Today Sony published the latest financial report. As expected the 2016 sales in the Imaging segment dropped by 15% mainly because of the Kumamoto earthquake. The good news is that Sony expects a 10% sales increase for 2017.
In the Semiconductior segment Sony forecast its chip division, which includes image sensors, to return to profit this year, at 120 billion yen. To meet increased demand, it will more than double capital expenditure on image sensors to 110 billion yen, raising production capacity by 13.6 percent by the end of March.
Original Sony A7 with Nikkor Ai lenses : Freestyle Scootering (SonyAlphaForum).
USA Solar Eclipse 2017 special at BHphoto.
Sony a99II review at CameraJabber.
Oskar Bakke captures glistening details with the Profoto B1 and Sony α7R II (Profoto).
Sony Chonburi Factory Tour: The source of all Alpha goodness (Imaging Resource).
Sony A7RII Overview Switching From Canon (Charlie Brown Photography).
Kai (video on top) tested the Sony A9 and is quite impressed by its performance. And we also got many more test and first impression reviews by other reviewers:
First Lok by Lok on Photogearnews
Hands-on by Fstoppers
Image samples at Fstoppers.
First look – Hands-on with the Sony A9 (Wex UK video)
The Sony A9 is much more than just a sports camera (Manny Ortiz Video)
Sony A9 vs Sony A7 II: What are the Key Differences? (CameraJabber).
I just sold my Nikon D5 and made the jump to Sony! (Dpreview Forum).
The Sony a9: A Wedding & Portrait Photographer’s Perspective (Movetomirrorless)
¿Sony A9, la cámara que lo cambia todo? Encuesta (Photolari).
Please support SAR:
You know me, I work my ass off to get the best news and rumors on SAR :) And this is the right time to reward me by using these affiliated links for your purchase! I will get a small commission and you don’t have to pay a cent more for that. Thanks!
Win an AMEX card ($4,500) at BHphoto: US readers preordering the A9 at BHphoto using our links (and our affiliated links only!) have a chance to win an AMEX card mathching the value of the Sony A9 ($4,500). The winner will be randomly selected by BHphoto by end of June after the preorders shipped out!
The conditions and legal notes of the sweepstake can be read here: sonyalpharumors.com/official-bh-sonyalpharumors-a9-launch-sweepstakes-rules/
Win an A9 at Adorama: If you preoder the Sony A9 at Adorama through our affiliated links only (it doesn’t work on links of other sites!) they will refund one lucky customer their $4,498 price on the A9! This will be for pre-orders. Once the orders start shipping (some time the end of May) Adorama will filter all the orders that came from SAR, and randomly select one A9 order and refund the customer their money. This is for the camera only and not the new 100-400mm lens or accessories.
The conditions and legal notes of the sweepstake can be read here: sonyalpharumors.com/official-adorama-sonyalpharumors-a9-launch-sweepstakes-rules/
–
Join our new Sony A9 Facebook group!
Kenji Tanaka from Sony (Photo: Rishi Sanyal from Dpreview).
Dpreview published the interview they had with Sony (before the A9 launch). There is not much detail about their future plans other than these three points:
Our biggest focus is to increase the market, not segment it.
Wedding shooters require more durability. We are actively working to address their needs.
In case of low sensitivities, we are working on increasing saturation capacities, or well depth, of pixels. In case of high sensitivities, pixel size matters.
Sony doesn’t just plan to eat up market share from Canon and Nikon. They are more focused to increase the overall market by continuous innovation. Global Shutter and 8K are for sure key tech they are working on while Light Field Cameras is a no go for now.
“RawDigger w/ support for SONY a9: RawDigger: https://www.rawdigger.com/news/rawdigger-1-2-20-beta FastRawViewer 1.4 with Sony a9 support, extended trial key for 45 days, seriously reworked and extended file sorting and filtering, also touchscreen support and some other niceties, listed in “What’s new” https://www.fastrawviewer.com/blog/FastRawViewer-1-4-beta We do not expect any crashes, based on rather extensive tests of private beta. I know time is not as elastic as we need it to be :) Still, your feedback, if you can squeeze it into your schedule, (and possibly feedback from your audience) is extremely important to us. No rush, we are planning to test this beta thoroughly before making a production release. “
At exactly 16:00 London time Sony lifted the embargo and reviewers are allowed to post their full reviews and image samples. So here is the constantly updated list of new A9 tests:
Of interest is an analysis of Raw noise vs the a7R II – we took a look at Raw files at ISO 25.6k files of the same scene run through dcraw. They indicate only a slight advantage (possibly within the margin of our error) to the a9 compared to the a7R II when viewed at common output size (SNR of 3.4 vs 3.7 between the a7R II and a9, respectively, for a similar patch). Physics predicts this: for two sensors of similar technology, it’s sensor size that matters (especially with gapless microlenses). Don’t expect less noise in Raw on the a9 in normalized comparisons against the a7R II. Images to come.
The a9 is surely the beginning of a new line of cameras from Sony that will only grow from here and hopefully fast. I love good gear. I have owned and invested in a Sony system for some years now and look forward to adding the a9 to my inventory as well as the 100-400mm lens. Sony has proven many things in the last few weeks. They listen, they understand, and they deliver what is asked for. Now if they could only find someone to help them fix their menus. Hey, Sony, I’m volunteering!
The camera’s best attribute isn’t its burst speed alone. The complete lack of blackout when capturing images changes the way you can capture quick-moving subjects. If a basketball player makes a sudden juke in an unexpected direction, you’ll be able to better follow them with your lens. Likewise, if you’re trying to grab a shot of erratic fauna, like a swallow in flight, the camera can better keep up with their movements, even when using a lens long enough to keep them tightly framed. And because the autofocus system covers so much of the image sensor area, you won’t have to worry about your subject moving outside of the range of autofocus.
Please support SAR:
You know me, I work my ass off to get the best news and rumors on SAR :) And this is the right time to reward me by using these affiliated links for your purchase! I will get a small commission and you don’t have to pay a cent more for that. Thanks!
Win an AMEX card ($4,500) at BHphoto: US readers preordering the A9 at BHphoto using our links (and our affiliated links only!) have a chance to win an AMEX card mathching the value of the Sony A9 ($4,500). The winner will be randomly selected by BHphoto by end of June after the preorders shipped out!
The conditions and legal notes of the sweepstake can be read here: sonyalpharumors.com/official-bh-sonyalpharumors-a9-launch-sweepstakes-rules/
Win an A9 at Adorama: If you preoder the Sony A9 at Adorama through our affiliated links only (it doesn’t work on links of other sites!) they will refund one lucky customer their $4,498 price on the A9! This will be for pre-orders. Once the orders start shipping (some time the end of May) Adorama will filter all the orders that came from SAR, and randomly select one A9 order and refund the customer their money. This is for the camera only and not the new 100-400mm lens or accessories.
The conditions and legal notes of the sweepstake can be read here: sonyalpharumors.com/official-adorama-sonyalpharumors-a9-launch-sweepstakes-rules/
–
Join our new Sony A9 Facebook group!
