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The future of e-mount?

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MinAZ

MinAZ

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It seems to me that Sony is focusing a lot on the FF cameras these days, and I am wondering if they seem to have decided that FF is a better money-maker than their E-mounts and decided to go that route instead. With FF Sonys getting cheaper (well the older models anyway), I am tempted to switch from my A6000 to FF, which may indeed by Sony's intent. With other camera companies, they usually develop their crop and FF cameras in tandem, with each retaining advantages and customer base. Does Sony intend for customers to remain loyal to E-mount, switch to FF, or get both? Is there much development of E-mount down the road, and are there going to be advantages to owing E-mount going forward?
 
MinAZ said:
It seems to me that Sony is focusing a lot on the FF cameras these days, and I am wondering if they seem to have decided that FF is a better money-maker than their E-mounts and decided to go that route instead. With FF Sonys getting cheaper (well the older models anyway), I am tempted to switch from my A6000 to FF, which may indeed by Sony's intent. With other camera companies, they usually develop their crop and FF cameras in tandem, with each retaining advantages and customer base. Does Sony intend for customers to remain loyal to E-mount, switch to FF, or get both? Is there much development of E-mount down the road, and are there going to be advantages to owing E-mount going forward?

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Rumors and debates are rampant, in all directions.

I, for one, am holding on to my APS-C gear. In fact, I just added the E1670Z lens to the APS-C side. And I have a full set of Sony's FF gear as well.

Sony has never said that they will abandon APS-C. The E-mount is identical between APS-C and FF, so they will be continuing this mount for a very long time to come.

Sony only said that they would concentrate development on the FF side of things, and they have. Rather successfully, I'd think.

We expect an update for APS-C this year (2016). If not, then the discussions will flow one way, if we get the update, the discussions will flow the other way.

Either way, Sony's APS-C products are still bestsellers, and I do not worry about having to replace APS-C gear - it is everywhere!

Fwiw, I do like APS-C at times, over FF.

And as Canikon have supported dual systems, why wouldn't Sony? Sony is just a smaller player, now growing rapidly...

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Sony's FF lenses are still e-mount.

As for support, they still support a-mount, to some extent. We've been through a decade of trolls saying otherwise....
 
Let's do something entertaining. Let's have a quizz: "How many threads about the future of E-mount (on APS-C) have been started on DPreview in the last 12 month.

The winner will get a big hug from all the people who are bored by these repeating threads :-P
 
...unless all you seek is unsubstantiated speculation.
 
E mount is E mount. Full frame or apsc. The worry about lack of lenses makes me chuckle. APSC user's have it great. There are some existing good apsc lenses to be had, and there is a pretty good line up of FE lenses that are out or in the pipeline. Guess what, they work on apsc bodies. So just like Canon and Nikon apsc owners, you can pick from the entire library. Until i bought a sony, i've never seen or heard so many people complain about using full frame lenses. Canon and Nikon's apsc only lenses are only a small fraction of their lens lineups. More so on canon's side. They have what 11 apsc lenses out of the hundreds of lenses they've made over decades? Nikon has more, but still they've been using F mount for 57 years. A huge lens library doesn't happen over night. For only 6ish years on the market, Sony has done pretty well with their lens releases. Sure i hope they make some faster standard zooms, but with a bunch of F4 lenses already across the entire line up, I can't say we have it bad. I do think some are over priced, but from what i've seen, none of them have been complete turds, which is impressive.
 
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I recently switched from Canon to Sony. As a Canon user I had both APS-C and FF bodies but rarely used the FF bodies. I sold everything because I absolutely LOVED the small size of the Sony gear. With my Canon gear I had gotten to the point where I was leaving it at home because it was such a pain to lug around. I can take my a6000 plus several lenses with me and not even notice the weight. Another reason I love Sony is that e mount is the same on both APS-C and FF and the Sony FF cameras can use the APS-C lenses albeit with reduced resolution. Seems like the best of both worlds to me. So I'll keep loving my a6000 and hope there's a successor coming. And even if Sony killed its APS-C cameras (which I seriously doubt they would do) I don't completely lose my investment in my Sony lenses.
 
Olympus, Sigma, Zeiss and Tamron will be making lenses for E/FE mount. Sony will focus all its resources on sensors and bodies. Third party adapters will make AF with Canon and Nikon lenses on par with their native bodies. Prices will go up so please don't complain. E mount will be the camera world's first universal mount, being locked in to any one system will come to an end. We just need you to be patient for now.
 
I think it would be a safe bet to use FE lenses on the APS-C body, that way if you are forced to go FF it won't be so bad and if you choose to go FF in future it also, will not be so bad ;) Unfortunately it is hard to predict anything, you can only prepare yourself for any situation the best you can.
 
MinAZ said:
It seems to me that Sony is focusing a lot on the FF cameras these days, and I am wondering if they seem to have decided that FF is a better money-maker than their E-mounts and decided to go that route instead. With FF Sonys getting cheaper (well the older models anyway), I am tempted to switch from my A6000 to FF, which may indeed by Sony's intent. With other camera companies, they usually develop their crop and FF cameras in tandem, with each retaining advantages and customer base. Does Sony intend for customers to remain loyal to E-mount, switch to FF, or get both? Is there much development of E-mount down the road, and are there going to be advantages to owing E-mount going forward?

--
http://markteng.500px.com/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/myazphoto/
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The economic reality is that camera brands can not survive on FF alone. It would be economic suicide. There are a lot of camera buyers who want an ILC camera in the ~$500 range. APS-C can do that without breaking a sweat, and still yield a decent profit. FF can't do that. For example, Sony could sell the A6000 for as low as $400 during the holidays. Now it's back up to $550. The cheapest Sony FF body is the old A7, which is still priced at $998., even after heavy discounting from its original price of $1700. For Sony to sell the A7 at $500 means they'd probably have to sell it at a steep loss.

