SONY ALPH A A750

[Greg Beetham]

Thing is, now I'm starting to worry about what Sony is going to do next concerning a possible A700 replacement. Based on what they've done recently I'm wondering if it will be a fully functional still camera first and foremost, or incorporate a few design tradeoffs in favour of some gimicky stuff. If AF, AEL button, rear curtain sync, MLU etc. can't be made to work properly with LV or an EVF, which do they choose to keep?
I might have to break my self imposed Sony embargo (re. Macro Flash debacle), and get an A700 while the getting is good, and hope they fix the flash at some stage...and THAT could be a gamble.
Greg

ps. I guess we could hope they decide to build one of each type instead, and with the normal camera they take a D300 back to the design lab, build an A-mount copy with all the features and performance, but keep the KM/Sony user interface...........just dreamin, just dreamin.

[Winedarksea]

I'm hoping we get something a lot better than the D300. One should never aim straight at a target when it's moving.

[alphaomega]

I need a (spring 2010) replacement for my A350, which my wife has partially taken over. I had hoped the A550 would provide the answer, but in view of David Kilpatrick's reviews so far I am hesitant to invest in this camera. I am put off by the erratic low ISO performance and the removal of useful features. I would also like to know more about this camera's low ISO performance compared with the A350.
I am tempted to wait a while to see if Sony do release an APS-C replacement for the A700. My hopes rest on Kingfisher and his entry earlier on this thread:

but there shall be next year , a new A700 , the A750

i think 16MP
LIVEVIEW
10 FPS
better and faster AF
PENTA-PRISMA ( i now how is that possible with LV )
98 % viewfinder
DXO ( in the futere for all the camera`s)

what i have heard it shall be a very great camera , we must have patience

gustav

An A700 replacement with a capable 16Mp sensor starting at ISO100 and with all the current A700 capabilities plus LV would really exite me. If such a camera came out in the spring of 2010 I would pull out the wallet and purchase one. That would be the ideal complement to my A700, which I would definitely keep.

[alphaomega]

Just came across Thom Hogan's predictions for 2010 here: http://bythom.com/2010predictions.htm
Here is his take on Sony in 2010:

# Sony. Lots happening at the new Minolta.

* First up will be Sony's GH1 killer. Only it won't kill the GH1, especially since Panasonic will be on the next model soon, too. APS sensor, interchangeable lens video/still camera without a mirror. Check. Unfortunately, it will be larger than many of the m4/3 cameras. This has been a crash project for Sony, and I think it may explain why some of the other rumored items have been delayed. Still, I don't expect it until near Photokina time-frame, which means it shows up after Panasonic's next offering and after Samsung's. That puts a lot of pressure on it to be better in some clear, significant way.
* The A700 replacement, which is long overdue. And yes, it will have video. As with Sony's latest fashion, it will probably come as multiple models (e.g. A750, A775) instead of a single model, though. Difference between the two models will be sensor (say 14mp and 16 or 18mp). Sony's using a shotgun to hit the target, then going back and finding which pellet hit the target and trying to figure out the gun that would do that by itself.
* I think we'll see the low end lineup go through some modest, small changes during the year, too (after analyzing which pellets hit the target).
* This should be a strong lens year for Sony, too. We'll finally see their 500mm, and we'll get a couple of fill-in-the-blanks lenses, too.

Posting on this thread because of his A700 replacement forecast. He seems to be convinced (like Gustav) that there will be an A700 replacement with larger sensor and video in 2010.
Also note his prediction of an EVF with video (and APS-C - not 4/3). I guess he knows no more than the rest of us, but interesting nevertheless. He also thinks there will be a lot of lenses released. Amusing that he thinks that Sony are "spraying" the market with models to find what actually works. Rather an expensive way of conducting market research in my opinion. His reflections (if you read the whole story) on how video got into DSLRs is quite funny.

[Greg Beetham]

Perhaps they were a tad disappointed with the A700 sales, and decided that the huge investment in full featured traditional DSLR's weren't all they were cracked up to be in market penetration. So now they've decided to diversify off into other segments and run a bit cold on all the gizmos.
Thing is, I wonder if they realize that they more or less shot themselves in the foot right out of the gate with the A700. (with their smudgy high ISO RAW files that couldn't be turned off). The D300 that came out a couple of months later didn't suffer from any such problem using a similar sensor made for Nikon by Sony.
I think Sony missed a golden opportunity with the A700, if it hadn't had that problem and did not get all those bad reports/reviews etc. the A700 could have been the right camera at the right time for Sony...for once, it could have been much more than it turned out to be if it had been able to withstand almost any scrutiny from reviewers wtih their pre-concieved notions, (partially confirmed in their own minds, that 'real' DSLR makers are the only ones that know what they are doing, after all).
The pity of it is, the A700 is a genuinely very fine camera, and Sony did eventually just about completely fix the problem, but it was too late, by the time they did so it was no longer 'new' and in the spotlight, the center of attention had moved onto a succession of new releases by Nikon and Canon...
And so poor old Sony once again snatched defeat from the jaws of victory....well, a smaller victory than they could have had if they had done things properly in the first place..
And now it looks like they are trying to do the same sort of thing all over again with the A550, just not getting things sorted properly before committing to manufacture, ie. the main sensor LV that doesn't work with MLU...
Greg

