Sony new financial report…

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The Sony mirrorless market share in Japan

 

Yesterday BCNranking (translation here) posted the market shares of the mirrorless market in Japan. As you see Sony is the second top player. But how is Sony doing financially? Today Sony released that pdf document (Click to download). In short: The company lost $198 million in Q2 but that’s much lass than they amount they lost in Q1 ($312). But forecast data looks good and Sony should go back to profit by end of 2013. What do we know about the digital camera business?

The imaging division that includes Digital Imaging Products and Professional Solutions categories. had a slightly revenue drop from ¥219.1 (Q1) to ¥182.6 (Q2) but there is still an operating income plus of ¥2.6 (numbers in millions). Sony writes that “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 resulting from popularization of smartphones as well as a slowing economy.“. But the forecats prediction says that “Sales are expected to increase and operating income is expected to increase significantly year-on-year.”

What is Sony’s goal for the imaging business? Here it is:
“Although the market for compact digital cameras continues to contract, Sony is working to restore profitability through reinforcement of its high value added products such as those that are differentiated through the use of highly competitive image sensors developed by Sony. For interchangeable single lens cameras, which are enjoying a steady expansion of sales, Sony aims to contribute even further to profitability by enhancing product competitiveness through the integration of network functionality and services. Image sensors contributed to profitability this quarter and, with the aim of further expanding profitability, Sony is making additional investments in production capacity to meet the growing demand for high performance image sensors in the growing market for mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets.”

P.S.: Unlike it is in Japan you can’t get real market shares data from Europe and US. To get a very basic and non scientific idea of the popularity you can still check the largest online store rankings:
US ranking (Click here), DE ranking (Click here), UK ranking (Click here), FR ranking (Click here).

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Sony TidBits (and finally RX1 manuals available for download)

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Our friend Mike Kobal shot this video about the Sansy Hurricane with the Sony RX100.

RX1:
First news of today. Our reader Mike (Thanks!) just sent us the links to the RX1 manual download links:
Various languages but not English listed as yet: http://sony.co.uk/support/en/product/DSC-RX1/manuals
And here is a working link to the English manual: http://pdf.crse.com/manuals/4443124111.pdf
The RX1 will ship in December and preorders are up at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, Wex UK ,Wex Germany and more links at Alphacameradeals.

More little Sony news:
A99 test at MyNavi (translation here).
Sony Chathistory about the new F55 and F5 cameras on Facebook.
Introducing the PMW-F55 (Sony website).
Damn it…even Ken Rockwell likes the Sony NEX-5R!

Live show:
Paul Genge will have CameraDiner LIVE show today. They will talk about e-mount with Yamamoto san from Sony PSE

Readers work:
Jonas: “With my recent NEX-7 purchase i started getting interested in shooting video along with my photography. I’ve made a little sample movie of what you can do with a nex-7, tripod, sony 24-70 cz and a circular polarizer. No extra effects have been added other than a slight adjustment in curves to correct dynamic range slightly. The video is on youtube =)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xhXlnP6duc&feature=plcp
Not sure if it’ll have any impact on nex-7 opinions but perhaps it’ll spark an interest in someone as other nex-7 videos did for me =)“

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Engadget loves the new NEX-5R (and me too).

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Engadget (Click here) posted the full Sony NEX-5R review and I agree with their conclusions when they write: “Picture and video quality, even at higher ISO settings, was stellar. The camera’s exposure was typically spot-on, and we never found a need to venture beyond the automatic white balance setting, with each shoot yielding accurate results. We’ve had some issues with past NEX models when shooting in tungsten or vapor light, but we were quite pleased with the images here. ”

Like any other company sometimes Sony makes bad products and sometimes Sony makes very good products. And few of you will disagree when I say that the NEX-5R falls in the latter category. When it comes down to analyze the features you get for the price you can hardly find any other mirrorless camera that can match it!

Along the RX100 this is my favorite camera of the year. And for you?

Sony NEX-5R in Stock status and price check at: [shopcountry 14168] Slide through the NEX-5R auctions on Slidoo.com.

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Next Sony foveon alike patent!

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Egami (translation here) spotted the next Sony sensor patent describing a Foveon alike sensor. With Foveon alike I mean a RGB 3-layer image sensor that in case of the Sony patent also includes tilted(!) pixels. As you know the advantage of such a 3 layer sensor is the color accuracy, sharpness and larger pixels (or possibility to have more pixels on the same sensor size). Now, it’s hard to understand from the google translation why these pixels have been titled. But if you saw some test of the latest generation Sigma Foveon sensor cameras than you will easily notice that at Low ISO the sensor really rocks! (while there are still massive noise problems on High ISO images).
Here are some test to check out:  DP2 ISO test at Focus Numerique. A full camera review has been posted at Photographyblog, Luminous Landscape and ePhotozine.

I hope Sony will be able to overcome some of the Sigma Foveon technology limits and release a camera with a 3 layer sensor. Would push the image quality to a new level!

P.S.: There are two 46 Megapixel Merrill compact cameras from Sigma:
DP1 with 28mm lens at Amazon, BHphoto and of course on [shoplink 15083 ebay]eBay[/shoplink].
DP2 with 45mm lens at BHphoto and on [shoplink 15084 ebay]eBay[/shoplink].

More info: Foveon X3 sensor (Source: Wikipedia)

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New Sony NEX-6 tests and Micahel Yamashita work.

