Image on top shows the silhoutte of the current Sony A77.

The A-mount A77II will be announced around May 1-2 and so far we know it has an updated 24 MP sensor and that everything on the camera has been trimmed for speed. A trusted source told me that he saw the camera and he confirmed there is no revolutionary feature on it. He said that what Sony did is to improve every single aspect of the camera. I have to say I like that

Stay tuned on SAR!

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Message to sources: You can send me more info anonymously by using the contact form you see on the very right of your browser. You can also contact me directly at sonyalpharumors@gmail.com.
For readers: Subscribe the RSS feed (Click here) and Twitter (Click here) stream and the Facebook fan page (Click here) in order to not miss any news!
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Reminder (SR = Sonyrumor):
SR1=probably fake rumor
SR2=rumor from unknown sources
SR3=50% chance it is correct
SR4=rumor from known sources
SR5=almost certainly correct!

The official Sony FE lens roadmap.

Well, a trusted source told me that Sony is really pushing the FE lens development and we will soon get a new announcement. While I still have no SR5 ranked rumor to give you about the possible lens specs I got some tidbits from an anonymous source: He said a total of 14 FE lenses will be available by end 2014. This includes the manual focusing Zeiss lenses that will be announced at Photokina. In short these could be all FE lenses we could have by end 2014 (ordered by focal length):

wide angle Zeiss zoom (to be announced soon in Spring)
24-70mm FE Zeiss (Available now at Amazon, B&H, Adorama, J&R, eBay)
28-70mm FE Sony (Available now at Amazon, B&H, Adorama, J&R, eBay)
28-135mm f/4.0 Powerzoom lens.
35mm FE Zeiss (Available now at Amazon, B&H, Adorama, J&R, eBay)
55mm FE Zeiss (Available now at Amazon, B&H, Adorama, J&R, eBay)
70-200mm FE Sony (Available now at Amazon, B&H, Adorama, J&R, eBay)
fast prime FE Zeiss (portrait lens? to be announced soon in Spring)
macro Sony prime lens (to be announced before Photokina)
+ five manual focusing Zeiss primes. High Quality, Pricey and compact (not all of them).

Note that Zeiss itself already confirmed they will make such manual focusing lenses for the FE system.A nd they will be announced at Photokina! They said they will launch five such lenses but it’s possible one of them may be announced later in 2015.

Anyway, if by end of 2014 we will really have these lenses I will be happy. All I am concerned now is….the price of such lenses. Have mercy on us Sony and Zeiss!

For reference only: These are the Zeiss manual focusing lenses for the “Full Frame” ZM camera (some of them would be nice to have for the FE system!):
Distagon T* 2,8/15 ZM (Click here to see price on eBay).
Distagon T* 4/18 ZM (Click here to see price on eBay).
Biogon T* 2,8/21 ZM (Click here to see price on eBay).
C Biogon T* 4,5/21 ZM (Click here to see price on eBay).
Biogon T* 2,8/25 ZM (Click here to see price on eBay).
Biogon T* 2,8/28 ZM (Click here to see price on eBay).
Biogon T* 2/35 ZM (Click here to see price on eBay).
C Biogon T* 2,8/35 ZM (Click here to see price on eBay).
C Sonnar T* 1,5/50 ZM (Click here to see price on eBay).
Planar T* 2/50 ZM (Click here to see price on eBay).
Sonnar T* 2/85 ZM (Click here to see price on eBay).
Tele-Tessar T* 4/85 ZM (Click here to see price on eBay).

I praised many times Sigma for the quality of their lately announced ART lenses. But I also have to express my disappointment for this: Back in June 2013(!) Sigma released the 18-35mm f/1.8 A-mount lens accepting preorders at Amazon US (Click here), BHphoto (Click here) and Adorama (Click here) and expected availability in late July 2013 (see screenshot on top). Since then Sigma never shipped any A-mount lens and also didn’t release any official note. That’s quite a let down

Lately one of our SAR readers got an official response from Sigma France saying the lens would ship in May. Now let’s hope this promise will be fulfilled! Here is the original french message:

“Message de votre service clients Miss Numerique
Bonjour,
Nous vous remercions d’avoir commandé chez Miss Numerique.
Le constructeur du produit SIGMA objectif photo ART 18-35 mm f/1.8 DC HSM monture SONY éprouve malheureusement des difficultés à produire cette référence en quantité suffisante, ceci se traduit par des difficultés d’approvisionnement de leur réseau de distributeurs.
Devant notre insistance, notre fournisseur nous a annoncé un approvisionnement dans un délai de 4 semaines.
Votre commande sera alors expédiée dès réception.”

P.S.: And please do not repeat the story with your newly announced 50mm ART lens Neither Preorders are up at BHphoto (Click here) and Adorama (Click here).

Image on top shows the silhoutte of the current Sony A77.

I have been told that there is a possible Sony announcement on May 1-2. We can be 100% sure there will be a new A-mount A77II camera announcement. I am still not sure if there will be also new A and FE mount lenses. The A77II is expected to have an updated 24 Meagpixel sensor and the camera is trimmed for pseed (super fast AF, no EVF lag, increased fps and so on).

Stay tuned on SAR! The A7s is here but it isn’t over yet with rumors

A7s Preorder or pure notification store links:
USA: Sony US,  Amazon and BHphoto.
Europe:  Sony DE, UK, ES, FR, IT, NL, SE, FI, PL.
Asia: Digitalrev

Note for German readers: Sony RX100 is on Gold Box today: http://www.dealsrunner.com/deals/sony-rx100–20!

———
Message to sources: You can send me more info anonymously by using the contact form you see on the very right of your browser. You can also contact me directly at sonyalpharumors@gmail.com.
For readers: Subscribe the RSS feed (Click here) and Twitter (Click here) stream and the Facebook fan page (Click here) in order to not miss any news!
——–

Reminder (SR = Sonyrumor):
SR1=probably fake rumor
SR2=rumor from unknown sources
SR3=50% chance it is correct
SR4=rumor from known sources
SR5=almost certainly correct!

Sony shares climbing during the last three months (December-January-February). Image source: Blog Naver.

Sony’s dream to overturn Canon on the system camera market became truth in one country: South Korea! In February Sony beat Canon by a margin of 0.1% only and now owns 33,163% of the overall system camera market in Korea. The reason hwy this happens is easy: Asian countries are shifting towards mirrorless system cameras while Europe and North American stills tick to DSLR systems. In Q4 of 2013 the mirrorless sales iN Korea climbed up to 58% of the system camera market (DSLR drops to 42%).

Sony now has to focus on “Western countries” to repeat the success they have in Asia.

Source: Blog Naver. Thanks S. Park for sending this