The future of alpha line?

As someone who is not going to buy the new NEX camera, I wonder about the future of the alpha line.
I know that Sony announced that they will continue to support the alpha line, and there are already at least two bodies and two lenses to come out, but it doesn't make me relaxed. It is like in soccer - when the head of the club says that the coach job is safe, it means that the coach is going to be fired soon...

Anyways, assuming that the alpha line is going to survive, what can we learn from the new cameras about the alpha line?
Is Sony moving toward in-lens stabilization? Will Sony allow only SAM/SSM lens to AF in the future? Will Sony change the alpha mount (keeping the same distance as the current alpha line, but changing the contacts to be fully compatible with the E-mount)? Will we see the 16/2.8 with alpha mount soon? Will we see the same sensor on the next A7xx? Does it mean that we will not have ISO<200? Will Dyxum stay the same after large migration of people to NEX (Dyxum is part of the alpha experience...)?

You are welcome to add more questions/concerns or some more optimistic views...

The Carl Zeiss glass and investments in creating the soon to be released 500G tell me that Sony isn't going to give up on the Alpha series just yet. Assuming thr NEX will be as sucessful as Sony hopes, you'll see a swing in R&D to the NEX cameras but that technology will work it's way up, refined more and stuck in the alpha bodies.

And just on a person note here, if one day they ever did decide to give up, I'd still be shooting with me a900 for some time to come as it does almost everything I want from a camera.

keith_h wrote: Does it matter? Really. The stuff I have now works just fine and will probably do so for years to come. So I see no need to be concerned or even think about it at all.

Well, this is one point of view...

However, I have my A700 (and many Minolta film bodies) which I am very happy with and wouldn't mind to keep for many more years. But the life time of the body is much shorter than the life time of the lenses.
I have tons of Sony/Minolta glass, and I want to be able to use it after the A700 dies. After all, the A700 is a very small portion of my investment...

I appreciate this question as well. Despite keith's response, it would matter if/when our current camera bodies cease functioning and replacements are not readily available. This happened when Sony took things over from KM and most Minoltians were premptively grieving the death of the mount.

Digital cameras are not the same as film cameras for more than just the media used. Film cameras seem to last much longer than our dSLRs meaning a shorter life-cycle/more frequent replacement and lenses are still the long-lasting investments they've always been. That is unless there are no cameras to fit them to.

I don't think it's something to fret about, but def. something to keep in mind. That notwithstanding, lets enjoy the gear while we can (and i'll still keep shooting film even though *film is dead* ;-)

what i don't understand is why the nex camera is hinted at and then produced [by june] so quickly. the a700 has been discontinued for such along time and the replacement is hinted at but still we wait to even know what specs it's gonna have. this concerns me that sony are more interested with the nex system than the alpha system. yes i fully understand what richard is saying but we do need to know where our future investment is going to go.
also the a850 price does concern me a little as well, so much for the cheap ff camera, prices seem to be rising a little to quickly and by too much compared to the opposition.

And now that A900 is discontinued too, who knows how much we have to wait for athe A900 successor.....

Minolta still miss to me.


Ciao,
MP

mrggt - my guess is that the NEX cameras have been kicking around inside Sony for a long long time and its not so much that the NEXs have delayed the Alpha's but more likely the other way around.