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Sony Announces TX55 Touchscreen Compact

Sony today has announced a new addition to its high-end stylish compact line, the TX series. The new guy is called the TX55 (Cybershot DSC-TX55 if you’re being all formal). The basic specs are a 16.2 megapixel Exmor R Backlit CMOS sensor (if you’re unsure why backlit technology is important, check out Camera Technica’s excellent explanation of it), a 5x optical zoom (26-130mm equiv, f3.5-4.8), and a 3.3″ OLED touchscreen. This is solidly a casual snapshooter, and Smart Auto is going to mostly run the show for you, switching between scene modes as it sees fit and defaulting to auto when it can’t decide. It records Full HD and has Sony’s pretty competent Sweep Panorama, and can also take 3D still images using the first one to gauge depths and what not and then shooting a couple more in quick succession to make this possible.

Also, it features some new ‘Clear Image Zoom’ feature that uses ‘By Pixel Super Resolution’ processing to give you 2x digital zoom while claiming to not lose any megapixels or performance. We’re curious to see how that works, as it will represent a major break in our understanding of how digital zoom works if it’s as claimed.

The slim, metal shooter will be thinner than a AA and will come out at an expected MSRP of around $350 next month(ish).



Sony Announces Alpha A35 SLT Translucent Mirrored Camera

This predictably handsome compact consumer camera is Sony’s newly announced SLT-A33. While part of the Alpha series, you’ll do well to note that I can’t actually call this a DSLR. It’s missing the single-lens reflex that makes up 75% of that name. Instead, it has a fixed semi-opaque mirror that diverts a small portion on the light from the lens to an AF sensor, while letting most of it pump straight through to the sensor, which then pumps it out to either the LCD or an electronic viewfinder for you. This gives it the flexibility of interchangeable lens compacts with the AF speeds and performance of DSLRs. And all of that is designated by the SLT up front.

So, this is the SLT-A35, the upgrade to the SLT-A33. The A33 was one of the launch cameras for this translucent tech. And, instead of throwing numbers at you, I’m going to conveniently remember I spent a lot of time formatting comparison tables for this here blog, so, allow me to show you the key highlights of the two cameras in comparison:

SPEC SLT-A33 SLT-A35
Sensor 14.2MP APS-C Exmor CMOS 16.2MP Exmor CMOS
Frames-Per-Second 7 5.5
Digital Telephoto Crop No 1.4x, increasing FPS to 7
AF Points 15 15
LCD 3″ 921k Dot Tilt/Swivel 3″ 921k Dot Fixed
ISO Range 100-12,800 (expanded 25,600) 100-12,800 (expanded 25,600)
IS In-Body In-Body
Size 4-7/8 x 3-5/8 x 3-1/3″ 4.8 x 3.6 x 3.3″
HD Video 1080p 1080p
Mic Input Jack Yes Yes
Retro, High Key, Toy Camera, and Posterization Effects No (coming via firmware update) Yes
Records To SD/SDHC/SDXC, Memory Stick Pro Duo SD/SDHC, Memory Stick Pro Duo

So, for those of you keeping score in the home audience, other than the dubious advantage of the digital telephoto (which records at 8.2mp. A useful size, but still a decrease in resolution as digital crop will always be), the only real advantage this A35 has over its predecessor is resolution. Otherwise, it almost seems a step back, looking at that table. Still, it’ll be available, while supplies of the A33 have since dried up. So, if you missed the A33 boat but think this translucent mirror tech is just your ticket, well, the A35 is here for you. If you got an A33 I don’t imagine you’ll be chomping at the bit to swap out. So it goes, I suppose.

Availability is August-ish for $600ish for a body or $700ish with an 18-55mm kit lens.



Sony Showing New Concept Camera to Finally Replace Aging A700

Man, 2007 was a younger, wilder time, and Sony had just added a new camera to it’s very fledgling Alpha series: The A700. It was, at the time, a really impressive offering for anyone willing to throw in with the newest kid on the block. The year’s have come and gone, and the low-end has seen multiple revisions, and a new full-frame high end duo was added, and then the new translucent mirror bodies were added as the future of the low end, and still the A700 went without an update. But, finally, no longer. Sony Japan is showing a prototype model of it’s new middle grade shooter, using the same semi-translucent SLT system as the A33 and A55, presumably to be released as the A77. They’re promising a release for the real deal yet this year, and if you can read Japanese you can hit the link below to learn more. When you do, report back to us, yeah?



