Battle of the Giants. Sony’s ‘company’ Alpha tries to extort a piece of DSLR-market from Canon and Nikon

After the triumph of Sony A-100 the next big news from this manufacturer is the announcement of two additions: A-1 and A-10. Sony started with A-100 having taken the best innovations of Konica-Minolta a year ago. This first DSLR model ‘grew up’ from Konica-Minolta D5D including the latest devices: sensor, processor and others from Sony. It was very successful and the most available 10 megapixel DSLR camera on the market.
Unfortunately the only source of information is the news from the PMA 2007. Sony doesn’t give any detail on specifications, timing or pricing. All I know is that the first DSLR camera is a full frame high end amateur model. It will have a pentaprism VF and a 16 megapixel sensor. Moreover as A-100 camera every Alpha has the famous image stabilization system. I suppose that flagship model of Canon – EOS-1D Mark III gets a worthy rival. Probably it can compete with a Nikon ‘ghost’ SLR – D3 with full frame (1.1X sensor). But any information about Nikon D3H is available on Chinese special sites in the Chinese language. Their intelligence sources in the heart of Japan have confirmed some information about this camera.
New Model denomination: D3, most likely D3H Sensor Manufacturer: Either Sony (the most likely and important for Sony addicts) Megapixel rating: in the 18MP to 20MP range Expected announcement date: March 2007, at PMA Likely availability in store shelves around the world: October 2007 Surprise Feature: DX format high FPS rate High Speed Crop Mode
However it can hardly be good for us. Sony is going to launch the camera in the fall. We are expecting to hear more in the near future.
Unfortunately we have less information about the second camera A-10. It is going to have an absolutely new sensor, a great viewfinder and an enhanced Bionz processor. It will be a strong competitor for the Nikon D200 and arrive this year.
What’s about lenses – I wrote a post about it:How to shoot with 10 great Sony Alpha lenses and not to be beaten by salesmen. The Alpha squad already includes 21 devices. There are some Konica-Minolta lenses such as DT 18-70mm F3,5-6,3 or 75-300mm F4,5-5,6 cheap kit and very expensive Carl Zeiss optical systems: Vario-Sonnar T DT 16-80mm F3,5-4,5 ZA, Planar T 85mm F1,4 ZA and Sonnar T 135mm F1,8ZA. There is an interesting fisheye 16mm F2, 8, two teleconverters and a few Macro lenses. And now Sony makes it clear that it’s not a limit. In the PMA 2007 Sony showed a cool lens roadmap with 8 new zoom and fixed focal length concept lenses. There are three lenses which they expect to launch first: 24-70mm F2.8, 70-300mm F4.5-5.6 and a DT 18-250mm F3.5-6.3. And other five must be announced before the end of 2007. All of these have been designed and developed by Sony and not based on Konica Minolta designs.
P.S. I suppose that all of this information will make happy not only Sony DSLR fans because the appearance of a strong player forces Canon and Nikon to create new excellent DSLR cameras.
P.P.S. Some other sources announce that Sony DSC-W200 with 12 megapixel sensor can make Panasonic and other super pixel compact camera manufacturers to have a good cry.

Two new 3CCD High Definition AVCHD Camcorders from Panasonic - have we been waiting for these?

It has happened! Now we have two HD devices from Matsushita Electric with their traditional 3CCD sensors system. One model - HDC-DX1 can record and play DVD-RAM, DVD-RW, DVD-R DL, DVD-R discs and SD/SDHC Memory Card. But it’s not only my opinion that DVD camcorders can’t make a high quality film because their processors are weak for that work. For example my PC with AMD Atlon XP+ 3000 needed about one night for encoding one film from MiniDV format to DVD. I think it is a problem for Matsushita engineers to build into the Panasonic HDC-DX1 something like the Core 2 Duo, although the HDC-SD1 is a more interesting camcorder. It has no moving parts in the recording section because SD-1 records to SDHC Memory Cards. However this compact model is the smallest HD camcorder now. As for SDHC-cards it concerns we already have 4 Gb cards and it is not a limit now. These two new models have some great features like Optical Image Stabilizer and 5.1-channel surround sound system with 5 microphones. Specialy for HD cams Leica Dicomar has designed new lens. The prices for new Panasonic HD-cams do not look terrible and are the same as for Sony’s HD camcorders. You can wait for the HDD or MiniDV HD camcorders but I think that HDC-SD1 is a cool device. But the price is cool too and this summer a lot of new models will appear on the market which can cause lessening of the prices.

