[shoplink 3032][/shoplink]
Sont expect any FF with optical viewfinder anymore! Bye bye A900 :(

In these days many “sources” contacted me to tell me that Sony has already “selected” the final A99 camera specs. Some A99 prototypes are being shown to managers, dealers and photographers. All sources confirmed that there is no plan to launch the A99 now and that all we can hope is that Sony will give us an official look on the prototype model by end of this month or early May! It is Sony’s plan to launch the A99 in late August/early September like they did last year with the [shoplink 8461]Sony A77[/shoplink].

P.S:: I hope Paul Genge statement will turn out to be truth when he told to David Kilpatrick (Click here):  “wait for the FF SLT– you’ll not regret it’. So don’t buy the Nikon D800 and Canon 5DmarkIII  :)

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Here are the search links to the last FF DSLR cameras with optical viewfinder:
Sony A900 [shopcountry 3032].
Sony A850 [shopcountry 3028].

Good Morning and welcome to the new week :)

Guys, the tension is beginning to grow! According to top sources Sony is about to make a new product announcement within the coming weeks. I am pretty sure there will be a new NEX-C3 successor and I have been told that the NEX-C3 will get massive price drops this week (Check at [shopcountry 7207]). And than there is the new A37. I have no exact announcement date yet but I will know it soon ;)

I am still not 100% sure but there is a fair chance Sony will show “something Full Frame” too. My guess for now is that they will display a new FF SLT prototype like they did with the A77 months before the real announcement.

If you have some info to share drop me an anonymous message by using the contact form on the right sidebar. You can avoid to send me your real name and email address and no IP data gets stored. Would be nice if you use some kind of fake name I can track to see if you are (or will become) a trusted source or not. Thanks!

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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!

Draft.Camera (Click here) says the A37 body will cost 499 Euro. Single lens kit price is 649 Euro and double lens kit price is 789 Euro. I never saw this website before so please take it with a grain of salt. All I know for sure is that the camera is coming soon!

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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!

Rumors are growing and growing and the latest I heard from a source is that Sony plans unveil something “Full Frame” within the next few weeks!!! Don’t get too excited guys, it’s realistic to think they may show a prototype only. As I told you Sony has two different FF cameras in the works. But I guess only one of them will be shown (if the rumor is correct).

But, I have some kind of good feeling that Sony may will accelerate the Full Frame plans after the Canon 5DmarkIII and Nikon D800 announcements. I know there is people within Sony pushing the Japanese managers to release the first SLT camera sooner than Photokina. But please remain with your feet on earth for now! All we can hope is to see a prototype only…ok?

FF rumor history:
A year ago I reported that Sony’s plan was to release a new FF camera in late Spring 2012. The Thai flood delayed the A77 release and Sony decided to postpone the FF camera release because they need time to evaluate the A77 flaws and user suggestions. The latest news was that a new FF SLT camera will be announced in September. Very likely using a new 24 Megapixel sensor. But there are also rumors about a second 36 Megapixel rumor and a FF square sensor. Sony may now be ready to show us some FF prototype or roadmap within the next weeks. Or is there some room for an ulterior surprise?

P.S.: The Sony powered Nikon D800 keeps remaining the most sold camera at Amazon US (Click here). Time to offer something that can compete against it!

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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!

A couple of weeks ago a trusted source told me how Sony is working to bring some major evolution in the sensor technology. We are talking about a completely new generation of sensors which could hit the market as soon as late 2013- early 2014. One of these technologies is the “organic sensor”. The last few months I saw some patents from Fuji and now finally Egami (Click here) found one from Sony. Basically we are talking about a sort of Foveon technology made with organic material instead of current non organic materials. The major flaws to overcome are the slow speed and durability of the material. But Sony seems to have found some sort of hybrid material solution that could overcome the issues. While google translation doesn’t really help a lot to understand how it works I will try to give you a short summary:

1) The sensor is made by a organic and non organic material. That is necessary because organic material has less “speed” than the non organic silicon material.
2) Three layers of organic material are positioned one under the other. This means every single pixel contains all the color data!
3) The advantages are higher color fidelity, higher resolution because of the lack of the Anti Aliasing filter which usually needs to be used on RGB sensors. Currently [shoplink 12209 ebay]Medium format cameras[/shoplink] or cameras like the Fuji X PRO 1, Nikon D800 and Leica M9 do not have AA filters. Another advantage is that organic material has a higher absorption coefficient than non organic material.

As usual keep in mind that most of the patents will never be applied in a real mass production camera. Or it may will take longer than we hope. Anyway, Sony is already on a very high quality level with their current sensors and I am pretty confident that we will see great new stuff in future!

P.S.: The current Sony 36 Megapixel sensor used by the Nikon D800 is almost as good as medium format cameras according to DSRLmagazine testing.

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Links to all mentioned cameras:
Medium format cameras on [shoplink 12209 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink]. Nikon D800 at Amazon (Click here). Fuji X PRO 1 at Amazon (Click here). Leica M9 at Amazon (Click here).

Sometimes you would think there is nothing happening on SonyAlphaRumors but believe me, for weeks now I keep getting some very small pieces of Full Frame rumors. I am still not ready to give you new SR5 updates but I want to “warm you up” with some general impression:
1) I am getting more and more news about the Sony Full Frame camera from different sources
2) Sony is talking with many people about a new FF camera
3) There is “something” big we may see soon.

As I told you months ago the A99 was supposed to be launch in spring but Sony decided to delay the release to have enough time to evaluate the A77 success (and faults). The impression I am getting lately is that the recent Canon 5DmarkIII and Nikon D800 release forced Sony to “do something“.

I don’t want to give you too many hopes, maybe Sony is ready to show a prototype only to keep you away form the new Canon/Nikon cameras. But I highly recommend you to stay tuned on SAR as I think we don’t have to wait a long time to know what’s going on.

T0 all sources: If you can help me with the new FF rumors just send me your bits of info at sonyalpharumors@gmail.com or use the anonymous contact form on the right sidebar. Thanks!

P.S.:
The Sony sensor powered D800 rmains on top of the Amazon DSLR ranking (Click here).
Our new friend Frank posted a Canon/Nikon Sony NEX-7 review summary at CanonWatch (Click here).

Sony’s last lens announcement was in August 2011. But until today many of these still are not so easy to find in Stock. Particularly the much requested [shoplink 8448]50mm f/1.8[/shoplink] for Nex. I was hoping to see some new lenses in Spring but things don’t look really good now. I have been told that even the newly leaked 18-135mm SAM lens you see on top of this post will ship in August only!
I talked with my sources and it seems that the real big lens announcements will take place the second half of the year. Sony didn’t expect that huge request of [shoplink 8450]Zeiss 24mm[/shoplink] and 50mm E-mount lenses and are still facing production shortages. Hope the Sony managers got the message and may try to increase the production and new lens release! The NEX E-system and the Full Frame A-system still lack of many important lenses.

Good luck to find these lenses:
Zeiss 24mm f/1.8 shop search links [shopcountry 8450].
Sony 50mm f/1.8 shop search links [shopcountry 8448].