As you know Sony had to delay the recent NEX and SLT camera announcements. Some of my sources already saw the cameras and they still don’t know when Sony will release them (a possible date is May 26th). The reasons for the delay are well known. In his latest post Thom Hogan made a brief desription about what’s going on with the digital camera production problems in Japan. It perfectly fits with the info I received from my sources: “I see several different estimates from various sources within Japan, but in no case does the Northern Japan power grid (which includes Tokyo itself) look like it will be anywhere near handling the demand this summer. There could be 50% shortfalls some days, and the average shortfall in July and August could reach 30%. That means frequent and long power blackouts, which is bad news for the camera industry. Sensor fabs, for instance, of which several are in the area, need continuous power (on top of the temperature issues in many critical processes, you’ve got to maintain continuous air filtration to avoid contamination). High quality glass factories can’t be turned on and off easily with rolling blackouts. It appears that the deeper into the supply chain you go (e.g., back to chemicals and raw materials), the worse the problem gets: those plants can’t be toggled on and off at whim. Many need long warm-up periods or continuous power to operate.”
and…
“Between the March quake and early winter when things even up a bit in the power realm, I’m guessing that the output of the plants in the affected area could be less than 50% of normal. That could mean nearly nine months of significantly reduced production of everything from Nikon FX bodies, to Nikon/Canon/Panasonic lenses, to Sony CMOS sensors, to all those proprietary lithium batteries, and more.”

Sony is also  considering having all its employees in Japan take two-week summer vacations to save energy (Source: Breitbart)

I guess the Tsunami-Fukushima disaster will affect the digital camera industry for the whole year and maybe more. Le’s hope Japanese engineers can fix the Fukushima plant as soon as possible…

Video on top: Juan Martinez (Sony Product Manager) shows the new Sony NEX-FS100 camera. He also talks a bit about the upcoming E-mount lenses.

According to Macworld the Sony A55 is the best DSLR in the sub $1,000 category.
Chipworks: Sony Switches to Bulk BSI in 1.1um Pixel (Image Sensor World).
iSuppli on Japan Image Sensor Industry Hit by Disaster (Image Sensor World)
Sony mulls two-week summer break to save energy (Breitbart.com).
Sony NEX Viewfinder with Magnifier (SonyAlphaNex)

Sony just announced new Sony Alpha Camera Accessories:
HVL-F43AM external flash with GN43, Quick Shift Bounce adjustment, wireless ratio control and dust/moisture resistant design. Price $350.
VCT-55LH bracket is versatile mounting bracket that offers space for mounting additional ISO cold shoe accessories. Price $50.
LCS-AMB soft carrying case protects A-mount camera and attached standard zoom lens while traveling. Price $50.
ALC-SH111 lens hood shades cameras from direct sunlight to prevent glare and lens flare. Price $20. UPDATE: The lens hood is made for the 35mm f/1.8 and the 85mm f/2.8 specifically (Thanks DYna for reminding us that).

P.S.: Direct links to the Sony 35mm f/1.8 at [shopcountry 6422] and the Sony 85mm f/2.8 at [shopcountry 5979].

You can read more at Sony.eu.

At least we have something new we can buy :)  I will go for the flash! And you?

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Image on top: The Sony F3 with PL-mount

You can see the first images of the 18-252mm Super35mm lens at Dslrnewsshooter.com (via Noisycamera). It uses the PL mount and not the Alpha mount! That because it has been developed for the new Sony F3 and Sony F65. It starts with a f/3.8 aperture. Price is to be determined and availability is said to be winter 2011.

We have to wait a little while before to see new Alpha and E-mount lenses…

I do currently live in Italy and we are the best in the world in saying badwords for hours. That’s what happened today to me :)

I just noticed that our contact form didn’t work since March 21. I didn’t receive any single rumor from those anonymous sources that usually do contact me via contact form only. And I didn’t receive any info from readers that sent me news or reviews. REALLY SORRY! I feel so bad now. I owe you all a beer :(

If you sent me something important please send it to me again. The form now works (I tested it many times).

The issue happened after a routine work made by my designer. He changed a setting and didn’t think that it would affect the form. And I didn’t recognize the problem earlier while I was fixing other big issues on the website (like the IE9 bug).

I hope my sources can forgive me for that :) I am waiting for your news about the A35 NEX-3C and other cameras…. :)

UPDATE: I just received the first messages through the contact form. Thanks!

During the last two weeks I had quite a few small talks with important digital camera dealers. We can expect price increases on most digital cameras from all manufactures. He said major retailers like Mediamarkt or Amazon will start to “feel” the supply problems by end of April. The supply problem with Sony-Canon-Nikon is estimated to persist for at least 4-6 months. It might be to early to draw final conclusions but there are some price increases like on the A55 in Germany (+60 Euro -> Source: Idealo) and the Sony NEX-3 in US (+ $50 -> Source: Bhphoto).

My overall impression after those “talks” is that Japanese companies are in a much worse situation than they want us to believe.

—

P.S.: As you know you can support SonyAlphaRumors by using my affiliate links to purchase any product you want. Click here: [shopcountry 3617] and for every product you buy we will earn a small commission that helps us to cover all costs. And you don’t pay any penny more ;) Thanks!

Let’s make a short break from Alpha related news. Some of you might be interested to read the specs of the new “terrible” brother of the Sony F3, the new F65. It’s the first industrial camera that reocrds…8k!!! I would be glad of some of this features could find the way in the A77 (ok just kidding!). Those are the amazing specs:

• Industry’s first 8K 20M-Pixel CMOS imager for digital motion picture production
• From this imager, the F65 will derive brilliant HD, 2K, True 4K resolution, and higher 16bit Linear RAW output
• F65 adheres to 1.9:1 aspect ratio, DCI Projection standard (4096 x 2160 or 2048 x 1080) Choice of picture composition as needed: 1.85:1, 1.78:1, 1.66:1, 1.33:1, 2.35 spherical, 1.3x anamorphic, or 2x anamorphic cropped
• Wide dynamic range, low S/N ratio, and high sensitivity
• Optional SR-R4 on board SRMemory recorder
• HD-SDI Monitoring outputs with viewing LUT’s
• The camera can shoot 1 to 120 fps
• 16 bit-RAW recording in SRMemory™ card (sold sep.)

More info at Pro.Sony (Click here). I am particularly impressed by the 16Bit linear RAW recording. If Sony would manage to add RAW video recording to high.end Alpha SLT cameras that would kill the current [shoplink 6340]Canon 5D mark II[/shoplink] sales! Ok, stop me! I am dreaming :)

Sony also unveiled a compact Professional grade 3D Camcorder at NAB (Source: Akihabaranews). The HVR-NX3D1J (in Japan) or HXRNX3D1U (in North America):

• 3D Worldcam 50i/60i compatible
• 3D Recording Mode: 50i/60i/24P (28Mbps)
• 2D Recording Mode: 1920×1080/60p, 50p, 60i, 50i, 24p, 25p
• SD Recording Mode: 720×480 60i, 720×576 50i
• Double HD lenses, 10x optical zoom in 3D
• Automatic or manual parallax correction
• Active SteadyShot™ in 3D
• Glassless 3.5-inch LCD
• Removable Audio Pod with XLR connectors
• Time Code recording
• 28Mbps AVCHD with AC3/LPCM 3D recording
• Side by Side or Frame Packing output via HDMI
• One card slot accepts SD or Memory Stick
• Built-in 96GB flash memory