Dpreview interviewed Kenji Tanaka, VP and Senior General Manager of Sony’s Business Unit. Here are some info:
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1) Sony knew about the competition FF mirrorless plan. Tanaka said “I already predicted that Canon and Nikon would join the market, and even Panasonic. It wasn’t a surprise to me.”
2) About going Medium format: “Right now there are a lot of things still to do with full-frame sensors, so at the moment I don’t have any ideas about starting work on new larger imaging sensors.”
3) APS-C lenses: Sony plans to make small size lenses too. And they also plan to make new APS-C lenses.
4) APS-C cameras: “The APS-C market is very important for us, so we will create new models in the APS-C market, but we need to ask customers what kind of models they want.” And interesting: “APS-C cameras for professional use must exist.“.
5) Weathersealing: Sony is working to improve it.
6) Sony SD cards choice: “Right now, processing speed is slower than SD UHS-II, so using SD is OK. But in the future, for example in any camera with 8K/30p video, SD won’t be enough.”
7) About the Sony A7sIII: “The next model should of course be more than they expect. So we’re planning a future S model right now, but it will take time.” Sony also knows that their customers want “4K/60p, 4:2:2 10-bit, and of course more battery power, increased AF accuracy – many things!”
8) About the new Sony AI strategy: “Currently we’re planning upgrades to existing models, and of course future models that will contain new AI features.”
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To sum up:
Sony confirmed our rumors about a professional APS-C camera are spot on!
Sony A7sIII will meet the requests of the customers and even “exceed” them
New APS-C lenses coming…hurray!
The new artificial features like “Animal Eye-AF” are going to be implemented on current cameras too.
