Many trusted sources informed me that Sony decided to delay the A77 and NEX-7 announcement from July 7th to late August. Reason for that delay are production problems. To be more detailed it looks like that there is a production issue with minor components of the cameras. The cameras will be in Stock in late September/early October.

I know that’s bad news, after the Tsunami disaster I received info about production problems from Sony but I also had been told that Sony would not delay the A77 announcement and deliver the camera a couple of months later than expected. This has changed (and we certainly cannot blame Sony for that).

Oh, and before you start to think that this rumor might not be true there are a couple of things you have to keep in mind:
1) Also the NEX-C3 and A35 were supposed to be announced in early April but than the announcement have been delayed to early June. Some of you didn’t believe me and it wos good for me that Sony itself leaked the images and manual on their websites in April (it proved that my sources were correct).
2) I got the info about the A77 delay from many trusted sources. The same sources that gave me correct info in the past.
3) If I am correct than there should be already product images of the A77 (like it was for the NEX-C3 and A35 in April). And the good news is that I have one of those pictures ;)

Tomorrow (Wednesday) at 12:00 GMT (London Time) I will post the very first picture of the A77 (+ little surprise). If you are wondering why I didn’t post the picture last week the answer is that the source told me to wait until a certain date (the reason will be unknown forever). So sorry for the pre-announcement suffering ;)

See you tomorrow!

P.S.: As usual, if you have a “rumor” to share use the contact form on the right sidebar. Avoid to send me your name and email address but it would be nice if you could use some kind of fake name so that I can recognize you in future. Oh, and the contact form doesn’t store any hidden info like the IP-address.

Yesterday Photorumors posted a rumors about a possible new A920 camera with 7fps and 32 Megapixel. As you know I don’t believe the rumor is correct. I wanted to let you know that a couple of trusted sources contacted me to confirm that there is no A920 and that there will be no fullframe camera this year. So no surprise here.

I am currently working on the A77 and NEX-7 rumor and I will give you some important news soon. Stay tuned on SAR!

There is an almost impossible rumor posted by Photorumors. According to one of their sources Sony will announce a new Fullframe camera in August with 32 Megapixel sensor, 7fps and and Dual Bionz processor. There are no more info than what I posted here. Why do I say that this is an almost impossible rumor? I heard from my sources that Sony will release the translucent Fullframe camera in 2012 only. The [shoplink 3028]Sony A850[/shoplink] has been discontinued and the [shoplink 3032]A900[/shoplink] should see some price drops soon. Of course it would make a lot of sense for Sony to release a new FF camera soon. But you know, Sony product strategy and development doesn’t necessary follow our “common sense”. Otherwise the A77 would be here since almost a year, the NEX lens roadmap would contain a couple of awesome pancakes and so on :)

Anyway, I don’t want to destroy your hopes. Let’s assume the A920 rumor is real, than I can imagine that this is just an updated version of the current [shoplink 3032]A900[/shoplink]. Same body, no translucent technology (yes OVF) and basic video quality. It would give Sony some time for the development of the fullframe cameras. Let’s see…

Links to current Sony fullframe cameras:
Sony A850 at [shopcountry 3028]
Sony A900 at [shopcountry 3032]

One more store got this repair guide from Sony that includes the A77 name and repair price. There have been another repair guide “leak” a couple of days ago. Anyway, that’s again a proof the A77 is getting closer and that our sources were right when long time ago they told to us the A77 would be announced in July (with one source saying it will be July the 7th).

And if all works well with my sources than I could publish the very first A77 picture soon!

Reminder: Those are the secs and other rumors we collected about the A77:
The A77 is coming in mid July
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
wishbone hinge with a centre pivot
USB: 3.0
Price 999 Dollars/Euro for body only.
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

Phase detection or not phase detection….that’s the question! Mirrorless cameras are currently do lag behind most DSLR cameras in terms of autofocus speed. That’s why Sony is developing a sensor for NEX cameras that has built-in phase detection capabilities. I found (again) a new patent that describes the technology (Click here to see the publication at freepatentsonline). Fuji is already using it on the [shoplink 6047 ebay]Finepix Z800EXR (Click here to see that camera)[/shoplink]! See the Fuji camera specs at [shopcountry 6047]. There is also a nice article on Dpreview (Click here) that describes the Fuji technology.

But I don’t know if such a sensor will be ever implemented in NEX cameras. Rumors are saying that Olympus next PEN cameras will have an extremely fast and accurate autotofocus and catch up with DSLR cameras in terms of af speed. So maybe Sony is wasting time with it?

After a two days troubles with hacked code and new server installation I can finally go back to normal news coverage. A trusted source just sent me the price in Euro of the A77 body. As you know two weeks ago I told you that the A77 camera + 18-55mm kit lens would cost $1099. Now I am pretty sure the A77 body only will cost 999 Euro in Europe! I think that’s a very good price if the image and body quality is on top as we expect it to be! I also expect street price to be around 950 Euro.

That’s less than the main competition:
Check Canon 7D price at [shopcountry 6954].
Check Nikon D7000 price at price at [shopcountry 6952].

I have been told that this is possible because the translucent cameras can get rid of the expensive optical viewfinder system. Production costs should be around 15-20% less than classic DSLR cameras!
One more thing: I know from trusted that the price of raw glas almost doubled in a bit more than one year!

[shoplink 3058][/shoplink]
Before you read please keep in mind that I didn’t get a final confirmation for the following rumor. So please don’t get to excited? I am posting this because I hope other sources can confirm the rumor. A good source just sent me this. “July will also see the announcement of the A55 replacement (tentative) and the A77. In addition to the new A mount bodies, 2 new NEX photo products will also be discussed as well as the VG10 replacement.”

If all works fine than Sony will announce following products in July (or some of them in September):
The A77 with 24 Megapixel.
The A57 or A65 (not sure about the name yet) with less Megeapixels (?)
The NEX-7 which has the same sensor as the A77
The NEX-C5 with same A57/65
The VG20
The 16-50 f/2.8 Alpha Mount lens
The 24mm f/1.7 Zeiss NEX lens.
The 55-200mm NEX lens.
One more thing: The 500mm f/4.0 lens has been delayed!!!

IMPORTANT MESSAGE: On Tuesday June 14th from 19:00 to 24:00 GMT (London) time comments will be disabled. I am moving the website on a new faster server. That will allow me to avoid crashes during the upcoming Sony announcements. And I can finally add some features on this website (+ fix the current issues). The whole server+installation costs are $3700 high. If you want to help to cover the server costs feel free to use our affiliate links to make shopping ([shopcountry 7207]) or feel free to donate by using that paypal button:

. Thanks!

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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!