It may help better understand the differences justifying the very large price gap between the two models (for the same digital sensor).

Pictures coming from a partnership with Sébastien Ortega-Dubois who gives more detailed differences in a comparison of Sony SLT-A77, Sony SLT-A65 and Sony Alpha 55.

What is an EVF?

EVF = Electronic View Finder.

Be ready to see this term used more and more, even for SLR cameras. Many a compact point-and-shoot photo camera already is equipped with an EVF, but it is most common in video cameras (and it has been for many years already). In the viewfinder, instead of looking at an image coming from a more or less complex optical system, your eye is pointed at a small LCD screen (or TFT, or OLED or whatever similar technology) reproducing the picture recorded by the CMOS imaging sensor of the camera.

After all, this is only what we already know well as the LiveView mode on the back LCD of nearly all the compact photo cameras (and many SLR too). But as a small picture in the viewfinder.

An LCD display + a viewing lens = an EVF.

In some case, you could add a small mirror for space reasons, but this is a minor variation to the original tune.

EVF and Single Lens Reflex (SLR) cameras

A Single Lens Reflex (SLR) photo camera is organized around a very mature technology in which a mirror reflects the image through an eyepiece via a pentaprism (or a penta-mirror) as in the drawing on the left.

Of course, as the film (film plane and focal plane shutter) is hidden by the mirror, this one must be drawn up to take the snapshot.

All this is greatly simplified when there is an electronic viewfinder.

Advantages and drawbacks

Advantages et gains from an electronic viewfinder

The first positive side is mechanical and optical: If you remove the mirror and the pentaprism, the architecture of the camera will be greatly streamlined, lightened and its manufacturing cost will go down. For three different reasons (at least):

• reduction of the number of parts
• reduction of the assembly complexity (or of the amount of human work needed)
• increased ease of calibration (alignment) of the optical parts (an LCD and an eyepiece, rather than a whole bunch of parts)

Even better, the disappearance of a huge articulated and mobile mechanical system brings several positive effects:

• increase of the continuous shooting speed/cadence (there’s so much less hardware to move around for a photo)
• reduction of shutter noise (in a traditional SLR camera, most of the noise actually comes from the mirror up-swing and the shutter operation; It’s worth removing one of them)
• a lighter mechanical structure through reduction of the quantity of parts and since the enclosure is lighter because it has less stress to sustain in all these shocks and moves

Also, the electronic viewfinder exactly reproduces what the sensor sees. A 100% optical coverage on a viewfinder of fully optical design has always been reserved to the most expensive SLR cameras. But when you get an EVF, 100% coverage is totally natural and effortless. Luxury comes to you in the clothes (and price) of entry level.

Then, having an LCD display brings the additional possibility of adding all the data you can think of. Many brands already experimented with this and brought us some Electronic Viewfinders with features like:

• Histogram
• Artificial Horizon
• Zoom on a part of the image
• Telltales and technical displays (aperture, speed, ISO, etc.)
• Active AF zones (including face detection)

As a matter of fact, there is no other limit than what a computer screen can display: Data, image, etc. It’s only a choice from the designer.

And it’s not even the end of it. The EVF also has a major advantage when light is low: As far as the sensor can see something, it’s only a matter of amplifying light signal (like for the ISO sensitivity selection) to make the picture readable. If the photo is possible (even barely possible), showing it is possible. Think about it! A nikon D3s digital sensor could display what it sees even in the darkest dawn it can manage. Since the digital noise is only a marginal issue on an LCD display (even at 3MP resolution), you can see what the sensor will be able to grab even in a room too dark for comfortable framing with an optical viewfinder.

If you compare it with the lowest-priced optical viewfinders of entry-level SLR cameras, the EVF is an easy winner in those low-light conditions: These simple viewfinders where already unpleasant and dark, the EVF bring a new life to cameras used indoors.

Drawbacks and limitations of the electronic viewfinder

But all is not pink and shiny. EVF have the same problems as most point-and-shoot cameras find on the rear-side LCD displays used for LiveView.

To start with, even if the electronic viewfinder (EVF) is intrinsically better protected against sunlight, it is still very sensitive to bright light issues. If there was only one thing that the EVF-sensor pair does not like, this would be high lights and bright sun (sic!) highlights are easily washed white and overblown. You will find more white flat areas than nice clear zones. The worst comes when you add high contrast to the picture. The EVF has a very small dynamic range (this is not HDR!) and the designer must choose between high-lights and dark areas.

