One of our sources just shared this image to confirme the new 3.0 firmware for the A7rIII and A7III will be released on April 11. These are the expected new features:

Firmware Ver. 3.0 for α7R III and α7 III

Sony’s popular α7R III and α7 III full-frame cameras will both receive enhanced Real-time Eye AF performance with the upcoming firmware version 3.0. This will be available in AF-C mode with a simple half-press of the shutter button. Real-Time Eye AF for animals (i) will also be available.

The cameras will also receive interval recording functionality that will allow for simple creation of time-lapse movies (vii). The new feature can be set for anywhere between 1 and 60 seconds, with a total number of shots from 1 to 9999. AE tracking sensitivity can also be adjusted to “High”, “Mid” or “Low” during interval recording, allowing for reduced changes in exposure over the shooting interval.

On April 7 at 2pm Las Vegas time Sony will have a product launch event and I will have a video livestream embedded here on SAR!

Like I told you before there is near zero chance they will announce the new A7sIII. Instead we will get new camcorders. The probably most interesting new thing could be some info about the new XEVC 8K codec (article and detailed images here). This might be used by the future A7sIII too.

Anyway, be sure to be here on April 7 to watch the event. We never know that there might be a surprise…

I just got some info about the new Yongnuo lens. It could be a 50mm f/1.8 FE autofocus lens. The lens will be announced around April 12 and cost around $100 only! This is the same price as their Canon EF and Nikon F versions (here on Amazon).

Could become a hotseller!

Yongnuo confirmed they will have an E-mount lens announcement soon. No info about possible specs yet but I expect this to be an autofocus FE lens. Yongnuo currently has a bunch of autofocus lenses for Canon and Nikon on sale here on Amazon US and BHphoto.
UPDATE: The company said the lens will be exhibited between 12-15th this month on the p&e show

Some time I had received this image. Not sure this is the Yongnuo FE lens:

A mockup (almost final) of 17-28 mm f / 2.8 Di III RXD (Phototrend)

The French website Phototrend interviewed Kenji Nakagawa and Koji Satoh from Tamron. Kenji Nakagawa said this:

Regarding our strategy for the hybrid, today we already have a 28-75mm f / 2.8 and we announced the development of 17-28mm f / 2.8. We should also propose later another zoom lens that will cover the telephoto zoom range. Once available, this lens will cover the 17mm focal range at the telephoto. This is the first step to reach.

Oh yes, sounds like we are getting a new 70-200mm f/2.8 FE soon too ;)

But Kenji also talked about possible prime FE lenses:

We can also think of more advanced products, such as optics with stabilization or other functions, and we may have fixed focal lengths inspired by the SP range. There is a lot to do right now, the hybrid market is growing and we do not have enough products yet.
Our strategy is therefore to offer higher-level optics, the market moves very fast and we must accelerate to follow this market.

Androidlad leaked those specs of the new Sony 100 meapixel IMX55CQR sensor. I have no info yet if this is accurate or not. The specs are stunning:

2.91um pixel architecture, 100MP @ 10fps, 6K video using 12bit ADC with on-chip binning/line-skipping. 4K RGB 4:4:4 video with on-chip colour-aware binning.

This 12288 x 8192 100MP sensor employs a unique, CFA-based column-parallel ADC design:

The sensor is said to perform better than A7 III in terms of dynamic range, sensitivity (QE) and readout speed.

Here is the 4K RGB 4:4:4 readout mode:

This sensor will be available for third party manufacturers too. Sony itself may used an improved version of this sensor in their future A9r or A7rIV cameras…