The Sony “Go Pro” action camera is coming for real!

And the next rumor turned out to be correct. A couple of months ago we first reported that Sony was ready to launch a Go Pro competitor. Tonight Sony Blog unveiled the camera: “The video camera is tiny and lightweight, but it houses Sony’s hallmark SteadyShot® image stabilization technology, Exmor® R CMOS image sensor, and an ultra-wide angle Carl Zeiss® Tessar® lens.”

This is not an SLT nor a NEX camera but you have to know that Sony is entering a very huge and profitable market. Go Pro cameras (Click here to see them on Amazon and [shoplink 12725 ebay]here on eBay[/shoplink]) are very likely the most sold cameras ever. You see them everywhere! I met many climbers, skiers and cyclists using them here in the Alps.

The already doing well Imaging Division now has the chance to expand the business (and profits). Now let’s hope Sony engineers will make us go crazy with the A88, A99 and new NEX cameras too!

P.S.: Thanks to all sources for sharing the rumor about that camera. It makes SAR a pretty reliable rumor site although of course nobody is perfect :)

NEX-7 book by Friedman (and we all missed a $220 discount)

Our friend Gary Friedman just released the new NEX-7 book. You can buy it here:http://friedmanarchives.com/NEX-7/index.htm. I guess you all know who Gary is and there is no need for a presentation.

A readers sent me that screenshot of a NEX-7 that has been sold with a $224 discount by Electronic Expo on Amazon (Click here). There was one copy only but this was a hell of a deal. Will keep my eyes open to see if the deal will be back soon. Meantime the best lens you can use on that camera is still in Stock at Amazon (Click here).

New Sony OLED technology (and CMOS production increase).

Within the camera industry Sony is leading the OLED front and the latest news is that they developed a “low-reflection conductive film that can improve the image quality of a display equipped with a touch panel such as a smartphone screen” (Source: Nikkei).

Sony is the worldwide leader of CMOS/CCD sensor production but the market is still growing. Sony now announced that “they will invest in its Nagasaki Technology Center to increase the production capacity for stacked CMOS sensors, aimed mainly to smartphones.” (Source: Image Sensor World).

Nikon D3200 has or has not the same Sony 24 MP sensor?

Chipworks dismantled the Nikon D3200 and analyzed the sensor of the camera. While there is a clear “Nikon” mark on it I want to ask if someone actually read the full report (you have to pay to download it). A mark alone is not enough to be sure the sensor is different from the A77/A65/NEX-7 sensor.

I want to repeat once again that I am 99% sure the Nikon D800 sensor is the same because of the simple reason that I posted about that 36 Megapixel sensor almost one year before the Nikon D800 came out. And I also said by that time that it would be used by a Nikon camera. I am not so sure about the D3200 sensor. It may be the same sensor with just a Nikon mark on it, it may be a Nikon slightly modified sensor, it may a completely non Sony sensor. I hope smart tech guys can answer this.

Anyway, this is just a minor debate and people on SAR shouldn’t get too “hot” while discussing that :)

Another new camera with Sony sensor (The Pentax K30)

The Sony 16 megapixel CMOS sensor is probably the most “sold” sensor of the DSLR and Mirrorless market. Ricoh, Nikon, Sony and now even the new Pentax K30 (Click here) uses it! Will be nice to see the comparison between that camera and our nee Sony A57. Anyway, I also wanted to focus on your attention on the complete new design of the new Pentax DSLR. You really don’t see often something like this. I don’t know if that is something Sony should do too! You like it?

P.S.: Out friend Jason from SonyAlphaLab (Click here) finalized the A57 review!

Sony NEX-7 Redneck edition by LL.

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Luminous Landscape (Click here) posted a very well written article about the NEX-7 video button issue. As you know it’s very easy to press the video button which is placed on the grip. And many here and on other websites asked Sony to release a firmware upgrade which could allow to disable or lock this button. After nine months there is still no answer from Sony and I 100% agree with Mark Dubovoy when he writes that this is “Unacceptable because when I spend my hard earned dollars on a product and the product has an obvious flaw that can probably be easily fixed by a simple firmware update, I feel that the company owes it to their customers to provide a fix as soon as possible.”

Marc now reports that he has found a “redneck” solution that makes uses of a rubber grommet mounted around the video button.

Michale Reichmann goes further in his Sony critic by pointing two more big issues we NEX-7 owners have to deal with:
“There is one other aspect to this issue that was also apparent since day one, and has been known to cause cardiac arrest among NEX-7 owners. This problem is that the NEX-7 inexplicably maintains two separate directory structures for its video and stills files. So, when you first discover that you have shot 20 minutes of the inside of your camera bag, and you delete the offending video to clear room on the card, the  camera displays – DELETING IMAGES. Note the plural!? Even if you are just deleting one video file, or one still image, it says IMAGES. Heart attack number one.
Heart attack number two is that after you delete the offending video file and then press PLAY the screen displays NO IMAGES, even if you have shot hundreds of raws or JPGs on the same card. The reason for this is that there are separate directories for the two types of files. The simple solution is to shoot a quick still, and now the stills directory of files becomes available. There is also a convoluted way through the menus, but life is too short to delve into Sony menu land unless one really has to.”

I know Sony is working on the release of the NEX-7 firmware update. Let’s hope Sony has already implemented the fix for the here mentioned issues! They really can’t afford to lack of support for the probably most sold Sony camera ever. The camera is on top of all sales ranking at Amazon US (Click here), Amazon UK (Click here), Amazon DE (Click here) and Amazon FR (Click here). Is Sony going to listen to all of these great amount of customers?