everyone that it was necessary to develop better E-Mount lenses. But Sony is not Apple and Kenta is not Jobs 🙂
Nor Tim Cook is Jobs. So, while I understand your comparison to Apple, let’s face that the CURRENT Apple isn’t so much to brag about either.
Sony’s users are not like Apple users…
By merge presumably they mean keep making adapters?
7) The number one key tech to acquire customers is develop autofocusing
they need to release the right lenses for the right prices to acquire me 😀
No mention of Monochrome cam. 🙁
Sony is trying to maintain it’s place in mirrorless to make it harder for other brands to compete.
They are thinking of a new FF Mirrorless camera while other companies didn’t release their first one yet.
In the meanwhile Sony is holding it’s third place in DSLR world without any competition from companies beneath it (which happens to be Pentax).
The only way to make Sony work hard in SLTs is when Pentax move their asses and try to do something, other than that Sony will keep playing Hit and Run game with Canon and Nikon.
Very soon is so vague. He doesn’t even tentatively offer a time period like autumn 2015 or such. Moreover, interviews like this and Admin’s last rumor about A7000 in Jan 2015 are just planted to keep us from purchasing interesting cameras from other brands like the NX1 No way Sony is bringing A7000 in Jan 2015 or any other FF cam. Any FF cam will be revealed only after Canikon makes a move. I think Admn is now part of Sony’s measured manipulation – Either willingly or unwittingly.
production queues are quite long, you can’t just change them in a month or so, so they won’t be waiting for CaNikon’s move.
I mean the announcement (not the start of delivery) of a comparitive MF or FF(46MP) cam will be made after Canikons move. Such moves are common within the industry. Even RED had to hold off their Scarlet for a long time fearing a competing cam with a few better features will be unveiled(announced) by Sony.
Check Sony release Cycle…. 12 – 18 months release time.
Great stuff Sony! Keep going… One of the few real innovators …
I want IBIS, g*dam*it!!! Give me a fullframe, weathersealed, stabilized camera and I’ll be front in line! I could even live with that ugly and unnecessary faux-prism on the top!
Not gonna happen, maybe on APS-C model, but, well, most lenses have OSS anyways so why bother..
Because I already have some nice FF-compatible lenses that could benefit a little from IBIS.
In the past the lack of AF would bother me while using older/from other systems lenses, but focus-peaking is so good that manual focusing isn’t a big issue for me anymore.
Did you see the E-mount in FE cameras? They chopped off some corners to make space for the sensor and avoid vignetting Do you imagine a moving sensor with those corners there? There is simply no space for it.
LOL true, that’s a dead giveaway that the system was not designed for ff from the ground up. What a pity, what a missed chance. Still, I am very happy with what I have, I don’t need to jump into a new system and into compatibility nightmares.
“LOL true, that’s a dead giveaway that the system was not designed for ff from the ground up.”
There is no evidence that was the case at all. The only reason the corners of the sensor appear chopped off is because of the perspective of looking at the sensor from a distance. With short registration distance lenses, it is a non-issue.
They could make the camera a bit bigger, no?
I know that one of the main features of mirrorless cameras are being smaller and -to a certain extent- pocketable but… even if that said camera wouldn’t be pocketable (as the current A7 family isn’t), they’d still be way smaller and lighter than DSLRs.
Or you’re saying it’s a mount thing and there’s no way that could be changed?
Sigh…I still don’t see a commitment from Sony with A-mount. Why they release these bits for E-mount and nothing for A-mount? I’m holding off from buying anything else from Sony. To make matters worse, the current adapters doesn’t allow the fast a6000 af to work with A-mount lenses, either you have to use slow af or limited pdaf performance with only a small coverage around the center of the frame. There is no 70-400 fe, there is no 24 f2 fe, there is no 135 f1.8 fe, and since I know those lenses are too big for fe to justify the manufacturing of those lenses in the near future, I’m screwed. Way to go Sony…
He also said that Sony A7 series won’t get 4K recording/codecs in a firmware update because it requires a new chip on the motherboard. This is probably true for other cameras as well.
RX10 was released before a5100. A5100 ships with XAVC S. RX10 doesn’t..Until magically, the RX10 received XAVC S update. How come, an older model received this update and other cameras don’t? If it was done with the RX10, It can b done with the a77mk.2, a6000 and both a7 and a7R
XAVC-S is not for 4K only.
I’m refering to the capabilities to record FullHD at 50Mbps compared to AVCHD. Now the RX10 is a more capable camera.
Yes we would all like to see the better Codec on our a6000, A7/r, and it has been rumoured that Sony is working on this already. Lett’s just hope that the manage to get it done. Sony??? The Codec (or lack of it) was the only reason I did not buy an a6000.Maybe good with a possible a7000 just around the corner anyways.
I think if XAVC-S is possible with firmware update on A6000 they would have done it already or are working on it. And 4K, even if it were possible, would mosdef cause overheating on APS-C/FF sensor. You would be able to shoot for like 3 mins 4K @ 15 fps 🙁
I think right now 1″ or m43 sensors are more realistic for smooth 4K recording and here Panasonic comes to mind 🙂
I’m refering to FullHD XAVC S recording cpabilites, that’s why I mentioned only the RX10/A5100 as a starting point.
A-mount is dead a long time ago, when SLT was born, disadvantage of SLT and IBIS is bigger then one think in the first place, SLT = light loss, IBIS = sensor heat with a low noise increase, both resulting in lowering IQ performance and reduce high ISO capabilitys, all mirrorless camera’s don’t have those problems, as well as the normal DSLR’s from Nikon and Canon, so Sony may have hit the wrong direction wit the SLT line camera’s and can’t go back.
I hope there is a solution, because I love the EVF on those camera’s.
Last time I checked, there are other mirrorless with IBIS and I don’t see this thing about sensor heat increasing noise…unless Pentax, Panasonic and Olympus are doing something wrong.
If you think that IBIS degrades your IQ, then go ahead and switch it off, when you don’t want it. I never use Wi-Fi on my cameras, but I am not complaining that the manufacturers have included it on the cameras.
When SLT was born, it had (still has) great advantages and could help Sony compete with Canikon; but they chose never to do so and gave SLT zero marketing, meanwhile promoting their mirrorless cameras.
Competing or not competing with Canikon had nothing to do with marketing. Sony never really took advantage of SLT in a technical sense. It has taken Sony until the A77II to give us AF that can compete with or surpass Canikon models in the same class.
You can’t pretend that SLT was some kind of revolution – it was just a slightly different approach to the DSLR concept that never really delivered on its promise.
I can’t agree with that. A65 was better than 60D, and A77 was better than 7D – and now A77-II is better than 7D-II. The viewfinder in A65 is uncharacteristically big for a cheap APS-C camera and has 100% coverage – that’s one example of taking advantage of the SLT technology. AF in video, focus peaking and so on – all of that has been there from the start.
I’ve used my brother in law’s 60D and my father’s 7D. I can tell you the AF in both of those, certainly for continuous AF, was far superior to either the A65 or A77. That was one of the supposed advantages of SLT AF, uninterrupted light to the AF sensor – it never really helped.
I haven’t even heard about this supposed advantage 🙂
However, I was really happy after switching from 7D to A65. It would be a very long post if I told why in detail.
Oh, yeah, the huge light loss that is totally irrelevant for any realistic output; that is Sony’s problem. Lol.
This basically spells the death knell for the current A7x series. Expect to see some really deep discounts on Black Friday.
I’m holding off on buying the existing A7x because I want much faster focusing and silent shooting.
Seems pretty clear that A-Mount is dead, except if you want to pay Hasselblad prices for the updated ones.
This statement pretty much eliminates any doubt that A mount is dead..
Ther is also no indication that full compatability with either A mount or Canikon lenses will ever happen.
There is also no indication that long lenses or tele-macro lenses will happen in the near future.
I see no possible way wildlife or sports photograprhers can possibly stay with Sony.
I have looked for some possible way that we could beo included in Sony’s future plans but Sony has totally cut us off.
I anxiously await the day Canikon seriously enter the competition as the blatent disregard Sony has for customers that do not fit into Sony’s new preffered target market is a disgrace.
Canon or Nikon would simply never do that.
Barry, what’s wrong with the A77MKII or the upcoming A99MKII? Those cameras along with some of Sony’s existing telephoto lenses, and a few third part lenses like the Sigma 150-600 Etc. should be more than adequate for sports and wildlife shooters.
How much of the market do you actually think that wildlife shooters represent? 3%, 5%?
Reality is that it is probably much less than that.
Im glad you asked me that.
First there is no definite indication that the A99II will come…and a strong possibility that the latest greatest sensors will go in E mount first and only see A mount as hand me downs.
Secondly there is no future…even if one new or two new A mount cameras come out there will definitely be none after that…and Sony clearly has no intention of ever putting IBIS in E mount or making A mount lenses fully high speed focus on E mount. A mount users are simply not invited to Sony’s future unless they buy everything new just like anyone that never owned a camera.
Thirdly..lens manufakcturers like Sigma see the writing on the wall too and will not make thier high end lenses for A mount.
If there’s “no future” why are you even worried about some camera?
How do you know if the a99II is coming at all?
And even if Sports and Wildlife shooters are a small %, those are the numbers that make people buy a certain brand. If you watched the olympics, the FIFA world cup and the super bowl, you should know that most shooters use Canon and Nikon. And people likes to use what professionals use. Even now, Sony is recruiting professionals to try make a difference. But if they leave A-mount in the dust, I predict other brands will take advantage of it.
You know about as much as I do about the A99 replacement. That being said, I think it is only the less sophisticated buyers in the North American market that might look at someone shooting at a sporting event, and use that to help them decide their next camera purchase. I believe that the more sophisticated Asian and European markets choose their next cameras, by doing their own research, and reading reviews Etc. That is why mirror-less is gaining so much traction in those markets, because the consumer is educated, and bases their buying decisions on facts, not what some guy is using to film a basketball game. I haven’t seen very many wildlife shooters on TV lately, so I would wager that no-one is basing their buying decisions on what camera Barry and his buddies are using to shoot on safari.
You missed the point. If a professional buys a certain brand, and makes money from it, it is because he/she trust that brand and knows he/she will be supported in the long term. The usual mindset for the consumer is, if that guy is using that brand for a living, then I should be fine too for the less demanding tasks.
This happens with many brands.
Wow………. That’s a pretty anti-American post, and also very inaccurate.
Mirrorless is growing massively in Asia.. but Europe is more like the US — dSLRs are more dominant.
And I don’t think it has anything to do with people watching sporting events.
Asian markets have always been faster to embrace “tech.” They have become the tech providers to the world. Additionally, overall, Asians tend to have smaller hands than westerners, which can make small mirrorless cameras more appealing.
Truthfully, I doubt many users really make a decision solely because “the pros use it,” but I do think that is factors into their mind a bit with brand reputation. Just the sense that Canon and Nikon cameras “must be good if all the pros are using them.”
And there definitely is a Euro-American conventional wisdom that big dSLRs “look like great cameras,” while mirrorless “look like point and shoot.”
It was not meant to derogatory, but I have to admit that just before I wrote that comment I was watching a segment on Fox News where a reporter was interviewing people on the street in some midwest town and asking them what they thought of Joe Biden. I was not surprised that the majority of people who he asked, did not even know who Joe Biden was, so I would not expect many of those people (who appear to be average Americans) would know the difference between an SLR, SLT or Mirror-Less camera.
My answer disappeared.
It was not meant to derogatory, but I have to admit that just before I wrote that comment I was watching a segment on Fox News where a reporter was interviewing people on the street in some midwest town and asking them what they thought of Joe Biden. I was not surprised that the majority of people who he asked, did not even know who Joe Biden was, so I would not expect many of those people (who appear to be average Americans) would know the difference between an SLR, SLT or Mirror-Less camera.
A99II if it ever comes is likely to be the ‘ll ast A mount camera.
BTW
Sigmas great new 150-600 sport will never be made for Sony..thats direct from Sigma and written in stone.
Yes Barry, but the new 150-600mm Classic version is being made, and until we see the full tests of both of these lenses, we can only speculate as to the difference in Quality between the two of them. It is a rather strange strategy in my opinion, but I suspect that the Sport version is larger and significantly heavier, and they though that wildlife shooters such as yourself, would prefer a lightweight version with almost the same IQ, over the larger heavier Sport version. The proof will be in the pudding.
The contemporary version is still in prototype and no mtf charts are yet available to compare to the sport ot Tamron version.
Considering 4 fewer elements and smaller glass including one less fld element..it is not likely to be comparable to the sport but probably closer in quality to the Tamron.
