Nikkei interviewed Shigeki Ishizuka. Here are a couple of interesting points:

• Hew knew that smartphones would eat into the digital camera market shares (starting in 2012). That’s why he thought Sony had to go with a new E-mount system. As you can’t change lenses on your smartphone, you can differentiate yourself with that.
• When we saw how successful the RX1 became in November 2012 we knew that we now have to go Full Frame E-mount
• In 2013 the goal was set to become number one in the interchangeable camera system. It was named “A1 Project” (becoming number one with Alpha).
• The first generation A7 was a success but it didn’t last long. The image quality was fine but autofocus was bad.
• But we knew back than that Full Frame mirrorless would take the world by storm.
• They also had the advantage that Sony knew how to make video while classic camera manufacturers had much less expertise
• We were the underdogs, and we played “weak” so that the big players wouldn’t notice our coming

The plan worked out…but what about now? I shared my thoughts on the Sony’s past and on what Sony should do in the future in this video:

Jay gives LOTS of detail about recent FX3 firmware upgrades, why shuttle angle and open gate still aren’t there, why Sony Alpha and Cinema cameras are still different. All of the questions that sony users have are asked here! The answers are as open as they can make them – but it’s clear that Sony is listening. And it is NOT clear that the FX3 firmware upgrades will ever make it back to the A7S3… :-(

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Thanks “trupledes” ;-)

This is the first image of the new lens shared by Pergear. Full lens specs and pricing will be announced in May. There is also a new image of the 27mm f/1.2 XF lens for Fuji. This lens is likely to be announced sometimes in late 2023 as E-mount version too.