Image Sensor	1/4" CCD x 3 (560 k x 3 pixels, Total / 520 k x 3 [16:9] (Motion Picture / Still Picture) Effective)
F Value	F 1.8 (wide) / 2.8 (tele)
Optical Zoom	12x Variable Speed Zoom
Focal Length	4.0 - 48.0 mm
Filter Diameter	43 mm
35 mm Film Camera Equivalent	38.5 - 462 mm [16:9] (Motion Picture / Still Picture)
Lens Brand	Leica Dicomar
Minimum Illumination	2 Lux (MagicPix)
Focus	AF / Manual
White Balance	Auto / White Set / Indoor / Outdoor (with IR Sensor)
High-Speed Shutter	1/60 - 1/8000 (Motion Picture), 1/60-1/8000 (Still Picture)
Iris	Auto / Manual
Backlight Compensation	Yes
Monitor	3,0" LCD 250,000 pix
Flash	1m-2.5m (approx.)
Microphone	Stereo 5ECM, 5.1-ch Surround Sound, Zoom Mic, Wind Noise Reduction
Date recording	Auto Date ( in Data Code)
Image Stabilizer	Optical
Digital Zoom	40x 700x
Self Timer	Yes (10sec. / 2sec. / OFF) (Only Photo)
Card Slot	SD/ SDHC
Still Pictures	JPEG Picture size: [16:9] 1920 x 1080 2.1MEGA
DPOF	Max. 999stills
PictBridge	Yes
INTERFACES: AV	Out
HDMI	Out
Microphone (Stereo mini)	Yes (in)
USB	2,0 High Speed (mini B)
Component Video	Out
Power Supply	DC 9.3 V / 7.2 V
Battery Pack	Lithium-Ion

Camera	HDC-SD1	HDC-DX1
Recording Format	AVCHD	AVCHD
Recording Time	HF: 40 min. / HN: 60 min. / HE: 90 min. (w / 4GB SDHC Memory Card)	HF: 28 min. / HN: 42 min. / HE: 62 min. (w / dual-sided RAM disc)
Recording Mode	HF / HN / HE HF: 13 Mbps / CBR, HN: 9 Mbps / VBR, HE: 6 Mbps / VBR	HF / HN / HE HF: 13 Mbps / CBR, HN: 9 Mbps / VBR, HE: 6 Mbps / VBR
Audio Recording Format	Dolby Digital (AC3) / 5.1ch or 2ch	Dolby Digital (AC3) / 5.1ch or 2ch
Thumbnail Display	8 Scenes / Page	8 Scenes / Page
Applicable Disc		8cm DVD-RAM Ver.2.1 / 8cm DVD-R for General Ver. 2.0 / 8cm DVD-RW Ver.1.1 2x-speed(2x / 1x), DVD-R for DL Ver.3.0
Power Consumption	8.0W	11.4W
Weight (w/o Battery)	430 g	680 g
Dimensions (W x H x D)	74.1 x 67 x 137 mm	91.5 x 90.2 x 162.4 mm
Prise abt.	US$1499	US$1399

I already wrote about HD camcorders such as Sony HandyCam: DCR-SR42E, DCR-SR62E, DCR-SR82E, DCR-SR200E and DCR-SR300E in my post:’ five new camcorders with hard disk drive’ and in the next post: ‘7 new 1CCD HD camcorders from Sony – any reasons to buy some or wait for 3CCD cams’. And I had a long talk (walk) with beautiful showgirl from Panasonic. Therefore my opinion is: 3CCD HD camcorder with Memory Card is the best but a tiny bit expensive. The Hard Disc drive is just a little delicate for travelers. While for this day Mini DV devices has too long history.
What about other mfrs. look at:
- 3 Canon's HD camcorders: HV10, HV20 and HR10; is only PowerShot TX1 still groovy?
- Puppet Sanyo Xacti HD2 vs clever Canon HV20 or groovy JVC GZ-HD7: it's time to buy a HD-camcorder or wait?
- Aiptek GO-HD vs Sanyo Xacti VPC-HD1 or HD2; $299 HD camcorder attacks HD market.