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back in December I told you that Sony changed the product roadmap to focus their efforts on the development of a new Full Frame NEX-7 alike camera. To be the first to make a “cheaper Leica M” camera would have been a huge advantage for Sony. But it looks like Samsung is going to ruin the party and they may introduce the new NX-R Full Frame mirrorless in March (Source: MirrorlessRumors). After all this may be a good news for us. Sony may have to aggressively price the camera to compete against the Samsung and maybe even add some extra killer feature. Again, that’s just my dream but my imaginary NEX-FF should have the new 3 layer sensor

Reminder: This is what we know for now about the NEX-FF:
1) These last two weeks I contacted all my best sources and they now all(!) confirmed that the next Sony Full Frame camera will not be a new SLT camera. It will be a Full Frame mirrorless camera!
2) Plan of a FF SLT release in 2013 have been dropped to fully focus the development resources on that FF mirrorless camera. Sony’s main priority is to create a real High End camera. A camera that can have all the functions and capabilities of a DSLR (that means for example fast AF). Sony sees that camera as the one that should bring back some significant interests on Sony FF system.
3) The camera is still in the final stage of development. We can expect the release of the cameras by end 2013 at earliest but early 2014 sounds more likely for now.
4) The camera has some key tech not seen on any Sony camera yet. I am still working on this rumor to get some detailed info. So stay tuned!
5) The camera is a bit bigger than the current Sony NEX-7 and not that much different in terms of the design.
6) The camera has a native E-mount and both E-mount and A-mount lenses will be fully supported.
7) One of the trusted sources said that Sony is right now testing two different prototypes. One features a 24 megapixel and the other camera features a new 30-32 Megapixel sensor.

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BCN Inc., has released the final market shares percentages of the 2012 sales in Japana. These are the results of the digital video and camera market:

Digital camera (integrated lens)
Canon 17.6
Sony Corporation 16.5
Nikon Corporation 14.1
Digital camera (SLR)
Canon 52.7
Nikon Corporation 35.1
Sony Corporation 7.1
Digital camera (SLR mirror-less)
Olympus 29.8
Panasonic 23.3
Sony Corporation 20.1
Digital video camera
Sony Corporation 40.2
Panasonic 24.8
JVC Kenwood 18.2

As you can see Sony made it into the top three of each category. The maybe disappointing news is the DSLR market share which is insignificant compared to the Canon-Nikon duo. So neither the A77 nor the A99 had a significant impact. Sony is doing much better in the mirrorless segment which (in Japan) is exactly as big as the DSLR market.

Amazon ranking (just ro see what’s hot in EU and US):
US ranking (Click here).
DE ranking (Click here).
UK ranking (Click here).
FR ranking (Click here).

This isn’t really a surprise…The RX100 is the Compact Camera of the Year 2012 at Photographyblog. And I guess quite many here on SAR bought that little jewel. One more thing: In these days I also got a weird rumors from an unknown source saying that Sony would launch a new RX100 model. Let me know if you got something about it.

That said the cheapest price I found in US is at BigValue (Click here) and as super kit for $648 at Amazon (Click here). And to noble your RX100 you may look at the Italian Leather Gariz case.

While Sony does’t plan to release any new FF SLT this year they will introduce 2-3 new APS-C SLT cameras. And three of my sources told me that it is Sony’s goal to launch a new A77 successor the second half of the year. I have no info about the exact specs now but while I am working to find them you may express your wishes by commenting this post. Let’s see if at least some of them may come true!n

The A77 current cheapest price I found is $919 at Bigeasycamera (Click here). And a Reminder: Sony extended the SLT APS-C deals you can grab at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here) and Bhphoto (Click here).

Image on top: Alpa 35mm f/4.0 MC PC-Curtagon

A short update about the new Metabones Speed Booster adapter. There will be three of them for sale in February:
ALPA to NEX (check Alpa lenses here on eBay).
Canon EF to NEX
Contarex to NEX (check Contarex lenses here on eBay).
Contax C/Y to NEX
Nikon F to NEX
Leica R to NEX (check Leica R lenses here on eBay).

Source: metabones.
And again…it’s Alpa and not Alpha! I didn’t make a spelling error

Like you I am surprised they added support for the Alpa lenses!