I got in touch with my soruces and they do all confirm that ALL (!) new products announcements have been delayed! There will be no new product announcement yet. No NEX, no SLT no new lens! The sources confirmed that today (April 4) Sony should have announced the new products. Everything has been canceled and Sony didn’t decide when they will make the new product launch.

You can spread the word around the web. Sony production capacity has been hit very hardl by the earthquake-tsunami-Fukushima disaster. And I do believe most Japanese companies are not giving us the full view of the problems they have right now.

I want to thank all (many!) sources that contacted me to share that news.

The first hints about the upcoming SLT-A35 model have been found on the official Sony Netherlands website. Today Hans den Heijer, PR manager at Sony Benelux said that this was only a typo (Source: Tweakers.net). As you know we don’t believe him ;)
We got the info that A35 will replace the discontinued A33 model. So it sounds more than just a mistake! The real problem is that we have been told that Sony delayed many of the new product announcements because of the terrible situation in Japan. Let’s hope everything can go back to “normality” as soon as possible.

As soon as I have more info about the delayed product annnouncements I will post them on SAR. Thanks!

Over one month ago our sources told us that the NEX-3 and the A33 would be replaced by new slightly improved models. Sony recently discontinued both models making us believe the replacement would be imminent. But the very latest info we received from our sources do describe a very bad scenario for Sony plants in Japan. We have been told that during the last three weeks not a single sensor has been produced in Sony Japanese plants. As we told you on Friday there are two problems:
1) There are many aftershocks and every earthquake that is bigger than 5 point Richter automatically stops the production
2) Energy supply is very limited

Even Howard Stringer (CEO of Sony) said that the iPhone 5 will be release will be postponed because of sensor supply problems (Source: 9to5mac)! UPDATE: Our sources confirmed that the next iPhone will feature a Sony 8 Megapixel camera sensor.

The big question now is: Will the NEX-C3 and A35 announcement be delayed?

I have been told by one source that there have been a very last minute change. Some products that should have been announced before the NAB show in Las Vegas will be delayed. We don’t know yet if this includes the NEX-3 and A35. This is a very last minute decision and I ask my sources if they can send me more info about that.

And I guess that also other future Sony products could be delayed (I hope this will nto apply to the A77!).

If you have some info to share about that drop me a mail at sonyalpharumors@gmail.com or use the contact form on the right sidebar. You can avoid to send me your name and mail address. It also doesn’t store your IP-address (you are 100% anonymous). Would be nice if you can at least send me a fake name so that I can recognize you in future. Thanks!

The Japanese website Egami.blog found a new Sigma patent that discloses a 18-50mm f/3.5-5.6 lens for APS-C mirrorless cameras. As you know Sigma announced that they will soon release lenses for E-mount cameras. That’s why we can assume that lens will be made for our NEX cameras. Anyway we already have a [shoplink 2996]Sony 18-55mm[/shoplink] lens for NEX. I really do hope they will release some fast prime lens too!

Check out the Sony 18-55mm price at [shopcountry 2996].

9to5mac just found an interesting statement from Howard Stringer (CEO of Sony). He said “that their camera image sensor facility in Sendai was affected by the recent tsunami/quake. In the next breath, he said something to the effect of getting image sensors to companies like Apple will be delayed.“. It is rumored that the next iPhone 5 will feature the same 8Megapixel backlit camera used inside the new [shoplink 6244]Xperia neo (Click here to se that cam)[/shoplink].

I know this is not an Alpha related rumor but at leats it’s good to hear that Sony sensors are gaining an interesting momentum. According to DxOmark Sonys APS-C sensors are better than the Canon-Panasonic-Samsung sensors. And now even Apple will use Sony’s knowledge.