sonyalpharumors

Well, I think the news should be ‘Sony to stop supplying FF sensor to Nikon and other competitor’

If Sony does this, that would be the end of their serious DSLR business. I thought they would be going the other way — phasing out higher end APS-C cameras like the A7xx and bringing in full frame models at competitive prices that Nikon and Canon cannot touch.

Right now, I’m already contemplating switching to the 5DMKII or its replacement from the A700 as the equivalent SONY models (A850/A900) are lacking so many features like Live View and most importantly video while there is no evidence that new higher spec’d replacements are on their way anytime soon.

I am kinda agree with Sony.
People, do not fooled by the term “FULL” frame.
What is “full” means really? What if the film camera were using 60mm X 40mm film originally, now the the so called “full frame” 36X24mm would be ridiculously small compare to that.
What I am trying to say is, there is engineering trade off here.
We all know the bigger the sensor, the better the picture quality is (better signal to noise ratio)
But you got to stop it at some point, because the bigger the sensor, the much more expensive to produce it. Also, you need a much bigger lens(bigger diameter) to bring in light to cover the entire sensor. That means you’ll never make the camera portable.
Look at NEX5 right now, the lens is huge compare to the body. Think about compact point and shot camera can have a optical 20X zoom in that little lens, why is that? Small tiny sensor!
Do not fooled by the term “full!” At the end of the day, what really matters is the picture quality and immunity to noise. The resolution and noise reduction technology has increase tremendously for the last few years, and it’s still going to improve in the future believe or not. What if I tell you 5 years from now, Sony can make APC-S size sensor performs as good as the today’s “full frame?” Well of course according to our large-is-better rule, Canonikon’s “full frame” models 5 years from now would outperforms Sony’s APC-S. But seriously, look at your photo library, how many photos are taken in relative bright light condition and how many photos are in dark environment? The reality is, we took most of our photos in place with reasonable light sources, and the current DSLRs can already handle most of them pretty well. I don’t see the point of spending 3X the cost to get a “full frame” just for the rest of 2% cases where we have take photos in dark. Well, I can not deny there are many people do need the “full frame” at all cost, either because they need it for their job or they have endless money to spend. But for me, a regular hobbyist photographer, I’d rather have a reasonable priced camera and compact enough for me to take it with me all the time.

My first thougt was: “No,I don’t believe that any BIG player will leave FF market soon”

But then I thought again…

FF was and remains mostly the prerogative of pro’s. They’re conservative and mostly choose between Nikon and Canon, because these brands have 3 main weapons:
1. lens choise – we’re being constantly told by these pro’s about this reason every time we ask which brand to choose
2. long SLR tradition, armies of users, so they won’t stop product lines in visible future.
3. The pro’s make CanonNikon switches sometimes. I beleive it won’t be very easy for a pro to sell his Sony gear for a reasonable price and reasonably quick if switching.
4. Actually Sony never happened to be a BIG player in FF market. Do they have an analog of 1D, D3?

Well, 4 weapons – lenses, tradition, switch, high-end FF and the most important reason: if you choose Sony for some reason, you will hugely miss the Canonians-vs-Nikonians cockfights…gone forever!! What a pity!

So apart from not being beloved much by pro’s, what other reasons can pull Sony off from Full Frame industry?

Can someone name any serious product line which Sony committedly produces for many years that was and continues to be superior or en pair with other companies products? Maybe only consumer camcorders.. but is it serious for Sony Corp??? All of a sudden they became a probe-new-idea-and-capture-big-market-share-and-step-down-in-year-or-two-to-probe-a-new-idea company.

But one thing works in most cases: whatever industry Sony jums in, they change and revolutionize that industry and related ones and only then quit. Just remember Walkman.

Now, will this be true to mirrorless? This may sound a paradox, but Sony may finally kill SLR idea by… quitting it!!!

Yes, SLR is cool, nice, excellently elaborated since many years, but … it’s mechanically complicated hence expensive. Now how many mechanically complicated electronic devices we still continue to use in 21st century? How many cassette tape owners are there? Any vinyl turntables at non-audiophiles? Hey, even conventional hard disks are being replaced by SSDs, CD/DVD/BlueRay industry will finally fall apart despite the recording companies efforts. Bet, in 20 years we won’t see any device at home that’s based on motor, rotation and mechanical movements, if that rotation and movement is not the main designation of that device. So why we , non-pro’s still continue to use SLRs? Well japanese switch to mirrorless already. And we stand for SLR. Why? For 2 main reasons: true viewfinder and … another paradox – the size/weight/grip and other features (or drawbacks) which make us look like pro’s with SLR in the hand. I don’t consider other reasons, because most of them are to be addressed soon, very soon.

The viewfinder.

Almost all older point-and-shoots had viewfinder. And how many have that now? The manufacturers simply removed these leaving us no option and we have to live with it. And it’s that bad.

Of course P&S viewfinder and SRL one are very different beasts, but I think it’s more about marketing and keeping production costs low than anything else.
And if the EVIL companies put enough efforts to persuade us, non-pro’s that small, mirrorless and viewfinderless is cool, we’ll just buy it. GIven that we’ll be provided by sexy accessories like attachable rotating grip with 2 more batteries inside.

Hence my prediction. In 5 years there will be following types of 4/3s to FF sensor cameras/camcorders:
1) Canon, Nikon – FF Pro photography oriented DSLRs, that continue traditions of 1D and D3
2) Canon, Nikon, Sony (nikon partnering with sony or other camcorder giant) – FF Pro video oriented DSLRs continuing the line of 5d MarkII. Or even EVIL, not DSLR!
3) 4/3s and APS-C sized photographyANDvideo oriented mirrorless EVIL (or simply IL) camera-camcorders. The design/grip will be flexible so that the device will be transformed eas ily from camera use to camcorder use and back easily.
4) 4/3s and APS-C sized point-and-shoots-camcorders with something like 18-200mm lenses?
5) And of course variations of 3D DSLRs, 3D mirrorlesses, 3D camcorders and combinations of those.

And if my prediction won’t come true, then read the disclaimer.
Disclaimer: ELK has no affiliation with any of the equipment manufacturers mentioned in his posts. Please visit their official websites by typing the specific brand name and adding .com after it in your browser. All trademarks and brands belong to their respective owners.

I’m not surprised that sony are believed to be moving out of FF sensor cameras. Sony organisation for imaging seems to be dominated by their video and film departments. I have a strange feeling that these departments perhaps do not want to see their empire lost to the DSLR section. It’s somewhat strange that a pioneering company in the world of videography, has fallen behind its competitors in the implementation of video in its DSLRs. And what video it could give, at best, to its DSLR customers could not be better than A33. & A55.