We tend to forget it, but the human eye is amazingly sensitive and adaptable. Behind a prism and a mirror, in the brightest mid-day sun light, it can marvelously adapt to over-exposure situations that totally saturate the purely digital EVF system.

Best (or worse), the eye is extraordinarily able to switch within a few hundredth of seconds from the darkest night to the most violent lighting without even thinking about the marvelous brain processes involved. On the contrary, the EVF system uses a gain correction which will change at any time the apparent brightness to track the actual scene brightness. What is clearly an advantage in a dark room, forces the system to include an auto-adaptation feature which will change the brightness of the EVF several times per second. According to what you point the camera to, the electronic viewfinder will change from lighter to darker display. Not really a problem, but this asks for some tolerance to a process which is not natural to our human eyes. You have to get used to it.

Additionally, but this is all very sensitive to the user (you!), watching a computer screen may be more or less comfortable in the long run. As a matter of fact, if you use the EVF for long hours (this is the case for the professional photographer waiting in front of the Cannes Festival stairs, for the photo safari amateur or for the intensive tourist photographer willing to bring everything on a memory card – don’t laugh, I’m sure you shoot it as much as I do), you may come back with a serious headache. This is certainly not an issue for everybody (and you’re not supposed to keep the camera to your eye if you want to immerse yourself in your subject), but this may become a real limitation to some people. At the strict minimum, you must take very seriously the setting up of the dioptric correction of the eyepiece (much more seriously than on your current camera) to limit the impact to a tolerable level. Unfortunately, the eye seems to get more prone to this issue when the photographers gets older… Our eyes are not equal in front of photo gear. Too bad, but true.

Last but not least, even if the electronic viewfinders improve in time (and Sony has shaken the market with a 2.3-million-pixel EVF in the Sony SLT-A65 and in the Sony SLT-A77 which has raised the bar to a whole new level for all the competition), the fine quality of a focusing screen in a common optical viewfinder stays incomparably better than what the best EVF can display today. Far better! This is the reason why they generally include an additional Zoom feature allowing to better judge focus through enlarging an area (On the opposite, a company like Zacuto proposes an enhanced edge sharpening to make the focus analysis easier or more natural).

If you let your camera focus for you, honestly, you shouldn’t care much about this. If you like to fine-focus your pictures (all the more if you use a USM, SSM or similar lens which allows easy manual focus correction), if you use wide-aperture lenses (which call for a very attentive selection of the focus location or AF area), you will be in a living hell playing with buttons to merely focus while you were used to just looking at the image in your old optical viewfinder. Interestingly, Sony keeping in its technological portfolio the marvelous AcuteMate focusing glass surface (bought from Minolta and still widely considered as the absolute best here), is the first to jump to the next technology.

While we talking about AF, we must stop and remind ourselves that the disappearance of the reflex mirror means that focusing is now done from the data directly available on the image sensor. Where the traditional SLR camera focuses just before the exposure, using phase difference sensors (high precision, high speed, and not very complicated), the EVF viewfinder seems to enforce the use of automatic focusing using the measurement of a contrast difference directly on the image (very consuming in terms of processor power, intrinsically less reactive). Sony, once again at the forefront, chose to insert a semi-transparent mirror to keep the fast phase detection sensors. But they are quite alone in this decision – for now.

(Temporary?) conclusion

The electronic viewfinder is no panacea. But it brings good answers to tough questions asked by the old reflex technology, starting with price reduction for the digital photo cameras which is always a major issue for the manufacturers.

The camera owners already used to the optical viewfinder of entry-level cameras will immediately recognize the many advantages and all the more if they are occasional photographers or if they come from the compact point-and-shoot camera world.

Expert users (not even pros) will certainly have more mixed feelings, even if the most advanced electronic viewfinders like the recent Sony ones progressed in great strides. As I read in one of the recent articles about these new photo cameras, Sony brought enormous (not incremental) progress but this is still an electronic viewfinder. Not perfect, but with enough advantages to balance the drawbacks.

Now, you may have to read the post again to choose which ones are the most important for you. But there is a big problem left: We usually choose our photo camera inside a relatively dark shop (perfect, ideal conditions to demonstrate an EVF) and we use it mostly during our Summer holidays (the worst conditions to use an EVF). Some people may be unpleasantly surprised if they do not think twice before choosing a camera.

