Tomorrow, August 29th at 3-4pm London time (yes pm and not am!) Sony will announce the new Sony NEX-5R. The NEX-6, A99, VG900 and more stuff will be announced on September 12th. Meanwhile here are the specs of the NEX-5R:

• 16.1 Mpx APS-C CMOS Exmor sensor
• New Bionz imaging engine
• ISO 100 up to 25.600
• Full HD video recording at 1920×1080/60p AVCHD 2.0 format
• PASM shooting and digital zoom support
• Phase/Contrast Hybrid AF
• 99 phase detection AF points
• 25 contrast AF points
• Continuous AF and AF tracking
• MF assist
• Peaking level/color
• Auto Portrait Framing
• Self Portrait, Self timer
• 3 inch tiltable screen (like the one from the [shoplink 12933]NEX-F3[/shoplink])
• Touch screen LCD with Touch Shutter
• 15 picture effects
• 2x Clear Zoom
• over 400 pics per battery charge
• takes the optional [shoplink 9110]FDA-EV1S external viewfinder[/shoplink]
• Stereo mic
• Shutter: 30sec up to 1/4.000
• Time lag 0.02 sec
• WiFi
• Remote control via Application support
• All the rest is like on the [shoplink 8452]Sony NEX-5n[/shoplink] (D-range, Auto HDR and so on)

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Picture via Phottix (think it’s the A77)

My colleague from Photorumors and I received exactly the same A99 specs. UPDATE: Added some more specs. Here they are:

• 24.3 Mpx Full frame CMOS Exmor sensor
• SLT technology
• New Bionz imaging engine
• 14 bit RAW recording
• 10 fps
• ISO 100 up to 25.600
• 50 ISO extended (with lower dynamic range)
• 102 AF point AF (11 cross).
• AF range
• MF assist
• Dual Phase detection system (with AF phase pixels on sensor)
• 30 sec and 1/8000 maximum shutter speed
• Time Lag 0.05 sec.
• Shutter life guarantee of 200,000 cycles
• 2.360k OLED electornic viewfinder
• 3″921k LCD with same tilting system of the A77
• Full HD video recording at 1920×1080/60p AVCHD format
• HDMI output
• Built-in stereo mic
• Built-in flash with guide number of 12
• Auto HDR capability
• New multi-segment low pass filter
• Photodiode expansion technology
• Light concentration technology
• Selective noise reduction
• Ultrasonic anti dust system
• In body image stabilization
• Two memory slots: SD and SD+MS cards
• USB: 2.0
• Announced on September 12, 2012
• Available in stores in late October 2012
• New accessories to be released with the a99: battery grip, flash, remote control, microphone etc.
• Very light, weather sealed magnesium alloy body.With 730 g this is the lightest FF body on market!

Along all that NEX and SLT stuff Sony will also announce the Sony Helmet camera. With that camera Sony is now entering a very large typ of market dominated by [shoplink 13490 ebay]GoPro[/shoplink]. I have no specs about those cameras but I have been told that they will blow them away :) Let’s see if that is true! Meantime you can watch that Sony Helmet camera teaser.

Finally! The Sony A99 FF camera will be the first Sony camera to have full 14bit RAW file recording! It is something Nikon cameras (like the D800) have since a long time now so it was about time fro Sony to use it too. But will it really bring some noticeable improvement?

The administrator of Cambridgeincolour wrote: “It is usually image noise — not the 12/14-bit A/D dynamic range — that ultimately limits the photo’s visible dynamic range. A 14-bit linear A/D converter has a dynamic range of 14 f-stops, for example, but this is far beyond what is visible because of image noise (5-10 f-stops at the very most).
Further, A/D converters and CCD/CMOS sensors are not always linear; in which case the image bit precision/depth does not necessarily correlate with A/D dynamic range. Take a look at the last two sections on bit depth and tonal curve in the dynamic range tutorial. There’s a lot more on this there, although be warned that this concept can be quite confusing.
At present the only tangible use I can think of for the extended 14-bit precision is more shadow tonality in a RAW photo which has undergone extreme shadow recovery. If this is true, then 14-bit is worth it in exchange for the marginally larger file sizes. However, I have no evidence of this in practice. ”

More 12 vs 14 bit tests: here and here.

I have been told the JPEG engine has been improved too. But we have to wait for real test to see if Sony’s wake point has been finally straight out too!

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