The Sony China teaser

I can confirm via three independent sources that Sony has an important meeting this week. Both Journalists and employees are invited. Non of them have been told yet if Sony will actually announce something or not. One of the sources told me that:

“Sony sales employees are in San Diego this week, probably doing training on new digital imaging products. When I worked at Sony, they would only travel to San Diego for major product training. The territory sales managers only.”

Another one sent me this:

Friends are saying on Facebook that they are off to Sony headquarters in Weybridge for two days , they are mainly landscape photographers , new announcement ?

So far I heard about a new A6100, HX80 and HX350 camera coming soon. Still unconfirmed if the A99II will be announced with those. The exact day of the announcement is still a secret. And for now I repeat that San Diego and Weybridge event is not a guarantee for a new product announcement yet…

The A6000 is one of the most loved cameras on SAR. And it’s also the best bang for the buck. So if you own it here are some accessories you may need to get:

1) Battery grips:
– Ownuser grip on [shoplink 32882 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink] or Amazon (Click here).
– Neweer battery grip on Amazon (Click here).
– Travor A6000 battery grip is for sale on Alibaba (Click here).

2) Sony A6000 Flash bounce cards on Amazon (Click here).

3) Underwater TTL Housing for Sony Alpha a6000 from Ikelite.

4) Cineasy Touch Video Record Button Enhancement [shoplink 36621 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink]

5) Sexy Garix leather case on eBay in [shoplink 26006 ebay]Black (Click here)[/shoplink], [shoplink 26007 ebay]Brown (Click here)[/shoplink], [shoplink 26008 ebay]Camel (Click here)[/shoplink] and [shoplink 26009 ebay]Red (Click here)[/shoplink].

6) Lensmate Thumg Grip for the A6000 at Amazon US (Click here).

Sony A6000 store link list:
Sony A6000 at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonyStore. In Europe at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, AT, NL, BE, CH, FI, SE, PT, WexUK

We still didn’t get a f/2.8 FE zoom but it seems Sony is considering an even bigger surprise. Egami spotted a brand new 28-70mm f/2.0 FE zoom patent! Here are the details:

• Patent Publication No. 2016-14841
  • Published 2016.1.28
  • Filing date 2014.7.3
• Example 1
  • Focal length f = 28.84 45.32 66.50mm
  • Fno. 2.06
  • Half angle of view ω = 36.87 25.52 18.02 °

I seriously doubt Sony will really make such a lens. It would be huge! So far only Sigma made a f/2.0 FF zoom, [shoplink 44359 ebay]the 24-35mm f/2[/shoplink]. And Fuji made a 14.5-45mm T2.0 Cine lens for Super35 whish costs $99,000 at BH!

I got some more small info about the HX80 compact camera and new X2000 action camera.

the new sony compact camera will feature the IMX300 sensor originaly designed for smartphones. 21MP, 4K video
The new action Cam X2000 will feature the IMX377 with 12MP
Capeable of 4k@60fps, 1080P@120fps and 720p@300fps

Sony will also announce the new A6100 and HX350 cameras. Exact announcement date is still unconfirmed but it could be mid of next week…

Sony China posted these two “teasers” on their official Weibo account. The blurred image above is for a new E-mount camera (I guess it’s the A6100) while the image below should show the new E-mount lens roadmap ….or a Pizza with lot of cheese on top :)

Fun aside, of course those images do not show anything. But they have been posted by Sony China so it means we will get our new A6100 and new E-mount lenses very soon….maybe in early February?

UPDATE: Sibuzaru made this animation to show how the teased camera looks very close to the current A6000

We know Sony will soon announce the new HX80, HX350 and A6100. I am working to get the A6100 specs and exact announcement date. In the meantime a trusted source told me this:

The HX80 is the “First consumer camera that combines 30x zoom with 4k video recording”

I hope the same source will send me the final A6100 specs too ;)

[shoplink 44264 ebay][/shoplink]
Image on top shows the current A6000 with a [shoplink 44264 ebay]$36 handmade case (here on eBay)[/shoplink]

One of my trusted source has finally seen the A6100. And while he cannot share specs yet he said the A6100 looks just like the “old” A6000. So don’t expect anything new from a design point of view. There is still no confirmation about the announcement date. But we know the A6100 will ship in March.