Sony has tight lips when it comes to future products. But the wall of silence is slowly breaking and step after step I am getting much closer to get info about the January-February Sony announcements!

In November a highly trusted source said two things: The A6xxx will ship in early 2016. And he also said a “high end camera” is likely to ship too. Well, now I think the High End camera is the A99 replacement!

I just got the following two rumors and one of them comes via a Highly Trusted Source:

1. Source One (This is the same source who shared as first the very exact Batis lens specs many months before the lens announcement!)
   He wrote to me “Big announcement coming on January 5th. Potentially for Alpha. I think A99 replacement.“
2. Source Two (First time he sends a rumor but I know from a while him and I do trust him)
   He wrote to me :”I heard from XXX that Sony will have a A99II!“

I have yet no info or specs about that camera. But stay tuned on SAR for eventual surprises! Also, please keep in mind that the trusted source may be right about the A99 replacement but it’s not sure if it’s coming at CES or CP+….

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Reminder (SR = Sonyrumor):
SR1=probably fake rumor
SR2=rumor from unknown sources
SR3=50% chance it is correct
SR4=rumor from known sources
SR5=almost certainly correct!

The first picture of  Sony’s curved sensor via Spectrum.

A source sent me this:

I am not sure if this applies to the new secret high end camera, but seems possibly even more so likely:
Sony has been churning out the new curved sensors in full frame for the last couple of months.
According to their required market reports they increased their yield from 800 sensors to 1200 per month (raising it to ~80% yield).
The benefits are astounding. Increased sensitivity and higher sharpness towards the edges. The underlying sensor design is independent of this process but necessary a back side illuminated. My hopes and best guess is the A7RII sensor is used as a base, but Sony will surprise us again and do with a completely new sensor design…

Also in the patent
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/20150077619.pdf
They describe a couple of new lenses specifically designed for the curved sensor, most notably a 35mm f1.8  
These lenses will need a new mounting system.
Also the additional slightly risky step to produce a sensor will increase the cost of it significantly (50-70% increased sensor cost)
Both in combination could only pushed to the consumer in the very high-end market.  Also a curved sensor really would be a revolution on it’s own, because all films until now have been more or less flat.

Image by Jason Lanier

The two images you see here have been taken with two different “top secret” FE lenses! Jason did remove all EXIF data and not share any spec info on Facebook. So it’s SAR readers duty to guess what the lens on top is and what the lens below is. MY guess:
On top the 24-70mm f/2.8 G lens
Below the 85mm f/1.4 G lens

As a reminder: Sony scheduled a product announcement event for January 5!

Image by Jason Lanier

What’s in the bag of Jason Lanier? At minute 4.55 Jason answers the a readers question and he admits he has some “top secret” lenses in it he cannot talk about. But adds that they “are coming out soon”!

Maybe January 5 at CES will be really the day to see those new FE lenses announced!

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Thanks “BlackMaGiC1o0” for spotting this!

Ubergizmo got that official invitation from Sony. On January 5 Sony will have a major press release with product announcement. As you can see on the image we have a Sony A7rII camera. So maybe maybe maybe we will finally get a clue about the new Sony FE lenses and A6xxx? Sony delayed the FE lens roadmap presentation this autumn. Probably because of roadmap changes to satisfy the customers demand of fast primes and fast zooms.

FE lens rumored so far are:
24-70mm f/2.8 G
85mm f/1.4 G
24-70mm GM (compact zoom)
new telephoto lens

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found via Photorumors.

[shoplink 42741 ebay]

[/shoplink]
Image on top shows the [shoplink 42741 ebay]24-70mm f/2.8 A-mount Zeiss[/shoplink].

Mike (Thanks!!!) sent me thatsmall information:

24-70 F2.8 FE will be available in March.

While we are still waiting Sony to release a new Full Frame A-mount camera we got some news from the competition. Pentax will launch a new FF DSLR with Sony sensor in Spring 2016. They just published a special site about the camera here: www.pentax.com/en/pentaxff/.

It’s unclear yet which Sony FF sensor it will use (36 or 42 MP). But it’s pretty certain Pentax will have a High Resolution modes wich uses the on sensor stabilization shifting mode to create a high-resolution image out of multiple shots. Something Sony may could add on current A7rII, A7II and A7sII cameras via firmware upgrade?

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Link found via Digicameinfo