Sony Announces New Cameras (RX100 IV, RX10 II, Alpha 7R II)

2StepSteve

2StepSteve

2StepSteve

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Surprised no one here is talking about this yet?!

Yesterday Sony announced three new cameras.

RX100 IV - Using a new stacked sensor, this should bring better high ISO performance and an increase in DR. Quite disappointing though that it is using a 1" sensor still and they haven't managed to squeeze a 4/3 sensor in there as speculated. 4K video (limited to 5 minute recording time!) and super slow motion (480 fps and 960 fps) and faster AF are the main additions feature wise. Still no touchscreen, very disappointing. If a touchscreen was present I may have upgraded my RX100mkiii.

RX10 II - 1" type stacked 20MP CMOS sensor, 4K video recording (up to 29 minutes) and improved readout speed thanks to a new DRAM chip. The body design and lens specs remain in line with the RX10, including a Zeiss-branded 24-200mm equivalent F2.8 lens

a7R II - Now this has my full attention. The a7R II appears to be an absolute beast in the spec department. Magnesium bodied, 42MP new sensor (world's first full-frame backside illuminated CMOS sensor), 399 phase-detection AF points, in camara 5 axis stabilisation, 4K video.

This in particularly is interesting: http://www.dpreview.com/articles/4329110043/alpha-dog-hands-on-with-sony-a7r-ii?slide=5

PDAF will work even with third-party lenses via existing adapters, including in continuous AF tracking mode.

This is potentially a huge deal - especially for Canon users. We've used an a7R II with a Canon 24-70mm lens and a Metabones adapter, and focus is indeed very fast indeed. We'll be looking at this in more depth as soon as we have a production sample camera, but for now, we're highly impressed.
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Hey Canon, is all this sinking in yet? Hello?
 
I feel the same. I've been fearing for Canon's future for a while now, at the moment it's looking bleak unless the 5DIV can somehow make a miracle happen. I hope I'm wrong, but I just can't see it happening. They are lagging too far behind Sony sensors and what really kills it is they are far too proud to ever adopt another companies sensor.

The ISO performance and DR will be off the chart here on the a7R II. On paper it's a total achievement and I respect Sony for pushing ahead not just a little, but for actually going for it! So refreshing!

I'm very keen to see how a Canon lens performs on a a7R II, even if it's something like 80% of the AF speed I'm still interested. Looking forward to seeing more info on this.
 
Don't expect backside illumination t make a big difference on a FF sensor at that LOW pixel density (yes despite being 42MP that pixel density is very low compared to compact cameras). BSI work well on small pixel pitch sensor because all the other circuitry and junk make up a significant portion of the sensor area. This is much less of an issue on low pixel density FF sensors.


It would help but you are looking like another half stop I would guess. There are much bigger gains to be had in the highlight end using logarithmic amplifier or multii-pass sampling.
 
The A7r ii looks pretty game changing. Sony's progress has been nothing short of remarkable. I said a couple of years ago, Canikon's days are numbered. By the time they realise the water is too hot, they'l be boiled before they can do anything about it.

***if*** the body is intuitive and fast at changing focus points then I might ditch my current setup. This is something Nikon currently does best (for me), and why I wouldn't be able to go back to Canon even if they got their act together.
 
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Canon and Nikon aren't stupid, even if it appears they are. As much as Sony has been pushing new and different technologies they haven't won the market share to show for all their efforts.


Nikon pretty much confirmed a FF mirrorless camera is in development, and the Nikon 1 shows exactly what they are capable of (ignore the sensor size, just the overall performance, focusing, tracking, speed).


Electronic viewfinders are still not up to par for the professionals, and on-sensor PDAF is still not there yet. Once those hurdles are over then it is plain sailing into mirrorless top to bottom roll out.
 
The question is,can you turn off the screen yet, can you set a minimum shutter speed in aperture priority and auto ISO? We all know Sony never listens to its customers or provides the updates they want.

Still I love my A7, don't think much of the A7ii housing, it's too chunky for my tastes. I suppose the A7Rii uses the same housing.
 
Specs are nuts on the A7R II, only recently picked up an A7 II so not really interested in buying this (although, if money was no object then hell yes). Will probably pick up the A7S II when that comes out though as the low light ability on that camera is insane
 
D.P. said:
Canon and Nikon aren't stupid, even if it appears they are. As much as Sony has been pushing new and different technologies they haven't won the market share to show for all their efforts.


