With a Thursday announcement about a flagship SLR due later this year, Sony has become the third manufacturer to bet on the full-frame camera market.
LAS VEGAS--The heyday of 35mm film SLR cameras is long past, but one foundation of the technology is staging something of a comeback with new help from Sony.
The vast majority of digital single-lens reflex cameras today use an image sensor that's smaller than a full frame of 35mm film, which means lenses behave somewhat differently than on a film camera. For years, only Canon sold SLRs with a full-frame sensor, but Nikon entered the market with its top-end D3 late in 2007. At the Photo Marketing Association trade show Thursday, Sony announced its forthcoming "flagship" Alpha-branded SLR will follow suit.
"We will commercialize this model by the end of this year," said Toru Katsumoto, senior general manager of Sony's digital imaging business group. "This model uses a full-frame size, 24.6 megapixel, CMOS censor with Exmor technology"--specifically, Sony's full-frame sensor, he said.
http://www.cnet.com/8301-13951_1-9860915-63.html
Sony's new 24.8MP sensor could help make the relative newcomer to the SLR market become a force to be rekoned with.
In a surprise announcement that underscores how dedicated Sony has become to its digital camera division, the company says that it has developed a full-frame, 35mm-format 24.81-megapixel CMOS sensor. As if a high-rez, full-frame sensor isn't good enough, Sony says that the new sensor will be able to yield an impressive 6.3 frames per second. By contrast, Canon says its 21.1MP EOS 1Ds Mark III can shoot up to 5fps. The strange part about the new Sony sensor is that it only offers 12-bit output, while higher-end SLRs, such as Canon's 1Ds Mark III and Nikon's D3, already offer 14-bit output.
http://www.news.com/8301-13580_3-9865553-39.html?part=dht&tag=nl.e703
LAS VEGAS--Two's company, three's a crowd, and Canon's Chuck Westfall is a lot less lonely these days.
Canon once was the sole camera company offering a digital SLR whose sensor is the size of a full frame of 35mm film, a technology that can increase the performance advantage and price penalty that SLR cameras already have compared with compact cameras. In November, though, Nikon began selling its full-frame rival, the D3, and last week Sony said it will launch its own full-frame competitor by the end of 2008.
It's not the size of the sensor it's what you do with it.
Here is some more reading on the Mega Pixel race and it's applicability to the mass of photographers. http://www.luminous-landscape.com/essays/tea-leaves.shtml
After using the Sony F828 I was going to make the Sony my next SLR but when I had a play with it is seems 'tinny' compared to the Nikon. Perhaps part of the Minolta inheritance. So maybe with this camera Sony will come up with a more solid design.
None of the current lot are as sharp on wide angle as the F828 which lacking a mirror doesn't need retro focus lenses. There is at least a 2-3 pixel difference in sharpness.
Maybe in the digital stakes the high end non SLR cameras can be put into the class of Hasselblad Super Wide. I kinda like the non SLR as I don't have to look for the glasses to see the screen on the back and can review via the LCD viewfinder. My only real complaint with those cameras is that they are impossible to focus manually.
One of the features of the F828 that is a stand out in the studio compared to the Nikon D200 is that you could use the toddle control to move the focus point to any position in the viewfinder. Which when you have the camera mounted on a stand is a right pain with the D200 as manual focus is yuck and you have to move the camera to get a focus point.
There is a lot of options to consider. I've been holding off buying a new camera for a bit, I doubt I can wait till the end of the year. Most likely it will be a Nikon between me and the boys we have a bit of a Nikon lens collection.
I'm still open to suggest on this.
Yani