The personal E-mount FF summary (and link to Photoclubalpha)
Something personal first:
Every time I post a “bigger than usual” rumor I confess that I do hit the “Publish” button with quite a mixed feeling. On one side it’s nice after a long work of digging and searching to share a news to you folk. On the other side there is certain anxiety caused by many factors. First it’s hard for me to use right words because and right arguments in a non native language. I hope you are always aware of that. I often see that your “perception” of a rumor often differs a bit (or a lot) depending on what kind of words I used or not. So I am going to be very careful within that post :) Than of course the biggest anxiety is that a rumor turns out to be wrong. I have been mostly right on SR5 rumors I posted in the past but I know well that all my long work will get messed up if I do one very big mistake only. And the day may come this will happen. I know for certain that there are different “elements” that have interest to spread wrong rumors. There are many reasons to do that (and I may explain them in detail in a future post). And that’s why the biggest work I do on SAR is not the writing of the article, but the long an patient work of waiting and searching and again waiting and trying to find out more from different sources.
Technical aspects of the “E-mount FF”
After posting the E-mount FF rumor sceptical argued that 1) an FF sensor wouldn’t fit within the current E-mount 2) FF E-mount lenses would be almost impossible to make. I am glad that David Kilpatrick wrote that article on Photoclubalpha (Click here). It’s a very technical summary that clearly explains you that “it is possible“. And Sony itself (read Toru Kotsumotu at DC.watch) said that the NEX mount has been designed with Full Frame sensor in mind. Again, thanks to David for your very well written article!
The Sony strategy around the “E-mount FF”
I will sum up in very short what I heard from trusted sources:
1) There will be soon a Sony official news related to the E-mount FF. Actually from what I heard it looks like Sony “anticipated” and pushed the E-mount FF development.
2) At least the first E-mount FF camera is not something interesting for 98% of our readers. They will be Camcorders. To make it even more clear. No NEX-7 alike E-mount FF camera is coming right now. But I have been told it is “on schedule”. And there are different prototypes, some with E-mount FF and some with A mount FF. I will have more info about that within that week!
3) For now Sony decided to NOT introduce any E-mount FF lenses. The initial strategy is to use current Alpha mount lenses via a “special adapter” and other Full Frame lenses (read Leica and so on) via adapter. It is my personal understanding that current E-mount lenses are NOT designed for FF. But current E-mount lenses will work in crop mode on future E-Mount FF cameras.
4) There is no info yet if Sony will ever design FF E-mount lenses for that system. My very personal suggestion for Sony on that point is….Do it!!!
Why I do believe the “E-mount FF” could be a (too slow) revolution.
The Canon/Nikon domination in the Full Frame world is almost absolute. It is my believe that one way to become competitive is to offer something completely new like it would be by launching a Full Frame mirrorless system. Now I believe to know through my sources that Sony is going to do that…but my fear is that they will do it too slowly. It would have been nice to have E-Mount FF lenses right from the start (but again they will not!). The risk is they will still “give” Nikon and Canon the chance to catch up after some time. The current limited NEX lens range is an example of how Sony should NOT act. The cameras are extremely popular but the camera owners can’t buy the right lenses for it. Sony missed the chance to expand considerably their market share explosively and they misses some “easy” earnings too.
So like it was with the SLT and NEX (APS-C) introduction Sony will again “start a new revolution” but with the risk that they will be “too slow in fulfilling it“. Let’s hope they will listen to the voice of the real customers…you!
Big hug,
Andrea (the Admin)
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P.S: Thanks to all the donators for covering my server upgrade costs. I now removed the donation button I posted on Friday. Thanks again!