Sony is also announcing that some of the new features of the Sony Alpha 35 will be made available for the older Sony Alpha 33 and Sony Alpha 55.

• Support for the ‘Picture Effect’ function featured on the new α35
• High-Speed Synch is supported during wireless operation with a compatible external flash (α55 only)
• Revised menus and a new mode that lets users switch shooting parameters overlaid on-screen for clear, uncluttered composition
• The a33 and a55camera’s Digital Level Gauge can also be displayed when shooting via the optional CLM-V55 external LCD monitor
• Frequently used features can now be custom-assigned to the D-RANGE button for rapid, menu-free access

To be downloaded as early as June 20 from http://www.esupport.sony.com.

Most of them are for the Sony Alpha 55. Many reviewers have been attracted to this innovative photo camera.

It is clear that Sony has impressed a number of the users with its Alpha 55 (A55-SLT). Despite the very legitimate concerns about the length of video sequences, the camera seems to be appreciated a lot by all the evaluators. The latest and possibly the most impressive (or the most telling) is the recent evaluation of sensor/image quality by DxO Labs in DxOMark.

Actually, the Sony Alpha 55 appears as the best APS-C from all the competition even with splendid cameras like Canon EOS 7D or Nikon D300s.

Today, I’ve got a rather detailed talk with Édouard Schmitt, Sony France Alpha Product Manager, who helped me go over the current situation created by the announcement made by Sony a few days ago when they revealed that the digital sensor of the Alpha SLT-A33 and Alpha SLT-A55 could meet some over-heating issues (see our posts about it here).

As expected, he confirms us the information provided previously: The use of the video capture mode leads the digital sensor to heat up to the point where, after some time, the camera will decide to switch itself off (some kind of “thermal circuit breaker” kicking i, if you want).

What is more interesting is the overall presentation of the issue: “This is not a dysfunction of the sensor, but an auto-protection“. Furthermore, Édouard Schmitt went into the detail of the causes and confirms (and precises) the evaluations I could have provided here before:

• The image stabilization (which, for Sony as well as Pentax, operates by sensor displacement) produces some heat inside the camera,
• The sensor itself is a heat source –like any other electronic device– when it is used continuously like during video capture,
• The external temperature is also an important parameter in the equation (As a matter of fact, in the table provided here on the right, we see that the higher the external temperature, the shorter it takes for the sensor to overheat).

I noticed that sony insists heavily on the fact that image stabilization is a major factor here, from two different angles:

1. It has a primary impact (It’s true that the useful shoot time is (more than) doubled when not using SteadyShot)
2. This is the only solution offered by Sony; E.Schmitt excluded the possibility of a future firmware that could improve on the current status.

Nota bene: The observed maximum figure of 29 minutes comes from the normal recording limit of the camera as it is more or less forced upon us by fiscal regulation (a camera able to record longer sequences is heavily taxed in some countries and Sony decided like other manufacturers to stick to this limit for mere reasons of cost).

Up to this, the message is relatively simple but some important elements are added by Édouard Schmitt. First and foremost, the cooling down process is very fast and a few seconds only are needed to obtain a few more minutes of video capture (some real-life tests will obviously be needed to quantify such a statement, but it seems that the Sony user will not forced to watch the camera cool down indefinitely).

Then, and it should be checked and confirmed, “it’s not better elsewhere“. Understand: Sony’s competition has the same kind of issues but they do not communicate much on it. [Ed: I’m still wondering what is the influence of image stabilization here]

As a matter of fact, according to E.Schmitt, “90 or 95% of customers first buy a photo camera [and for them] a 3-, 4- or 5-minute take, it’s already long“. In fact, those who have a longer need are not in the consumer market anymore and the impact on the sames of the Alpha 33 and Alpha 55 will be minimal. It is even suggested that “in the future generations” the issue will be taken with a different kind of attention (Ed: Here I cannot stop thinking about a future, possible, probable, Alpha 77).

The last two subjects that we discussed were relatively lateral or complementary (but the YLovePhoto readers know that this has been discussed here in the past): LiveView mode and the NEX family of cameras. On the one hand, I could not obtain any statement on the effect on continuous display on the back LCD of the photo camera, other than a bland comment on “it’s rarely continuously used.”

For the NEX-3 and NEX-5, there is no trouble here. They are not impacted by the issue. First and foremost because their image stabilization is not obtained through sensor displacement, but by the action on an optical group inside the lens (thus, one of the causes mentioned above disappears). The smaller size of the body is also participating by providing a much better thermal exchange with the external air and allows to keep the internal temperature lower.

