Sony Photokina Surprises?

So, the clock is counting down till we finally see the A900 and a couple of its lens friends. Anyone care to guess at what else we could see. Maybe a surprise lens, or even more interesting a particular accessory?

It doesn't look like we will see any bodies other than the A900. That will keep them in their 5 bodies by the end of 08 statements. I don't expect an A500 till PMA. So those are probably out.

But anyone have a guess on some surprise items. I think we will see some widgets for hotshoe, such as triggers, or wi-fi, or GPS bits and pieces.

The one I keep wondering is will Sony do something on the video side to support their push towards pro's. They all ready brought an adapter to put A mount lenses on their high end video cameras. I'm waiting for them to bring a small "module/body" that works directly onto A mount and gives you a 16x9 HD video. A small little thing, with a SxS card. Uses the same batteries as the DSLRs. Has a sensor the width of the 1.5x crop sensors, but shorter in height. So there is a crop factor, but not to extreme, yet keeps cost within reason. Talking a pretty low feature unit, just something a person can pack, and in a pinch, they got video. You know, so after you got a couple good stills of bigfoot, you can switch to some video. Very well has the same SSS system as the still cameras. But also introduces us to a LV feed to the rear LCD coming off sensor.   Just something to offer to folks to give them options and start the tie in of Sony Pro Video gear which is pretty well know with the Sony Pro Still gear which hasn't happened yet but will be.

Really I'm guessing we will see a bunch of stuff to lay the ground work for Pro bodies in '09 (A900 is no "Pro" it's "Suitable to be used by pro's".   So the flagship flash, a new ring flash, hats that say "I'm a Pro", announcement of a Sony equivalent of the NPS and CPS. And of course lets see all the mock up gear become real. At this point, everything they showed as mockup has become a dark cloud of Sony and a source of criticism by anyone looking for a place to poke them "vaporware".

I find it strange how no one has been talking about such things. Not sure if people are giving up on Sony or what.   Early this year and a bit of the last, we saw their consumer push, 3 entry bodies, one semi-pro, bunch of consumer lenses. Now it's time for the other end. I would think that Sony will be working on getting the ground work for going pro in place now, so everything is there when real pro bodies come (A1000X and A1000H if you will).

Anyone looking for anything in particular other than the stuff that has been covered to death? I know I'm looking for something on TS lens coming. Or are a lot of you expecting it to come and go and there not to be much other than A900 and some lenses?

Maybe we will see some non-pro stuff. I definitely think a new kit lens has to be coming. Use it to push the entry level stuff through Xmas and get it out there before an A500 comes (A500 being a slightly modified A700 at a lower starting price point to compete with the nikon D90 and prepare for the A700 replacement being more D300 like).

Sony Photokina Surprises?

Heck, I'll be surprised if they don't show another prototype flagship!

You'll be in a mud hole with apple cores getting tossed at you? ok, guess that works for some.

I think folks need to give up on the low res body. The A900 is what it is.   If you want the D3 like body, I'm pretty sure you will be waiting for 2009 or later when Sony launches 2 Pro bodies to match up with the D3/D3X and 1DIII/1DsIII bodies. Or really match up with the potential replacements for them. Sony will probably find themselves halve a cycle out of sync on the Pro end of things from Nikon and Canon.

I do wonder if we will see more mockups or a road map. I think they might be better served by a road map this time, no mockups. Just tell us "2 pro bodies in 09", and tell us something like "TS lenses to come in 09" "more telephotos primes in 09"

I just invented something :D

And I know Sony won't do it, but...

Imagine that when You attach flash to hot shoe You can use camera batteries to charge it. Of course there should be option to turn it of (when you run out of batteries in camera) but... It may work and it would be very nice to have ability to shoot 5fps without worrying about recharge time and... without carrying additional battery pack for flash

We have lot of old minolta flash that sell in ebay in pretty cheap price..i mean really cheap.   Minolta has a unique hot shoe, this is differ to industry hotshoe. We can't use the industry radio trigger on minolta system. New generation of body can't support old flash wireless. This cause the flash price cheap. if sony can come out with a radio trigger that enable us to use old flash , that will be good.

Shoudl we add the 16-35CZ to that list too?

I totally agree with you though. Looks like it will be a success :)

Maybe in 5 years I'll be able to afford one of those items

A 10-20 SSM is "more or less confirmed"? Where?