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Reviewing Sony’s first ever digital camera 25 years after its release

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Even though they didn’t really start to take off as a camera manufacturer until after they bought Minolta in 2006, Sony’s been in the digital camera game for quite a while. They were one of the first companies to release one to general consumers and if memory recalls, they actually weren’t too bad for their time. This one even has a selfie mode!

Of course, the 25-year-old Sony DSC-F1 can’t keep up with their new A1 flagship, as evidenced in this retro-review by Gordon Laing. He puts the camera through its paces to see how it performs and points out some of the issues with using proprietary tech and connections in hardware, making things somewhat inaccessible for future generations.

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Sony A6300 & A6500 discontinued – New not-A6700 APS-C camera announcement in two weeks?

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It appears that Sony has now officially discontinued the Sony A6300 and A6500 APS-C mirrorless cameras. Both bodies have disappeared from Sony’s list of interchangeable lens APS-C E mount cameras, and both bodies are also being listed as discontinued on the B&H website.

According to a new rumour, it appears that Sony is preparing to launch a new APS-C camera, though, that looks like it might replace both of the discontinued cameras along with the A6600, offering a similar form factor but with “vlogger” features from the Sony ZV-1 and Sony A7c.

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Two A7R V spec sheets “leak” but they’re a bit difficult to believe

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Two rumours have started spreading out of Chinese forums and social media, purportedly detailing specs of an upcoming Sony A7R V. I have to admit, they seem unbelievable without even having looked at them. Even though Sony has had an often… aggressive refresh cycle, this seems way to soon, even for them. The A7R IV was only released in September 2019.

If the specs are to be believed, the rumours seem to be more of an incremental change rather than a revolutionary one, in order to bring the A7R product line more in line with other recent bodies we’ve seen from Sony recently (higher resolution EVF, new menus, etc) and features the competition is pushing – like 8K video. Still… It’s a bit soon.

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It looks like Sony’s finally killed off the A-mount camera system

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Sony’s A-mount – or, to be more accurate, what was originally Minolta’s A mount – finally seems to have been killed off. As spotted by Sony Alpha Rumors, Sony has removed all of their A-mount DSLR and DSLT camera from their product database on the Sony website. Retailers around the world are also now showing Sony A-Mount cameras as “No longer available”.

It’s not an entirely unexpected turn of events, however. Sony’s gone full-on into its E mount line, and now that they’ve released an actual flagship mirrorless camera with the Sony A1, their lineup is pretty much complete and there’s really no need to hang on to those old legacy products anymore.

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The Canon EOS R3 stacked sensor is “designed” by Canon but probably not made by them

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Well, this is an interesting one. One of the big highlights of the Canon EOS R3 was that out of the various Canon “firsts” it was celebrating, one of them was a brand new Canon BSI stacked CMOS sensor. All of the promotional material from Canon UK even said “designed and manufactured by Canon”. This wording seems to have changed, though.

Now, the wording on the Canon UK website now simply reads that the sensor was “developed by Canon”. And an interview between Russian photography website PhotoWebExpo and Canon Russia’s Head of Product and Consumer Expertise, Andrey Tischenko suggests that while Canon may have designed it, it might just be Sony that’s making it for them.

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New Sony FE 50mm f/1.2 GM lens delayed because of exceeded expectations

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About a month ago, Sony introduced the 50mm f/1.2 G Master lens and got many Sony shooters excited. So excited, in fact, that the company now claims it can’t manage all the demand. So you’ve guessed it right – you’re going to have to wait a little longer to have your 50mm f/1.2 delivered.

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New Sony wind tunnel teaser video shows Airpeak drone holds steady even in 44mph winds

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Sony’s been teasing us with their new Airpeak drone system for almost six months now. Initially announced in November, Airpeak is designed specifically as an aerial platform for creators. These aren’t the hobby drones we might be used to, as Sony demonstrated in January of this year with the first full view of the drone with a Sony mirrorless camera mounted below.

Now, they’ve released a new teaser video showing some of the testing that they’re putting the drone through. In this case, that means flying it in a wind tunnel and ramping up the breeze to see how well it handles. And, well, it’s mighty impressive, showing some pretty stable holding power even in 43.62mph (19.5m/s) winds.

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Sony’s Xperia 1 III and 5 III smartphones sport a 70-105mm equivalent periscope zoom lens

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Sony has announced its two newest smartphones, the Xperia 1 III and the Xperia 5 III, both of which contain a triple-rear camera setup with a hybrid zoom lens offering the equivalent field of view to that of a 70-105mm focal length range on a full-frame body at its extremes. It also contains the usual standard 24mm and ultra-wide 16mm equivalent field of view cameras.

The variable focal length of the “hybrid” zoom system is thanks to a periscope system built into the camera module which physically moves the elements closer to or further away from the sensor. It seems to offer minimum and maximum focal lengths on the zoom, but nothing in between – for which it reverts to digital processes.

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Sony quietly upgrades the A7R III and A7R IV with higher resolution LCD

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Well, this is a little strange. Sony has updated both the Sony A7R IV and the older Sony A7R III (which I didn’t realise they were still even making) with a new, higher-resolution LCD, bumping it up from 1.44 million dots to 2,359,296 dots. Both models also see a slight change in model name, adding an “A” to their previous ILCE designation.

Both cameras now also now say they support USB 3.2, although this is a little bit misleading because nothing’s really changed in the USB department besides the name. The specs say USB 3.2 “SuperSpeed” at 5Gbps. That means USB 3.2 Gen 1, which is the same as USB 3.1 Gen 1 or USB 3.0. It also means the same as the original A7R III and A7R IV.

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Sony dominated the smartphone sensor market in 2020 but their market share is shrinking

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It’s probably not that much of a surprise, but Sony absolutely destroyed pretty much all their competition in 2020 when it came to the smartphone camera sensor market in 2020, with a 46% market revenue share, according to a report by Strategy Analytics. They say the global smartphone image sensor market recorded over $15 billion in revenue in 2020, up 13% year-on-year.

What’s perhaps equally as surprising as Sony’s huge 46% share is that 85% of the market was taken up by just three companies; Sony, Samsung at 29% and OmniVision at 10%. That remaining 15% is the entire rest of smartphone image sensor manufacturers worldwide. But according to the report, Sony’s share appears to be shrinking.

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