Next 4 Alphas

[WaltKnapp]

No direct access to ISO, White balance, or "C" custom button

Hopefully the wooden mock up was incomplete since it doesn't appear to have a microphone for video.

Does it even have a video button? Got to have that or the sky will fall and the world will end

Walt

 

[winedarksea]

The A7xx will hopefully be announced at Photokina. Maybe later.

I really hope it's not later than Photokina. I'm really anxious to upgrade and it's seems like forever since the first rumor popped up about the Photokina 'Announcement'.

A year ago I was expecting it at this Photokina at the soonest, in a sea of "tomorrow for sure" predictions that turned out to be wrong. I based my prediction on what Sony had said at that time or previous. They have really said nothing new since.

With some of the latest rumors you will only get another prototype at Photokina and at least 6 months until actual product is on the shelves.

If it turns up at Photokina the question will be how prominently Sony displays it and supports it in the show? How many other things will be put in front of it by Sony. A whole lot, I expect, with the a7xx if it's there on some back shelf, mostly ignored by Sony.

Walt

Assuming for the moment that the A7xx is introduced at Photokina, why do you believe it will be "there on some back shelf, mostly ignored by Sony"?
--
Dulaney
A700; SAL 50 f1.4; SAL 18-250; CZ 85 f1.4

 

[WaltKnapp]

Gee, Henry - upon reading the title of your post I thought that you were going to say something good about "the camera doesn't make the photograph!"

That has been way overused.

Or else we can hand out box brownies and everyone can use those. (For those that don't know the box brownie, it used one particular film type, had one shutter speed and one aperture, that was it.)

Yes composition is a big part of photography and often overlooked. Beginners in particular get too focused on camera settings as part of learning.

But what all you can do is camera specific once you get to doing a lot of variety in your photography.

Walt

 

[WaltKnapp]

Assuming for the moment that the A7xx is introduced at Photokina, why do you believe it will be "there on some back shelf, mostly ignored by Sony"?

Because that's exactly how they have been behaving. They have shown us what they are interested in and that won't change for photokina. NEX, the pellicules, the replacement a5xx's, video, video, video, the FPS of the pellicules will be where they will be at. That is if they don't just devote the entire show to 3D.

Walt

 

[WaltKnapp]

Walt why do you so desperately want this to be true? You always imagine a negative future, I think you are going to struggle to cope with what is coming. The rest of the board will celebrate and smile, and you will ....be silent.

You mean all the ones announcing DSLRs are ended? They announced the future I'm reacting to.

Walt

 

[WaltKnapp]

Really.... A single broken record played a million times again and again. Who in the right mind will pay attention to that noise, except as a sad joke or a frustrating annoyance?

No they believe the ones celebrating each DSLR function and feature removed. Trying to keep up in the removal department is what they are doing. That is the broken record played over and over a million times around here.around here. I'm only one voice.

Walt

 

[winedarksea]

Walt, you're more familiar with the "old" pellicle designs than I am. I really like the overall concept of Sony's proposed design, utlizing a less fragile mirror of more-or-less conventional thickness (in DSLR reflex mirror terms, anyway). But there's one thing about the design that worries me ...

Won't there be a tendency for this relatively thick mirror to create a ghost image on the image sensor that is vertically shifted slightly (a few pixels, maybe) from the main image? Won't this ghost image have to be processed out? And even if Sony is successful in programming their in-camera JPEG engine (and proprietary RAW convertor) to eliminate the ghost image automatically, wouldn't this issue severely limit one's options regarding third-party RAW convertors?

I never owned one of the Canon (or other brands) designs. But I most certainly had fellow photographers I shot with who did. And at the time I ran the darkroom everyone used in our Army unit which brought in even more photographers. Delicate is the key word for that pellicle. It worked well enough, but was virtually unclean-able. And it got dirty too.

I've actually designed and built beam splitters (which is what the pellicle is) Though not ones for the SLRs. Mostly custom microscope gear and such for my own use. Many such for microscope work use the thinnest cover slip material instead of a membrane. Those are available in bulk so you would just toss them if they got dirty. Though long ago I did learn how to safely clean such thin optical glass.