But there was a fly in the ointment. Only a few weeks after the official launch, we learned that the digital sensor is overheating. We know that the digital photo-video sensors produce heat whenever they are used. The design of sensors for video (and thus used more or less continuously) must take that into account to avoid heat production at all costs. The design of the cameras must take into account the need to move any heat left right out of the sensor area (possibly out of the camera).

Sony definitely missed one of these, indeed. The SLT-A33 and SLT-A55 are suffering from over-heating to the point that, when reaching a certain temperature, the camera switches itself off (It shuts the sensor down). As can be seen in the table here on the side, in the worst case (when it’s hot outside, 40°C, and that image stabilization is enabled), this is going to happen fast, real fast: 3 or 4 minutes only. Probably nearly everybody will admit that this is incompatible with the normal use of video capture in a normal way.

So, no video grabbing during Summer. More or less.

If you thought that this was bad enough, there is a hint to the possible addition, unconfirmed by Sony right now, of another limitation (maybe, within a longer time frame) respective to the use of the LiveView mode (which is only a low definition video mode).

The solutions? Let’s try to think them out:

• No firmware change will reduce the thermal dissipation of the sensor.
• No firmware change will improve the heat transfer through the body of the camera.
• A firmware change could remove (more or less completely) the thermal protection. But would it be a solution to risk some other problems? (early aging of the sensor, unacceptable thermal noise in the images, etc.)
• Modifying/replacing the sensor (supposing that Sony has a better or corrected sensor)? This is going to be a MAJOR repair operation.
• If the problem really comes from a bad design of the camera body, this is worse… Nothing left in the bag of solutions.

I let you imagine Sony’s dilemma. I let you imagine why the communication will be really tough next week…

While waiting for it, for those asking if they should buy a Sony SLT-A55 and thinking that they need the video capture, I say: Wait. For those who are in a hurry, I will not less than they must forget about video on the Alpha 33 and Alpha 55 for now. Video is nearly excluded in these cameras for the time being. The small sound you can hear is those competitors (Starting with Nikon and Canon) exhaling loudly (These cameras had given them cold sweats and they now feel that this could buy them some more time to react).

After a few minutes of use (mostly in video mode, but possibly in LiveView too), the sensor will overheat (effect is unclear). The best (albeit partial) solution is to stop using the Image Stabilization. As you can see in the table above, it increase the time available.

Be warned.

The final releases of DNG Converter 6.2, Adobe Camera Raw 6.2 and Lightroom 3.2 includes RAW file conversion for the Sony Alpha 33, Alpha 55, Alpha 290, Alpha 390, NEX-5 and NEX-3. Those were included in the Release Candidate versions, but they become official/final now.

Of course, other cameras are also taken into account like the all new Canon EOS 60D, the Samsung NX10, the Panasonic Lumix LX5 and the Pentax 645D.

But Sony love is still very visible here.

Download the new Adobe files (updates).

Cross-section view of SLR system:
1 – Front-mount lens (4-element Tessar design)
2 – Reflex mirror at 45-degree angle
3 – Focal plane shutter
4 – Film or sensor
5 – Focusing screen or glass
6 – Condenser lens
7 – Optical glass pentaprism (or pentamirror)
8 – Eyepiece

Origin: Wikipedia

The traditional SLR camera

Let’s start with the organization of the most common Single Lens Reflex (SLR) camera, as we generally know it. On the cross-section view here, we can see the light trajectory (in yellow) when the mirror is in lower position to direct light (and the image) toward the viewfinder. At exposure time (when you press the shutter release button), the mirror moves up to let the light go straight to the sensor.

Very efficient, this configuration still has some drawbacks which have long been considered minor, but still very real.

First, during exposure, the viewfinder is totally black. It’s not very long, but the inconvenience is very observable by the user.

The mechanical design needed to move the mirror up and down is complex, fragile, but must operate very quickly to maintain a fast shooting cadence. On pro photo cameras, these mechanisms become complex and expensive to reach high frame rates. The technology progresses fast, but this is only in the most recent years that camera manufacturers have been able to provide more than 3 frames per second on standard cameras. Some pro SLRs (like the Nikon D3, for example) reach 8 fps (but the price falls in the financial investment category!)

