David Kilpatrick
Veteran Member
I was not trying to spread negative rumours, merely pointing out the highly negative headlining given by the BJP to the story. The implication to any reader who doesn't bother to read the story in the mag might well be - 'the project is off, we are not making the cameras after all'. It was pretty bad reporting all round.
I didn't see my speculation as negative either. Unlike many, I love small cameras and hate the bulk of much 35mm equipment. During the bulky 9000-9 period I shot almost entirely with a CLE outfit and when digital arrived, I used a 7, then 7hi, then A2 and the 35mm gear was mothballed. It was only after the 7D appeared that I got it out again, and sold my CLE kit which was two bodies, 20/28/40/90/135 and all fitted in a Lowepro Sideshooter bum bag with film and flash and Mini Tripod (original Leica type)! I, for one, would really welcome an attempt to lose the extreme ranges of current zooms for APS-C. No-one has ever produced good primes for APS-C except Sigma, with a solitary 30mm f1.4, and I've tested that - it is not any way as good as a typical 50mm f1.4 for full frame. Sony could be the first company to do so. Really, I don't need an 11-18mm with a s*dding great 77mm front end and a lenshood like a soup bowl. I want an absolutely perfect 10mm f5.6 with the sharpness and geometry of a Hologon. I can live without the zoom stuff between 11 and 18mm, in return for a pocketable lens of professional quality taking normal size filters.
What I wrote was pure speculation, but I thought it was positive speculation. I have hedged my bets and in the last quarter acquired 17-35mm, 24-105mm, 28-75mm and 70-200mm which will be kept aside just in case Sony produce a full frame professional DSLR. I've also bought two 11-18mms (my wife doesn't like having to share lenses when we both need a wide angle), an 18-200mm, and kept my 100mm macro and 100-300 Apo D.
The lenses made for APS-C while very acceptable are not to the professional standard I would want, and the 6 megapixel 7D/5D sensor is barely adequate yet they still fall short of producing the best it can give (I only need to use the 70-200mm SSM to prove that - it's like turning 6 megapixels into 12 in terms of real fine detail resolved). So if Sony go for a 1.7, 1.6, or 1.5X sensor I really, truly hope they make new, small, top grade APS-C lenses to match it because I'm assuming it will 10-12 megapixels and the existing lenses will be struggling. This is what Olympus has done with its high end lenses for 4/3rds and it's what Leica/Panasonic is now following up for 4/3rds. So far, such an approach is totally lacking for APS-C. The closest you can get is Nikon's 17-55mm f2.8.
Paul Genge has, in fact, said more in private than to the BJP. He's going round with a big grin on his face, about as relaxed as you can imagine for anyone working very hard in a new corporation, and his last words to one of my email contacts this morning were 'don't worry, Minolta fans are going to find they have never had it so good'.
It was my original speculation that Sony might re-skin the 5D, but I would point out, this was not 'positive' speculation. It was in response to suggestions they might roll out a camera like the 7D with a bigger sensor. I said - and I think I'm right - that the 7D was a design Sony would never contemplate, too expensive to make, too complex with external controls; I said they would be more likely to produce a version of the 5D because its manufacturing was a much more efficient process, and if they needed anything quickly, that would be the option.
They did not need anything quickly. Elsewhere, or here, I have said that Sony would not launch until summer because unlike KM, they understood the need for stock levels to be in place before rollout. Paul Genge agrees with my view, and does not disagree with my comment to him that I guessed Sony/KM had been making the new models for some months already. His comment to me was along the lines of well, it's a different world for Sony, stock levels 10 times those KM would have launched a camera with. Since the Malaysian factory (now 100 per cent owned by Sony following their buyout of KM's remaining 51 per cent last month) makes the DSLRs, and is the same factory which used to make all KM film SLRs and the 7D and 5D, I think we can probably expect the launch of one DSLR - next month is June and that's when they said they would launch, so let's wait and see. They will have massive stocks in place in every country round the world, capable of a retailer presence with stacked shelves not a box or two, and sufficient potential for sales to justify large advertising campaigns (KM could never do so, because they never had enough cameras to sell to cover the budgets).
As for lenses - well, I am not really hoping to see more Tamron glass, nor the fabled high end G/D glass. KM had already stopped making all G/D stuff a year ago this month. They had dismantled the facility. They could not make any more. That facility may be up and running in its new home. Or not? I don't know, Keppler may know but has not said; no-one at KM said, and Sony may never say where lenses are being made. We will just have to wait and see.
