The theme for this week’s challenge is, people. Click on that flickr link to send your pictures. Don’t forget to tag every photo with “SonyPhotoChallenge” and “SonyAlphaRumors“!
This task closes on Tuesday 4 January 2011 at 12:00 GMT. The winning shot will receive a brand new NEX-5 camera from Sony.
CES is getting closer (it starts on January 6th) so why not take a look on what’s coming from Sony? According to our sources Sony will launch a huge ammount of new compact cameras (no Alpha and no [shoplink 3003]NEX[/shoplink]). We received that small image leak that shows some f the new cameras. One camera should be the Cyber-shot DSC-HX1 successor. We were told that there will be new Bloggie cameras (with bigger screen), new 2D and 3D videocameras. They will feature some of the features Sony introduced in NEX and Alpha cameras during 2010. Sweep panorama, 3D, AVCHD recording. But there are two new features which would be very nice they would include inside the future NEX-7 and A77 cameras:
1) Those will be the very first cameras that can record 1080p60 in AVCHD!!!
2) The contrast autofocus is claimed to as fast as the autofocus from the [shoplink 4718]Panasonic GH2[/shoplink]. It can focus in 0.1 seconds!
Now that sounds very promising! Keep following SonyAlphaRumors, connect on Facebook, Twitter and follow our RSS-feed!
Alpha 55 vid – snow in Scotland (Photoclubalpha).
Sony Aims to Capture 30% of Mobile Sensor Market (ImageSensorWorld)
The Art of HDR Photography Part 1 (Dpreview)
Cool! Now you can sue the Nikonos underwater lenses on your Sony NEX ([shoplink 4985]Click here to see them on eBay[/shoplink]). The bad news is that your NEX camera is not made to work underwater :)
Leica M8 vs Sony NEX-5 battle by Steve Huff.
The Japanese website BCNranking just published the digital system camera sales share from January 01 to December 12. As you can see three Sony cameras made it into the top 20. Not bad at all if you consider that the [shoplink 3003]NEX-5/3[/shoplink] cameras were announced mid-2010 and the [shoplink 3617]Sony A55[/shoplink] was in Stock starting by September only. Sonys overall marketshare is close to 20% (on third place behind Nikon and Canon). Definitely a positive year for Sony and let’s hope 2011 will be even better!
The website ImageSensorWorld catched an interesting news via Businessweek.
Sony has the plan to double its image sensor production! That’s why they will invest $1.2B in the next financial year to convert a plant in Nagasaki for the production of CMOS sensors. After that the total production of CCD and CMOS sensors will increase to 50,000 300mm wafers a month by March 2012. Hey Sony, what will you do with all that CMOS sensors? Are those meant for the new NEX-7, A77, A750, A950 we were long waiting for? ;)
And here is the official Sony press release:
“Sony Corporation (“Sony”) today announced that Sony plans to invest approximately 100 billion yen in Sony Semiconductor Kyushu Corporation’s Nagasaki Technology Center (“Nagasaki TEC”) in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2012, to increase the production capacity for CMOS image sensors.
This investment plan includes (i) the transfer of the semiconductor fabrication facilities from Toshiba Corporation (“Toshiba”) contemplated under a non-binding memorandum of understanding between Sony and Toshiba jointly announced on December 24, 2010, (ii) refurbishment of a part of the above semiconductor fabrication facilities into new wafer lines capable of manufacturing CMOS image sensors, and (iii) refurbishment and equipment of a part of production facilities at Nagasaki TEC Building 3 for wafer processing to differentiate Sony’s CMOS image sensors with Sony’s independently developed unique technologies. Through the investment plan, Sony will utilize a governmental subsidy to be provided by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry in Japan – the “subsidy for programs to promote siting low-carbon job-creating industries” – mainly in connection with the investment mentioned in (iii) above.“
Image courtesy: Photozone
There is a new Sony lens review at Photozone. They had the good idea to review the Sony 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 SAM DT lens which is probably one of the most used lenses. SO how does it perform? Photozone: “Optically there’s really little to complain about – the lens is very sharp throughout the zoom range and the subjective sharpness perception benefits from quite low lateral CAs (color shadows). There’s a bit of a focus shift issue at the wide end so it’s a good idea to double check your images in shallow depth-of-field situations here.” Click here to read the full test.
I am really proud to give you that news! Our reader Shaadi Faris won the first price of the Sony nature photo challenge! You can see the picture on Flickr (Click here). And the third place goes also to a SonyAlphaRumors reader…Griveous 247 (Click here to see that picture on Flickr). My compliments for both of you!!! Really stunning pictures!
–
Reminder: You are still in time to participate the next contest with the theme “Travel”. Click that flickr link and tag every photo with “SonyPhotoChallenge” and “SonyAlphaRumors“. Why should you add the SonyAlphaRumors tag? Sony said the blogger that sends more people/pictures will be invited as special guest at the Sony World Photography Awards Ceremony on the 27th April 2011. And you won’t disappoint me or not? ;) I want to be there!!!
