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After today’s Sony announcement there are many rumors floating around the web about the upcoming lenses. A very reliable rumor says that Zeiss will make the CP lenses available for Sony E-mount too! The Zeiss CP lenses are compact primes with manual focusing. They are very expensive and meant for the use on the future professional NEX videocameras. The price is crazy high: you can get them for $3900 at Bhphoto or on [shopcountry 5419]! Not exactly a lens you will buy for your [shoplink 3003]Sony NEX-3/5[/shoplink]!

The CP+, the biggest asia photoshow of the year will start on Wednesday. I have one bad news and two good news. The bad news first: There will be no new NEX camera or Alpha camera! Please don’t cry yet because there are also two good news:
1) I have been told there could be new stuff like new lenses, new colored NEX cameras and maybe something else(?).
2) Sony chose to launch the big stuff within the second and third quarter of the year. So you don’t have to wait a lot! “he who laughs last, laughs best“! I will post more about that 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 (60-80% the rumor is correct)
SR5=almost certainly correct!

I confess this is more a speculation than a rumor! But “something” made me suspicious. During my usual Sony patent search I found so many Sony patents that do explain the functionality of foveon like sensors. Unlike Bayer sensors the Foveon sensor uses an array of photosites, each of which consists of three vertically stacked photodiodes. The advantage is that you can have bigger pixels with greater light gathering ability, you have no color artifacts and no demosaicing is required. The drawback is that current sensors (from Sigma) are quite noisy.

Wild speculation: Sony keeps saying the A77 will be a revolutionary cameras. So what if the A77 has been delayed because Sony took time to develop a new 24 megapixel “Foveon” sensor? What do you think, is that something you would like to see in future cameras?

– Bayer sensor (Source: Wikipedia)
– Foveon X3 sensor (Source: Wikipedia)
– List of Sigma Foveon cameras at Amazon.
– The Sigma SD1 website.

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A few days ago a dutch A77 rumor created a lot of buzz announcing the A77 would be announced in April. As our trusted sources pointed out quickly that rumor is NOT TRUE! De facto the rumor was a mix of already published SonyAlphaRumors and a few added WRONG specs. As you know the “A77 packshots are ready and currently being reviewed by management.“. If no problems will occur during that process the A77 will be on market in Q3 (July-September).

All sources point me out that this will be an amazing camera. Much better than anything out there (in the APS-C world). We should expect a real huge improvement over the [shoplink 3617]Sony A55[/shoplink]. They know that people is frustrated because of the long wait. But they have not a single doubt that it will be worth the wait!

I repost our correct specs (collected form trusted SonyAlphaRumors sources):
– 24 megapixel sensor
– FullHD
– New advanced OLED(?) EVF
– UNCONFIRMED -> There were rumors (and also a Sony patent) about some kind of hybrid viewfinder ( a là Fuji X100 (Click here to see that camera on Amazon)?).
– ISO will go ‘up into the hundreds of thousands’
– price will be in the same area of the [shoplink 5117]Canon 60D ($900-1200. Click here to check price)[/shoplink]
– The A77 has a bigger and robust body compared to current SLT cameras.
– The A77 will not have a flip-up mode to allow shooting without this extra sheet of glass in place.
– It will take CF+SD+MS cards, of which you can use two at the same time.
– With the new battery you can take around 1.000 pictures.

P.S.: Paul Genge of Sony UK said that “this camera will include such high specification features that current [shoplink 3228]A700[/shoplink] owners will be amazed”

P.P.S.: We have a new facebook page! Join us at http://www.facebook.com/sonyalpharumors!

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

The three layer design from Sony

And here it is the next back-illuminated and three color layer Sony sensor patent! You can read the full (and very technical) description at freepatentsonline (Click here). It is not the first time we see such a “foveon like” patent. Sigma is currently the only manufactures that produces cameras based on that concept Like the new Sigma DP2s and SD15.

Here is the original patent description:
“In recent years, in the CCD image sensor or the CMOS image sensor, since the size of a pixel decreases and the number of photons incident on a unit pixel decreases, sensitivity deteriorates and thus a decrease in S/N occurs. In widely used pixel arrangement where red, green, and blue pixels are arranged on a planar surface, for example, the Bayer arrangement using the primary color filters, green and blue light does not penetrate a color filter in red pixels and is not used in photoelectric conversion. Therefore, sensitivity may decrease. Moreover, when a color signal is formed by executing an interpolation process between pixels, a problem of a false color may arise.
In order to solve these problems, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2007-12796 discloses a solid-state imaging device in which green, blue, and red photoelectric conversion units are laminated in a depth direction of the same pixel. In the solid-state imaging device, a blue photodiode (photoelectric conversion unit) and a red photodiode (photoelectric conversion unit) are formed in the depth direction in a silicon substrate. In addition, the solid-state imaging device includes an organic photoelectric conversion unit in which a green organic photoelectric conversion layer interposed between electrodes is formed on the upper layer of the front surface of the silicon substrate on the side of a light incident side with a wiring layer interposed therebetween. According to the configuration disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2007-12796, since a light loss does not occur in the above-mentioned color filter, the sensitivity is improved. Moreover, since the interpolation process is not performed between pixels, a false color does not occur.”

The patent description is very long and complicated and I would appreciate if you could help me to find some interesting details. Thanks!

P.S.: I don’t expect the A77 or NEX-7 cameras to feature such a sensor. But in my opinion “Foveon-like” sensors are the future!

This is the third HX100V/HX9V leak within 10 days and this should be also the last one. The two compact cameras will be announced next week right before the start of the CP+ show. This also means that there will be no new NEX or ALPHA camera at the show. The only thing we can hope is to see a final prototype of the upcoming cameras. But that’s just a hope and nothing else!

Sony Cybershot HX100V at Letsgodigital
Sony Cybershot HX9V at Letsgodigital