More advanced AF system from Sony, when and what?

[Mark K]

I have kept my finger crossed when I knew the 500/4 is on its way. With the concurrent launch of A55 and Nikon D7000, I have this feeling that there is a remote posilbility that Sony will drastically change current AF mode to a much professional ones found in Canon EOS 1/7 or in Nikon's D3/D300 etc. Is there any hint?

[Bruce Oudekerk]

I’ve been giving this a lot of thought lately. I have no insider information but I think is fair to assume that this HAS to be coming. We know that the A700 replacement is approaching. Sony has recently stated that a better ELF is in the works to go into the A77. They have recently stated that higher ISO and higher MP are not mutually exclusive from a technology standpoint. It is a given that video is driving the dSLR market and that the A700 replacement has been so long in coming…way overdue in fact. I draw a correlation between the two. That being, Sony has not introduced this replacement because the SLT technology was not ready and they wouldn’t introduce a prosumer dSLR without video. And of course SLT technology is Sony’s solution to maintaining high speed phase detect autofocus with video. The 10 FPS in the A33 and A55 is not the ideal sports shooter solution BUT it doesn’t take much of an intuitive jump to conclude that it is heading in that direction and will be even better implemented in the A77.

Sony has also hinted that the OVF …especially in FF… is not going away. The only thing I can make of this is that the A9xx will not have video. I have heard of no hints that Sony has any other high speed auto focus technology that is video and OVF friendly and suitable for a camera of this niche. What that tells me is that in the future, video will be contrast detect with a OVF or phase detect with EVF. I doubt that an OVF A9xx will have video as the focus will be too slow. But regardless, the A9xx will have very special FF sensor technology to justify its existence and that combined with the introduction of an A77 must mean very high speed predictive autofocus is in the works. And as you have pointed out, the 500/4 is on the way and that speaks volumes as to a camera or cameras that will take advantage of this lens.

My best guess anyway.

Bruce

[Mark K]

Bruce
Thank you for the answer and these thought are very constructive in so many ways. I have not laid my hands on an A55/A33 yet but my feeling is that they are the results of evolution along the line of A550 in terms of still image capturing. The distribution of AF points are rather packed up in the centre and number of crossed sensors are less comparing to K5/D7000 and 60D. I can wait patiently and I hope Sony's photographic division can remain financially sound to support future development.

[OneGuyKs]

You can have video on DSLR without AF. A580/A560/7D/D3s all have video without AF. So if Sony's FF won't be an SLT that does not mean they won't have video either. They might just have manual focus for video.

[Bruce Oudekerk]

You might very well be right about the a9xx having video. But if it does, I seriously doubt it will not have some type of auto focus. The a560-a580 both have contrast detect to help with one of the live view modes so I suspect that’s how it will focus during video…just a guess. I just can’t imagine Sony having a high end camera with non-auto focus video, especially since I believe that has been the holdup all along with the a700 replacement. But again…that’s supposition on my part. Anybody who really knows isn’t telling.

Bruce

[agehaElhaym]

i really hope the A850/900 successor will at least have live view with contrast detect.

[Mark K]

I have spent five hours with A33 and my impressions were complete reversed by my previous five minute hands on. The AF is so fast and it simply suits my single purpose at this moment, to shoot kids. It is very light and the less than optimal EVF is no longer a barrier. The tilted LCD is better than my Nex5 so I quietly carry a 70-300G back.