Finally the wait is over! We know when Sony will show the new A77 to the world! A trusted source confirmed the Sony A77 will be announced on July 7 (as some reader noticed that’s not a casual date 7/7 for the A77). It will be priced at $1099 including the kit lens! As I already told you the camera will be in Stock in late September/early October. Feel free to share that news on your blog or forum. But would be nice to link back to SonyAlphaRumors as we have been the first to post that! (Thanks to our special anonymous sources!!!).

The A77 will be Sony’s top APS-C model. And I am very surprised about the very good price. I don’t know if that is the price with the current [shoplink 6957]18-55mm zoom lens[/shoplink] or the rumored new high quality kit lens (that would make that price even more amazing) . Let’s compare it with the best APS-C models from the main competitors:
The Nikon 7000 costs $1,199.95 but you pay that for the body only! Check [shopcountry 6952].
The Canon 7D costs $1,860.00 (again body only!). Check [shopcountry 6954].
The very good Pentax K-5 costs $1,479.00 with kit lens. Check [shopcountry 6953].

Let’s assume the kit lens is the current 18-55mm zoom, and let’s assume the image quality is indeed top of the notch:

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I am convinced the A77 will be the best APS-C camera on the market. It toke very long for Sony to develop the [shoplink 3228]A700[/shoplink] successor. But the reason behind that is that Sony wanted to make a perfect camera using the new SLT technology. It will fix most of the problems of the current first generation SLT cameras ([shoplink 3617]Sony A33/55[/shoplink]). Along that camera Sony will announce new accessories and new lenses. I have no 100% confirmation yet but also the NEX-7 should be announced on the same day.

Its’ going to be a big day on July 7! I hope you will be all here on SonyAlphaRumors to follow that event live! Don’t miss rumors, join us on Facebook and Twitter and follow our RSS-feed!

I toke a day off from my work to read all your comments. Ask me whatever you want and I will answer you! Thanks!

Those are the specs of the A77:

The A77 announcement on July 7.
Shipment start early October
Coming with new kit lens (A Sony 16-50mm zoom. Compared to the [shoplink 5586]Zeiss 16-80mm f/3.5-4.5[/shoplink] it will have a constant aperture and probably have a bit higher price. Zeiss 16-80mm price check at [shopcountry 5586].)
24 Megapixels (The combination of the new sensor+new Zeiss lens delivers 62% more resolution than the [shoplink 3617]A55 16 Megapixel sensor[/shoplink].)
1080p/30fps, 720p/60fps and 720p/30fps high-definition video
AF fine-tuning capabilities. A source told us that it has an improved focusing system (quite fast and accurate).
3 Million dot OLED viewfinder (more than double of the resolution fo the current [shoplink 3617]Sony A55/33[/shoplink] viewfinder.)
magnesium alloy
It will take CF+SD+MS cards
No flip-up mode to allow shooting without this extra sheet of glass in place
1.000 pictures with one battery

Reminder (SR = Sonyrumor):
SR1=probably fake rumor
SR2=rumor from unknown sources
SR3=50% chance it is correct
SR4=rumor from known sources
SR5=almost certainly correct!

Some of us are not completely happy with the Sony NEX roadmap because of the lack of compact primes. So we have to rely on this kind of products coming from third party lens makers. SLRmagic showed a new E.mount lens prototype which will be on market by June. You can see a size comparison with some of the current NEX lenses:

Don’t know the price and image quality it can deliver. I would not expect to much from it!

P.S.: [shoplink 3514]Click here to see the current SLRmagic 35mm f/1.7 lens for NEX on eBay (You can get it here only)[/shoplink].

Looks funny but could be the future: Sony liquid lens technology.

The japanese blog Egami posted the latest Sony patents:

1) Sony liquid lens patent (Click here).
This is not the first Sony patent we found that describes the liquid lens technology. With such technology you can change the curvature of the lens by changing the voltage of the liquid. The advantages are:
-non-movement glasses for zoom or AF
-less glasses inside the lens
-faster electrical response
-non-motor on the glass
-silence AF mode

2) Sigma filed a patent in Japan (2011-059293) for what appears to be a 18-48mm lens for NEX cameras (via Photorumors). I really hope Sigma will make fast primes instead of this one :(

That’s probably the rumor of the year!!! The Sony NEX-C3 will be produced not only in boring Silver and boring black but also in…drumming….excitement…PINK!!!! I guess the main audience for that color will be ladies or young girls. I am bit surprised to see that there is no white or red option. As long as I know only two camera makers made a pink camera. Pentax and Panasonic. And I heard from my sources that the pink cameras are quite popular in Japan. Those are the cameras in pink:

Pink [shoplink 6929 ebay]Pentax Kr on eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
Pink [shoplink 6930 ebay]Panasonic GF2 on eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].

And here is the image of the NEX-C3 in pink. Awesome or not? :)

One of our new sources just sent us the codes of some of the upcoming new Sony products. Those are products that will be in Stock within the next couple of months:

HVL-F20S: That should be the new NEX flash UPDATE: Price 139 Euro at camara.fr
HVL-F40AM: A new Falsh for Alpha cameras
SAL-70300: That is the rumored new Sony 70-300mm f/4-5.6 SAM lens.
SAL-1024: That should be a new 10-24mm lens.

But the most intriguing code is the last one:
VG-C77AM: This is the vertical Grip for the A77! Certainly a sign that the A77 is coming. And as we already told you it should arrive in July. I hope the source can soon send me the code for both the new A77 and the NEX-7 :)

And now we got even more info about the future 30mm NEX and the other 6 future NEX lenses.
The 30mm macro lens is designed with 7 lens elements in 6 groups. One of them is an ED lens and three of them are aspherical. Minimum focusing distance is 10cm, filter size 49mm and weight 138g.

There will be six more NEX lenses to come in 2011/2012:
A Sony portrait lens 50mm f/1.8
The 24mm f/1.7 Zeiss
The telephoto zoom lens (should be 55-200mm f/4-5.6)
A medium telephoto lens
The Sony G standard zoom
A Sony wide angle zoom.

P.S.: The NEX flash will cost around $150 and have a coverage of 24-50mm.

As I already told you I do expect Sony to release the new NEX-C3, A35, new NEX flash and the new Sony 30mm f/3.5 macro NEX lens on June 3. Today I got more info about both cameras. The NEX-C3 and A35 will be in Stock by early August. And here are the specs:

NEX-C3:
16 megapixel sensor,
surprise: 200-12800 ISO (where is the ISO 100?)
HD video recording (why no FullHD?)
25 AF
same 3inch LCD as the NEX-5
The camera will also have the new picture effects (the NEX-3 and NEX-5 will get them with a firmware update)
The battery life has been increased by 20% compared to the battery life of the [shoplink 3003]NEX-5[/shoplink]
Price $599

A35:
16 megapixel sensor,
100-12800 ISO
FullHD 1080 AVCHD
New tele-zoom high speed shooting mode with 7 fps (???)
Same picture effects as the NEX-C3
Price $599