I hope you are correct and this lens is almost as good as the sport..that would provide me the currently unavailable option of continuing with Sony.
In the meantime I have already preordered the Sport version in Nikon mount to hold my place in line.
Sigma is forecasting this lens to be in short initial supply and only preorders will be filled before production catches up.
What a99ii? Did I miss an announcement? Or talking about vague rumors of the possibility of a camera that may never even happen?
so then leave already if you hate sony so much. We’ve had enough of your whining. Go buy a Canikon and stfu.Everyone here will appreciate it if you would do it sooner rather than later
I will not STFU. I have been a loyal Minolta/Sony user forover 45 years..and will not be silent when Sony screws me.
And just what have you invested that makes not having to listen to me more important than what I have to say?
Lastly if you dont think what I am saying has value your a fool..because Sony will do it again sooner than you think.
E mount will be dead soon too…and any of the brand new stuff you just bought will be practically worthless.
If you are investing in Cameras and Lenses with the expectation that they will appreciate over time, then I suggest that you should look at changing your investment strategy. You might do better by investing in shares in the companies, or just buy some gold. Technology is not an investment. It is constantly being rendered obsolete, so if you want to be on the leading edge of technology, then you are going to have to pay for it. That’s not to say that your 4 year old camera is not capable of taking good pictures, it is just that no matter what you complain about, it will remain old technology, and will have to hit the dustbin sooner or later. The fact that it is rapidly depreciating should be enough motivation for you to keep trading up, every upgrade cycle. I change my iPhone every year when the new one comes out and the cost is not too bad, but my old iPhone 3G that cost almost $800 dollars is now worth about $25 is just a fact of life. I kept it too long. Same with your old cameras. Trade them just before, or as soon as the new model hits the streets.
The problem is, the “new technology” in this case is insofar inferior to the “old technology” it is supposed to replace. Otherwise it would be a simple “sell A-Mount, buy E-Mount” no-brainer.
It’s not about hate. It’s about how much money a certain person spent in a certain brand and suddenly after a some thousands invested, you see they’re abandoning you. What would you feel if suddenly Sony starts a new mount for curved sensors and in 3 years you start hearing only about that new mount and everything is just about that new mount? Wouldn’t you feel a bit ashamed you trusted this company after spending a few thousand bucks?
Barry has a point, I almost pity him. If I were Sony I would have made him an ambassador, recruited him to promote new Sony lenses for wildlife photography and of course made a custom 150-600mm especially for him to commemorate his loyalty to Sony for 45 years, PRed the hell out of him, had him on posters everywhere: “Barry, a man of great loyalty and honor, no bird has ever escaped his eagle eye” 🙂
there is a big problem in your logic: Canikon will never disregard their customers as you seem to believe Sony does with A-mount users.
but in the same time you do believe that Canikon will enter the mirroless market with a serious product, meaning the Nikon 1 and Canon EOS M are just an attempt to test the market.
So what happent to those customers when Canikon will pull the plug on those systems for their “serious” one? aren’t they being disregard just like Sony does?
there is no good company that are here for the well being of photographers and evil one that try to empty your wallet.
they are all here for your money and will adapt their strategy accordingly to the revenue they can make with a product or not.
Indeed! Nikon’s strategy with DX is a clear indication. They never developed prime lenses for dx except for the adequate 35mm 1.8 that was done in response to general demand and, it seems to me, somewhat begrudgingly. The plan all along was probably to move to full frame sensors, in spite of all protestations to the contrary.
Canikon will make thier mirrorless systems work with thier existing lens lines…they cannot afford to throw thier existing customers under the bus and sa if you dont like what were doing go somewhere else.,
The reason they have waited rather than jumped in already is that they are waiting for the technology to do it right and be fully compatable.
actually Canikon had already treat their customers like that.
You never saw the whole D600 oil spots thing? You didn’t see how many people jumped ship from Nikon to Canon? They aren’t much better. Ever read the million comments about a D400 or a D700 replacement? Still hasn’t happened to those Nikon people.
Oil you just wipe off and move on- no big deal. Sony with the A100…ever hear of the card reader error- DEATH. No camy cam after that. There is also no need for a D700 replacement. Nikon has to many FF DSLR’s now it redundant. My issue is no Zeiss AF with Nikon and their lenses look like they were designed from the 80’s. I’m all about tube socks but I want my camera lenses looking modern. But I’m still interested, they are doing DSLR right more than anyone else in the game…which is nobody but Canon and Sony. Sony is day dreaming about mirror less and WTF with Canon.
Full compatibility with Canon and Nikon? That is like expecting Canon and Nikon systems to become compatible with each other (except for registry distance problems). This is just a straw man attack on Sony.
I still don’t get what you don’t like about Canon and Nikon. They both work perfectly and have a million different lenses each.
Flapping mirrors.
Some people care for the results, not for the flapping or lack of it. I am one of those…
Flapping mirror makes trackin AF problematic. That is an important feature for subjects like birds in flight.
I have preordered Sigma 150-600 sport in Nikon mount…so unless something happens to change my mind I will be getting one.
Yeah because CaNikon users obviously have problems tracking BiF, oh wait….
Barry do yourself a favour, get a Nikon and then troll the Nikon forums.
Canikon have great tracking AF, what are you talking about?
AF tracking was problematic on the A77 – maybe not the AF itself (although it not the quickest), but the slideshow effect made following fast action pretty difficult.
I suggest you evaluate your technique. There are many successful BIF photographers using Canikon cameras with flappy mirrors.
Ever used a Nikon for that? You have a problem with it, but you’re buying it. Makes sense. Also, having an optical viewfinder is extremely important for some people, requiring that mirror.
“Ther is also no indication that full compatability with either A mount or Canikon lenses will ever happen.”
Full compatibility with Canikon is pure fantasy. I can’t even think of any precedent that would cause you to think it might happen.
maybe he is hoping for Sony a huge lawsuit for AF patent infrigment from Canikon.
“This statement pretty much eliminates any doubt that A mount is dead..”
Wow, come on! No matter what Sony says or does, it means that a-mount is dead.
It’s like a flowchart that only leads to a single option.
Sony says A mount is to be supported – A mount is dead
Sony says A mount will get new technology- A mount is dead
Releases E mount camera – A mount is dead
Releases E mount lens – A mount is dead
Releases A mount camera – A mount is dead – it’s the last to be released
“We will try to get A6000 AF performance on the next generation FF E-mount cameras”.
That is awesome news.
I JUST WANT MORE CAMERAS. GIVE ME MORE CAMERAS! THAT’s ALL I WANT.
(Never mind lenses)
Please Sony, we Must have a responsive Silent Shutter in some sort of A7 body, preferably with 24MPX or so, no AA filter and IBIS. With good AF and the ability to use our existing lenses as well (Nikon, Zeiss etc.), Sony will win over the many Canonikon users who have been waiting for this market to develop. Please adapt the new technology from the A7S, so that at 24 MPX we gain just a couple of stops of low light capability: superb 6400 ISO matters to many, while higher figures make for good publicity but are quite unnecessary for most.
I am happy with the transparency and the guts of this PM as he disclose many infos.
Creating new cameras with better gear is good, lenses are already their (I mean FE + others).
‘developing booth’? I was hoping they would still be digital. ^.^
Will the new stacked sensors be reserved for just the high end A mount camera/s or will they also be in a high end FE mount cameras?
what is a stacked sensor?
Simplistically it will be Sonys take on the Foveon sensor used by Sigma. Canon is also working on similar technology.
oic. why do you expect stacked sensor to replace bayer soon? there is sooooo long way…
I agree Jan is a long way away…I cant wait to see the Canon and Nikon with Sony sensor .
I hope they all come out at the same time.
lol…. proof?
Imagine a sandwich. A three layered sandwich..meat, cheese and buns. Now this sensor is like that sandwich. Each layer having the same meat cheese and a slice of bun. Now imagine sticking those layers together into a colossal triple decker and tripling the sandwichiness of that sandwich. Replace the word sandwich with sensor in everything I just said. There you go.
LOL….
No doubt it will be in both – assuming both are released of course, which is not certain.
Sony is going too fast to move a-mount users to e-mount. E-Mount is not so mature system, mayby up to 2-3 years show potential for e-mount…
I expect e-mount camera: IBIS, DSLR shape, bigger battery, good evf, and cheap lenses (f2.8 standard zoom – is planned at second half of 2015)
f2.8 zoom lenses aren’t coming, those lenses would be too big. It defeats the purpose of ”smallest mirrorless fullframe” camera that Sony likes to tell people as key selling point.
They will push ISO to compensate that.
Soon 100k ISO will be standard.
See the roadmap on official sony.
I don’t think that there will be any f2.8 zooms for E-Mount. Why do they need them? The only difference is one stop of light gathering. That has been negated by much better ISO on the modern sensors. The bokeh issue is being addressed through better lens design.
In fact the sensors have gained far more than one stop of usable ISO in the last few years, so f4 lenses are just fine.
Maybe for Aps-c E-mount there will be f2.8 zooms but for FF E-Mount don’t think so.
It has nothing to do with bokeh, it has to do with DOF.
You can’t magically make an f/4 lens have DOF as shallow as an f/2.8 lens. The lens designer might be able to make the bokeh more attractive with a good design, but the DOF will be exactly the same.
Question: Are new e-mount lenses coming?
Sony : yes, very soon we will release new FE cameras with improved AF, aimed at pros, etc, etc
Question: Are new a-mount cameras coming?
Sony answer: We don’t comment on future product releases.
That’s their way to tell people they’re going to kill a-mount. Even if they release a new FF a-mount body tomorrow, people would be afraid to invest in a-mount because their amazing marketing team and the amazing executives at Sony has done a great job not announcing anything for A-mount, nor giving insights of what the hell they plan to do with the mount. Creating confidence in the long term huh?
Same thing happened back in 85′ when Minolta released the A mount. They quietly abandoned their SR mount but it didn’t fully happen until 2001. I think A mount has another 5 years of quiet support from Sony until it’s axed. Sony will brush the comments regarding it under the carpet until it’s evident the transition is complete with minimal risk.
There had been rumors about a hybrid mount camera, but I haven’t heard anything about it in a long time.
I don’t think Sony has a definite plan for A-mount… They are playing it by ear. If sales are strong, they will continue developing and releasing new bodies but they won’t put their energy behind growing the market. And since they don’t put their energy into it, the sales likely won’t be strong…. Giving them every reason to transition away from the mount.
As the capabilities of the E-mount cameras begin to match and even surpass the A-mount… it makes less and less sense to keep the 2 product lines. It’s actually a shame that A-mount relies on IBIS. Adapters would be a pretty sufficient option if it didn’t cost stabilization. (I’d have switched to the A7 myself if I could have kept my lenses with stabilization).
The list of reasons that Sony supposedly can’t abandon A-mount keeps getting smaller. Just a couple years ago, people were saying that Sony can’t abandon A-mount because: No full frame option (cross that off the list), much inferior AF (at least cross that off the list for APS-C and likely in the future for fullframe), lack of lens options (but a clear roadmap that will catch up to A-mount before you know it, especially since A-mount is standing still). The list has gotten whittled down to lack of 2.8 zooms (but let’s be honest.. with today’s ISO performance, 2.8 zooms aren’t as important as the days of film), slightly worse low light AF performance, lack of long telephoto lenses (how many people really own anything longer than 300mm anyway?)…
I wish Sony would just sell off the A-mount to someone else who might care about continuing to develop it.
Sell it to Pentax. They were considering a full frame anyway. Outside of sensor performance, they make some stellar DSLR’s on the market.
oh… I just bought A7S last week……………………………………………….
I wouldn’t worry about it, I’m guessing the next a7 high resolution will come out in March, and they won’t be updating the A7s at least a year since it’s release. Enjoy the camera, lucky you.
Buy the new high res Nikon with Sony sensor instead…Sony makes good sensors but they do not belong in the camera business.
Nikon has nothing good for video compared to the a7s. Nor are they small, nor mirrorless. Now you’re just trolling with nonsense.
I dont care about video or small…
If I did I would buy a small/ video camera.
Enjoy!
(I am still waiting for a price range I fixed for it at its debut).
I am pretty certain that you won’t see an A7S replacement anytime soon. Can’t see how Sony can improve this camera apart from internal 4K recording.
If sports and pro photographers are getting a Sony ILC-E FF camera, then I would think that either the A7/A7R get refreshed or there’s an A9 coming up.
Global shutter would be much more appreciated than internal recording.