If they expect to get a useful image from the light passing through the pellicle then it's got to be thin. Preferably infinitely thin so it's only one air/membrane surface. So I'm waiting to see if they really have abolished physics or not ;-) And flipping such a thin membrane sounds like a mighty short life too. At the speed it would have to flip that's relatively a lot of force applied on the membrane just moving the air.

Most certainly any time you have phase AF the pellicule has to be in there. Certainly for all the video, and maybe a good part of the stills too.

I consider these cameras as experimental at this point. I'd not call them the main path of DSLR until a good track record over time can be established. And I think that's why Sony did not stick them in the main DSLR model sequence.

Walt

Walt, I don't think I remember Sony, or for that matter any rumor site or the quoted patent, saying that the pellicle mirrors in these cameras flip. I think perhaps that the language used in the patent was that you can lift the mirror if you need more light to get a good image. That sounds like a more deliberate process than "flipping" the mirror as in a dslr. That would I believe necessitate getting the focus before lifting the mirror, and holding it, or using contrast-detect AF, or using manual focus.

If I am right, then the ability of the mirror to take oft-repeated violent flips may just not be an issue.
--
Dulaney
A700; SAL 50 f1.4; SAL 18-250; CZ 85 f1.4

 

[ianimal]

Ohh... 3D... I am to old for that stuff... (and I am not even 40 yet)
I can't understand that 3D stuff are gone make it big.
It's for movies I believe.

Well, I don't care so much about when the A7xx comes.
I only want it to be perfect, so if it takes some more time to make
it perfect just take the time.

Sony could use Photokina in September for DSLR video stuff, and later
come with A7xx and maybe A9xx news. I don't care about when, just get
it perfect. By perfect I of course mean "perfect", because it will never
get perfect. Or...

 

[winedarksea]

Assuming for the moment that the A7xx is introduced at Photokina, why do you believe it will be "there on some back shelf, mostly ignored by Sony"?

Because that's exactly how they have been behaving. They have shown us what they are interested in and that won't change for photokina. NEX, the pellicules, the replacement a5xx's, video, video, video, the FPS of the pellicules will be where they will be at. That is if they don't just devote the entire show to 3D.

Walt

It seems to me that at PMA Sony focused at least as much attention on the A7xx & two pro-level lenses as on NEX--in spite of the fact that they knew that the introduction of the NEX cameras was the next big event. They also showed what was probably an A5xx but barely mentioned it.

The info about the pellicle cameras, the A5xx cameras, & video in these cameras has come from rumor sites, hasn't it, rather than Sony? These cameras ARE up next--but then the 7-level cameras.
--
Dulaney
A700; SAL 50 f1.4; SAL 18-250; CZ 85 f1.4

 

[WaltKnapp]

I understand the mirror thing but I was referring to what Rick suggests. My Canon 1D MkIV flips the mirror 10 times per second but still requires dual processors to process and move those 16MP files at 10 fps. Similarly the A900 requires dual processors to move those big 24+ MP files at 5 fps (compared to the single processor A850's 3 fps speed). So I'm thinking the A55 must have dual processors and that's going to be expensive.

Sony has been survey testing several ways of ads that describe getting 15 FPS of stills with full AF selected from a video stream. With maybe even software in the camera that selects and gives you only the "best" still. That is, not at all the same frame memory processing buffer as is needed on a high end FF pro camera. But seemed to be aimed squarely at the upcoming pellicule cameras and what they may do.

Folks kept pushing Sony for video HDSLR cameras. Now you may reap what you sowed. Just like what initially happened to the a700 from what people demanded of the a100. They got the high ISO demanded with a bonus prize of heavy noise reduction. We have seen this scenerio of pushing Sony before. Push Sony on video and you may just have gotten unexpected bonuses you don't want. We shall see if this is a repeat. And if it's like before Sony will be quite proud of what they provide. And puzzled when it bites back yet again.

Walt