(SR5) Sony REAL mirrorless cameras to be unveileded in May


Finally some good news!
According to our sources Sony will officially release the new mirrorless camera system in May! Honestly that’s earlier than I expected.
Three trusted sources confirmed that rumor. One of them is the same source which told us about Sony unveiling mirrorless mockups and the A7xx prototype.
In this case we are 99% certain that rumor will become true!

As soon as we have detailed final specs of the cameras we will give it to you!

P.S.: Yesterday we told you that the new firmware for the Sony A850 and the Sony A900 have been postponed until May.

(SR4) A850 and A900 Firmware update release postponed (again)

Few days ago one of our trusted sources told us that Sony almost finshed the new firmware for the Sony A850 and the Sony A900 . He expected the official release for late March. The same source contacted me again and told me that the release has again be delayed. He didn’t gave me any reasons for the delay.
Also a second trusted source could confirm this rumor so I guess there is no way out form that bad news :(

Reminder (SR = Sonyrumor):
SR1=fake rumor (1% chance the rumor will become real)
SR2=rumor from unknown and unreliable source (10-20% chance the rumor will become real)
SR3=a rumor unknown source or sources which sounds realistic (20-50% chance the rumor will become real)
SR4=rumor from our trusted sources (50-70% chance the rumor will become real)
SR5=rumor from many of external and internal sources (70-90% chance the rumor will become real)

(FT5) A very small rumor….Sony is going to surprise us (in positive)

What I am going to post you now is only a small rumor but it is coming from my very BEST source. He just told me that “Sony didn’t show everything on PMA. Expect something more to be unveiled soon” and “no mockups…REAL stuff!
I am consciuos of the fact that this is a vague rumor but I was not able to get some concrete infos. Anyway I have choosen to post the rumor because if he says that something is coming then I know that we should expect that this will really happen!

UPDATE: I have no clue how soon… “soon” is. And the speculation below is just my personal speculation. May I am wrong with it.

My bet is we could see one of the following new cameras:
– A new Fullframe Alpha camera
– The real the mirrorless cameras

(SR4) UPDATED-> Finally…Sony A850 and A900 firmware coming!


One month ago in many forums people started to say that Sony could release the long expected firmware for the A850 and the A900. We didn’t hear anything form our sources so we posted the “rumor” with a low value “SR2=from unkown sources”.

What we post now is a rumor from one of our trusted sources. The Sony A850 and the Sony A900 will be released in March!

I really hope Sony has been able to address all the critics we read in the forums during the last months!

UPDATE: I have no details about the new firmware. I was only told that it will be a “major update”.

New rumors coming :)

Dear readers!

Like you I have not been really happy to see mockups only at PMA. Normally when a company shows you something like that you get the feeling that you will have to wait a lot of time to wait before you can see the REAL cameras. But during the last days I received some surprising rumors! I am still waiting to get some confirmations from other source but I really believe Sony is going to surprise us…in a good way! No more mockups :)

So stay tuned, as soon as I can I will give you the good news!

P.S.: I hope the new layout is a step in the right direction. Now it should be easier for you to read our news..at least I hope so!

(SR5) HOT! The Sony Half-mirror (pellix) patent!

Design of the Pellix mirror

As you know since months SonyAlphaRumors is telling you that Sony is working on a Half-mirror (Pellix-mirror) camera. Click here to read the original rumor we posted on December 1 2009!
I remember many of you didn’t really believe in what we told you :)

But now we can proove you that our rumor was true!
The very new patent from Sony (United States Patent Application 20100045853) is showing us how it works!!!

Let’s start with the very interesting part:
There is proposed a digital camera which is capable of simultaneously performing phase difference detecting AF by a phase difference detecting AF sensor and live view in which time-series images for determining a picture composition are electronically displayed on a display

In fact Sony invented the Holy Grail of photography (and videorecording). You will be able to use the very fast Phase-Detection Autofocus during video recording. And no more mirror blackout during still photography. No noisy mirror movements! It will make less noise than a Leica rangefinder camera!

You can read the entire patent here: http://www.freepatentsonline.com/y2010/0045853.html

Or read the part below (copied from the patent text) which summarize everything very well:

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

However, in such a technology as described above, a half mirror is fixed to a camera body. Therefore, in actual photographing (in capturing a still image for record), light passing through the half mirror is used. That is, typically, an actual photographing image is generated using light passing through the half mirror at a predetermined transmittance to reach an image pickup device. As a result, a sufficient quantity of light may not be obtained in the image pickup device in actual photographing.

It is desirable to provide an image pickup apparatus capable of obtaining a sufficient quantity of light used in actual photographing in a configuration capable of simultaneously performing phase difference detecting AF and live view.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, there is provided an image pickup apparatus including a half mirror, a phase difference detecting AF sensor, an image pickup device, and display means. The half mirror separates light from a photographing optical system into transmitted light and reflected light. The phase difference detecting AF sensor receives the reflected light reflected on the half mirror to detect a focusing state by a phase difference detecting method. The image pickup device receives the transmitted light passing through the half mirror to generate time-series images with respect to subject image light from the photographing optical system. The display means sequentially display the time-series images generated by the image pickup device. In the apparatus, the half mirror is provided so as to be movable between a first position on an optical path of the subject image light from the photographing optical system and a second position to which the half mirror is evacuated from the optical path of the subject image light, and when the half mirror is in the second position, the image pickup device generates an actual photographing image on the basis of the subject image light reaching the image pickup device from the photographing optical system without passing through the half mirror.

P.S.: Sorry if I still didn’t manage to update the SonyAlphaRumors website design. I have been really busy at work. Will have time tomorrow to make everything :)