So I am utilizing the new website started by SAR contributor at CameraPeddler.com to start the switch. I’ll be dumping my beautiful Sigma Art lens, sigma 85mm, Sigma 17-70 2.8 C, and my 70-200mm 2.8G…. Camera and accessories as well..batteries, flash, flash triggers, etc… I may put it up on ebay if it doesn’t move fast enough.
Why not just hang onto it and use the adapter?
I do a lot of sports shooting and I cannot imagine that there will be much success using adapters with the adverse effect on af speed.. plus any new 300mm that comes out of Sony will start at 8k…Selecting a camera brand is just about getting the tool you need. Not emotionally invested. It’s just a tool. Need to go get the tool I need now and Sony gets me only so far with where my photo work/hobby has gone.
Yeah that’s incredibly expensive. So what’s the switch to?
Starts with letter N.
You’re right, simply “Nothing”.
Excellent choice, there is really nothing else than N or C for proper photography.
Can we see some of your “proper” photography?
Most inane comment of the day. Congrats.
Have you seen how many AF points and AF coverage current adapters have with PDAF? LAEA4 on fullframe is a joke, and on APS-C it’s just.like the first SLT cameras, the a55.
It’s a gutsy move, but congratulations. I’m contemplating the switch myself, and the sticking point is what to do with my Sigma 500mm f/4.5, which is a big part of my shooting sports and wildlife. For the difference between what I paid and what I’d get selling it, I could pay for an a7r body. Maybe I’ll keep the lens, and get that body, using the already slow-focuser with the adapter.
Thanks Jonathan. I am on the cusp of getting into some real $$$ on lenses and before I get there I figure to take a small hit on the switch and go forward from here!
So I was planning on purchasing an A7S next month. Is he basically telling me my camera will be outdated in a few months after?
No, just get the camera, the AF in the A7s is not severing lacking vs the a6000. I have both. Plus you want the high ISO, they won’t release the A7s markii until at least a year since it’s release.
At least it´s not slower in lower light conditions ^^.
Outdoors (with good light) the A6000 is way faster.
Why is that news, every camera will be outdated In a few month, want the newest and best, rent or pay up.
Well, you know Sony, the time you wait for a test or picture samples, they announce a new body. If you react like you do, you will never buy one.
E mount will be obsolete as soon as Canikon get in the game…
Switch.
Stop trolling.
Andrea, can’t you just ban this clown? It’s getting beyond a joke.
how do you imagine this? CaNikon releasing FF mirrorless lenses at 3-4x rate of Sony?
They do not need too..
The existing lenses will be compatable.
Not without an adapter they won’t.
If they don’t need an adapter, then they will be using standard DSLR registration distances, which means mirrorbox, which means compromised from the start.
Read your own coment about electrical connections and protocals…if only an extension tube adapter were needed that would be compatable.
And how do you think the AF is going to function as well as it does with DSLRs? Answer, it won’t, certainly not with older lenses.
Why not?
You develope mirrorless af to match dslr speed and match the electronic protocalls so the mirrorless lenses and dslr lenses use the same protocall.
This is what Sony should have done and didnt…Canikon will not duplicate Sony’s mistake.
Why aren’t you on Nikon Rumors yet?
Except that a lot of the old lenses with old motors will not be compatible with new OSPDAF.
There is no such thing as a free lunch. There will be compromise somewhere. As always, you have this fantasy of how everything is going to work, but then fail to realise you live in the real world.
Have you been studying that diagram I posted?
Sony have that adapter already for AF without a mirror. If there was a EF or F mount mirrorless it would be as fast as the 70D in liveview. If that was released right now it would be two generations behind the E mount AF.
So they are going to make a mirrorless system, with a huge benefit being small size, just to use their huge DSLR lenses? Makes no sense.
What is the reason to go mirrorless then, if using SLR lenses?
No mirror and no slt
Speaking of RX news…what’s the status of the RX20. Isn’t the overdue now?
Just got rid of my a7r, will wait until the market matures or when canikon finally jumps in. thought the fe was for small ff bodies, and fast small ff lenses. At f2, it defeats the purpose of leaving apsc. But the rx1 will last me a decade or two.
The only thing that really bothers me is “very soon”. Holidays are coming so postponing the new models for 2015 to me sounds like a big marketing mistake.
Comming out with an unfinished product will even a bigger marketing mistake, look at the oil on the sensor problem by Nikon…
This interview is really weird… but at the same time very telling.
1. They thought NEX and Alpha were confusing, so they decided to just call two completely different systems Alpha? Not that’s confusing!
2. He says “You can use A-Mount lenses on E-Mount cameras”, not mentioning adapters and AF limitations. Well, by this logic, with adapters you can use any lenses at all with MF, why not just call evey single lens ever produced an Alpha lens??
3. He says A6000 is “world fastest autofocus”, instead of “world fastest autofocus among mirrorless cameras”.
4. “We’re still commited to A-Mount”, “We’re still putting some latest technology in A-Mount”… this STILL word is very telling.
5. When asked about A-Mount, he starts stuttering a lot.
Sony have decided they can somehow replace DSLR with mirorrless.
If they have some breakthrough AF technology in the works, release f/2.8 zooms and everything, they can crush all DSLR mounts.
If, however, they don’t, they’re killing off the only product line they had that can compete with Canikon.
Right now E-Mount is nowhere ready, and people are afraid to buy into A-Mount, because Sony is obviously killing it off. If you need to shoot now, not wait several more years, the obvious transition path is to Nikon, not E-Mount…
SAR, AKA Pendants ‘R’ Us.
What..?
Points 2 and 3 were highly pedantic.
You wrote “pendants”, which means something different 😛
LOL, so I did. I can see why that might be confusing.
Well said. After 10 plus years of shooting sony- Nikon seems the most enticing now. I wouldn’t want to be locked into E mount lenses either. You can always pick up a FE mount camera if you really have to scratch that itch.
The only thing Sony has to offer is good Sensors
Nikon will use Sony Sensors.
And you still don’t see the point of Sony is using Zeiss AF glass… blows my mind.
You are correct…I see no point in buying Sony Zeiss lenses…
Show me a Sony Ziess 600 or 150-600 at a reasnable price or a Sony Ziess telemacro and I might be more inclined to see your point.
Just one question: What will happen to the Canon and Nikon DSLRs when mirrorless takes over? Do you realy think they will continue to put much R&D in the DSLRs? Or will they stop making them, exept for some small market niche?
Personaly I think Sony will develop the A-mount as long it is proffitable to do so. Then it will be merged into the E-mount.
About the stotteing, he does the same when talking about E-mount and the QX1… I don’t think people should be to affraid for the near future of the A-mount system, but it will end someday, it is very well possible that then there will be cameras with both good AF, IBIS and a good A to E mount adapter.
And about the confusion, well They always called the E-mount camera Alpha, only not that many people realized it (there is an Alpha symbol on the body, there is an Alpha symbol when you switch off the camera. So no problem there. Canon is calling all there ILCs EOS, nobody complains…
You can use A-mount lenses with their full functionality (like Apperture control, Auto Focussing at high speed (OK maybe not as high as with the latest cameras, but reasonably fast) and they show EXIF data. That is different then with lenses from other brands, that do slow AF, some don’t do Apperture control and do no EXIF information.
>What will happen to the Canon and Nikon DSLRs when mirrorless takes over?
I don’t see it as a “WHEN”, rather as an “IF”. Although Sony seems confident.
What happens to Sony if mirrorless never takes over?
Otherwise, good points.
When mirrorless AF catches up with dslr af no one will have any reason not to go mirrorless..so it is only a matter of when.
Again: I don’t see it as a “WHEN”, rather as an “IF”.
What if mirrorless AF never catches up to DSLR? DSLR AF will be developing too.
d750 AF is proof of dSLR superiority, only GH4 can rival that speed.
No it won’t. Why develop DSLR AF when there is no reason to? It is WHEN, not IF.
Isn’t Canon’s dual-AF pixel technology already proof that mirrorless can AF as fast as a DSLR?
Canon’s dual-pixel AF assists autofocus in video mode… what are you talking about? There’re isn’t a single Canon camera which relies on this tech as its primary AF
I disagree. I think it will be when. If I was ever a studio photographer, I would not want to use an EVF and an SLR makes way more sense.
“when there is no reason to” – how’s that?
When the entire industry has shifted to mirrorless with OSPDAF. Why develop something that is obsolete, i.e. off sensor PDAF?
Errrr… the order seems wrong? First mirrorless AF needs to catch up to PDAF, THEN the entire industry would shift to OSPDAF, and THEN PDAF would be obsolete, right?
Of course, but the first part will happen sooner than you think, as manufacturers will have no desire to spend resources on developing something that is going to go the way of the dodo. OSPDAF is already developing at a far greater rate than PDAF. I don’t think PDAF will forever maintain a gap between itself and mirrorless AF, simply due to the lack of resources spent on its development in the next few years.
So far Canon and Nikon have shown no desire to re-allocate resources from DSLR to mirrorless. Let’s see how it goes down the line 🙂
Publicly, certainly not. They have very valuable DSLR lines to protect.
There are still benefits to having an optical viewfinder that EVF doesn’t have, and that is a big deal.
Dslr…ovf is netter
Slt….pros and cons for each
Mirroless…evf is not only the best choice but the only choice.
Mirrorless cameras….no ovf….end of story.
That is the point. Mirrorless won’t replace DSLR for that fact alone.
Canon and Nikon do not have the fools at the top that Sony does.
They will make their mirrorless system full compatable with their lenses.
They won’t even have this issue; Canon and Nikon have IS in the lens, not in the body, to begin with.
Indeed, just like the Canon guy dpreview interviewed who said Canon sensors are the best and everything in Canon land is just super and peachy. If he’s in charge of Canon’s mirrorless strategy, everything will be great, absolutely nothing to worry about.
They already have a mirrorless systems that are compatible in no way where the A-Mount and E-Mount are.
Canon is preparing for that by adding STM to their lenses so their SLR lenses will work ok on mirrorless, and developing Dual Pixel AF.
Why everyone asks f/2.8 zooms? That would be duplication in regards to A-mount. Why not ask to make them f/2.6 just in sake of being slightly different?
This video is a month old, and during th whole event, all manufacturers and hosts announced that no future products or comments on future products will be made. Add to that the fact that “very soon” basically means nothing, it could be a year, a month, 6 months.
It is very easy, when a manufacturer tells very soon, that is: in the next generation of this model. Otherwise they do not talk about it in this way (they may say then We are working on it, but it will take some long time etc.)
So A-mount is really dead. E-mount ftw!
More like Nikon ftw at the moment
Do you use a Nikon nor just look at the spec sheets and test charts?
Please Sony, make whatever weird, difficult decisions you have to, but just please give me two memory card slots and a minimum shutter speed on auto iso!
Two memory card slots a more pro build.
If they develop a system with an adapter that is just a distance ring
with electronic connections, and that takes in account A-Lenses in AF
and MF, it is a reasonable way to go. But I doubt that it will happen
and that on the end we will have a-mount cameras only in the high end
niche he talks about. Now, let’s see if the new a-7000 will be aps-c and
if it will come. Then let’s wait to see a NEX-7 style body in FF,
without the hump in the center. Hope the new ones will go that way.
I shoot with Nikon D700 and would like to switch to Sony next gen FF E mount. The only thing that holding me back from a switch is Sony’s cameras have no minimum shutter speed setting in auto ISO mode. The lack of this setting nullifies usefulness of auto ISO for me, and I use auto ISO for action shooting. I have to have this setting to be able to freeze actions and prevent motion blur. The rule when the shutter speed is equal to the lens focal length, e.g. 1/60 for 50mm, does not allow you to freeze motion. And that is what implemented in Sony’s cameras.
If there is no minimum shutter speed setting on new gen FF E cameras, I will not switch.
Sony, please add the minimum shutter speed setting to auto ISO mode.
Well, you can use mode M with Auto Iso. I do that with the A7s et A7r. You can then use a minimum shutter speed. Very handy for shows.
Iso auto range can be adjusted.
This is ok if you shoot in similar light, but not in quickly changing lighting conditions. Minimum shutter speed setting with auto iso is a common sense feature available on pretty much all decent cameras. Sony is the only manufacturer blind about it.
Minimum shutter speed Auto ISO is LAME. You have to do stupid menu diving every time you want to change it. On my A7S I can change it on the fly with a turn of the wheel. But I guess that is too complicated for some.
wait till you take a look at how the FF-Emount camera manages AF… good luck
A6000 focus in a full frame e mount is what it will take to get me to switch from a mount
I want a new RX1 with an articulate screen and a built in oled viewfinder. Sony did it with the RX100 so…
Am I the only one that wants Sony to focus more on LENSES & LONGER BATTERY LIFE? I’ve been using 3rd party lenses and legacy glass & quite frankly, AF doesn’t hype me up as so many in this forum. Give me more native lens primes for my a7 please!
