Sony does not promise that this is exactly the Sony Alpha SLT A77 (successor to the current Sony Alpha 700), they merely tell us that this is a mid-range SLT photo camera expected in 2011. However, this is quite exactly the description of the Sony SLT-A77:
As a matter of fact, at the CP+ show in Yokohama, Japan, Sony has just shown the “see through” mock-up or conceptual model. Apparently, news people have not been allowed to play and shoot some picture with it yet 🙂
Complementary updates:
- This is truly the future A77.
- The explanations confirm that the resolution of the photo sensor will climb considerably (so, much more than the available 16 MP in the current APS-C Sony cameras and probably the 25 MP that left us quite unconvinced even a few weeks ago).
- We can clearly see the semi-transparent mirror and Sony confirms that the Full HD video will be partnering with a phase correlation autofocus (like in the photo part of the SLR camera).
- The LCD display on the back of the body will definitely be articulated (very good for the LiveView mode, critically needed for video capture).
- Card slots: One for SD (probably up to SDXC-compatible) and one for the sad Sony Memory Sticks.
- The top LCD display comes with an illumination button.
- The viewfinder is NOT an optical one; The EVF arrives now.
- The use of some of the many buttons is still a mystery of some kind (many more buttons than in the mockups previously presented by Sony).
- The launch of the Sony Alpha 77 will probably not happen before the second quarter of 2011.
- The launch will be synchronized with the announcement of the 500mm f/4 tele-lens that everybody has been talking about for quite a long time now.
- The Sony Alpha 77 will come with a new high-end trans-standard zoom lens (whose representation here on the right suggest a Carl Zeiss ZA design), a grip specific to this body and an all-new cobra flash.
Source: Sony Japan.