The WSJ writes that Sony now owns 40% of the global sensor market:
“Unlike memory chips, making image sensors requires craftsmanship, and that’s not something competitors can copy in the short term,” says Hideaki Miwa, analyst at Techno Systems Research Co. According to the Tokyo research firm, Sony sold 40% of all image sensors last year, up from 35% in 2013. OmniVision’s market share was 16%, followed by 15% for Samsung. Total sales of image sensors grew to an estimated $8.65 billion last year, up more than 80% since 2009. Some analysts say keeping up with demand might be Sony’s biggest immediate challenge. In the long run, Sony could be vulnerable because of its dependence on Apple, which sometimes has shifted suppliers with little warning. Satoru Oyama, a semiconductor analyst at research firmIHS Inc., says Apple likely would consider buying image sensors for iPhones elsewhere if another company could match Sony’s quality and price.”
via Image Sensor World.
Just a couple of consideration about the Sony sensor strategy on Digital Cameras (based on rumors, news and patents)
1) Sony plans to sell Four Thirds sensor to Olympus (See their new FT sensor at Sony.net).
2) Sony is now expanding their sensor sales to all manufactures. Mamiya/Pentax/Hasselbald use Sony’s 50MP CMOS medium format sensor. Canon uses Sony’s 1 inch sensor on the Canon G7x. Nikon on FF cameras and Pentax on APS-C DSLR.
3) Plenty of patents do disclose that Sony is working on Foveon alike sensor
4) Global Shutter will be mainstream in 2-3 years.
This means sensor in Alpha cameras will remain feature the best tech of the moment for the time being. There is little competition…for now.
30 Responses
This clearly points to the A Mount and E Mount death: Sony will only craft sensors.
That clearly shows that Sony will not abandon camera making.
In the near future Sony will be the beating hart in every camera…….
This clearly points to the health of A Mount and E mount: Sony will dominate with their craft sensors.
Don’t know how you came to that conclusion. The way I see it, one has absolutely nothing to do with the other.
I was being sarcastic– see post a few down:)
Yep, figures. My sarcasm meter has been misbehaving lately 🙂
This clearly points to nothing about any mount
but it’s news… old news, but still news 🙂 depends how you see the word “news” 🙂
that’s ok and i’m ok with this..
Who makes the current Olympus sensors?
Sony makes the 16 MP sensor that was introduced in the E-M5 and is used in all current Olympus models, except for the E-M1 which uses a Panasonic sensor.
Sony now offers two new 4/3″ sensors, the second generation of the old 16 MP sensor, and a 20 MP sensor. The most likely customer for these is Olympus.
Off topic:
What the heck is this?
http://www.gadgetcatch.com/amkov-jq-x5-digital-camera-sonys-qx10-alternative/
Looks like a Sony knockoff with a russian name lol.
Sensors in consumer cameras account for only a very small part of the sensor market. The vast majority of sensors are made for mobile devices, security, automotive and industrial cameras, and scientific/medical equipment.
And?
The success of one business is no guarantee that a much less successful business won’t be abandoned. The sensor business isn’t thriving because of consumer cameras, it’s thriving because of smartphones, automotive cameras etc.
You can’t draw any conclusions about the future of Sony’s cameras from the success of its components division, that’s my point.
The article is interesting. There is more interesting part in it for us.
Sony split business in three tiers. Top investment opportunities, less important business and thing that soon may go.
Sensors, PlayStation, movie and music make the top tier. Photography business is in tier 2 with audio and other gadgets. Tier 3 is phones and Tv
More interesting is that Mr. Hirai is himself a photography fan! He will be spending time inspecting and testing the new photography gear
I hope he inspects the heck out of the A-Mount dev department. With A58 soon to be decomissioned leaving a sole A77II in APSC range, and A99 being outdated when comparing to any other FF on the market today(at ISO over 400), leaves you hoping for the best, while expecting the worst, and keeping the cash deep in your wallet
The A99 statement is a bit strong. The camera is not all that bad. D600 and 5d mk3 that were launched with it are on the market too. Price of A99 was fixed – my single and biggest gripe at launch.