Pellix – transparent or nearly transparent

In the 1960’s, several cameras started to use a semi-transparent mirror to avoid moving it. The idea is merely to ensure that most of the light goes straight to the film or the image sensor, but a smaller portion of it is reflected up to the viewfinder. Unsurprisingly, there are both advantages and drawbacks.

First pro: viewing is never obstructed. The photographer always keeps the camera at eye level and shoots nearly continuously (highly appreciated in sports photography, for example, to track unpredictable action).

Second pro: The removed mechanics allow to simplify the camera structure (and its cost). Light weight and low noise come to these cameras.

But the light splitting is difficult and the technology for semi-transparent mirrors is not easy to master: You want to keep transparency without the slightest color-shift (coming from the uneven transmission of all wavelengths), and without too much light loss (to have a clear and readable viewfinder, you must reflex as much light as possible, but this would be detrimental to the image exposure on the film).

The gains are perceptible but limited in front of the technical drawbacks: The market will not be convinced and, apart from random and rare occurrences like the Canon Pellix QL, this will be the end of it.

Autofocus & video

Then, come the 2000’s and point-and-shoot compact digital cameras start boasting about their video capture features. Always in search of technical innovations, camera manufacturers are happy to go from photo to video. It’s relatively easy on the a compact point-and-shoot: Either it has a separate telemetric viewfinder (no constraint), or the photo sensor is already used for LiveView (the only problem is that it engulf energy and heat the sensor up).

If you want to focus, the digital point-and-shoot cameras have a simple solution: Analyze the image on the sensor to see if it is sharp or not (this is called contrast detection). This seems simple, but it calls for a lot of computation power (this is slow) and you have to nearly randomly try various focus settings to find the best one.

On a cheap camera (or a cheaper camera that most Single Lens Reflex cameras), these drawbacks are easily forgotten and, moreover, the same approach works for video as well as for photography. So, the photo compact cameras have simple path to video capture.

An SLR with video

In 2008, Nikon decides to add video capture on a digital SLR (the Nikon D90). This should be marvelous! But the reflex architecture is totally different and there comes trouble.

First, when the mirror is up, it is impossible to use the specialized AF sensor that is present in the camera in front of the mirror, not behind (this sensor is using a method known as phase detection). The solution would appear to be easy: Go the point-and-shoot way, with contrast detection. But three problems rush in:

• SLR sensors are big and not very compatible with continuous heavy computation.
• SLR sensors are very large, favoring a small depth of field and are thus infinitely less tolerant than smaller/cheaper sensors (as a matter of fact, focusing on point-and-shoot cameras stay very imprecise, but it is efficiently hidden behind an enormous depth of field: “Everything always looks sharp”).
• The user is used to ultra-fast focusing given by phase detection, but will be hit with an enormous difference in reaction times.

The first SLR photo cameras choose to run around this problem by removing completely autofocus and most of the automated controls. Nothing elegant, nothing shiny here. But this is utterly pragmatic. And some pretty impressive cameras like the Canon EOS 5D MkII are equipped with very limited video features.

Sony Alpha SLT-A55

One exception in this landscape: Sony. Known as a historical leader of professional video, Sony cannot and will not deliver some half-baked video solution, even on a photo camera. They will only bring video capture when it is fully operational.

2010 is for Sony the year of solving this problem with a semi-transparent mirror again: Without mirror, all the troubles are gone! You can do autofocus while filming, you can keep nearly all the automated controls. The Sony Alpha 33 and Alpha 55 are entry-level photo cameras but their video capture is not relegated to the end of the feature list. Focusing is absolutely continuous during video filming (see the video demonstrations) or during continuous shooting.

Even better, on cameras priced at a few hundreds of Euros, it becomes possible to rush continuous shooting at incredible frame rates (at least out of the realm of expert and pro cameras): 6 frames per second! Or even 10 fps if you accept some constraints on available automatisms! This is comparable to what is offered by pro cameras at 10 times the price.

All this with a viewfinder permanently available. The clearer viewfinder you have, the more comfort you get.

And, if there is no longer any mirror moves, there is no longer any of the associated noises. Since the mirror mechanics generated very distinctive clangs just before and after the exposure, the cameras with a fixed mirror and remarkably silent.

Is it the end of it?

This is a good question. We understand that, now, the target is set very high. Canon, Nikon and the others competitors will be compared to a Single Lens Reflex (SLR) camera sold under 600€. Innovation is now king in the Japanese (or not) Research and Development labs.