More lenses are comming. They just announced the lenses on Photokina (7 I believe) and more in the next 12 month! So your wish will be fullffilled!
For others the AF speed and other things in camera are equaly or more important, so it is good that two totaly different teams are working for both groups of users!
They come out with all these new cameras so fast yet their lenses’ focal length ranges are not even complete. Look at Fujifilm mirrorless. They did it right. They completed their whole lens line-up fast & are now finetuning their cameras with small updates that are getting closer & closer to perfection. The lenses make the camera in the end. Although each FE FF Sony is great, I agree that Sony/Zeiss needs to complete the lens family BEFORE venturing out into more new cameras. I feel like Sony wants to have the same number of cameras as they have lenses.
more customizability? optional external evf??? if yes, it is a very good news.
It was really surprising at times how much Sony pushed innovation in the last few years. I’m glad they now have the tools to revolutionise the FF market with one last push in the following areas:
1) Faster AF for FE mount (A6000 grade or faster);
2) Improve start-up time, responsiveness and menu (these should not be underestimated)
3) Cover a few more important focal lengths in their lens line-up (unlike most people I’ll say they are doing quite well here – released a LOT of lenses in only two years)
actually the FF E-mount cams are only one year old.
I guess since Sony is not big on firmware updates we get new cameras. They could have put the XACS (or whatever that newer better video codec is) in the A7 and A7r and made a lot of people happy…made a lot of sales…but nooooo
You don’t even know what it’s called yet it is somehow important? Welcome to the internet.
You are actually right, I thought for a second if it is 1 or 2 years when I was writing my comment, but it looked like they’ve been around for ages …
Veeery good news for my birthday!! 🙂
“New generation of Full Frame E-mount cameras is coming very soon.”
He didn’t actually say this. He said that the full-frame E-mount cameras will soon have the same AF performance of the lower level models. He didn’t say anything about actual product releases.
And do you really think about them giving you a better af to your a7 via firmware?
As someone who literally just bought an A7 I’m fine with new bodies coming out. I’m actually counting on it. I’m pretty happy with the A7 so far for what I need it to do, but I held off on the A7R due to responsiveness and the shutter sound and all that. If they improve that in the next high MP body I’ll probably get that.
I also really want a Zeiss 85mm. For most of my fashion and portraiture work the 35, 55, and 85 would serve about 90% of those needs.
I’m not an A mount user though and would probably be extremely pissed if I were. I use my Nikon system for the fast paced stuff and I’m hoping the Sony A series can replace it eventually over the next few iterations.
And out of all those fine questions, you forgot to ask, why there is no complete Road-map. Road-map for A-Mount? hmm this would dispel the concern or at least allow loyal customers to make a decision. Do I stay or do I go, come on all my A-Mount brothers, lets sing the little ditty together now. 1, 2, 3. Based on the other questions about a-mount sticking around… just to what degree is really the questions, will I be able to purchase a new A-Mount body to meet my needs? Who knows is the only conclusion we can currently make.
He was pretty unequivocal this time. Sony doesn’t see a future for A-Mount. There will be no roadmap. Sony intends to migrate their users to… well, Nikon mostly.
Dammit Jim! I’m given her all she’s got…. the void is sucking us closer to the center of the infinite anomaly, Spock, I know it’s not in your nature but you’re just going to have to make guess!
LMAO!
You can run to Nikon but you can’t hide there. Nikon and Canon will move in the exact same direction as Sony.
Mirrorless is not a “Sony” shift….it an entire industry shift.
It will take lots of time….but Sony wI’ll get there first.
This is a possibility, not a certainty.
Mirrorless may never catch up to DSLR, and in this case Sony will be left empty-handed.
‘Pros’ clung to their CRT monitors too chanting ‘I will NEVER replace my CRT with a cr@ppy LCD’… people in general can only understand the here and now.
And they didn’t, until IPS arrived.
Don’t confuse real professional requirements with unwillingness to accept new technology.
If Sony rolls out some kind of breakthrough OSPDAF and fast lenses, bye bye A-Mount, no problem.
Well you’ve not even given it a whole year yet already written it off…
“Yet”, not “already”.
I think this is an interesting timeline comparison: In the time.it took to update the 7D to 7D MkII, mirrorless was born as a slow point and shoot with big sensor to a thriving industry and market segment with fairly well established lens ecosystems. AF technology has come leaps and bounds in that time as each new generation of sensor has AF improvements and sensors get refreshed more often than AF sensors as, for example Sony ship those in a LOT more cameras. Not only has AF improved but general operation speed to be up there with the top flight SLRs and even exceeding them due to the other benefits of a mirrorless design. While the 7D ‘just’ exceeds the best mirrorless AF the next generation will likely match it, by the time there is a new generation 7D, mirrorless will exceed what traditional SLRs can do. That I guarantee and is very much like CRTS and LCDs, the pace of development is MUCH faster because it has a far wider reaching potential.
I don’t see mirrorless coming anywhere close to 7DM1 anytime soon, unless some breakthrough technology turns up.
Already there.
You don’t mean the A6000, do you?
A6000, Nikon V3, NX1, GH4… take your pick.
You’re kidding, right?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6Y1e96W_o8
Wow you watched a YouTube video! You really ARE an expert!
Great, so while using a lens that hasn’t been set up to support the A6000’s newer AF system focus is slow… REALLY telling. You also ignored all the other models I mentioned, but hey, everyone is an expert when it comes to stuff they’ve never used, it’s the internet afterall!.
The a6000 is like a wet depends. It holds up for awhile but eventually the shiiit falls through. Good thing I don’t do low light photography or I’d be screwed with that thing. And you know the video is certified gold…the guy has a german accent for crying out loud. I can’t even get past the nikon V3 name so don’t need to look that one up. NX1 isn’t even out yet so no point in even mentioning it. GH4 is a panasonic…wait, ok.It does have Sonic in the name so that doesn’t really count- kind of a given.
In my experience it cr@ps out at about the same point as the A77 does, which is also around the same point that it’s not even worth taking a photo due to sensor performance. A7S has a much higher threshold but doesn’t have the tracking. Taking A6000 to next gen FF and there will be very little it can’t do.
I’m still clinging to that monitor.
The total lack of interest in or commitment to E mount (as opposed to FE mount) just confirms my decision to ditch my much loved NEX7 in favour of the X-E2. Sorry Sony. I really wanted to stick with APS E mount but it seems you weren’t interested in customers like me any more.
I thought the rumor a few days ago was about an NEX7 successor- no?
A NEX7 successor would be very welcome, but runours or not, Sony stated clearly when the A6000 was launched that it was the NEX7 successor. Perhaps they’ve changed their mind. I certainly hope so. A great camera like the NEX7 deserves to be developed and maintained. It still leaves open the question of whether Sony will continue to develop dedicated lenses for the APS sensor. This is the real weakness in the E mount system. With some money to spend I concluded that given Sony’s lack of clarity and the absence of any road map for E mount (as opposed to FE mount) lenses it would be foolish to invest more in a system with question marks over it, and better to switch now before the cost of doing so became more prohibitive.
Enjoy your Fuji, it’s the worst camera I’ve ever owned and I’ve owned all the systems.
Thank you for your insightful contribution.
You are welcome. Not sure why you are happy to buy overpriced APS-C lenses yet buying full frame lenses seem to rub you up the wrong way, but Fuji certainly has some APS-C lenses. PS don’t buy Canon or Nikon as they are nearly completely devoid of APS-C lenses (I guess that must be why they collectively have almost no market share).
Sony is not interested in any of thier old customers…they only want to service thier new target marked ..everone else can go to……..somewhere else.
How is releasing fullframe compatible lenses (that can just normally be used on APS-C sensor cameras) a “lack of commitment” to E-mount?!
Because they are bigger, heavier, generally more expensive and, in the case of zooms, at inappropriate focal lengths for APS sensors.
So? You guys are weird.
When Nex proved to be a succesful system, everyone (including me) were asking for a fullframe Nex.
Then Sony answered to your (our) prayers and released a fullframe Nex.
Then people started complaining that there weren’t FF lenses.
Then Sony started working really hard on releasing FF lenses on a good pace.
Then people started complaining that Sony has “abandoned” the APS-C users.
There’s no pleasing in you guys, is there?
Feel free to show me anywhere on the whole of the world wide web where I personally asked for a ‘full frame’ NEX. I have no interest in ‘FF’ whatsoever and never have had.
For those of you who wanted one, I’m happy for you that Sony has obliged and seems to be committed to that system. I simply hoped that they would continue to develop the APS as well.
You seem think I’m annoyed or angry: I’m not. I’m just disappointed.
I’m just saying that if Sony never released a FF nex, there’d be a whole lot of people asking (or complaining) for it.
You, olli, would be happy if Sony kept only their APS-C line. Other people wouldn’t.
People just have to be a bit more patient.
No that’s not what you were saying. You were claiming that ‘everyone’ wanted a FF NEX. Yes I would have been happy if Sony had kept only their APS line in the same way that many FE users would be happy if Sony kept only their ‘FF’ line. But it doesn’t follow that I’m unhappy that they developed the ‘FF’ line. As I said above, I’m happy for you, but I’m disappointed that Sony has demonstrated little commitment to the APS line.
Let me make it clear: I understand that having introduced the FE system Sony had to prioritise the development of that system. I understand that in the short term the APS system had to take a back seat. I wasn’t expecting a constant flow of new cameras and lenses for APS. I was very patient – patiently waiting for Sony to simply make clear what their long term plans were for the APS system. All Sony needed to do was indicate that they would be producing at some point an enthusiast level APS camera (i.e. a genuine NEX7 replacement) and would continue to develop a lens line up specific to the APS sensor. Even if they had done this and said, ‘by the way we won’t be able to do this until 2016 but we are going to do it’ I would still be a Sony user and I would have spent my money on the 24 and the 16-70.
I have plenty of patience, but at a certain point you have to make a judgement and make a decision. I will be delighted if Sony does return to the APS line at some point and put some energy into it. I will be delighted for all those other APS E mount users who don’t need or want ‘FF’ but I will no longer be one of them.
A sad truth to be told: Sony was never very good at giving us roadmaps or anything. Ever. For me this is the biggest flaw with them.
If you are a long time reader from SAR, remember those rumors about the “A700 successor”? How many people were eager awaiting for some news and/or hints about a ‘A750’ and how Sony never mentioned a single thing?
All we ever had until Sony released the A77 were rumors.
Sticking with Sony is like opening a box of chocolates; you KNOW you’ll get SOME thing from it. But WHAT kind of thing, you’ll have to wait and see.
(this is why I ditched my Alpha stuff in favor to Pentax. Then I’ve bought a Nex 6 -for a smaller kit for travelling purposes- and got bitten by the mirrorless bug :p)
Good luck. A year from now Fuji will be ditching its entire APS-C line for a full frame line, and unlike E-mount, they will have to ditch the mount for a bigger one.
Well it’s good to know you have such solid inside information on Fuji’s plans. If only I’d thought to ask you first! Perhaps we can revisit this in a year.
Fuji seems pretty sure that they won’t be releasing a FF camera anytime soon. They seem to be very statisfied with the results of their current X-Trans sensor.
For the next FF mirrorless contender, I’d bet on Samsung.
May I beg for A mount news?
You just got it…a mount will be replaced by E mount and all your lenses will be incompatable.
“Incompatible” is a big too exagerated. There are always adapters.
You sound just like Sony.
LA-EA4 has A65 AF and no IBIS.
you’ll get LA-EA5 and LA-EA6 :)))
This is why I’d love to see a Nex with IBIS. So we could all use our legacy lenses and still get stabilization.
You were just singing the praises of the A65.
AF isn’t its strong point. I was pointing out other things.
Not an exageration at all.
The flange distance of E mount is so short that it cannot be made to fit on any other camera with an adapter…unles an optical teleconverter is included in the adapter.
Yep, exactly what I was thinking: an adapter with an optical element would be needed.
I know that those usually aren’t the best thing out there but, still…
Because lots of people want to use E-mount lenses on their Canikon DSLRs, right? Lenses that won’t even AF or open up the aperture without the correct electrical protocol.
see the 1st bullet
We should have a pole on this website. How many users- assuming another round of FE cameras hits the market before A mount- will a) Move over to Nikon or b) adopt FE
Sounds good on the surface, but casual shooter needs are separate for pro shooter needs. That’s the problem, and benefit, to sites like these. Newbie enthusiasts have problems even understanding what some of the pros complain about.
