Sony displays the A700 successor prototype at CES along the new mid-range speedlight flash. You can see a few pictures at Photographybay. On a first look there seems to be no difference between that body and the protoype shown at the Photokina in September 2010.
Photographybay says that: “No word on the release date, but one would expect it to arrive at or around PMA 2011 in September.“
I got two mails from a new source (Thanks!) that seems to know a lot about the upcoming new NEX products. According to him Sony will:
1) release a NEX-4 (16 Mio, 1080p Video) in May 2011 (its the successor of [shoplink 3003]NEX-3[/shoplink]). It will be available as a kit (no body only).
2) The successor of the [shoplink 3003]NEX-5[/shoplink] is coming later, together with…
3) the NEX-7 (24 Mio) in October. The NEX-7 will have the the same sensor like A77 a lot of “mechanical” controls and superb build quality. The cost of nex7 together with 18-55 lens is ~1200€-1250€.
4) New lenses this year: 1,7/24 ZEISS, 3,5/30 Macro, 1,8/50 and 4-5,6/55-200.
The source will read your comments on this post so ask him whatever you want!!!
If you can confirm or deny or correct those rumors feel free to contact me at sonyalpharumors@gmail.com or use the contact form on the right sidebar (it doesn’t store the IP address and you can avoid to send me your name and email but please use some kind of nickname so that I will be able to recognize you in future). Thanks!
Reminder (SR = Sonyrumor):
SR1=probably fake rumor
SR2=rumor from unknown sources
SR3=50% chance it is correct
SR4=rumor from known sources (60-80% the rumor is correct)
SR5=almost certainly correct!
After the Sony conference an interviewer made some questions to the Sony entertainment president (Source: ustream.tv). Do consider that he might don’t know the detailed roadmap on Alpha and Nex cameras. That’s why he might made a “small” marketing mistake:
He tells that CES is not really the event to talk about photography equipment especially professionally. He said that PMA should be the event to announce such devices.
Now, I am almost sure the NEX-4 and A77 will come long time before the PMA (which takes place in September only!). But Sony marketing guys should be more careful when saying we should wait until September because one can get the idea that there will be no new Alpha and NEX cameras/lenses in the meanwhile!
UPDATE: Sony booth at CESwill open tomorrow. So only than we will see the eventually new NEX and Alpha camera prototypes. If you are there feel free to send us your report/pictures! Thanks!
Sony press conference is over and there was little to be excited about the digital photography news. Sony introduced a bnch of new compact cameras including the DSC-TX100V wich records video in 1080p60. Defacto this is the only interesting news!
I hope the Sony booth will sow the rumored NEX prototype…
Official press release text:
– Sony announces six entry level compacts (Dpreview)
– Sony unleashes five Cyber-shots with 16.2MP CMOS sensor (Dpreview)
We embedded the Sony live stream in this post. You can also follow the conference at ustream.tv. The conference starts at 5pm Las Vegas time (that’s 1am in the night in London).
UPDATE_5: It was a pretty uninteresting conference. 1 hour of talk about all kind of stuff with no very interesting digital camera news.
UPDATE_4: Sounds like Sony will talk about 3D stuff only. Meanhwile DPreview published the Press Release about the new Sony compact cameras.
UPDATE_3: Conference started! Of course the first theme is 3D…
UPDATE_2: What we can expect to be shown at the conference: New bloggie cameras, compact cameras, new 3D videocameras and more consumer stuff. Sony could also choose to not talk about NEX and Alpha cameras and just show the new prototypes at the Sony booth in Las Vegas.
UPDATE_1: Just to keep me and you busy -> I received some unreliable rumors from new sources. Like for example that Sony will announce a mirrorless partnership with Nikon :) Sounds almost impossible! As I said in the previous post. Keep the expectations low….for now.
I had new talks with my sources. They all expect the announcement of many new compact camera (I did count eleven cameras). And we are pretty sure there will be no new “real” NEX or A77 announcement. The only thing we can hopefully expect are prototype presentations of the future NEX-4(?) and Sony A77 cameras. So please don’t expect to much from the Sony live press conference. Let’s keep it down to earth. All we can hope is that Sony will give us some kind of new timeline and specs of the future NEX/Alpha cameras and lenses.
Anyway the good news is that a few of my sources confirmed some of the A77 specs I already posted on SonyAlphaRumors one month ago. I will repost them here:
According to my sources Sony has chosen to use a completely new sensor for the upcoming professional SLT (Translucent) camera. The sensor will have 24 Megapixels but don’t worry, I have been told the noise performance of the sensor is equal if not better than current 14-16 Megapixels Sony sensors used for the [shoplink 3003]NEX[/shoplink] and [shoplink 3617]A33/A55[/shoplink] cameras. It will feature the highest resolution APS-C camera on market (The [shoplink 4406]Canon 7D[/shoplink] is on top with the 18 Megapixel sensor). The Sony A77 will be released by mid 2011 because Sony needed time to develop an almost perfect camera. There will be many innovations (Paul Genge of Sony UK said that “this camera will include such high specification features that current [shoplink 3228]A700[/shoplink] owners will be amazed“). It will have an improved BIONZ processor (based on the current A33/A55 processor), micro af adjustment and record 1080/30p, 720p60 and 720p30 (But we can’t exclude last minute improvements like 1080p24). I also do know that Sony original plan was to release the A750 with Optical Viewfinder but I don’t know yet if Sony will indeed bring that prototype to the market (let’s say there is a 50% chance).
See you at 1am London time!!!
A new source contacted me to share info about the upcoming NEX camera. He said the NEX-4 will be on market in May. It will have the same [shoplink 3617]Sony A55 sensor[/shoplink] (16 megapixel) and record 1080p Video! It is the successor of the [shoplink 3003]NEX-3[/shoplink]. Let’s see if tonight Sony will show us the NEX-4 prototype that confirms the rumor.
The source gave me the whole NEX camera/lens roadmap for 2011! I do not post that info yet because I want first to check them with other sources. If what he gave me is correct than Sony has a few spectaculars surprises! He said there are two other NEX cameras and four NEX lenses to come in 2011. Hope I can give you more info soon…
I want to thank the source for sharing the news and I hope he will write me back soon ;)
For all our sources: If you send me messages through the contact form please use some kind of nickname so that I recognize you in the future. It will make me easy to choose the Rumor ranking (SR1-SR5). Avoid to give me your real name and email address and remember no IP address will be stored. That’s why you are completely untraceable. Keep in mind that I usually do rewrite the text you send me. Sometimes I do post rumors after weeks or months only because as you can imagine I do often receive fake or partially correct rumors. That’s why I have to doublecheck them with other sources. You can also contact me (Andrea) at sonyalpharumors@gmail.com. Create a fake gmail account using fake names. That will help me to write you back. Thanks!
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