2011 will be a very interesting year for Sony’s opponents. Will they use the same recipe or will they bring some other bright idea to bring photo and video together in D-SLR cameras?

This is 10 frame/s continuous shooting.

• Sony Alpha 33
• Sony Alpha 55
• Sony Alpha 560
• Sony Alpha 580

Features and specific comments

The feature set is quite impressive for cameras supposed to be low-end and mid-range only. Some of the competition is going to feel the heat.

Sony Alpha 33

As expected, this is a Pellix camera (a semi-transparent mirror provides fast AF while in LiveView or in video capture mode). It climbs up to 10 frame/s continuous shooting and is 1080i HD video-capable.

The sensor is the 14MP APS-C CMOS sensor that we have been seeing a lot around here in the recent weeks.

Sony Alpha 55

Same as Sony Alpha 33, but with a larger (16MP) CMOS sensor.

Impressive enough to immediately receive a “Gold Award” from DPreview.

The A55v version (for USA only, apparently) will include a GPS for geo-tagging of photos and videos.

Sony Alpha 560

The A560 is definitely bringing 1080i HD video to the Sony SLR line; From a 14.2 MP CMOS photo sensor.

Specific to the Alpha 560: It will not be available before early 2011.

No GPS, contrary to rumours.

Sony Alpha 580

Same as Sony Alpha 560, but with a larger (16MP) CMOS sensor.

Nearly immediately available.

Pre-orders

B & H

• Sony Alpha 33
• Sony Alpha 55
• Sony Alpha 560
• Sony Alpha 580

• Sony Alpha 33
• Sony Alpha 55

I may do the same for other cameras in the near future, when I feel that the information is stable enough to provide it in an organized way. Keep in touch.

• Alpha 33 (a pellix camera with a 14 MP sensor)
• Alpha 55 (a pellix camera with a 16.7 MP sensor, 10 fps, ISO 100-25600, 15-point AF, EVF – all to be confirmed)
• Alpha 560 (with 14MP sensor, 5 fps, ISO 100-12800, 15-point AF, swivel display – near certain feature set)
• Alpha 580 (same as A560, with 16MP sensor)

Note: Pellix is the name usually applied to describe a camera where there is no mobile mirror, but a pellix semi-transparent mirror which is providing a simultaneous and continuous AF while bringing light to the photo/video sensor. For more information about it, see the Wikipedia articles in both English and German. The presence of Pellix should also allow to keep a LiveView operation during the photo/video capture (probably in association with an Electronic View Finder or EVF).

Images of the A55 and A33

Images from DChome

A33/A55 size

What is now certain is that the Alpha 33 and Alpha 55 will be very small indeed. They are smaller than the smallest existing Alpha cameras (the Alpha 290). They are nearly as small as the NEX-5 camera.

Thanks to SonyAlphaRumors, you can see a marketing-based and meaningful size comparison:

As was reported here about a month ago, Canon does not believe that it is necessary to leave the traditional APS-C DSLR format factor to compete with the EVIL cameras. Sony seems to have understood this too. But they decided to provide both the (still?) smaller ones (NEX series) and continuously shrinking ones (Alpha series). It will be interesting to see how this works in the end.

At least, Canon appears right and we can expect to see similar comparisons appearing with Canon bodies of the near future.

Compatible lenses for NEX

Additionally, some companies are rumored to be interested in providing a real competition in terms of lenses for the NEX camera range (Sony will no longer be alone). If Zeiss and Leica are actually present there in a few weeks, it will mean that this NEX camera series will certainly be a huge success, if only because of the large advertisement effort supported by several companies at the same time. However, it is nearly impossible to sort out the good information and the false rumors in what is said from all sides.

• Alpha 33
• Alpha 55
• Alpha 560
• Alpha 580

The first two (Sony Alpha 33 and Alpha 55) would be entry-level cameras able to capture HD video and using the semi-transparent mirror already mentioned here and allowing to maintain autofocus in LiveView and HD video modes.

The next two (Sony Alpha 560 and Alpha 580) would be mid-range cameras announced by Sony in the middle of the beginning of the year. They are also able to grab AVCHD video but with a simpler architecture.

They share the two new CMOS photo sensors from Sony, a 14 MP sensor and a 16 MP sensor, at the heart of the rush for video started with the NEX-VG10 video camera, recently shown to the press (HD video based on the 14 MP sensor). They should all have a DOF preview button, continuous AF during video capture with 15-point AF, panorama stitching, 3D picture capacity, state-of-the-art ISO sensitivity (read “much better than A700”).