Personally I don’t think they don’t need to be separated. Sony is in the business of making money. Adapting for pro is only good for bragging rights.
This pole would tell you if they would make more money buy staying with Sony e-mount or will it annoy people enough to change brands.
Damn, can’t edit after I noticed the grammar error.
To A-Mount users, what’s missing? I really wanna know.
1- The A77ii had better ergonomics(like the af select joystick and DAT GRIP)/AF(come on expanded flexible spot isn’t found on e-mount right?) than the whole e-mount system combined?
2- The a-mount lenses seem… great? Not only minolta’s got kickass glass but Zeiss too… right?
3- SLT are still very light dSLR-like cameras with built-in stabilisation, therefore it outshoots e-mount in handheld lowlight by 3 stops.
Here I thought a-mount was doomed but I just came back from handling the A77ii at a large photoshow and have found nothing much to complain….
Obviously the year Sony won’t release new A-mount body all existing A-mount cameras will turn into pumpkins
you’ve just resolve the mystery of the orange ring around the mount: Pumpkin of course!
I don’t know. They seem capable of exquisite image making within the limits of daylight most of the time… with a very great lens library.
What’s missing?
You know when a small kid is the only child at home and suddenly a little sister/brother arrives? Then that said kid starts feeling jealous and left out by their parents. And as a consequence, this older kid starts behaving badly just to get their parents attention.
So… maybe that kid is missing a bit of patience and understanding that the little brother needs a wee bit more attention.
would you assume that the “internet” userbase of Sony are immature camera users wanting attention for their photo systems?
At least those who hang around on Internet forums and sites.
(and I’m NOT counting myself out. It just feels good to complain a little from time to time, get it out of my chest.. :p)
I have what I consider the best for my use right now, an A99 with plenty of great lenses an A6000 with two lenses ( to test the mirrorless ground ) and an RX100 for “pocket size” shooting . My take for the future is to keep the A99 and best lenses for another 6-8 months until the new generation A7 “x” and related new lenses come out and get proper “shake down” by early buyers and reviewers. Having been proven worthy ( and I have no doubt it will… ), I’ll get one system, selling the A99 and most of its lenses ( I actually love the A99 system and don’t really need any other, but it’s becoming too heavy for me ). As for the A6000 I think of buying a couple of new lenses for it closer to christmas and keep it for everyday use ( I also can’t part with the RX100, it may always remain as a keeper! ).
I kinda follow the same line of thought. I have a Nikon dSLR with some key “background killing lenses” and a mirrorless camera with lenses I know provide me with the dSLR equivalent IQ. I did sell my rx100mk1 due to too many optical defects on the lens (corner color casts of green and magenta), but I am definitely feeling a bit of a void there.
Would what we consider heavy now be the result of a lack of physical conditioning (spending too much time infront of computer processing, less time actually “working out”), a trend or a need?
Should we just own the single system or embrace the multi-system?
I too have 2 Nikon dslrs D90 + D800 and a few lenses. Since I got Nex7 2yrs ago. The Nikons are just bag jockeys that get used for work.
That said I use my Nikon Primes on nex7 with a speedbooster and dummy adapters and its great.
Eventually I see myself migrating to full mirrorless once Sony decides to stop protecting DSLRs and give us more customizable buttons and common sense features. I’ll be sure to make the full switch.
Besides I’m not happy with Nikon expecting me to pay for their factory defects.
I went the same way (a99 and rx100), but the rx100 seems to small for me. I just don’t feel comfortable using it though its quality is more than fine. Selling the rx100 and picked up an A7 for my ‘smaller’ option. Very impressed with what the A7 is doing quality wise.
There is not much missing at all. For me personally all I need is a higher resolution sensor. As long as the body is half decent, please take my money. Still waiting for a reason to upgrade from a900, and to be honest the a900 is a feeling a bit long in the tooth.
yeah 36mp with steadyshot will kill the a7r
well if they were to release a 36mp a-mount it will probably be very close in image quality to a7r. The sad part is they could have easily done this about 2 years ago. A7 is too small for me or any decent sized lens it’s actually ridiculously small and cumbersome to use.
Very GOOD NEWS indeed …
Nicely done! as expected so no surprise!
Two a99’s, a77, a7R, with all the trimmings… And I still shoot with a900/700 more than all of them combined. There are reasons for that, of which if I explained, would only cause you to attack me. So you guys go on arguing. I’ve got an assignment to get to.
LMAO, what a prat for wasting so much money on stuff you don’t use.
Hey, way to go! it only took 4 posts to start name calling. New record?
What do you expect from someone who calls themselves “TheTruth”?
Big red flag.
Do you have all these cameras to make the comparison? Sony should listen to people who use them all professionally. We’d all benefit from that insight far beyond what short term reviewers can dazzle your little mind with.
So why not got Nikon if you enjoy the A900 experience more so. I mean, I consider the D750 what the A900 successor really should have been.
Nikon can’t accept my Alpha glass. All the nice Nikkors have tremendous focus shift for close up portraits. Just check the reviews. None of the ZA’s or Mino’s have any focus shift, so f5.6 has same focus plane as wide open viewing.
See Photozone review of Nikon’s finest 200/2 here:
http://www.photozone.de/nikon_ff/499-nikkorafs200f2vrff?start=1
Focus shift is terrible. Bad on their great 85/1.4 too. F5.6 does not focus on the same plane as wide open. Nikon great for sports, action, journalism. Canon has same problems. But ZA/Mino is better for portraits and fashion. Won’t find any focus shift in any of their glass. There is a difference. And until Nikon accepts my A-Mount lenses, I’ll stick with the Alpha’s.
“New generation of Full Frame E-mount cameras is coming very soon.”
Yes, I expected my Elpha’s to be outdated quickly. What I really want is an a99 with a7R sensor, with the speed and elegance of a900 handling, in the size of a700. How is that not obvious?
And slap in some Olympus 5-Axis IS or something equivalent too~
Alpha’s Super Steady Shots really needs a good Sony innovative treatment~
Do your cameras spontaneously combust when a new model comes out?
Would love to have some RX20 news right now.
Is it OK to say; “F**k Full Frame ?? I’m still waiting for a 90mm f/1.8 for NEX. And I’m also waiting fro a Pro NEX.
Sony needs to stop developing three (3) lines of cameras and lenses. Pick two (2), drop one (1).
It is ok. For most types of viewing, switching over to FF offers zero advantage. You’ll notice nothing different despite what the critics on these forums will say. Start printing and blowing stuff up the size of a wall or shooting in a closet then you’ll see those differences. Normal everyday stuff? Nope.
If you mostly shoot ISO1600 and above, you’ll notice the difference right away.
Yes, true. I don’t mind noise though- it depends on how it is rendered.
I’d like to see you not mind it on A65/A77 at ISO3200.
It is so bad, that I never go above ISO 1600. Its almost impossible to fix it in post as well. Last time I shot on my A65 with Tamron 70-300 in a moderately dark environment, I was forced to use ISO 3200 just to get 1/125 shutter. While I was able to fix the chroma noise for the most part, black noise was pretty bad and made pictures look “dirty”
I had the a77 for over two years. Garbage above 800. My EP5 does better than that. 1600 looked like horse vomit. But I like the noise coming from the EP5. I find the new A77II to be much better as well. I rarely shoot above 800…very rarely.
you could try dxo prime, that helps alot.
Boosting shadows if you ETTR is much nicer, too.
haha! it’s not critics that advocate larger sensors, it’s photographers. And it’s not about enlargements. It’s about angle of view and compression of distance and subject isolation etc. Of course resolution, dynamic range and tonality are better too in FF. If you’re happy with APS-C then ignore this, it’s only if you’ve tried APS-C and been disappointed that you’ll notice the difference. Hell, most people can’t tell an iPhone 6 photo from a FF shot )
They already drop a-mount..
According to Sony there is only one line of cameras and lenses. The “Alpha” series.
of course it is, the most popular camera in the world is the iPhone and that’s not full frame either. It just depends on what you want to shoot. I wouldn’t dream of using an APS-C sensor camera, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t. I just happen to like subject isolation and using fast leica lenses.
Admin, why aren’t you telling us what the big thing is that is coming in 2015? You seem pretty sure about it. Why aren’t you sharing this rumor? You post some sketchy rumors, all kinds of sales which have nothing to do with rumors. Now you seem to have some exciting, credible news, but you dont share it.
Is anyone else finding this annoying?
yes!
Please keep in mind it’s hard work to get some highly reliable info. And soemtimes when I have them I do not post them on SAR very quickly because I use this to get more info from other anonymous sources. I apply a strategy to get as much info as I get and this means I had (and you have) to leanr to be patient.
So when I say something big is coming I 100% know what it is. But I only have veyr general info and I try to get details in those days and weeks.
bless you
That would be Sony entering the Medium format for *possibly* their mirrorless cameras.
That’s why it’s something “big” that’s coming.
Big announcement coming in January…man, it’s almost January.
Rumors are just rumors, doesn’t have to be trustworthy.
the sooner the better! I’ve been at odds over which of the A7’s to buy for nearly a year and I haven’t bought one yet…there is a reason for my confusion, and I guess I’ll wait for the 2nd gen.
Same, I was waiting until this fall to fully invest in the A7 series. This news startled me for a second but I’m going to go head and buy mine next month anyway. “Very Soon” is not definitive enough for me to wait another 8-12 months
Excited!
Happy happy joy joy.
woof!
Admin hinted somewhere in this post about z shift rumor to post next week.
I do not know how and for what function the Z shift will be used….but perhaps Sony realizes …like the rest of the world realizes…that thier current course as it relates to A mount is disasterous…I can only hope that Sony might finally do something to address this issue while they are still around to do so.
I am certain that the future of the current A mount system is very short.
Sony’s wisest course of action would be to provide some sort of compatability solution before all thier A mount customers have finished bailing out.
Most A mount costomers are looking for an opportunity to bail…so when the latest new Canikon caneras come out there will be a mass migration.
Sony at this point will need to come up with something brilliant to reaquire them.
Sony is good at comming up with brilliant..unfortunately they really suck at commom sense.
LAEA4 =problem solved!
LAEA4 has AF module thats been used in cameras as far back as A580… It doesn’t come even close to the likes of A77, A77II or A99
Stop saying stupid sh*t.
Oh give me a break! The module in the A77 and A99 is barely better than the basic module, it has a few extra points but it is hardly a massive gain. The only Sony to have a vastly improved module is the A77 II, which has only been out for a few months (after the LA-EA4) and would be absolutely trivial to put into an updated adapter. The only reason they don’t at this point in time is they don’t want adapters having better AF than their flagship SLT.
I wouldn’t get your hopes up, I think Sony’s only course of action is moving you from A Mount to E Mount and if that doesn’t work than….uhh…not sure. Either way mirrorless is the future and this interview just bought the cemetery plot for A mount. Grieve briefly if you must and quickly take the best course of action while you’re soon be obsolete gear still has profitable value.
I agree A mount is absolutely dead…no sensible person would buy one now even if Sony came out with one.
Sonys only hope is to convert A mount users to switch to E mount to continue supporting the company that just screwed them.
They will have to pull a mighty big rabbit out of thier hat to make that happen.
AnimalsByBarry wouldn’t buy one now by that definition.
I’m not an A-mount user, but if I would be, having in-camera stabilization and fast AF in the next gen Sony A7 (or A9) would help. Sony has in-camera stabilization in the A77 and fast AF in the A6000, so that should not be to hard. Add a simple, mirrorless adapter and hey, presto. You can use your A-mount lenses like you used to. Throw in high frame rates and you hardly need any a-mount body’s at all. As an E-mount user, I would certainly welcome all these additions too. Mmmm, fast AF and IBIS for my 55 and 35 FE, stabilized legacy lenses, high frame rates, yummy.
The optical quality of the FE primes and turning my 2kg travel bag into an 875g bag was a big selling point for me.
But it’s horses for courses – af performance on the a7 is better than I expected, but it’s not up there with the a6000 or the a77ii yet. Yet…
Take it from me – used a-mount lens prices are definitely dropping. Someone grabbed a bargain on my 70/2.8 at the weekend…
This doesn’t make much sense : about what are you unhappy ? Sony has already issued several adapters to mount A lenses on the FE and E bodies. Even older legacy Minolta lenses can be mounted on the new FE bodies ? So about which compatibility are you talking ? Lenses having a shorter register than the original ones can’t be adapted. That is why there are no adapters allowing you to mount FE lenses on A mount.
