Alpha 900 – Roumazeilles.net

Sony Alpha 900 – name confirmed by ad

Yves Roumazeilles — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 14:49:42 +0000

A Danish photography magazine just leaked the official name of the new flagship camera from Sony.

Sony Alpha 900 - magazine ad

As everybody expected, it will be named Sony Alpha 900. Also,this tends to contradict the possibility of additional similar cameras (possibly with a different/smaller sensor).

Features

24.6 Mega Pixel Full Frame Exmor CMOS Sensor
Dual BIONZ Image Processing Engine
Intelligent Preview
100% Viewfinder (with 0.74x Magnification)
3.0”, 921K-pixel Hybrid LCD
9-point double-cross AF (with f2.8 wide-area sensor & 10-point secondary sensors)
5 fps continuous shooting
SteadyShot on the sensor

Update: Yet another ad has been found.

Sony Alpha 900 - Magazine ad

Embargo on Canon EOS 5D MkII, Sony Alpha 900

Yves Roumazeilles — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 09:03:19 +0000

The DPreview forums are currently providing the latest bit of information about the Canon EOS 5D succession. The EOS 5D is dead, long live the… EOS 7D and EOS 5D MkII. The first would be for a low cost option (around $2000 – I told you that this low price point would be critical in the battle of the Full Frame cameras in 2008-09), the second would be staying up against the Nikon D700 and replace honorably the original Canon EOS 5D. Or it would be a set of Canon EOS 3D and Canon EOS 7D…

Canon EOS 5D Mark II

Canon EOS 7D

Anyway, do not expect to get any reliable information now. Canon has put under NDA (Non Disclosure Agreement) all press representative and has provided the pre-production cameras for the initial hands-on reviews to pop up everywhere when the embargo is lifted.

This is exactly the reason why we no longer have any information about the upcoming Sony Alpha 900 which will be fighting in exactly the same market. Possibly with exactly the same weapons (two cameras to simultaneously cover both the $2000 and $3000 ranges).

D3x with Sony sensor

Yves Roumazeilles — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 14:22:42 +0000

According to German photo magazine, Foto Magazin, the future Nikon D3x pro SLR camera will be fitted with the Sony image sensor that was presented a few months ago and that is expected to appear on the Sony Alpha 900 camera (high-end D-SLR from Sony). If this is confirmed, it would mean that the Nikon D3 will have a successor under the name of Nikon D3X (or D4) and that the Sony sensor is really of the utmost quality.

We knew that it was coming with 25 million pixels, but it could have been short on quality compared to the D3 (or D700) sensor because of its small (but many) pixels. For Nikon to accept to use this Sony sensor (and not a better one) at this level of products, they must be sure to have the best possible silicon piece: Pros want wonderful images, not only big figures (a big bunch of pixels).

I was thinking differently, but this could tilt the scale toward a very high price for the Sony Alpha 900 camera (I had hoped to see less than 2500€ or even less than 2000€, but -now- I would not be surprised if the label looked like 3000€).

However, it would leave some space left in the Sony camera range for an Alpha 800, with an intermediate price. This could be quite neat if it allowed to have a super-featured Full Frame camera around 3000€ (the Sony Alpha 900) and another Full Frame under 2500€ (the hypothetical Sony Alpha 800).

With such arguments, nobody would be surprised in seeing a brother to the recent Nikon D700: The ruored Nikon D800?

Let’s see at Koln Photokina opening next month.