I'm not terribly interested in mirrorless cameras (although I have to admit that I love that, thanks to the mirrorless design you can use about any legacy lens on them (with the proper adapter). But after reading a petapixel article on the a7s and its potentially being the best astrophotography (low light) camera on the planet, I had to read up on it.
From a marketing standpoint, what Sony has done appears to be a head scratcher. From the article: "The Sony a7S is the third variation of the full-frame mirrorless a7 series of cameras that Sony has recently released. First Sony released the 24.3 megapixel a7 and 36.4 megapixel a7R, the first mirrorless cameras with full-frame 24mm x 36mm sensors. The recently released a7S seems like sort of the oddball of the three a7 variations: It has only a 12.2 megapixel sensor and at the time of this writing, it costs almost $1000 more than the a7 and $200 more than the much higher resolution a7R. But with that 12.2 megapixel sensor comes some distinct advantages, especially for low-light photography and video. 12.2 Megapixels With the a7S, it seems like you’re paying more for less. But even with a sensor resolution that is a third the resolution of the cheaper a7R, the a7S offers two things in return: sensitivity and 4K video (sort of*). The A7s has larger pixels than pretty much any consumer level full-frame digital camera. The larger pixel size means that each pixel can collect physically more light. The more light per pixel, the better the signal to noise ratio for that pixel and so that pixel will more accurately detect the incoming light than a smaller pixel would. This means that, all other things being equal, the A7s should be capable of the best per pixel signal-to-noise ratio of any production camera. " - - - Can you imagine what the Pentax hoards would say if Pentax came out with a full frame camera with fewer megapixels than the flagship? This Sony camera is fewer megapixels than the PREVIOUS Pentax flagships: the K-5, K-5ii/iis That is really interesting. Frankly, I think it spells disaster from a sales/marketing standpoint but I still find it intriguing that Sony went forward with it. To segue back into PentaxLand, it is clear that Pentax is going to introduce a full frame (although still NOT at this coming Photokina). What Pentax is telegraphing (or will at Photokina) is that they are designing/developing full frame lenses again. I expect them to talk about full frame more, even if they aren't showing a prototype. The thing is that the time is right (the technology "planets" have aligned) for Pentax to give its users a real choice: A 24.3MP APS-C camera OR a 24.3MP full frame camera (for a lot more money). Sony makes such a sensor and it is pretty awesome. It has also been out long enough that Pentax may be able to buy it in 2014/15 at prices that make the resulting camera sellable (unlike the Sony a7s at $2500). Check out this great comparison of a 24.3MP APS-C vs a 24.3MP full frame and decide for yourself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6EmdyBPF2w Watch the above video in HD and with fullscreen. With other manufacturers making noise on moving in on Pentax medium format land, a bang-for-the-buck full frame camera is nearly a necessity. Pentax/Ricoh is making money on their Q line of cameras (especially in the parts of the world that are not the U.S.) and that is good for Pentax/Ricoh. I'm fairly convinced that Pentax will have to say a bit about full frame at Photokina (but not want to freeze sales of existing products) and will have a 24.3MP full frame introduced in early 2015. Or maybe I'm just Charlie Brown believing that Lucy is going to actually hold the football for me to kick THIS TIME. :) -- Photographers must learn not to be ashamed to have their photographs look like photographs. ~ Alfred Stieglitz -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