I don’t know for Nikon shooters, but as a Canon shooter having recently bought an A7r, I can tell you that the trend is rather going in the opposite direction.
LA-EA4 isn’t anywhere close to a solution.
An adapter with A77-II AF and built-in IS might be. Nothing indicates so far that there will be something like that.
I’m not sure they could add ibis or oss via a adapter… Which makes it all the more frustrating that Tamron build oss into Sony lenses but disables it.
Sony is a shareholder of Tamron.
Maybe they didn’t want competition in FE?
It’s possible, Olympus has a patent about it
http://www.43rumors.com/olympus-patent-43-to-m43-adapter-with-built-in-autofocus-and-image-stabilization/
None of these adapters fully work..
The lenses only work in the crippled mode and I will not spend good money for a crippled system.
45 years with Minolta /Sony…they made all my rockor stuff obsolete and they want to do it again with my A mount stuff
And you ask whyI am unhappy?
“45 years with Minolta /Sony”
Man, you’re old …
At least this explains to some extent why are you so afraid of new technology.
Well, I hate to bring you bad news but those of us who managed to stay alive until now are not alone, and you ‘may’ follow.
Heck, I just purchased a Sony ‘Refurb’ ZA-24 and I have zero regrets. I’m banking on the (ZA) to be around long enough where it doesn’t really matter for me. I’m also betting that we’ll see a couple of the SAM ZA’s updated to SSM in the so-called big event of 2015.
Now, I agree the A7r/s and whatever follows is lighter and a lot easier to haul around, but it’s very expensive to start over with three good lenses that match what I already have. Besides, the real money is in those pesky little accessories that seem to add up like crazy!
I think only Pentax and Nikon have maintained their original mounts, no?
Canon has ditched the older mount in favor of the new AF mount (just like Minolta).
Olympus ditched their 4/3 mount in favor of the M4/3 mount.
So it’s not exclusively a Sony thing.
For bayonett mounts I think yes, only Pentax and Nikon kept them.
And Pentax even designed their K mount just a bit wider and with the same flange distance as the much older and popular M42 screw mount (1938) shared between several companies. This way you could lock in a metal ring from Pentax in your K mount and use M42 lenses, even today!!
Dude! Photography has gone through a lot of changes in those 45 years. They haven’t done anything to you, you can still use those old crappy lenses, it’s just that you can’t use them on new cameras. Too bad. I can’t use tires from the 60s on my car either, I can’t even use tubes in my damn TV set!
Stop whining about you’re unhappy. Just use the old shit and forget all this newfangled technology!
I don’t think Sony really cares much about customers such as yourself using legacy lenses and I don’t mean that in an offensive way as I think your photography is interesting.
But Sony is in the business of making money and more money is made from new customers that are going to buy new cameras and new lenses regularly. They will make more money from thousands of new customers that will buy more than a few pros that update their camera irregularly and not update their lenses unless they need to.
That’s why they have to ride the new and improved technology train as much as they can to make a profit rather than pandering to the few who doesn’t want to change.
In the scope of things, they aren’t really worried about the 100s that say it’s A-mount or nothing because they already have gear against the 1000’s new customers buying new cameras and new lenses and those swapping to Sony because they can provide better images.
All Sony has to do is be on top of it’s competitors grabbing new customers and at the moment I think they are doing a great job.
Remember for every Pro there are probably 100’s of enthusiast and 1000’s of beginners buying stuff.
First
I do not use legacy lense but A mount lenses.
Second
The pictures you see on my site are paintings..my photos are used as reference..I do not generally show or sell my photos.
Third
I am fully aware Sony does not care at all about its current customers..that is the problem…Sony also does not care about its new E mount customers and that will become readily apparent as soon as it is in Sonys best interest to screw you.
E mount is a deeply flawed system which will become strikingly apparent once the competition joins the picture.
Sony will not hesitate to do the same to you that they did to Rokor and A mount.
If I were interested in mirrorless I would definitely wait for Canikon versions…buying Sony is more and more like making a deal with the devil….you may think you are making a good deal..but the devil always beats you and you will always end up condemned for your bad decision.
Sony if you want loyal customers then you need to be loyal to us in return and make sure you have firmware updates for existing models. A6000 already lacking features that A5100 has such as better video codec and dual recording. Also needs a 3 FPS shooting speed added and the 16mm Emount lens needs a firmware update to support the new autofocuing system. And also work with others like Sigma to bring new firmware to benefit the entire emount ecosystem. – Stay loyal to us and we’ll stay loyal to Sony. Forget about firmware updates and we’ll soon move on to other brands that know how to treat existing customers well. I expect when I buy a new Sony camera that firmware updates should be give for at least the next 2 years.
Fast, small lenses.
I would be happy with f/2.4 – f/2.8 lenses if they are really compact, I mean pankake compact
Not sure I’d want to go any smaller than the 35/2.8 on my a7.
I’m quite happy that fast and small A-mount high – end lenses are getting cheaper now, as thousands proffessionals moved from Sony A900 to new Canon and Nikon FF cameras, having no respectable alternative from Sony. I’m yet more happier using my A900 now with top lenses bought at friction of the price of similar E-mount glass 🙂
Where are the lenses for those targeted sports shooters?
Except for not having a mirror, what does it need to have to make D1x users leave it home?
10 years from now, the entire SLR market for ALL manufacturers will be 5% of what it is today. Canon and Nikon will also be heavily invested in mirrorless by that time.
SLR mirrors have already started their decline across the entire industry. Mirrorless is finally taking off now.
Does anybody actually believe that SLR will make a magical comback?
For Sony, that A mount light box only exists today to support phase detect AF and keep the old A mount lenses in circulation. That’s it. Once phase detect AF is fully implemented in all Sony cameras on sensor…A mount’s pelical mirror is dead and leaves a large empty useless light box.
Don’t blame Sony. This is an industry shift.
A crappy shift. Any real advantage out of size is fabricated by the manufacturers. They could update their mounts to provide modern advances without switching. It’s not like they haven’t done this in the past. Minolta did it about 4 times with their SR mount. Besides, it’s not like there haven’t been advances with SLR technology. Today’s mirror tech is vastly superior to what it was thirty years ago killing over 10FPS and seem to make it past 200k shots for many cameras. Deadly silent too.
The advantage is threefold: (1) less moving parts, (2) more versatile + (3) higher potential performance. Why do you think HDDs moved to SSDs? CRTs to LCDs?
The first two you mentioned can be easily adopted by current DSLR’s- EASILY. Higher potential performance- like I said, no reason it can’t be implemented using the same mount just a new itineration. Then, you begin to update lenses to work with your cameras more advanced feature set.
If your just speaking about removing the mirror then I would suggest DSLR’s should maintain their current size “advantage.” Go ahead and make them mirrorless, but advance the mount rather than replace.
That’s what the mirrorless fans are confusing: emergence of a new technology, and new technology replacing old technology.
LCDs have replaced CRT.
SSDs haven’t replaced HDDs; if you want a decent capacity in terabytes, you go HDD – no option there. Same with mirrorless/DSLR.
the size of the mirror box is a fixed law of physics, you can’t make it smaller because it has to cover most of the sensor area, that automatically adds a bunch of space to the front of the camera. SLRs are limited by the mirror, hence the trend of not using one, called mirrorless.
And I don’t think there’s a person alive that would agree with you that any mirror slapping shutter is deadly silent! That’s just plain nonsense.
Ok, deadly silent if your wearing headphones is what I meant to say.
>Does anybody actually believe that SLR will make a magical comback?
It hasn’t suffered any kind of fall down to have a come back.
Mirrorless is eating at DSLR sales because this is a new segment; some people who really wanted mirrorless couldn’t previously buy it, because it didn’t exist, and bought DSLR. Now they have an opportunity to switch.
It is yet unclear how big this group is.
Whether mirrorless will be able to capture those who want a DSLR, is a different story entirely.
I’ve read and have to agree that a lot of people who jump over to mirror less end up coming back. I use both, but I won’t be without the DSLR. I see no major advantage- to many draw backs in fact.
why is it either or? I have a Canon 5dmkIII and a Sony a7, I use them for different things. The Canon has great zooms like the 24-105mm and the 70-210mm, but on the Sony I only ever use the 55m or my leica lenses on an adapter. For many things the extra time taken to manually focus is ok, for some things it’s not. The A7 is a brilliant camera but it cannot do all the things the Canon can.
How many photo enthusiasts or pros have just one camera?
Not everybody lives in rich countries and can afford multiple systems
You mean people leave Canon, go to Sony and then go back to Canon again?
SONY A77 and A99 for all intents and purposes IS a “mirrorless” camera.
People tend to forget why the pelical pecice of acrylic is. You don’t “see” anything from it…it’s just an auto focus tool for the processor.
For the purpose that Nikon and Canon use mirrors for….Sony killed a long time ago.
The A99 and A77 areally “mirrorless” cameras. (For traditional DSLR purposes)
Sony isn’t the only brand with mirrorless cameras, you know. Besides, there is also a Sony to Sony switch that could happen.
I’m eyeing A7 with 28-75, but no IBIS and horrible egronomics have thus far kept me away from it.
Nobody here bashes mirrorless as far as technology goes. People that don’t like it, for the most part are complaining about
1) Egronomics
2) Lack of features (in e-mount its IBIS)
3) AF in low light (sure, maybe some day it will improve)
IBIS I don’t know…but all the others are going to change real fast from here on in.
On sensor phase detect will make SLT mirrors pointless.
OSPDAF isn’t the #1 issue holding people back. OSPDAF on A7 is sufficient for me. What I hate about E-Mount is no bodies similar to A77 and A99 and no IBIS.
Although I do see OSS as an advantage for video, when comparing to my A65. After all, every camera since A65 has software image stabilization for video. This was done to solve the sensor overheat problem of A55.
On Sensor PDAF isn’t the #1 issue holding people back. AF on A7 is sufficient for me. What I hate about E-Mount is that there are no bodies similar to A77 and A99 and on top of it, no IBIS.
Although I do see OSS as an advantage for video, when comparing to my A65. After all, every camera since A65 has software image stabilization for video. This was done to solve the sensor overheat problem of A55.
I think that we haven’t seen too many pros yet because Sony hasn’t made a full size E mount pro body yet. Many pros sure love the A7s at the moment though.
I think that once Sony throws everything it has and knows into a future “A9x” full pro mirorless body and has more FF E lenses, thats when the real earthquake will jolt everything.
For all the A99 lovers out there…what makes you love the A99? Phase detecdetect AF…right? OK…Cool. Once Sony gets it into the sensors…will you really care about the pelical SLR mirror any more? It will then be useless.
What good are big, empty light boxes at that point? Other than old lens compatability, there is nothing left to keep it.
Hell…the A99 is already a “mirrorless” camera anyway in the SLR sense. The pelical mirror only exists for AF…that’s it.
CANON is already rumored to be developing a new mirrorless mount. Yes, even they see it coming.
Hold A99 with 28-70/2.8 and then hold A7 with 28-70/4, and then tell me which is more comfortable. Then take into accound f2.8 and f4 lens size difference.
Once you do that, you will not be asking any more dumb a** questions
No $hit the A99 is more comfortable. Duh? That is not because is has a piece of acrylic in that lightbox. It’s not comfortable because it’s an A mount either. It’s more comfortable because it’s a pro sized body.
I’m quite sure that when Sony builds a FF PRO E mount body, it will be just as comfortable as the A99.
You are missing the point. When Sony gets phase detect AF on sensor to replace the hunk of plastic in the A mount light box…you want them to keep building empty light boxes in their bodies?
E mount with a spacer adapter will do the same thing.
I’m replying direclty to your queston, which at this point you don’t seem to remember. It was:
“For all the A99 lovers out there…what makes you love the A99? Phase detecdetect AF…right? OK…Cool. Once Sony gets it into the sensors…will you really care about the pelical SLR mirror any more? It will then be useless.”
I never said a thing about AF. And at this point Sony doesn’t have a pro APSC or FF body in E-Mount. So at this point, the E-Mount is worse for plenty of reasons. We all can dream of what it could be. Heck, A-Mount could be a mirrorless MF mount too, but you don’t see people p**sing their pants about it.
Egronomics is the E-Mounts worst enemy, when looking at today’s lineup.
Ok..I agree with you on that. Yes, speaking about today, ergonomics are far from the best on A7x
Tomorrow will be different story I’m sure. Put that lovely A7s sensor in a large comfortable pro body and…boom! You got a winner. I love using Canon and Nikon glass on my A7s too.
