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.