PR also tells us that the Alpha 560 has been spotted in Jakarta, but no pictures yet. So, it may still be a false lead.

But then, where is the successor to the Alpha 700? Has Sony decided to step back into the A5x0 range? Or will the A750 be a pre-announcement only?

First, and this is very easy to predict, Sony is ready to add to its NEX range of photo cameras. Already noticed because of the originality of its concept (a very dense point-and-shoot-like body, very simple but able to hold not only the new lenses of the new NEX range, but also compatible with the existing Alpha lenses, to bring light onto an APS-C CMOS digital photo sensor brought in the Alpha SLR range). While NEX was received with an obvious interest, it still needs to prove that it fills the needs of a real public. And this may be easier when a few days before the Photokina show (in September) we will be able to see the new photo camera of the NEX range: The NEX-7, which should capture 1080p video up to 60 frames/s. This should bring it in direct competition with the Panasonic GH2 which is still the best digital video offer among the compact photo cameras.

On top of it, we already know that Sony just presented it NEX-VG10 video camera, which is the pure video solution in the NEX range (again with the same CMOS 14.2 MP digital sensor that Sony seems decided to apply to as many NEX and Alpha cameras as marketingly possible). Available in September (in parallel with the door opening of the Photokina), it will be sold around $2000 (probably a little less than 2000€ on the old E continent).

Of course, Sony will also present (and possibly make immediately available) some new NEX lenses. The one whose name is most often repeated, since the Yodobashi leak in May, is the Sony NEX 18-200mm f3.5-6.3 OSS.

Then, there is no need of a crystal ball to announce that Sony will speak a lot about 3D on the Photokina floor. All the company divisions (video games, movies, video, photography) have been committed to bring active product support to this technology defined as a key target for Sony.

But, will you say, where are the D-SLR here? I kept the finest morsel for this part of the meal I offer you. Sony is preparing a full overhaul of its Alpha range. The A290 and A390 are already here with a 14.2 MP sensor (but only in a-little-outdated CCD technology), here comes the flood. There’s no doubt that the successor of the Sony Alpha 700 is ready. It was nearly official in PMA 2010 (at the beginning of 2010):

I dream of having reliable information about its photo sensor, but it is nearly certain that it won’t be the ubiquitous 14MP CMOS sensor of NEX and A500 series. It will be an APS-C sensor capable of 1080p video capture at 30 fps (at least). Since Sony always repeated that they would never bring a photo camera with a half-thought video section (like some of the competition, they murmur), it will be worth looking into its detailed features. Moreover, I would bet a tidy sum that the camera will be named Alpha 750, even if it appears that A790 was a possibility during the design stage.

The Sony press photo for PMA2010 (above) also gave us an important bit of information: The Sony Alpha 750 will have a little brother also video capable (probably with a resolution limited to 14 MP). The rumor says –curiously enough– that it would be named Alpha 33, and I find this utterly surprising. We’ll see, but in the meantime, you could listen to what the Spanish DSLRmagazine has to say about its supposed semi-transparent mirror used to assist a good autofocus in LiveView mode (traduction française, English translation).

But there is another possibility to take into account. According to Réponses Photo, the French magazine, “Sony give [us] a rendezvous in September for other SLR news, but this time in the expert and pro ranges…” (emphasis is mine). It looks a lot like a leak out of a magazine already informed but held tight by the signing of an NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement). It would seem very surprising that anybody knowledgeable would place the Sony Alpha 750 in the “pro” range, it is the “expert” announcement. But, the, here is the last event: A pro camera! The Sony Alpha 900 (and its little brother A850) would prepare itself for a new offspring in the use of an Alpha 950 (no certainty about the name, of course)! And that could be thunderous if they announced (availability in early 2011?) the new 32 MP Full Frame CMOS sensor in association with a new quad-core BIONZ processor (aka Quattro Bionz).

The other option in this part of the product lien would be the arrival of an Alpha 820 (this name is heard in several mouths right now) which would be a new effort to popularize the Alpha 900 after the sub-2000€ Alpha 850. Credibility: Very low in my (not so) humble opinion.

You will have noticed that I did not go heavy on the conditional tense despite the long list of news. Be prepraed to see a Sony showroom of enormous size and density in Köln, next September for the Photokina. Alpha, NEX, 3D, video, Sony is alive and kicking.