I have been selling of 1 A mount lens per month. I only have 2 left today. I started with 7.
I’m also excited about the future of E mount from Sony’s pro video group too.
I am sooo all over the new Sony cine power zoom E mount lens.
I hope the cameras get bigger actually. Bigger than A99. I want to be able to have multiple lenses attached like a revolver. I also want dual grips on both sides for two handed craziness.
lol,..nice! 😉
“Does anybody actually believe that SLR will make a magical comback?”
How do you define SLR? Sony is calling the A7 cameras dSLRs…. The Sony Store webpage calls them next generation dSLRs.
And Canon and Nikon *might* eventually make next generation dSLRs that keep compatibility with their old lenses.
Sony has instead started all over.
The capture is clearly misleading, he never says it. All he says is that they hope they would be able to incorporate af abilities of A6000 into full frame E mount cameras soon. That’s all he had said
When asked about development of E-mount, he talked about all the things they’re working on for the next generation. When asked about development of A-mount, he said they’re still developing for it because “hey, look at the A77 mk2.” He also talked about the lines possibly converging down the road, and we know they’re not going to converge to the A-mount. It seems pretty clear where the future is headed. Good or bad, A-mount is dead. So hopefully they get some fast (f2.8), stabilized zooms for the E-mount soon…
This will be the turning point, from which on we could take the FE system seriously.
20 years ago….. With film basically limited to ISO 400, maybe 800…. same with early dSLRs… Photographers “seriously” needed 2.8 and faster lenses. I think it is fair to say that ISO performance has improved by 3-5 stops since that time, maybe even more. So “seriously” there is far less need for 2.8 zooms, especially if you still have fast primes.
Apple was the first computer maker to get rid of floppy disc drives… And there were protests from computer owners. “Oh no! A computer must have a floppy drive! Transferring data online and in CDs isn’t the same!”
And when Apple introduced the iPhone, many Blackberry users said, “they will have to eventually release a model with a physical keyboard if they want to be taken seriously/”
Just as Apple correctly realized that the market didn’t “seriously” need floppy drives and physical keyboards…
I think Sony is betting that given the advances in ISO, and given the size disadvantage of 2.8 zooms, Sony is betting that people don’t really need 2.8 zooms anymore. Sony is also betting that people don’t need OVFs anymore.
Floppy drives/physical phone keyboards = 2.8 lenses and OVFs.
Personally, I prefer dSLR bodies over A7/mirrorless bodies… But it has nothing to do with 2.8 zooms. I don’t even own a 2.8 zoom anymore.
Aperture is not only (arguably, mostly not) ISO, but DoF.
f/2.8 zooms allow you to get narrow DoF in reportage, where primes are rarely used.
Jup. On the other hand… I dont like most zoom lenses bokeh…
prime lens bokeh smells better
No, Apple didn’t get the trend. They set it.
Exactly.
And now they’re doing what’s called reverse trend setting…a.k.a. swan dive into no mans land. Also known as getting it handed to them by Samsung. I guess an apple a day doesn’t keep the competition at bay.
When it comes to light sensitivity, I agree with you. However, as @disqus_QG3QOrA7af:disqus stated, a larger aperture is about more than just gathering more light for better exposure, but also for that shallower dept of field. Yes, you can argue that there are fast primes for that, but for the photographer that’s shooting with a couple zooms for a wedding or reportage, zooms might not be their preferred tool. I love shooting primes for my day-to-day stuff, portraits and studio work, etc., but prefer my fast zooms when I’m covering events, shooting weddings, etc.
I know quite a few wedding photographers who use f4 zooms.
There is nothing magical about a 2.8 aperture that makes it indispensable to photography for all eternity. It’s a tool, with pros and cons, and there are substitutes for the pros to some degree as technology advances.
I’m sure some do. For those that do want that 2.8, though, that’s currently a gap in Sony’s FE lens lineup.
And for those that prefer f4… There is a gap in a-mount. For those who would prefer 2.1 zooms, there is a gap for every camera maker. 2.8 is just an arbitrary number. It’s not a magical number that becomes critical for “real” photography.
There are stll people who say they can’t take e-mount or a-mount seriously because serious photography requires an OVF.
OVF is about as critical as 2.8 zooms.
If anything, my problem with FE lenses has more to do with inferior corner and border performance, being a far more critical issue than lack of 2.8 zooms.
True; cheaper, lighter F4 zooms are missing from the A-mount line-up. I guess Sony just likes to half-ass every lens line they have. 🙂 The lenses they offer are great, but they don’t like to go heavy on the options…
A-mount lenses are obsolete. Sell them quick!!! price will go down quick.
A Russian guy is already selling 300mm f/2.8 for $3.400 locally 🙂
If Sony releases the A99-II before abandoning A-Mount, it may actually make sense to buy an A-Mount pro system when the prices fall down and use it until it breaks
Is this $3 and 40 cents?
LOL, I forgot in US dot and comma are reversed 😀
you mean in the rest of the world, dot and comma are reversed?
stop drinking!
for numerals, in fact, yes
3.400 is three thousand four hundred, and 3,400 is the decimal 3,4
in US it’s visa versa
duott, you are from Europe probably from Germany. You should note that the US is the same system as all of Asia, Australia.
thanks, didn’t know that.. i’m from russia, and ex-ussr territories use the european system
paid troll
The comments section of every single post on SAR is packed with people pissing and moaning, often about things completely unrelated to the actual article. If you all hate the platform so much why don’t you get it over with and move on, rather that bemoaning everything here where it makes absolutely no difference.
You do realize that we here at SAR land are a rambunctious bunch. You also do realize that for entertainments sake we are a destination on the internet for awesomeness. We have characters, dilusionals, enthusiasts and crack pots but we all come together. And why? Because we’re crazy. And why? Because we shoot Sony and Sony is illogical. With that said, go check the other rumor sites. They don’t get the level of comments anywhere even close to this site. Not even a smidge. Canonwatch is a vast waste land. I say enjoy the circus.
I don’t know what is wrong with you all. It seems that you only hear what you want to hear. He made a clear statement that E and A Mount will be developed in future and that they know about the Minolta heritage.
There are limited ressources and Sony MUST develop E-Mount lenses at the moment. They need to keep up the momentum to stay on top with that system. Fuji and Samsung are not sleeping, they try to grab a good chunk of the pie.
If E-Mount fails so will A-Mount and also the other way around.
He made a clear statement that they are developing also A-Mount and that they want to put in also the best tech they have.
I really don’t understand you here at SAR, Drama-Queens!
Absolutely, they said it clearly.
This crying has nothing to do with Sony, some people just need to cry a bit and complain to someone, human psychology, people do it for therapeutic purposes.
It is quite annoying but we can’t do anything about it.
Hi to me dslr and mirrorless are like a stick house and a mobile home. Both are still being made, both have value and both are great but I’ll always rather have a stick house then a mobile home. I’ll stick with dslr even if I have to switch brands
If everyone was thinking like you, people would still be using film cameras.
People do.
I said everyone, the industry, not several enthusiasts here or there.
Innovation makes the difference between evolution and dying out as the dinosaurs.
I do regularly, and clients actually pay more for them these days.
You mean, film cameras like this?
I’ll take the trailer…a.k.a. mobile home. I’m down with trailers and trashy trailer chicks.
Lol are you also saying as your down with trashy cameras too? Are you also saying mirrorless is trashy?
Yes. Nothing better than a trashy trailer chick who also shoots mirrorless. It means she has class…Budweiser class, not like fancy wine class. I dig it.
Cool that works for you. Just wanted to make sure I was on the same page as you. Watching world series, who going to win?
I’ll say Royals.
It’s tied up. Can’t wait to see game 7.
LOL – I’m guessing a big old gaudy tramp stamp gets you rock hard 😀
As long as it’s a tramp stamp of an A7 with a grip attached to a 600mm F4.
only as a photographer you are expected to carry your stick house and “furniture” on your back. Give me a light weight camera with exceptional performance and versatility anyday. DSLR for DSLR sake is ridiculous.
Are you saying light weight is a toy camera that photographer don’t need?
It’s not what you say that counts but what you DO!
Sony is simply not doing anything with A mount.
When will you give up?
Why are you trying to convince us? Are you paid by CaNikon to spread crap or what? If you belive that A-Mount is dead then invest in E-Mount or change brand but stop your annoying crying here!
Of course you find it annoying since you didn’t invest heavily in A-mount. But see what happens if they stop developing stuff for E-mount.
The ONLY advantage of DSLR is having a optical view finder.
Sony’s DSLR like cameras are SLT and doesn’t have a optical view finder.
Killing off the SLT technology makes sense.
Aaaaand… fail. You obviously don’t know much about SLT.
You lose third of a stop of light and…gain nothing compare to mirrorless cameras
You gain more reliable and faster AF.
I invite you to use your a7 camera in a football game with the 70-200mm f4 G OSS. I will use the a77mk.2 with a 70-400 f4-5.6 G SSM II. Let’s see who gets better pictures and more reliable operation.
and E-M1 user pwn you upside down
Dude the SLT have EVF.
The A-Mount isn’t dead.
Sony’s just shifting resources in order to take advantage of the A7’s success. Its obvious they weren’t expecting to receive both the attention of the professional photographers, and the subsequent sales.
I fully expect Sony to become the Canon of the MILC world. It’s already happening.
Sony will capitalize upon this, and I fully expect product refreshes at a frequency no other electronics manufacturer can match.
IMO Sony needs to continually launch more FF MILC bodies, to take advantage of the time it has before other manufacturers enter the fray. By the time Canon, and Nikon realize the importance of MILCs it’ll already be too late, Sony will probably already have a fully fleshed out product line.
The A-Mount will tag along for the ride. The Halo effect will likely propel the A-Mount to its 2008 market share. It’ll be no different from the boost in Macintosh Computers sales that occurred following the iPad, and iPod launches. The A-Mount’s future is very secure.
A-mount can’t die. It’s like fine wine, fast cars and high class hookers. They only get better with age. Ok, maybe not the hookers…but you get my drift.
It’s not going to die off anytime soon. The DSLR market is going to shrink, and MILCs will probably kill off the low end DSLRs, then work themselves up the sales ladder. However FF DSLRs are still the Ferrari’s of the camera world, and I doubt you’ll see anything that’ll match a 1DX, or 4DS coming from Sony anytime soon.
In 5 years DSLRs will seem more like Ladas…
“I doubt you’ll see anything that’ll match a 1DX, or 4DS coming from Sony anytime soon.”
You might just be surprised in February next year…..just saying!
I am sure Panasonic will catch them up in 2 year period: they already provides much higher static object focus quality precision and can focus in dimmer conditions. And they are not too far behind in focus tracking already.
I agree with everything you say. I’m not up to date on sony market stats but if what you say is true and 2008 was a bumper year:::
Why can’t they take a moment to reflect and see what Sony camera launched in 2008? A dedicated no nonsense pro level camera with simple design and amazing, world class sensor…. It was enough to bring me over from Canon, and a fair amount of others… Just do it again already.
Sell the customer what they want.. In US they want DSLRS for a bit more. Pretending SLTs don’t exist so you can later say see, they are a “niche” is artificial. Problem I have is I can’t find e-mount lenses that as good as say the 16-50 and sorry no IBIS means my lens is crippled on e-mount.
16-50 is epic and epically built. Love that lens.
Probably my favorite lens behind my Zeiss 135mm. If you take a bad picture with that thing on your camera, it certainly wasn’t because of the lens…
Feels kind of junky to me. Is it good? Have been thinking of picking one up cheap but hesitant about it.
Great contrast and sharp on the longer end. A bit of barrel distortion on the wide end but no big deal. I think the build is fantastic considering its price point.
ive used the 16-50 2.8 since the day was released its a everything lens inside ,landscape even sport ..now mount on 77 ii its even better
New FULL FRAME (__|__) mount coming soon!!!
Mirrorless its the future, no doubt, the only ones that believe people will be still using OVF/MIRROR/DSLR 15 years in the future are the same people that 15 years ago say will be still using film today.
Now, EVF its only a tiny screen behind a few lenses, why anyone use it, instead of the 5 or 10 times bigger screen, i cant understand it, its nuts… same like few people who say i like my camera/lense be 3 times heavier, because it feels expensive, bigger equal more balance, and all crap like that.
So… sony, please, can you release an a7 like body minus that EVF bump, just like the original compact ff, aka rx1, also i dont need magnesium body/wheather proof, make that a5, lighter, cheaper, smaller, and if you can put a6000 AF system in there, wake me from my dream so i can buy it 🙂
You never shoot a big tele lens, do you?
