Sony Will Change the trends of DSLRs

We truly can change the world' says Masashi 'Tiger' Imamura, President of Individual Imaging & Sound Enterprise Group in an exclusive interview with dpreview.com. The firm will attempt to bring together all its technologies to create a worthy successor to the A700, he told us in a talk that also touched on the future expansion of the NEX technique and the company's position on 'full frame' models.

'After the merger [with Konica Minolta] our method was quite similar to a traditional DSLR – rather similar to Canon and Nikon. They have much more heritage than us: traditional DSLRs are a mixture of optics, mechanics as well as electronics. We're coming from the AV industry so we have a lot of special technologies we can put into our cameras. Now we have merged our resources into one location (Tokyo), we can bring our expertise from Alpha, NEX, Cyber-Shot and camcorders.'

'There has been a lot of discussion about what an Alpha DSLR ought to be. We've been focusing for some time on utilizing our distinctive technologies. The translucent mirror is 1 and it performs really well. We want the A700 replacement to be in line with that variety of step forward, we want it to be superior to its competitors, that's why we couldn't make it sooner,' he mentioned. But, he assured us, the outcomes will be worth waiting for: 'With the A33 and 55 we tried to look at the trouble and get rid of some of the old hassles – the A700 successor must be like that.'

Meanwhile, the NEX idea will expand in various directions, he stated: 'The concept of the NEX three and 5 were for men and women who already have a compact stills camera and want to take a step up, but see a conventional DSLR as significant, heavy and very difficult to use. We believe these models are a rather good fit to those consumers. But also there areconsumers utilizing NEX in addition to their DSLR, so we're planning to expand NEX in a a lotmore effortless way, a lighter way, but we'll also expand to make models that have far more manual control and additional DSLR-like capability.'

Imamura repeated the enthusiasm he expressed at Photokina for the use of legacy lenses on the NEX system: 'with lens adapters, people today can combine their valued, heritage lenses with a incredibly advanced digital physique. We didn't anticipate that sort of usage. There are lots of fascinating items we can do for those kinds of customer.' The wait for these models could not be too lengthy – at a formal dinner right after our interview he told the assembled journalists that: 'the successors to the NEX-three and NEX-five are on the horizon.'

But the company's ambition doesn't end there, he mentioned: 'As properly as the simple-to-use and DSLR capabilities, we're also thinking about the camcorder style shooters and technologies. The NEX VG10 is one example of that. The barriers between compacts, DSLRs and camcorders will merge – not necessarily in a single device but with technologies and capabilities becoming shared in between them. Our mission is to develop new markets – we don't want to make the same products as everyone else and just cannibalise every single other in the existing market.'

When asked about full-frame, he stated Sony was nonetheless committed: 'When we began in DSLR we said that if we have DSLRs, a full-frame camera need to be there. But we are operating on a lot of merchandise and there is a limit to our engineering capacity. The time will come when I can give far more detail. When we announce a full-frame camera we want it to be a significant step forward – a different technological development may possibly be necessary so I say to people today: Please stay tuned.'