EB-1 wrote:
Well the second one looks like a Canon toy video camera.
Where is the FE 100-400/4.5 lens; is it vaporware?
EBH
I’d expect the 100–400 to be more of a tag‑along announcement with the R VI. If the R VI is truly as special as the rumors suggest, that lens isn’t going to be the star of the show.
If it turns out the A7r6 specs are correct then I think that with the new unified SOC the A1iii will do 60fps and the A9iv will get a resolution bump to 33mp.
Nice hardware roadmap into the future for the Sony folks if this isn't just the tail end of an April Fools joke.
May 08, 2026 at 05:42 AM
Steve Spencer Offline • • • • • • • Upload & Sell: On
duncangr wrote:
If it turns out the A7r6 specs are correct then I think that with the new unified SOC the A1iii will do 60fps and the A9iv will get a resolution bump to 33mp.
Nice hardware roadmap into the future for the Sony folks if this isn't just the tail end of an April Fools joke.
My longer term prediction for Sony is:
fast but not fast enough for fast moving action 16ms sensor scan speed is in the A7 series: plain A7 V gets 33 MP, A7r VI gets double the resolution at 67 MP
ultrafast sensor scan speed goes to the A9 and A1 series: A9 IV reuses the 24 MP global shutter with tweaks to improve its performance at a price reduction; A1 III gets double the resolution with a ~48 (maybe 50) MP global shutter
A7C series (both C and Cr) reuses the A7 series sensors and keeps things ultra small for those who want that.
Steve Spencer wrote:
My longer term prediction for Sony is:
fast but not fast enough for action 16ms sensor scan speed is in the A7 series: plain A7 gets 33 MP, A7r gets double the resolution at 67 MP
ultrafast sensor scan speed goes to the A9 and A1 series: A9 IV reuses the 24 MP global shutter with tweaks to improve its performance at a price reduction; A1 III gets double the resolution with a ~48 (maybe 50) MP global shutter
A7C series (both C and Cr) reuses the A7 series sensors and keeps things ultra small for those who want that.
I completely agree with all your points!!
I just cannot imagine Sony essentially "obsoleting" my A1 II by giving the A7RVI an ultra-fast sensor with 30fps, unless they quickly introduce an A1 III with a major advantage like global-shutter. Of course, I realize the A1 II will likely have a deeper buffer than the A7RVI.
In any case, having spent a premium price for the features of the A1 II, not so long ago, I would not be a happy camper if the A7RVI is everything the rumors claim it to be. I look forward to updating my A7RV with the VI, however.
I am having trouble reconciling SAR stating that everything about this camera is better than the A1ii and it's $1500+ less. I have the A1ii, A1 and A7r5. The A1/ii handles high ISO much better than the A7r5 and those high ISOs are often necessary to achieve high SS needed for wildlife/birds. I start to cringe when my A7r5 needs more than 800 ISO.
I'm guessing better video specs than the A1/ii and obviously more MP. but I'm not buying the idea that the buffer depth will match the A1/ii, which will make it's use for wildlife limited to situations where you won't hammer down for 5 seconds at a time.
Either way, it's a skip for me. I use the A7r5 for landscape exclusively and this offering, based on rumo0rs, gives me no reason to abandon the A1ii. I think 50MP is a sweetspot for low noise.
May 08, 2026 at 11:12 AM
Steve Spencer Offline • • • • • • • Upload & Sell: On
ps09 wrote:
I am having trouble reconciling SAR stating that everything about this camera is better than the A1ii and it's $1500+ less. I have the A1ii, A1 and A7r5. The A1/ii handles high ISO much better than the A7r5 and those high ISOs are often necessary to achieve high SS needed for wildlife/birds. I start to cringe when my A7r5 needs more than 800 ISO.
I'm guessing better video specs than the A1/ii and obviously more MP. but I'm not buying the idea that the buffer depth will match the A1/ii, which will make it's use for wildlife limited to situations where you won't hammer down for 5 seconds at a time.
Either way, it's a skip for me. I use the A7r5 for landscape exclusively and this offering, based on rumo0rs, gives me no reason to abandon the A1ii. I think 50MP is a sweetspot for low noise. ...Show more →
Everything isn't better. The rumored sensor scan speed is much slower (16ms vs. 4ms), so even according to the rumor the sensor scan speed which is what prevents motion distortion when using the electronic shutter is 4 times faster in the A1 and A1 II, and the rumor has said nothing about the camera buffer, which will likely be much smaller in the A7r VI than the A1 or A1 II and the A7r VI will have bigger files so that buffer will fill up quickly. Together these two points (and maybe others as well) will make the A1 II a lot better for shooting action. For things like birds in flight or a bat hiting a ball, or a football being thrown through the air, that movement will cause distortion with the A7r VI. For slower things like people walking, it will probably be fine, but for anything moving much quicker the A1 II will be the way to go if you want to shoot with the electronic shutter. The A7r VI will still be able to shoot those fast moving things with the mechanical shutter (if it has a full mechanical shutter) or electronic first curtain shutter but that will limit the frames per second. It will also affect the viewfinder. So for action shooting, even with the leaked specs, this camera will not be able to do what the A1 II can do.
ps09 wrote:
I am having trouble reconciling SAR stating that everything about this camera is better than the A1ii and it's $1500+ less. I have the A1ii, A1 and A7r5. The A1/ii handles high ISO much better than the A7r5 and those high ISOs are often necessary to achieve high SS needed for wildlife/birds. I start to cringe when my A7r5 needs more than 800 ISO.
I'm guessing better video specs than the A1/ii and obviously more MP. but I'm not buying the idea that the buffer depth will match the A1/ii, which will make it's use for wildlife limited to situations where you won't hammer down for 5 seconds at a time.
