Alpha A99: A fitting companion tot eh A77. I’m in two minds about the switch back to the old ISO shoe. Mechanically, it’s inferior to the iISO shoe but I understand the need to update the electronic contacts so I guess the switch will also counteract the criticism of a non-standard shoe. The revised 24MP sensor is intriguing. I hope that its performance will be a significant improvement over the A900, not that the old camera was bad. Having that extra low0light performance can’t hurt. I’m intrigued by the new multi-segment low-pass optical filter. I wonder how they are going to deal with the problem of both stills and video capture requiring much different low-pass characteristics.

NEX-6: I could have had one of these instead of the NEX-7. It’s what lots of people have wanted, a NEX-7 style camera with a 16MP sensor. The new on-sensor phase-detect AF will be interesting to watch. I think I’ll actually get a NEX-5R since I can use the NEX-7 for the times I require a hotshoe and EVF (studio), and the NEX-5R would be fine as a general travel and panoramic camera (should the sensor play nice with the Samyang 8mm/2.8 fisheye). I can use difference in price between the 5R and 6 to go towards the new lenses, especially the 16-50mm pancake zoom and the 35mm/1.8 OSS prime. The 10-18mm/4 OSS will be a nice option should I need conventional rectilinear wide-angle shots.

RX1: I think this product is at once exciting but personally irrelevant. It’s one of those YMMV products which has already polarised the general photographic enthusiast market. There’s been so much projection of personal needs and desires onto this niche product. The fact of the matter is that it is not for the masses, any more so than a Lotus Elise. For what it offers, it is quite reasonably priced. A 35mm/2 Zeiss lens mated with a full format 24MP sensor all wrapped up in a very compact package will be a marvellous tool in the right hands. I can see photojournalists, street and candid photographers clamouring to get one as their personal go-everywhere camera.

VG900: It will be intriguing to see where this fits in. Does it aim for indie movie makers wanting to get the “full-frame” DSLR look but in a much more traditional camcorder package? If it offers clean and full HDMI out, could it act as a B camera on large productions? Without native full-format E-mount lenses, it doesn’t seem to be geared towards the wedding or field reporting crowd which would appreciate AF or a power zoom. The fact that they can stuff a full-format sensor into an E-mount body bodes well for even higher end NEX still cameras.