Sony makes profit after 5 years! Sells less compacts and more system cameras. And expects to sell more High End cameras.

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The full financial report from Sony can be downloaded at http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/IR/financial/fr/12q4_sony.pdf. The slides are available here: http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/IR/financial/fr/viewer/12q4/

The overall company results: The good news is that for the first time since 2008 Sony made a net profit of $458 million.

Imaging Division: Sales decreased 4.1% year-on-year (a 7% decrease on a constant currency basis) to 730.4 billion yen (7,770 million U.S. dollars). This decrease was primarily due to a significant decrease in unit sales of compact digital cameras reflecting a contraction of the low-end of the market as well as a significant decrease in unit sales of video cameras reflecting a contraction of the market, partially offset by significantly higher sales of interchangeable single-lens cameras and the favorable impact of foreign exchange rates.

Outlook for the Fiscal Year ending March 31, 2014: For March 2014 Sony expects to increase the sales and operating revenue by a +10.3%. The Imaging division should grow to: “Overall segment sales are expected to increase due to a significant increase in sales of broadcast- and professional-use products and interchangeable single-lens cameras. Operating income is expected to increase significantly due to the impact of the increase in sales.”

Management focus and topics: In the imaging division Sony has implemented investments for growth such as expanding production capacity for its cutting-edge and competitive CMOS image sensors.

 

SAR general summary: Sony knows well that to grow in the digital camera market they have to focus on the high end professional market. That is their goal. The NEX system is selling well and sales should increase in this year (thanks to the new NEX-7 successor and new NEX lenses). But it’s the future Full Frame Alpha and NEX strategy that will mark the success or fail of their goals. Can’t wait to see what kind of (game changing?) products they will announce in early 2014!!!

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Zeiss 50mm macro coming on October 1!

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The 12mm and 32mm Zeiss primes will ship in 6-8 weeks according to BHphoto (Click here). And for the first time they also list the new Zeiss 50mm macro with shipment expected on october 1 (Click here to see). Some image samples shot on on NEX cameras can be found at Digifotopro.nl. More images on Fuji cameras can be seen at SystemKameraForum and at FujiRumors.

Zeiss preorder links:
12mm f/2.8 at BHphoto (Click here), Adorama (Click here) and Uniquephoto (Click here). In Europe at FotoMundus.
32mm f/1.8 at BHphoto (Click here), Adorama (Click here) and Uniquephoto (Click here). In Europe at FotoMundus.

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(SR2) New TS Zeiss lenses for A-mount? New Mirror lenses too?

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A new source sent me the following info:
1) Sony is working on a feasibility study right now for a full frame Zeiss Tilt Shift Lens for A-mount. This may be an autofocus lens!
2) Also up for debate are two aps-c mirror A-mount telephoto lenses: 350mm f5.6 AF SAM and a 500mm f8 AF SAM lens.
3) From what i’ve heard the 400 f2.8 will not happen, but the 400 f4 has been sent to design.

Don’t know yet of the info is correct. Also in that case I hope trusted sources can confirm or deny this. Thanks!

P.S: In these days I am working on the new A-mount roadmap. Sources can send me info anonymously through he contact form you see on the right border of the website. 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!

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A99 Mothers day deal. Open Box

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Mother’s day:
There is a long list of “Mother’s day deals” you can check out at BHphoto (Click here). The list includes the two particularly interesting Sony deals:
1) $500 discount on the Sony Alpha SLT-A99 Digital Camera with 28-75mm f/2.8 Lens Kit (Click here to see it)
2) Free Ruggard Streak 15 Shoulder Bag (Black with Yellow Accenting)Tiffen 49mm UV Protector FilterSanDisk 32GB SDHC Memory Card Ultra Class 10 UHS-I with the purchase of the NEX-7 (Click here to see it).

Also Amazon (Click here) has a long list of Mother’s day deals but there is no major Sony deal.

RX1:
Three Open Box RX1 for $2500 at [shoplink 18276 ebay]BeachCamera on eBay US (Click here)[/shoplink]

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(SR3) New “honami” JPEG engine “supposedly” developed for Alpha and NEX too?

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Now it’s getting really interesting. I aks my trusted source if the following info I got now could be correct:

“Concerning Honami/i1, there’s a few more things I would like you to confirm with your sources if you don’t mind. As you already know, SONY is working on a new JPEG algorithm for this particular phone, which is suppose to be from the imaging department of SONY. Based on current rumors so far, this new algorithm is also, “supposedly”, developed for their Alpha, NEX, and other cameras because their JPEG processing is horrible(base on user feedbacks). Can you confirm how true is that, and are we getting a new JPEG processing algorithm for NEX, Alpha, etc lineups?”

I will give you some feedback as soon as my trusted sources contact me. Anyway, if true this is a greta news. The JPEG image quality is not on par with the best in it’s class (Canon-Nikon-Fuji). I hope this will change soon!

P.S.: As noticed by SAR readers the new Sony “honami” would be the second smart phone having a large sized sensor. The first has been the Nokia PureView Smartphone (here at Amazon).

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Message to sources: You can send me more info anonymously by using the contact form you see on the very right of your browser. You can also contact me directly at sonyalpharumors@gmail.com.

For readers: Subscribe the RSS feed (Click here) and Twitter (Click here) stream and the Facebook fan page (Click here) in order to not miss any news!

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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!

 

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(SR3) Sony could launch the first phone with the quality of a high level compact camera?

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We usually don’t talk about Sony smartphones. But as you know, the digital compact camera is considerably shrinking because more and more people uses their smartphones for daily photography.

And now there are rumors about a new Sony Xperia flagship phone with the codename “Honami”. It should be the first smartphone using a large 1/1.6 – 1/1.5″ sensor! It features a Sony G lens. a mobile Bionz chip and either a xenon or plasma flash with a dual LED as well. Lens might be f2.0 and it should have a new JPEG algorithm to ensure things are far better than current Xperia phones.

I thank the source sending me this. He also asked me if my “usual” trusted sources can confirm this! The 1/1,5 inch sensor sounds huge. Almost unbelievable they can do it. UPDATE: Nokia did it with the PureView Smartphone (so it’s possible!) That said Sony is right on the track working on smartphones with high image quality. The “Normal” digital compact camera market is death anyway.

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