Nikon pretty much confirmed a FF mirrorless camera is in development, and the Nikon 1 shows exactly what they are capable of (ignore the sensor size, just the overall performance, focusing, tracking, speed).


Electronic viewfinders are still not up to par for the professionals, and on-sensor PDAF is still not there yet. Once those hurdles are over then it is plain sailing into mirrorless top to bottom roll out.
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That's what some people said about Kodak. My best guess is by the time the big 2 release something, Sony will be a generation or two ahead. We've seen how such scenario plays out with companies like AMD. When you haven't got technological superiority it's hard to make a profit. Already I'm seeing facebook friends selling up their DSLR's and going mirrorless, and that's before mirrorless had performance superiority in allot of situations.
Have you not seen the spec's of that A7Rii? It's freaking insane!

I'm not sure if Sony has reached the trifecta I have been banking on yet, at least for my needs. However it sure looks like it's about to do allot of things better than my current setup, but I just need to see how the body handles from an intuitive/ergonomic standpoint.
 
Kodak's demise was long predicted and years or terrible management led to their situation. it isi a well known text book example.

Nikon and Canon aren't loosing market share, it is actually the mirror-less players who are struggling; Fuji, Olympus, Panasonic all have serious issues with their camera departments. Pentax as well but they have separate issues. Sony is also not doing great despite their hot air.

The bottom line is people don't bother with compacts any more and just use their smartphones so the compact market has disappeared. Mirror-less sales aren't actually that healthy, fairly stagnant, this is just a declining market so all companies are feeling the pinch.

Sony doesn't really have much of a technological superiority. I still prefer the Continuous and low light AF of the Nikon v3 to the Sony A7S or A7r I have tried.
Sony's EVF are no better than the industry standard. None of Sony's camera standard up to the Nikon D4s or canon 1DX for professional use and sports.

The D7RII looks like a great camera but Nikon or Canon could release an equal or better camera relatively easily and offer native EF/F-mount which Sony can't.

You should start seeing some Nikon and Canon FF and crop mirrorless cameras soon is my bet.
 
D.P. said:
Kodak's demise was long predicted and years or terrible management led to their situation. it isi a well known text book example.

Nikon and Canon aren't loosing market share, it is actually the mirror-less players who are struggling; Fuji, Olympus, Panasonic all have serious issues with their camera departments. Pentax as well but they have separate issues. Sony is also not doing great despite their hot air.

The bottom line is people don't bother with compacts any more and just use their smartphones so the compact market has disappeared. Mirror-less sales aren't actually that healthy, fairly stagnant, this is just a declining market so all companies are feeling the pinch.

Sony doesn't really have much of a technological superiority. I still prefer the Continuous and low light AF of the Nikon v3 to the Sony A7S or A7r I have tried.
Sony's EVF are no better than the industry standard. None of Sony's camera standard up to the Nikon D4s or canon 1DX for professional use and sports.

The D7RII looks like a great camera but Nikon or Canon could release an equal or better camera relatively easily and offer native EF/F-mount which Sony can't.

You should start seeing some Nikon and Canon FF and crop mirrorless cameras soon is my bet.
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Unusually we agree! Sony make some great tech in loads of fields but somehow fail to dominate any since the demise of the Walkman. There is no denying that the spec list looks great but how well will it sell I suspect no better than the current model but we as they say shall see.

The only thing that really worries me about Canon is that they are falling a little behind in the sensor tech they need to start making inroads into Sony's advantage to keep the market competitive which is what drives innovation but I'm sure they know that.
 
a1ex2001 said:
Unusually we agree! Sony make some great tech in loads of fields but somehow fail to dominate any since the demise of the Walkman.
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Playstation is currently dominating I believe. I agree however, sony has generally been outperformed by the likes of apple and samsung who offer superior products.

Sony didn't gain marketshare in camera's because they never really had a performance advantage, there was never a compelling reason not to just stick with Canon and Nikon. It's like an Intel vs AMD situation. Unless you can offer a better product than the competition.. it's a hard life trying to gain marketshare.. it's even harder to turn a profit. Mirrorless to DSLR's is like what ARM is to X86.
 
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