Sony A77: Latest news rumors

Everybody expects that Sony will soon replace the Sony Alpha 700, the expert SLR camera of the Alpha line. However, it seems more and more unlikely that it will be presented at the Photokina fair of Köln, Germany on Monday.

According to most comments and rumours, Sony will have a prototype under a glass dome (like the first presentation of the “flagship” Alpha 900) with only a few comments about its features. Do not expect more until the beginning of 2011, the availability will be pushed into the second quarter of 2011.

However, some features seem to be leaking already:

  • 18 MP CMOS sensor
  • ISO Sensitivity: Improved but no figure available yet
  • Video capture in both 720p and 1080p
  • 32-point AF system (a large improvement on existing Sony AF solutions)
  • It will have a SD/SDHC/SDXC card slot, and may loose the CompactFlash card compatibility (or have triple compatibility with Sony-proprietary MS cards)
  • Weather-sealed body
  • A new battery with a much higher capacity (it will probably be also used by another high-end camera late in 2011)

What is unclear (and the uncertainty about the name reflects it) is whether the new A77 or A750 will have a semi-transparent mirror and EVF (like the A33 or A55) or a more traditional viewfinder behind a mobile mirror (like the A700 and A900). Most certainly, a look at the prototype model of the Sony A77 or Sony A750 will clarify this.


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3 responses to “Sony A77: Latest news rumors”

  1. Pascal Avatar
    Pascal

    Hi,

    thanks for the info. Do you have any idea what sensor would be used? 18Mpix for a FF sensor indicates that it is not a larger version of either A55 or A33. It is not the sensor in the A859 / A900 either.

    Do you think Sony is building a larger pixel sensor specifically for this camera?

    Cheers,
    Pascal

  2. Yves Roumazeilles Avatar

    Pascal,
    The A77 would NOT be a Full Frame camera, but an incremental step from the A700.
    This CMOS APS-C 18MP sensor seems to be a relatively new development at Sony, but there are many reasons to believe that Sony will try selling it to other companies too (as they did for the 14MP and 16MP version currently appearing under several non-Sony brands).

  3. T. Doucett Avatar

    A77 and the A750 two types will be the goal…with 18MP minimum is what I need…A99 and A950 will have 35MP minimum in the near future to speculate. 1080P AVCHD…the A77 is the A700 of old; not an A55. I like the translucent better than the old optical, because of the info that it gives instead of looking through the LCD Finder..you can’t do that with the optical. Some folks just can’t get used to change; they said 5MP was no better than 10MP 15 years ago; Now if you had 50MP; you could really see the difference in cropping and detail. Video is the market now, don’t expect it any other way. I won’t buy one without it. Don’t need a crappy camcorder too with 10x range.