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[shoplink 14167][/shoplink]

I guess you all remember photographer Michael Yamashita. He is the one that leaked the A99 in first place :) Sony Japan (Click here) now shows a dedicated online page where you can see his work with the A99 and NEX-6 cameras. It’s in Japanese only but pictures to tell more than thousand words…so they say. (Thanks Vadim for the link!).

Fengniao (translation here) posted a new NEX-6 test that includes a NEX-6 vs NEX-7 comparison:
ISO 3200: NEX-6 vs NEX-7
ISO 6400: NEX-6 vs NEX-7
ISO 12800: NEX-6 vs NEX-7

The new NEX-6 is shipping in many paces in Europe: Jessops UK, Redcoon Germany, Amazon Germany, [shoplink 15075 ebay]Fotoversand Germany (ships to EU)[/shoplink], [shoplink 15076 ebay]Allmedia Germany (ships to EU)[/shoplink], [shoplink 15077 ebay]Asdiscount France[/shoplink].

And through our new website Slidoo you can live check the NEX-6 offers on eBay US/Canada (Click here), eBay Europe (Click here) and eBay Asia (Click here).

 

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New A99 vs 5D ISO test (and note on the previous D600 comparison). A99 in Stock in US at Sonystore.

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If you click on the image on top you will see the full ISO comparison between the A99 and 5DmarkIII posted by DSLRmagazine (translation here). But before to go into the details of this comparison I want to go back to the ISO test made by Focus Numerique (translation here) where they compared the results with the Nikon D600. First, my french is very bad and google translation doesn’t really help you that much. I made mistake and said these were RAW converted files while they were not. These are original JPG images (but you can download the RAW files too). One of our readers noticed that the Sony JPG files are actually having a size of 8MB only compared to the 15-16MB of the Nikon D800 (Example: ISO 1600 -> A99 vs D600).

This means that Sony JPEG Fine setting compresses twice more than the Nikon! Of course a Nikon or Canon will always look better when you compare apple with oranges :) We really have to see a real RAW comparison to get a more accurate idea about the A99 performance!

Back to the comparison made by DSLRmagazine. These are once again JPEG comparisons and as we now know Sony applies a stronger compression for their JPEG files. In short…dear reviewers…show us some real RAW comparison! :)

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UPDATE: Sonystore US has the A99 in Stock right now. Check out Alphacameradeals to see the full link list!

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Sony A99 in Stock status check: Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, Jessops, Wex UK, Wex Germany, eBay Europe, Sonystore DE–UK–FR–IT–ES–NL–SE–FI–CH and more links at Alphacameradeals.

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Sony NEX-6 shipping in US and Europe! (and exact lens release date).

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New NEX-6 video preview.

Sony Tokyo event:
Sony had a big event in Tokyo and you can read the article on DC.watch (translation here). They showed some graph that demonstrates how Sony is recovering after the Thai Flood disaster from last year. Sony is ruling the worldwide mirrorless market and that market is strongly gaining shares at cost of the classic DSLR market. They also announced the definitive shipping info for the new lenses. The pancake zoom will ship in January, the 10-18mm zoom on November 16th and the 35mm lens in December.

NEX-6 shipping!
But today we also have good news for all future NEX-6 owners. The cameras is finally shipping today. Here is the list:
USA/Canada: BigValue has the [shoplink 15056 ebay]Body only (Click here)[/shoplink] and the [shoplink 15055 ebay]pancake kit (Click here)[/shoplink] in Stock via eBay.  Until few hours ago Amazon (Click here) had the info that the camera was set to ship from today. In Canada the camera is in Stock at Sonystore.
Europe: The German stores Fotomunds and Amazon have them in Stock. French and Italian shops are selling the first cameras on eBay (found via Slidoo).
Full NEX-6 and other new Sony camera and lens preorder list can be found at AlphaCameraDeals.

And here are some new NEX-6 videos:
AF test by SLRclub on youtube. Uboxing video on youtube. MXcamera EOS adapter on the NEX-6 on youtube.

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Sony preorder list:
A99 body Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, Jessops, Wex UK, Wex Germany, Sonystore DE–UK–FR–IT–ES–NL–SE–FI–CH and more links at Alphacameradeals.
A99 with kit lens links Alphacameradeals.
RX1 Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, Wex UK ,Wex Germany and more links at Alphacameradeals.
NEX-6 body Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, Wex UK, Wex Germany Sonystore DE–UK–FR–IT–ES–NL–SE–FI–CH and more links at Alphacameradeals.
NEX-6 with kit lens Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, Jessops, Wex Uk ,Wex Germany and more links at Alphacameradeals.
NEX-VG900 Amazon, BHphoto, Sonystore DE–UK–FR–IT–ES–NL–SE–FI–CH, Wex Uk and more links at Alphacameradeals.
NEX-VG30 Adorama, Amazon, BHphoto, Wex UK, Sonystore DE–UK–FR–IT–ES–NL–SE–FI–CH, and more links at Alphacameradeals.
Sony E-mount 16-50mm Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, Wex UK, Sonystore DE–UK–FR–IT–ES–NL–SE–FI–CH, and more links at Alphacameradeals .
Sony E-mount 35mm Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, Wex UK, Sonystore DE–UK–FR–IT–ES–NL–SE–FI–CH, and more links at Alphacameradeals.
Sony E-mount 10-18mm Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, Wex UK, Sonystore DE–UK–FR–IT–ES–NL–SE–FI–CH, and more links at Alphacameradeals.
Sony A-mount 300mm f/2.8 Amazon, BHphoto, Sonystore DE–UK–FR–IT–ES–NL–SE–FI–CH.

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