Even though FF may get all the headlines for Sony, what sells are their APS-C cameras. Take a look at Amazon's "Best Sellers in Mirrorless Cameras" rankings list (screenshot below). As of right now, it is overwhelmingly dominated by Sony's APS-C cameras. Sony APS-C mirrorless cameras take up 8 of the top 12 sales positions at Amazon. The highest selling Sony FF body comes in at #10. I think it wouldn't be unreasonable to guess that Amazon probably sells ten times as many Sony APS-C cameras as they do Sony FF cameras. So while Sony FF might get a lot of attention, ultimately that creates a "halo" effect that benefits their APS-C cameras. It's just like Canon's 1D-series body and L lenses helps Canon sell tons of lower-end Rebel bodies. It's the "halo" effect. Companies use certain high-profile products to generate buzz and call attention to your brand, but what most consumers end up buying are the lower-cost products that fit into their budget and still fit their needs. Obviously, not everyone needs FF (or wants FF), much the same way that not everyone needs a FF Canon DSLR and premium L lenses.

dbcc1d075d304eaea82c00b65d5fab6e.jpg.png
 
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Clearly the future is FF for Sony. Does that mean the APS-C side of E-Mount is dead? Who knows, countless threads have been started asking this.

As for me, I am quite content with my A6000, and plan on using for for quite some time.
 
ttran88 said:
Olympus, Sigma, Zeiss and Tamron will be making lenses for E/FE mount. Sony will focus all its resources on sensors and bodies. Third party adapters will make AF with Canon and Nikon lenses on par with their native bodies. Prices will go up so please don't complain. E mount will be the camera world's first universal mount, being locked in to any one system will come to an end. We just need you to be patient for now.
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MinAZ said:
It seems to me that Sony is focusing a lot on the FF cameras these days, and I am wondering if they seem to have decided that FF is a better money-maker than their E-mounts and decided to go that route instead. With FF Sonys getting cheaper (well the older models anyway), I am tempted to switch from my A6000 to FF, which may indeed by Sony's intent. With other camera companies, they usually develop their crop and FF cameras in tandem, with each retaining advantages and customer base. Does Sony intend for customers to remain loyal to E-mount, switch to FF, or get both? Is there much development of E-mount down the road, and are there going to be advantages to owing E-mount going forward?
Click to expand...
 
Here's the deal: Sony hasn't said a single word about APS-C for over 2 years, and won't answer questions about it. The SAR 'rumors' site has been telling us an a6100 is coming for over a year now, several predicted dates came and went, and nothing has happened. SAR's "trusted source" just gave us a complete set of vapor specs a couple of days before CES, and there was no announcement. I'd say SAR's credibility is zero, the site is pure click bait.

I'd say the future of Sony APS-C is pretty doubtful at this point, but they could of course revive it at any time. They won't give us any sort of roadmap on which to base decisions, which is really aggravating.

Personally, I'm giving Sony until spring to release a new APS-C camera and then I'm looking elsewhere, because I want better sensor technology and EVF, and they're available, or will be. It's possible I give up EVF and go to the Nikon D500, depending on image quality tests. I'm not buying any more E-mount lenses at this point.
 
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jimhughes said:
Here's the deal: Sony hasn't said a single word about APS-C for over 2 years, and won't answer questions about it. The SAR 'rumors' site has been telling us an a6100 is coming for over a year now, several predicted dates came and went, and nothing has happened. SAR's "trusted source" just gave us a complete set of vapor specs a couple of days before CES, and there was no announcement. I'd say SAR's credibility is zero, the site is pure click bait.

I'd say the future of Sony APS-C is pretty doubtful at this point, but they could of course revive it at any time. They won't give us any sort of roadmap on which to base decisions, which is really aggravating.

Personally, I'm giving Sony until spring to release a new APS-C camera and then I'm looking elsewhere, because I want better sensor technology and EVF, and they're available, or will be. It's possible I give up EVF and go to the Nikon D500, depending on image quality tests. I'm not buying any more E-mount lenses at this point.
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Same here. I am not gonna wait for ever for sony to come up with a roadmap. Although i am never going back to dslr again considering the wieght, need for micro focus adjustments, lack of useful live view,etc,etc despite the availability of cheap and quality lenses. Will turn to fuji or even micro four thirds.
 
davect01 said:
Clearly the future is FF for Sony. Does that mean the APS-C side of E-Mount is dead? Who knows, countless threads have been started asking this.

As for me, I am quite content with my A6000, and plan on using for for quite some time.
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Thorgrem said:
ttran88 said:
Olympus, Sigma, Zeiss and Tamron will be making lenses for E/FE mount. Sony will focus all its resources on sensors and bodies. Third party adapters will make AF with Canon and Nikon lenses on par with their native bodies. Prices will go up so please don't complain. E mount will be the camera world's first universal mount, being locked in to any one system will come to an end. We just need you to be patient for now.
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Click to expand...
 
piticoto said:
I prefer APS-C size sensor, to me a good compromise between image quality and gear cost.
A6000 is larger than A5100 and a FE lens doesn't seem oversized on it.
I prefer the smallest body that can have with APS-C sensor, and have the appropriate lens size, not to pay for an extra size on the lens that I don't use. If I install a FE on 5T, or A5100 it looks big on the body. I bought the Nex-5, then 5N and 5T because the small body size, and I still want that small body size. I'm not interested on FE and ff bodies. So, if Sony doesn't make better A5100 I'll switch brands, I'll not go with A6000 or what's next APS-C that body size, and I'll not get a FE lens.
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Sowwaaaa, which brand and camera will you be switching to? This should be good. ;-)
 
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