I jumped on A7 (replacing faulty D600 and huge noisy D700). Now looking at A7 ii I cannot find anything that A99 would have in addition except articulating screen and focus limiter. I can find more things A7 ii has more than A99 though. I actually started buying A mount lenses for longer focal lengths – they just will not get any smaller with native E-mount versions 135/1.8 70-400 etc.
We now wait for A7r ii and may be new accessories why not better LA-EA adapter hopefully.
So really no reason to be unhappy. A99 is fine camera if you have one. If not why not check out the A7 ii or A7r. These are fine cameras close to A99 in capability and in some respects better.
For now the A7 and A7r at least are not so good for event photography as AF is not really on par with D750 or 5D mk3 – to be honest in low light it is not very good at all but this is all mirrorless. A99 with EVF too is not all that great for event photogs so….
I’m looking mostly from a perspective of a new buyer. Which I am. My A65 is beginning to show it’s age and I need something better to upgrade to.
A77II is pretty good and would serve my needs. No complaint’s there. But i’m also entertaining the switch to FF idea. In that scenario the only option is A99. Mirrorless is out of the question for now, until I see one that show’s up with a proper grip (A7II is a step in a right direction).
When I look at A99 and compare it to a 6D and a D610, what I see is a camera with a great performance up to ISO400, at which point it’s rivals begin to spank it in noise and dynamic range by nearly 1 stop. That is quite a loss to pay the same $$$ for.
Now I understand that it’s an SLT design and some light is lost due to the mirror, but I can’t figure out why Sony wouldn’t implement the flip-up-SLT option. Essentially make its AFD work similarly to the way a 70D or a 7DII works. Sure, it will be slower than a dedicated focusing module, but it would allow for a really-low-light shooting whenever you need that ability.
Add on top of that a video quality that was not that great to start with, and completely horrible in APSC crop mode, and it’s turning out to be something that is clearly heavily overpriced for what it does.
a99 also offers much greater native and expanded battery life. Also has ability to shoot AFC with highest speed motor. a7II only shoots AFC at 2fps with LAEA4, which isnt as accurate or as fast as a99.
At 5fps, a7II offers AFC on until first shot. Then it locks and doesn’t follow focus after that. At 2fps, a7II will work as expected with AFC, like a7r does at its max 2fps. Very disappointing these Emounts. They sit in bag watching the Amounts have all the fun.
would be interesting to know what cameras he uses.
The WSJ article is apparently paywalled, and I don’t do pay-wall, so not sure exactly what it says. He may be a photography fan, but the context is commercial sensor sales, not consumer product sales such as cameras. He may take pictures, but he makes his living from his company performance to the owners of the company, so for better or worse I wouldn’t predict consumer product viability based on his comments.
There something I don’t understand. Why don’t we see the market share for Canon ?
They’re included in Other. They only show the three largest players.
And the point is that one has nothing to do with another.
Aptina doesn’t make any cameras, yet Nikon doesn’t make sensors.
One division can fail horribly, while the other one will prosper.
Either Canon is in the “other” category, or they are using Sony as subcontractor.
“Global shutter will be mainstream in 2-3 years” – YES PLEASE!
Hopefully a Sony camera will be the first to have this!
And more A7s-type cameras with kickass low light ability!
Foveon-type sensor is also good news. No more moire!
Buried in the fine print… Samsung is 15%
The 28mp bsi sensor is rated best c size mirrorless sensor .
They have a patent for s promising 2 layer sensor..dont underestimate Samsung…no one thought they could make decent tvs a few years ago.
Canon is claiming they will soon release a camera with the most dynamic range of any sensor made.
Sony can possibly come up with something with more, but Canon will soon take that particular bragging right away.
The AF-C comment is not quite true for A7 with LA-EA4. I use it for sports. I take many frames but in single frame drive mode – just pressing shutter when needed. Reaction time of the camera is very good and I usually can capture some nice moments.
A99 to be honest is only marginally better making it a faster slug. 5fps is just as mediocre as 3 or 4 frames on A7 with EA4. Again Continuous drive mode on A99 at 5fps is great guarantee that you will miss the shot i.e. guarantee that there will be picture before and after an event. D810 and D600 are just the same so no shame.
A77 m2 or A6000 are just leaps and bounds ahead. Continuous drive mode really has some chance to nail a shot at 10fps.