David
I didn't see my speculation as negative either. Unlike many, I love small cameras and hate the bulk of much 35mm equipment. During the bulky 9000-9 period I shot almost entirely with a CLE outfit and when digital arrived, I used a 7, then 7hi, then A2 and the 35mm gear was mothballed. It was only after the 7D appeared that I got it out again, and sold my CLE kit which was two bodies, 20/28/40/90/135 and all fitted in a Lowepro Sideshooter bum bag with film and flash and Mini Tripod (original Leica type)! I, for one, would really welcome an attempt to lose the extreme ranges of current zooms for APS-C. No-one has ever produced good primes for APS-C except Sigma, with a solitary 30mm f1.4, and I've tested that - it is not any way as good as a typical 50mm f1.4 for full frame. Sony could be the first company to do so. Really, I don't need an 11-18mm with a s*dding great 77mm front end and a lenshood like a soup bowl. I want an absolutely perfect 10mm f5.6 with the sharpness and geometry of a Hologon. I can live without the zoom stuff between 11 and 18mm, in return for a pocketable lens of professional quality taking normal size filters.
What I wrote was pure speculation, but I thought it was positive speculation. I have hedged my bets and in the last quarter acquired 17-35mm, 24-105mm, 28-75mm and 70-200mm which will be kept aside just in case Sony produce a full frame professional DSLR. I've also bought two 11-18mms (my wife doesn't like having to share lenses when we both need a wide angle), an 18-200mm, and kept my 100mm macro and 100-300 Apo D.
The lenses made for APS-C while very acceptable are not to the professional standard I would want, and the 6 megapixel 7D/5D sensor is barely adequate yet they still fall short of producing the best it can give (I only need to use the 70-200mm SSM to prove that - it's like turning 6 megapixels into 12 in terms of real fine detail resolved). So if Sony go for a 1.7, 1.6, or 1.5X sensor I really, truly hope they make new, small, top grade APS-C lenses to match it because I'm assuming it will 10-12 megapixels and the existing lenses will be struggling. This is what Olympus has done with its high end lenses for 4/3rds and it's what Leica/Panasonic is now following up for 4/3rds. So far, such an approach is totally lacking for APS-C. The closest you can get is Nikon's 17-55mm f2.8.
Paul Genge has, in fact, said more in private than to the BJP. He's going round with a big grin on his face, about as relaxed as you can imagine for anyone working very hard in a new corporation, and his last words to one of my email contacts this morning were 'don't worry, Minolta fans are going to find they have never had it so good'.
It was my original speculation that Sony might re-skin the 5D, but I would point out, this was not 'positive' speculation. It was in response to suggestions they might roll out a camera like the 7D with a bigger sensor. I said - and I think I'm right - that the 7D was a design Sony would never contemplate, too expensive to make, too complex with external controls; I said they would be more likely to produce a version of the 5D because its manufacturing was a much more efficient process, and if they needed anything quickly, that would be the option.
They did not need anything quickly. Elsewhere, or here, I have said that Sony would not launch until summer because unlike KM, they understood the need for stock levels to be in place before rollout. Paul Genge agrees with my view, and does not disagree with my comment to him that I guessed Sony/KM had been making the new models for some months already. His comment to me was along the lines of well, it's a different world for Sony, stock levels 10 times those KM would have launched a camera with. Since the Malaysian factory (now 100 per cent owned by Sony following their buyout of KM's remaining 51 per cent last month) makes the DSLRs, and is the same factory which used to make all KM film SLRs and the 7D and 5D, I think we can probably expect the launch of one DSLR - next month is June and that's when they said they would launch, so let's wait and see. They will have massive stocks in place in every country round the world, capable of a retailer presence with stacked shelves not a box or two, and sufficient potential for sales to justify large advertising campaigns (KM could never do so, because they never had enough cameras to sell to cover the budgets).
As for lenses - well, I am not really hoping to see more Tamron glass, nor the fabled high end G/D glass. KM had already stopped making all G/D stuff a year ago this month. They had dismantled the facility. They could not make any more. That facility may be up and running in its new home. Or not? I don't know, Keppler may know but has not said; no-one at KM said, and Sony may never say where lenses are being made. We will just have to wait and see.
David