Holy Three Dimensions of HD, Batman! The Sony HDR-TD10 take HD 3D Footage!

In my Sisyphean quest to update Robertscamera.com with every new SKU that shows up in our point of sale system, I came across this beaut from Sony.

Whoa, two lenses! They’re claiming it’s the world’s first HD 3D consumer camcorder. The HD-TD10 certainly looks good on paper, – glasses-free 3d viewing on the 3.5″ 1.23 million dot touch LCD, 10x optical zoom for 3d footage, 12x optical if you’re confining yourself to 2 dimensions, 64 gigabytes of internal flash storage which can be augmented with either MS or SD cards, the Advanced Interface Shoe for intelligent accessories, and a built in flash to take 7MP stills.

SonyStyle.com indicates it’ll start shipping mid-February so start saving 3D enthusiasts.



Sony T Series Cybershots, 16 megapixels and Zeiss lenses

Sony’s also introducing three new T series Cybershots. The DSC-T110, DSC-TX10, and DSC-TX100V.

The T110 will probably weigh in as the least expensive as it seems to offer the most modest feature set of the T line-up. That isn’t to say it won’t be a powerful, feature-packed device that we’ll take a gander at after the break.

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Point and Shoots galore – Sony DSC-W series increases by 6 cameras

I’m sure you’re already aware that there are like, a million new compact digital cameras being announced right now. Point and Shoots, we call them. I wonder why. Doors, we call doors, not ‘toe finders’ or ‘space openers and closers’ but what the hell.

Sony’s spilled forth with six new W series cameras from the budget conscious W510 to the Vario-Tessar equipped Wx9. They all start between 24 and 26mm wide, and zoom to 100 or 125mm with the exception of the WX10, which zooms to 168mm.

The four pieces which are going to sit along the more budget conscious line are the DSC-W510, DSC-W530, DSC-W560, and DSC-W570.  We’ll break those four down after the break.

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Sony Announces Drop-Dead Gorgeous Update to Bloggie Camcorder

So, while we kinda liked the quirky little original Bloggies, we’ll forgive you if they weren’t quite your thing (especially if a camcorder in the color “Eggplant” weirded you out a bit). But, we have to say, there’s a lot to like about the refresh to the Bloggies, and it starts with “ooooh” and ends with “aaaah.”

I mean, really, take a look at this metal-clad bit of gorgeous over here. This is everything the last gen wasn’t, and borrows heavily from their T-series CyberShots. Which is not a bad thing.

Under the hood, you’re looking at an f2.8 “wide angle” lens with the pocket-cam standard 4x digital zoom. Hard specs aren’t listed yet, we don’t know exactly how wide the lens is, and we also know it’ll have internal memory this time (a much better idea all around than its predecessor’s Memory Stick hangups) in 4 and 8GB sizes, but no suggestion as to how many minutes of footage those will hold.

We do know it’ll do 1080 HD in MP4 format, and can take 12.8 megapixel still with its CMOS sensor. We also know that it’ll have a touch interface, and easy sharing to YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, and Picasa. The software is preinstalled on the device, and the USB plug is also built-in this time, making this a full-on Flip competitor now.

And, of course, it’s Sony, who is one of the biggest names in consumer video and who have been cranking out absolutely stellar HD-ready devices for the past couple years, so we have little doubt it will return anything but wonderful video quality.

The 4GB will be about $180, the 8GB about $200. We’ve heard black and silver, but could swear we saw pink kicking around too. Still, even without pink, they seem safer color than the last model’s silver, orange, and purple.



Sony Announces 35mm, 85mm, and Zeiss 24mm Primes

Sony has also announced three new primes, one of which carries the Zeiss branding. As usual, the names of the lenses really tell you all the pertinent bits, and so, without further ado, those names are:

  • F2.0, 24 mm Carl Zeiss Distagon T* ZA SSM lens
  • F1.8, 35 mm Sony DT lens
  • F2.8, 85 mm Sony lens

The two Sony-branded lens are quite economic (although beware that the DT designation means it will only work on their crop bodies, A800 and 900 series users need not apply), at $200 for the 35mm, and $250 for the 85mm. The Zeiss carries a Zeiss-worthy price tag and will set you back a cool $1,250 when it hits the market.




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