(SR5) The next A99 user report (Finally an ISO hot shoe)
Before to talk about the next A99 rumor I really invite everyone to stay tuned on SAR. I toke off some time from my daily work to deal the huge amount of rumors I am getting in these days. Most of the rumors are form top sources. So stay tuned and subscribe our RSS feed or follow me on Twitter and join the super friendly Facebook comunity 
That A99 rumor is coming via super trusted sources and has been rewritten in a bad childish english to hide the language style
1) First, the a99 sports a standard ISO hot-shoe! Finally I can say!!! They built a very compact adapter to fit current alpha flashes onto the A99 hot-shoe. The ISO adapter mounts very similar to a nikon flash, where you slide in the hot-shoe and then turn a lever to securely lock it into place. This means in the future, Sony’s new flashes will be using the standard ISO hot-shoe. Death of the alpha plastic hot-shoe!
2) There is also a customizable control wheel at the bottom left of the camera. It looks like they created a variation of the Nex-7 tri-navi system.
3) Look: Very similar to the A77, just a bit bigger and with a more pronounced hump at the top. Same articulating screen. The control dial on the top left now has a center locking button. You will need to depress that button before you can turn the control dial. No more turning it by accident.
4) This is SR2: The 102 AF points AF sensor is actually a dumb’d down AF module. The ORIGINAL af module developed for the a99 has a much higher number of af points. I don’t know how true it is. But it is something good to know.
5) As we know the A99 has 102(!) Focus Point. In a Local Point Mode (Where You Can Select One specific Point to Focus) you can select only one of fourty. The other neighbors Focus Point Will Work as Focus assisting points.
More rumors are coming in every hour….stay tuned on SAR!!!
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hwelvaar
11 months ago |Yes, I can fit my Elinchrome wireless flash trigger to my Sony gear now…
CTPhotographX.com
11 months ago |Why couldn’t you do that before?
Klipsen
11 months ago |No, you can’t! Whatever Sony SLR/T equipment you may own will still have the iISO hotshoe. But your existing Sony flashes will not work with the A99 if indeed it is equiped with an ISO hotshoe.
My guess is, Sony are not so stupid that they make a new ISO hotshoe just to cater to people using a dumb, non-TTL radio trigger, when those people can just buy an appropriate adapter – or use a product that fits on the iISO hotshoe. They’re neither difficult to find, nor are they very expensive.
Redbird
11 months ago |Nice！A99，come on！
harma
11 months ago |Why does changing the way pins are spread out on a hotshoe is a drawback?
And why is iISO abandoned just by doing this? The same functionality will be implemented. The only thing changing is the way the pins are seen by users. Its just a change of position and shoe design.
Why does adding a extra pin (that could eventually add a lot of opportunity for new features) is a drawback?
Why is changing plastic for metal, bad for sony?
And why is adding the ability to use many accessories already out there be a cause to blame sony?
Someone asked “why change something that works”!!! Its called Progress, Evolution, and many other things. Its like asking “Why go to digital cameras when film cameras worked as well”. Thats insane.
Just relax and think before you whine about everything!!
Common guys, get serious for once.
Allan Olesen
11 months ago |All your words about progress, digital/film etc. lead me to believe that you don’t even know that this is a step backwards to old stuff.
Sony is replacing a design from 1988 with a design from 1913.
That is not like going from film to digital. It is not even like the step backwards from digital to film. It is like going from digital and back to glass plates.
And once again:
This will not bring you more compatibility with Nikon and Canon equipment. The protocols are different.
If a third party accessory maker wants to make specialized accessories with the Sony protocol, it is foolish to believe that he will let a small thing as a shoe shape hold him back.
CTPhotographX.com
11 months ago |It’s not a pin-out change… It’s a mount change. And most of the accessories people “think” they need to attach are cold mount, not hot.
Requiring an adapter to provide native functionality is DEVOLUTION.
kysham
11 months ago |Going to an ISO mount doesn’t necessary mean going backwards. It’s not like the ISO had been at a standstill since 1913. Plenty of camera companies had taken that mount and enhanced it to their specification, yet maintaining the core fundamental properties of the mount. The Minolta’s iISO mount was a revolution when it was launched because it allows plenty quick mounting and removing of the flash compared to the ISO mount flashes back then, which still requires screwing the nut down tight. But modern ISO mount flashes (e.g. the newer generation nikon flashes) no longer is that cumbersome. If sone uses similar system, then attaching & removing the flash should be just as easy.
In studio environment, with studio strobes, TTL triggers are not very useful at all, since you are going to have to control the strobe’s output anyway. But the number of studio triggers out there in the market definitely is more in ISO mount than in iISO mount.it is one less barrier for new users to adopt a sony system…
Klipsen
11 months ago |For the very few who will be using their camera in a studio there are adapters to fit ISO devices on iISO hotshoes. Then again, there are also many devices made specifially for iISO hotshoes. Here’s one:
http://www.phottix.com/en/studio-accessories/phottix-strato-ii-multi-5-in-1-wireless-flash-trigger.html
Now, where’s the compatibility problem?
kysham
11 months ago |It’s the same issue. Existing users loathe the fact that you now need a iISO to ISO adapter. New users will loathe the fact that they will need a ISO to iISO adapter to use their studio triggers. Hence they will hesitate to change to Sony system. Either way, Sony is not going to win everyone’s heart by switching mount, but it sure is going to be easier for non-sony users to switch now. Yes, you can argue all you want that you can use adapters, and that iISO mount is much more superior than ISO mount. But, the fact still remains that there are a lot more practicality for 3rd party ISO accessories compared to iISO mount accessories. And the poll in SAR confirms that a lot more people are happy that new Sony cameras now comes with ISO instead of iISO mount (yes, I’m of the 2,159 who voted that they liked new sony cameras to come with ISO hotshoe mount). That says a lot about the approval of the choice. And yes, I had been using Alpha system since A100, and had been using the iISO mount for a long time. I have no problem with the iISO mount in terms of usage, but I very much prefer it to be a ISO mount where I can share the radio triggers with my other friends using other systems and perhaps, convince them (with much ease) to switch over to Sony system based on other virtues of the system. It is just one barrier less for others to switch.
Klipsen
11 months ago |The only triggers you can use on several brands are “dumb” triggers, i.e. they only enable manual flash control, which is hardly very future oriented.
Besides, such triggers already exist for Sony’s hotshoe.
kysham
11 months ago |If you are only going to use the triggers alone, that is not an issue. But if you are going to share the triggers i.e. in a rental studio, then that is an issue because the triggers in the studio is likely going to be for ISO mount hotshoes. And if you are a hobbyist who shares your enthusiasm for photography and studio equipment with friends using other brands of cameras, then that could be an issue too. Yes, in all these scenarios, an ISO to iISO adapter will solve the problem, but really, it is not as elegant a solution. Short run, everyone using iISO mount flashes will whine (yes, I have three of these flashes), but in the long run, it is going to be beneficial to the growth of the system both in terms of accessories as well as system acceptance by new or potential users. It really is not a bad thing, and certainly ain’t the end of the world.