[kingfisher]

http://sonyalpharumors.com/sony-alpha-7 ... ws-coming/


?????????????????????????

greetings
gustav

[Dusty]

http://sonyalpharumors.com/sony-alpha-7 ... ws-coming/

?????????????????????????

greetings
gustav

Yawn! A rumor about a rumor.

Dusty

[Dr. Harout]

http://sonyalpharumors.com/sony-alpha-7 ... ws-coming/

?????????????????????????

greetings
gustav

Yawn! A rumor about a rumor.

Dusty

I have this strange feeling that it's not a rumor...

[Winedarksea]

[quote="Dr. Harout

I have this strange feeling that it's not a rumor... [/quote]


I have a strange feeling of the sort as well. It was a different sort of post by Gusrav.

[bossel]

They now say that this is an announcement of a rumour and that in future they will post rumours directly without any pre-rumour What is next? Rumours of announcements of speculations of a pre-rumour about the release of a rumour about a speculation?

[Greg Beetham]

They now say that this is an announcement of a rumour and that in future they will post rumours directly without any pre-rumour What is next? Rumours of announcements of speculations of a pre-rumour about the release of a rumour about a speculation?

Kaf kaf...well done Bossel, talk about a flat spin, now my brain hurts..... ha ha
Ya gotta love that rumour mill, it must get that site lotsa hits.
Greg

[01af]

Now the announced rumour on sonyalpharumors.com is out. According to the latest rumour, the A700 replacement camera will appear in the first quarter of 2010, and its features will include:

• Fixed semi-transparent (a.k.a. 'pellicle') reflex mirror [and, let me add, most likely no MLU again ... umm, just kidding ]
• Max. burst rate 10 frames per second
• Full-HD video mode, i. e. 1,920 × 1,080 pixels, with full-time AF (no frame rate specified)
• Electronic viewfinder complementing the optical one
• Takes SD cards---not specified if that's the only card choice or if it will also take Memory Sticks and/or CF cards

Nothing is said about the sensor format or the pixel count.

Interesting ... and not too unlikely in my opinion. But still just a rumour.

-- Olaf

[bfitzgerald]

Not unlikely? Sounds barmy if you ask me.

I would not expect 10fps for the A700 class, that's pure press photog territory, even then..I really doubt many folks would use 10fps, I have with a Canon..it is like a machine gun, but erm, well landscapes don't move a lot

EVF and OVF at the same time, how does that work then??

Odd and frankly, even Sony are not likely to be that off the wall.

[alphaomega]

At least Gustav also predicted 10fps in his original prediction:

i think 16MP
LIVEVIEW
10 FPS
better and faster AF
PENTA-PRISMA ( i now how is that possible with LV )
98 % viewfinder
DXO ( in the futere for all the camera`s)

Maybe the EVF was meant to be the rear LV screen? Agree with Barry F. that two view finders are unlikely. I wonder if this "wonder" is really a video camera with the option to take some still pictures. I can believe the SD card bit with video onboard.
I do have a feeling that if Sony are going to release a successor to the A700 it is going to be much more of a "gizmo" camera using Sony technology.
I am convinced that Sony will start bringing out DSLRs with video, but not until they have perfected the functions in the same way as they found a proper solution to LV focusing, HDR in A500/550 and SSS in the A900/850. This could be it. I would only buy such a camera if it remained APS-C and produced superior still images.

[01af]

Not unlikely? Sounds barmy if you ask me.

Sounds you are quite narrow-minded if you ask me.

I would not expect 10fps for the A700 class, that's pure press photog territory ...

If even a beginner's camera like the A550 has 7 fps these days then why cannot a semi-pro camera like the A700 successor offer 10 fps? I'd welcome it and gladly use it for a lot of my equestrian photography where 5 fps often is far from sufficient.

If the key feature---the pellicle reflex mirror---is true then a lot of the rest of the predicted features will come almost naturally at fairly low cost ... in particular a blazingly fast frame rate and video with full-time phase AF.

... but erm, well landscapes don't move a lot

At times, some photographers shoot other things than landscapes.

EVF and OVF at the same time, how does that work then?

I have no idea, but I guess Sony's engineers are smarter than you or me when it comes to clever implementations of new ideas in camera design. Maybe it's going to be a variant of the Quick-AF Live View mode. Or maybe this part of the rumour is wrong, and somebody just confused electronic viewfinder and live view.

-- Olaf