We got two sources saying that the new Voigtlander 50mm f/1.2 FE lens should start to ship on EU and US market in January. Price is expected to be about the same of the current M-mount version.

The reliable Sony sensor source also sent me this new info that could be for interest for future Sony A7sIII owners:

Got some new info, a break from all the sensor talk :-)

So Sony is finalising its new H.265 based professional codec – XEVC, the successor of XAVC. XEVC is CRF based which is superior to Canon’s ABR based XF-HEVC.

XEVC supports:
12Bit YCrCb 4:4:4
12Bit Lossless
12Bit Bayer
12Bit YCrCb 4:2:2 for broadcast delivery
10Bit YCrCb 4:2:2
10Bit YCrCb 4:2:0 for proxy recording

Expect to see other variants of XEVC (XEVC-S) in A7S III and future Sony prosumer cameras.

Our highly reliable Sony sensor informant told us this:

Just got word of a new 72MP FF global shutter sensor from Sony, 3.45um pixel architecture (FF version of IMX342). Of course it’s more geared towards industrial use with mediocre image quality. It could be a result of competition from Canon and ON Semi that they all taped out FF GS sensors.

As measured by Lucid Vision Labs it seems like Global Shutters are still not a match for current Sony rolling shutter sensors.

Like I told you before the CES show isn’t usually used by Sony to announce new E-mount products. That said Be Alpha is holding a special Sony event and their invitation says:

There will be photo ops, food, lots of fun, and some surprises. If you’re in the Las Vegas area, you won’t want to miss this one!

Let’s hope the A7000 is one of the surprises :)

All we know with 99% reliability is that Sony will announce new 8k products (camcorder, TV and so on). The one source that told us the A7000 might be announced before Christmas was obviously wrong. My guess is that Sony had “only” an internal presentation of the A7000 before it goes official.

Here is an extended recap of rumored E-mount gear:

Sony A7000.
Sony officially confirmed that a high end APS-C camera is in the works. And recently Sony registered a new mirrorless camera in Asia which I believe is the new APS-C camera (and not the A7sIII). This is what our sources told us about this camera:

– it’s not an A6500 successor
– it has a new design with EVF in the center
– it’s a new High End APS-C camera
– mini-A9
– probably 20 fps and 5.6 milion dot EVF

Sony A7sIII:
For sure it has 4k60p, 4:2:2 10bit (external), 5.6 milion dot EVF, new stacked sensor and announcement in first half 2019. Sony also said it will have some “unexpected” features. Unclear what they could be.

Sony prime lenses:
35mm f/1.8 G and 135mm f/1.8 GM are on the roadmap.

Sony telephoto lenses:
Sony officially confirmed a new telephoto lens is coming soon. No specs have been shared but we found patents for 500mm and 600mm f/5.6 lenses. And there was an unconfirmed rumors about a possible 200-600mm FE lens too.

Sony f/1.2 primes:
I never got a rumor about such a lens but the fast lenses from Nikon and Canon might convince Sony to add such a lens in their roadmap. Sony stated officially that “Maybe some demand exists for an f/1.2”

New FF sensors:

Sensor 1:
60MP
16 channels (which is crazy, normally it should be 8),
4.6FPS@16bit
12FPS@14bit
8k30P@12bit
8K60p@10bit
4k60p@12bit
FHD300P@10bit

–

Sensor 2:

36MP
10FPS@16bit
60FPS@10bit
on-chip PDAF

Tamron 28-75mm FE lens at BHphoto, Amazon, BuyDig, FocusCamera, Adorama, Amazon DE and WexUK.

We now got this:

Tamron is in the process of making a 70-200mm or similar(maybe deviate slight like their 28-75mm….but definitely a tele zoom) it will have an aperture of f2.8. Expecting it early Q1 2019.

This one sounds very exciting and I bet it will cost much less than the Sony 70-200mm GM!

The past week I shared the specs of three new Sony 8K sensors. All these will be available for third-party companies too. But there is one very important aspect we learned now from our sources:

UPDATED: The full sensor power can only be used if the companies buy the proprietary Sony SLVS-EC interface too. Without it you CANNOT have the full sensor potential. Sources told me that it is highly unlikely that companies like Nikon and Panasonic will suddenly start to use Sony SLVS-EC interface. A source told me this:

To use the full potential of a Sony sensor, the proprietary SLVS-EC interface must be used. SLVS-EC interface offers much bigger throughput and bandwidth than traditional sub-LVDS interface. Usually SLVS-EC allows 16bit ADC and much higher framerate at a given readout resolution. SLVS-EC interface costs significantly more than sub-LVDS.

This new info makes it more likely that these sensors will indeed be used by future Sony cameras like the A7sIII or A9II or A9r. And Nikon/Panasonic will probably use the same sensors but with some crippled features.