Mirrorless system camera market share in 2014 (Japan only)

BCNranking published the full 2014 camera sales date in Japan. The good news is that Sony dethroned Olympus and is now number one in the mirrorless system camera market in Japan. And in Japan mirrorless is very strong and on par with DSLR in terms of cameras sales. The (unsurprisingly) bad news is that Sony really holds no more any meaningful share of the DSLR market:

DSLR market share in 2014 (Japan only)

Sony really needs to reinvent the wheel with their A-mount system if they want to make it successful. They would certainly have the necessary tech for that but we have to see if the management really wants that.

Sony α7 II (A7 II) 5-Axis Stabilization demo

Voigtländer 40mm Nokton f1.4 tested on the A7II at SonyAlphaForum.
My personal review on the Zeiss Loxia 2/35 and 2/50 on the Sony A7 (Stockografie).
Sony RX100III Field Report (Hikinginfinland).
A little 85mm comparison: Minolta 1.7/85, 2/85 and others (SonyAlphaForum).
Paris monuments and people : beautiful winter 2015 (Traveljournalist).
A Sony A7 camera spotted at the Grammy Award.
Special Sony QX iphone case (Ascii Japan).
Sony A7 with only Nikon F-mount Lenses? (SonyAlphaForum).
8 Valentine’s Day Dates for the Photographer in Your Life (ilovehatephoto).

Hikari: “I have a website where I interview actors, directors, & athletes. I’m not sure if you would be interested in this type of news but I just shot & edited an interview with actor Thomas Jane (“The Punisher”, “”Deep Blue Sea”, “Boogie Nights”, “61*” & HBO’s “Hung”). The main camera used in the shoot was the RX100M3 in XAVC-S codec (1080p 24fps 50mb/sec) & the side angle was shot with the a99 Zeiss 24-70mm (AVCHD 1080p 24fps 24mb/sec), & edited & rendered in Sony Vegas Pro 13 in the XAVC 1080p 24fps setting. I have worked very closely with Sony Alpha Cameras & even longer with Sony Creative Software. The footages were shot extremely flat then color graded in Genarts Sapphire 8 Film Style (main camera) & the side camera graded in BCC9 Film Process (the camera on me was a Nikon D5200 which I have since got rid of. The flat profile produced colors that were completely different from the Sony cameras & sometimes flickered with the LED lights).
hikaritakano.co/index.php/video-interviews/thomas-jane”

Elmar: “I am a photographer and im using Sony cameras A7 / 7s / 7r / 7MII and Nex-7 my focus is underwater photography as well as landscape, events, sports, and so on. I m using Nauticam underwater housing, inon strobes, ports and more equipment from Nauticam. All fotos taken with cameras from above: http://www.blueworldpixel.com/“

Amadeusz: “Here’s a short from me – shot in 4K Prores on A7s and Atomos Shogun: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpUOTCOU7do“

The Mirrorless strategy slide posted back in late 2014.

Sony released their Mid-Term Corporate Strategy for FY2015 – FY2017 (Full press text here: sony.net/SonyInfo/News/Press/201502/15-017E/index.html). Here are some of the key info:

1) Overall it looks very good for Sony. They target for consolidated operating profit of more than 500 billion yen for the Sony Group in FY201.

2) Focus on High Value mirrorless cameras. The actual words used by Sony are: “While Sony does not anticipate overall market growth in these areas, the Company will target certain areas within each market that are unlikely to experience commoditization by continuing to offer new, high value-added products such as its advanced mirrorless single-lens reflex cameras and high-resolution audio products.”

3) Customer attention: “Sony will seek to reinforce its deployment of “recurring-revenue business models…also for interchangeable lenses and accessories within the Digital Imaging business.” Recurring revenue models provide a way to reach out to customers more frequently and build a more loyal customer base.

There is no other info in their report about particular products. But it’s also important to underline that their Imaging Sensor sales are booming and Sony plans to invest more resources in research and production. We should all benefit from that strategy too because it means Sony will lead the digital system camera sensor market too.

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Thanks Dicahub for sharing the news.

Lightroom 6 will ship on March 6. The French store fnac.com leaked all info about the new LR6:

• Windows Compatibility: Windows 7, 8, 8.1
• Mac OS Compatibility: Mac OS X v10.8, v10.9 or v10.10
• Designed for both amateur photographers and professionals
• Merge to HDR
• Fusion panoramas
• Performance gains
• Facial recognition
• Sophisticated video slideshows
• Optimized web galleries
• Filter brush

found via CanonWatch.com.

Image courtesy: DC.watch.

Usually you don’t see how a lens is made “inside”. But at CP+ Tamron is showing the new SP 15-30mm lens cut in half. There is also a full review at Photoreview:

Outdoor photographers will welcome the moisture-resistant construction of this lens as well as the fluorine coating on the front element that repels water and dirt and makes it easy to keep clean. Architectural photographers will find relatively low distortion produced by this lens valuable for shooting exteriors and interiors. 
In summary: Photographers looking for a fast, wide-angle zoom lens will find this lens represents excellent value for money. 

The A-mount lens can be ordered at BHphoto (Click here) and at Adorama (Click here).

Makoto Kanai from the Sony Lens design department explains the advantages of Sony E-mount (Image by DSLRmagazine).

The Spanish site DSLRmagazine interviewed Akihiro Egawa and Makoto Kanai from Sony. And here are some of the key info:

1) Asked why the new FE lenses are so big the answer was that if you want goo optical quality you cannot reduce the size of the lenses.
2) The interviewer asked if the short flange distance and the limited E-mount diameter is a major limitation for Sony lens designers. The answer was no, for small focal distance lenses this kind of design helps us. The opposite occurs with the classic DSLR mounts. But there is a “But”: Sony said E-mount is maybe challenge when it comes to design longer focal lenses.
3) We only plan to get rid of Anti Aliasing filter on High Resolution Cameras. This because Moirèe tends to become less an issue when the spatial resolution is high.
4) When asked if the current FE lenses can resolve future 50+ Megapixel FF sensor the answer was yes!

Obvisouly…when asked…Sony did not share any information about the new FE lens release or any future possible new FE camera.