You are not very smart if you really think the best way of use tele lenses without tripod is to pressing camera body into your eye. I suppose you would have better stability with lens put on your shoulder with detached (google glass alike) EVF on your eye.
Although I am not a tele guy and prefer wider angle + MF and thus my A7 went to resale after a couple of usage: I was not going to agonize choosing the area I want to magnify despite of that noticeable IQ and, especially, lenses rendition improvements.
your avatar makes your comments sound like a troll, lol
I wouldn’t mind a removable evf, but its really useful in bright sun with a lot of glare.
Only noobs/amateurs use the big LCD screen on the back of the camera all the time (for every picture they take). Only exception is when using the camera on a tripod. Using the big LCD screen on the back makes you and your pictures a LOT more prone to camera shake compared to using the EVF to take pictures. The more tele you go, the harder you will notice this.
It is a pain to see environmental portrait shots taken with 35mm lens and wider at the eye level, these photographs generally have unbalanced look. This happened because eye level shooters generally have no idea they can change perspective.
So, only noobs feel so restricted to viewfinders.
I’m not restricted to the viewfinder, but here it’s 80% viewfinder and 20% liveview with my Canon EOS 550D. I also have no problems at all with environmental portrait shots at 18mm (cropfactor 1.6). Using the viewfinder gets rid of the distractions outside of the frame.
550D? End of discussion!
And who decided your 18mm environmental shots are good enough? You?
I am quite doubt if you are competent enough for this: Canon is a reason to doubt, Canon 550D is a quite a reason to doubt; owning a Canon, especially such a crappy one as 550D and calling everyone who prefer shooting with LCD is a very reason to doubt.
Frankly, calling someone a noob just because that person prefers LCD is too noobish, and I very doubt you got my compain about generally wrong perspective of fixed VF addicts.
OK.. look at the table close up at 3:03.. because they nod at talking about A77M2 I assumed it was the A77M@ ..But look at the video fill screen!!! That is NOT the A77M2… and its NOT e-mount and it seems to be missing a pop-up flash and has a top LCD.. Could it be A99M2? They hoped we wouldn’t notice?
That’s RX10
I look forward to any concrete moves Sony make. If they can shed the wishy-washy image, really stand behind a mount, and keep good lenses coming while eroding competing market share with _better_ not just more products, I see good things for Sony.
But as an A7r user that dislikes basically everything but the images that come out from the camera, I’m not hopeful that Sony will do what some of us hope/expect them to do as a serious player.
what more is there than the images that come out of the camera? Photography gets more and more convenient, you can shoot hundreds of photos without changing film, there’s no darkroom chemistry to get your hands raw, there’s no clean up after making your own wet plates, yet still you complain. ** It’s all about the images **, and any little inconvenience you might have to suffer, like the shutter button being further back than you’re used to or whatever is trivial minutia.
In the audio world, too, there are people that care only about the sound of the headphone. Comfort, build quality, quality of connections, ease of maintenance: none of that matters. For others, holistic experience is good.
It is the goal of EVERY camera manufacturer to make good images. And most do. By and large, good images is moot. Utility, comfort, quality of experience, and brand trustworthiness are what keep people in the long run.
Sony are not working on the last three at all. Image quality: everyone gets it done. Hardly anyone focuses on the quality, or stability of user experience.
Notice: I said nothing about the shutter button, though I could. More interestingly is Sony’s use of a stopless shutter that presses all the way down without a half-stop. And the inscrutable splitting of magnification functions between two buttons. Or the plastic/metal seemed bottom plate that is quite easy to crack. Or the slow wake up times. Or the slow off times. Or the ridiculously disorganised menu system, or the wifi system that requires a separate menu system to set output quality and many many many other problems.
Those should be fixed if Sony wants to be taken seriously as a photography company. If all they make are sensors attached to metal and that’s all that matters, then anyone — literally anyone could make a camera that should satisfy your demands as:
“It’s all about the images”.
Maybe a new moto might help. “Sony: We don’t just make cameras- we make lots of em.”
A mount can go under, I don’t care. I’ll still keep shooting it. People are still shooting SRT101’s for crying out loud. Maybe I can finally snag a 200mm 2.8 for under 6 bills finally. If the market crashes I’ll be standing by to take all that sweet glass of everyones hands.
I’m going to shoot it until either the world ends or I get hit by a car. I figure it’s a 50/50 split since I like to dance in traffic. Feel free to snag my Minolta 7000 of my dead body, cause it’ll probably still be working after it’s ran over.
I’ve upvoted you but not because I want you to be hit by a car LOL
But the positive attitude towards this whole ‘A-mount is dead’ drama.
Don’t know about you but some people would prefer to have new equipment being put into the market. Let me give you an example. The a99 is a fine performer, 6fps is quite a good thing being a FF camera, but in a soccer game I shot, I had with me the a99 and the new a77mk.2. Guess which camera had the best performance tracking players?
There is a lot to be done with A-mount, and for certain people who ate the dust from Sony, new cameras and lenses are still needed. I would like to have a new A-mount camera with the a7S sensor, up to 12fps continuous AF shooting, a new AF module more capable than competition and a D4S-like body to shoot football games. Yes, I’m willing to pay up to 6500USD for it, but if they offer it for less then I would buy two. A 400mm f/4 SSM G is also needed (the old minolta 400mm f4.5 is still hot in the second hand market) so I can use teleconverters on it. Obviously weathersealing is a good thing to have compared to old minolta lenses. Not all nights are dry…
I get your point, but I myself feel a bit mad because it seems the end of A-mount is near and right know there is no direct replacement for it. At least with Minoltians, they could buy Sony cameras to keep using their old equipment, but right now E-mount is not good enough to use with A-mount lenses.
For all you A-mount complainers here, there is a simple way to get Sony to pay attention.
Sony is here to make a profit, at the moment they are making more of a profit from E-mount from Beginners, Enthusiasts and even some Pros.
If you want Sony to pay attention, get everyone that is complaining to buy A-mount Cameras and A-mount lenses. If more profit can be made in A-mount they will divert their attention there.
As they say ‘Talk is cheap’, vote with your money.
I’m recently went from Canon 7D to Sony A7s, but I won’t be complaining when they introduce a new mount for curved sensors or a Z-shift type mount. I’ll just keep using what I have until financially I decide the gear I have no longer can provide what I want to achieve.
Sony has made that option impossible…few will buy a doomed system with few new products that is being abandoned by lens manufacturers..I considered every possible Scenario to stay with Sony and update to a good 150-600 lens plus the latest camera.
Ther are no options that include Sony….I am not choosing to switch..Sony is effectively evicting me.
Look out I think the sky is falling…
As to the last part of your statement…why would anyone in ther right mind invest in a new Sony system knowing they will discontinue it soon…by that I mean E mount will be discontinued ..Sony’s current actions prove it.
Look. If I decide to invest money into a company product, that company need to make sure that my money is well invested and that there will be a long-term support for my investment. But if they don’t give me confidence, why should I invest money in that company?
This year alone I have invested thousands into A-mount gear and sold my E-mount stuff to buy even more stuff for A-mount. But after the fiasco that happened in Photokina (one of the biggest photo trade show if not the biggest) I don’t know how in my right judgment I should keep buying A-mount stuff.
Why should I keep buying A-mount stuff (or even decide to buy E-mount) if there is no long-term commitment. All we hear is E-mount, E-mount, E-mount, and I know there is where is the money at, but if they’re going to leave long-term customers (minolta users and early SLR users of Sony products) in the dust, then I don’t see why I should buy A-mount anymore or even another Sony product. Enjoy your a7S.
I could be wrong, but I think that Sony has a different strategy. Sony is a major electronic company. They are not as interested in customers that do not update regularly. That’s where the money is.
example would be: if I was a ‘brand’ loyal customer, I buy 3 camera and maybe 8 lenses over 15 years. This would not generate as much revenue as a customer that wants the latest and greatest camera, 1 camera and 4 lenses every 3 years.
This is just a rough example.
look at the rate they update their NEX series. I think it was almost like 1 every 1 or 2 years. As long as they stay ahead of the pack with reviews, dxo mark, etc etc. They will grab the new customers and the ones that want the best IQ, best features. etc and even Pros that need the best and can write off their gear.
Instead of seeing ‘Sony’ as an investiment, it’s more like a resource to be used and updated. Heck, new and awesome technology could be around the corner that makes e-mount obsolete. Sony has already made their money and off to make more money on new impressive product.
People stuck on the mindset that I will buy one set of lense that will last me a life time will be stuck in that generation of technology. This might make a great name for yourself like Leica and hasselblad. but It’s not were the money is.
You never know, Sony 3D holographic cameras could come around in 5 years time and you will still have people complaining, but I bought a-mount lense and they aren’t compatible.
Hope my way of thinking makes sense.
492^^^
Sony just needs to make decent lenses themselves instead of branding theyre lenses zeiss when they probably not and charging big bucks for them and stop drip feeding lenses one now another in 3months and so on .entice customers into getting e full frames with super cheap prices and then go gotta ya’s now have to wait wait for overpriced lenses
Yeah there lenses are way too much! Canon has a 50mm1.8 fullframe for $125 the sony counterpart is about $1500…
To be honest, if A-Mount dies, I won’t give a damn. E-Mount is already better in a lot of things. But knowing Sony, I don’t think A-Mount will die just yet. I give it a decade.
hmmmm is already better? Where is the E-mount 70-400mm? Where is the E-mount 135mm f1.8? Where is the E-mount 135mm STF? Where are the f2.8 standard and telephoto zoom lenses for E-mount? A lot of 7-series users are using their cameras with f2.8 lenses from A-mount because E-mount can’t deliver what they need. And guess what? They’re screwed up with the crappy AF module from the LA-EA4 adapter and there is no way to use the ultra fast AF from the a6000 when you use it with LA-EA3.
Think again.
i’m amazed by your wealth and willingness to spend it all on lens.
i will be happy to use it with kit lens.
I believe sony will succeed more if it will stop copying old approaches and stop listening what “photographers” want – they basically want they got used to. For example, they don’t want touch screen because “they will touch it during shooting” and somehow it is bad. Panasonic cameras used their touchscreens to change focus point and this turned to be extremely convenient.
So, you see, these photography “pros” can be wrong about even clear things and it is obvious most of them don’t even care about any way to improve their efficiency, not to mention most of them are extroverts and thus unlikely to have enough imagination to see ways of possible improvements.
I’m saying well known things: H.Ford had similar thoughts when told about people wanting faster horses, or look at Apple with iPhone: technology was there for a time, but no company produced pure touchscreen phones with related infrastructure (software). People just didn’t get an idea phones can be without keyboards.
For example, detached viewfinder on a touchscreen body will bee nice – this is major advancement. I would also love to see square sensor (think about 36×36) – this will eliminate the problem of portrait orientation handling and some more.
And please, don’t develop hybrid focusing any further, Panasonic had already shown the way to : software prediction works better than ospdaf in all conditions, particularly in low light, where it is still working, while the ospdaf is no longer functional – down to -4ev, and it is only mu43 sensor, this will be -6ev with 16mp full frame.
How about firmware upgrades in general? That would be nice, Sony!
its out now. downloading
Not for the RX1 though. I still can’t use the remote trigger, that was advertised as an accessory. (Not to mention all the bugs and quirks, the camera has to deal with.)
300 f/4 is the most wanted lens for FE e-mount?
Seriously?
If i had e-mount i would want low sized primes or big-zoom.
300 f/4 for what?
Sports? Wildlife? Portraits? landscapes?
Until Af performance and accuracy meet the minimum requirement for sports wild like and the rest, this does not make any sense for me
it’s plain and simple to me ….. Sony is not killing off A-mount; they are focusing on E-mount right now because they have done so well in terms of sales/margins that they need to capitalize on it now….that is business ….
it’s like a car company pushing out SUVs even though they also sell sedans; why? because the market demands SUVs and the margins on them are higher….doesn’t mean they will stop selling sedans…just that the focus will shift where the market shifts
I know some ppl say mirrorless sales is inferior to DSLR but Sony is not stupid, they have statistics and data that shows them where the money/profit is coming from!
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No, they’re not killing off the a-mount. They’re just going to let it flounder for a couple of years and see if anyone still is interested in it when their attention returns. ;^)
E-mount pro in 2015? Perfect timing for Pro Service.
When will we get the update to the NEX-7? I don’t think it was the A6000.
NEX-8, 8k supersampled 4k video capabilities
I guess I better hold on buying that A7 to see what the new FF ones bring in. I dont care for the AF but if there is better high ISO or makes the A7 price drop, then its worth waiting.