Sony Alpha – The Rumors of my Demise Have Been Greatly Exaggerated

It looks like the rumor mill among mirror-less camera fans is that Sony will be ditching the Alpha DSLR line in favor of their new NEX system. On first glance, this makes sense to me. I’ve never figured out Sony’s late to the game DSLR plan. They launched a new line of DSLR’s without video capability right as the market for HDSLR’s took off. Maybe the timing was bad luck but to launch a pro-sumer camera against entrenched giants like Canon and Nikon, was ballsey to say the least and probably shows a lack of understanding about the prosumer market. Photographers invest in a system and getting them to break away from that investment in lenses and accessories is a tough sell. I know since I went through this painful process switching from Nikon to Canon during the digital changeover.

No one ever asked me for my analysis but . . . . the opportunity for Sony would have been to come to market with killer HD video capable DSLR, since video is something Sony is pretty good at. They were smart having Zeiss lenses but probably should have worked with Zeiss to offer their Alpha mount on the ZF line and to be an option on the CP.2 interchangeable mount primes. HDSLR shooters are having to invest in cinema style lenses if they are serious about shooting video so it would have been a good time to lure them away from their current brand loyalties. As cinematographer Shane Hurlbut likes to say, “it’s all about the glass”.

The Sony Alpha DSLR system has tack sharp lenses and is a competent platform but they are trying to provide an answer for a problem that doesn’t really exist. There is no compelling reason to change systems, especially to one without HD video capability. The NEX system however is revolutionary or at the very least evolutionary and their large chip video camera is going to be a winner. As I have said in earlier ramblings, EVIL (Electronic Viewfinder Interchangeable Lenses) cameras are the future:

. . . . new system that advances camera design and functionality by removing the mirror box and uses electronic viewfinders instead. The analog mechanical nature of the DSLR design is a hold over from when electronic viewfinders just weren’t possible. I know a lot of people still like looking through the lens but with the advances in lcd screen technology, it isn’t really necessary anymore. Once the mechanical bits are removed, cameras become straight electronic devices that roughly follow Moore’s Law becoming easier and cheaper to manufacture. – Earlier PCN article

I don’t have any inside information as to what they may or may not do but it wouldn’t surprise me if Sony scratched their DSLR camera line. What I do know for a fact is that Sony has a little experience making electronic devices and as cameras become less mechanical and more electronic, they could rival Canon or Nikon in the hybrid prosumer market which is the only one currently in a growth cycle. I also know that I am looking forward to getting my hands on a NEX VG10E handy cam.

Oh yeah, sorry about the title. I couldn’t help myself because I love that quote from Mark Twain but I couldn’t figure out a good way to tie it to the ending because this whole article is speculation and there’s no factual basis to counter the Sony Alpha death knell. Maybe it’s my headline writing skill that has been greatly exaggerated.