Either way, it's a skip for me. I use the A7r5 for landscape exclusively and this offering, based on rumo0rs, gives me no reason to abandon the A1ii. I think 50MP is a sweetspot for low noise. ...Show more →
I suspect that there is will be more gotchas than just the buffer / duration of precapture, which might get limited to some number of frames or a time duration such as 0.2s.
One that you pointed out will be rolling shutter. I think that there may also be related items due to slow readout, which could require the use of mechanical shutter for the following situations:
- removing banding, i.e. you can't shoot concerts successfully with e-shutter
- similar problems to banding with LED light flicker inelss you use mechanical shutter
- reduced dynamic range for e-shutter - say 14 stops vs 16 with mechanical shutter
-much slower flash sync speed - say 1/160 - with e-shutter that goes to 1/400 with mechanical shutter
Also, I would be curious whether there is a big upgrade to the A1ii wrt to RAW FPS. Does it have enough horsepower to do 45 or 60FPS with AF-C?
If you "crippled" the A7Rvi with the slow readout speed suggestions above, and also increased FPS on the A1ii I could see how for someone who doesn't shoot wildlife, but does landscape and street, the A7Rvi becomes attractive, but for many use cases not as capable as the A1ii.
Steve Spencer wrote:
My longer term prediction for Sony is:
A1 III gets double the resolution with a ~48 (maybe 50) MP global shutter
You do shift fast and have all your bases covered without admitting anything. Just this time last week you were still arguing strongly against what you just said, to the point you wanting to place a bet. So am I wrong in my assessment?
Steve Spencer wrote:
I also think it is really unlikely that the A1 III will be a global shutter camera. Lots of improvement in DR is needed with a global shutter at this point and I would be very surprised if they can get there by the time they make the A1 III and I can't see them making their flagship with weaker DR especially when they can make a A9 IV with a global shutter.
Steve Spencer wrote:
If you want a global shutter A1, I am betting you will have to wait at least until the A1 IV.
May 08, 2026 at 11:44 AM
Steve Spencer Offline • • • • • • • Upload & Sell: On
tctmp wrote:
You do shift fast and have all your bases covered without admitting anything. Just this time last week you were still arguing strongly against what you just said, to the point you wanting to place a bet. So am I wrong in my assessment?
Weird how you keep commenting on me and my arguments rather than the camera the rest of us are discussing. Good to know I have my own personal stalker. Perhaps my views have evolved. I don't see that as a flaw. This whole thread is about rumors and speculation, so having evolving views and putting out ideas that could be wrong in my view goes with the territory. So, yeah I changed my mind. Is that enough of an admission for you? Of course I could and very likely am wrong about a bunch of stuff I said and my views could evolve as the discussion continues. You can track all that if you like, but I expect it is dead boring to anyone but you. It is even boring to me.
Oh, and saying "I am betting" is a figure of speech and often does not mean you are actually placing a bet. Since you want to know want to analyze everyting about me, you might like to know that I don't actually bet on anything. Gambling isn't my thing.
I firmly believe Andre is just trying to drive traffic to his site. There will be trade-offs. I always thought R was for resolution and A was for speed. I cannot believe Sony will cannibalize the A series with a cheaper alternative.
Now..... if the A7r6 was promising all of this at $8k US, I might wonder what they were up to, but at a lower price point it is not only improbable, but impossible to think it will make the A series obsolete.
Steve Spencer wrote:
Weird how you keep commenting on me and my arguments rather than the camera the rest of us are discussing. Good to know I have my own personal stalker. Perhaps my views have evolved. I don't see that as a flaw. This whole thread is about rumors and speculation, so having evolving views and putting out ideas that could be wrong in my view goes with the territory. So, yeah I changed my mind. Is that enough of an admission for you? Of course I could and very likely am wrong about a bunch of stuff I said and my views could evolve as the discussion continues. You can track all that if you like, but I expect it is dead boring to anyone but you. It is even boring to me.
Oh, and saying "I am betting" is a figure of speech and often does not mean you are actually placing a bet. Since you want to know want to analyze everyting about me, you might like to know that I don't actually bet on anything. Gambling isn't my thing....Show more →
Im just pointing out the obvious and why there is no point to have real discussion with you because you will always have excuses to wiggle. I dont think honest people will write the way you write.
tctmp wrote:
Im just pointing out the obvious and why there is no point to have real discussion with you because you will always have excuses to wiggle. I dont think honest people will write the way you write.
Then don't talk to me or about me. There are lots of people here with whom I have had very good and useful discussions. If you don't find what I have to say useful, then there is a simple response: ignore it. Hide me if it makes you happier, but please stop the personal attacks.
And the latest outrageous claim by SAR is the camera will have the best EVF in the world. Somehow better than the A1II which already boasts 9M dots and 240Hz.
Can't wait till Wednesday to see how this all shakes out.
RomanMF wrote:
I wonder if it will inherit the A1’s flash sync speed…
After 11 years with Sony Alpha, I finally purchased my first OEM flash (two actually). The A1 X-sync of 1/200s with electronic shutter is absolutely addicting. Pant, pant. The mechanical X-sync of 1/400s is also amazing but more than I generally need. Okay, the A9iii is even better for those made out of money.
Steve Spencer wrote:
Then don't talk to me or about me. There are lots of people here with whom I have had very good and useful discussions. If you don't find what I have to say useful, then there is a simple response: ignore it. Hide me if it makes you happier, but please stop the personal attacks.
Sorry I'm being factual while you are the one making personal attacks. Here is the recap. I posted my prediction a week ago, you initiated response to it strongly arguing why it's so wrong, then one week later, in the same thread you made a post same as my original position. When I questioned you how you can shift position so quickly especially after criticizing other's so strongly first, instead admitting you were wrong initially, you called me a stalker. Who's making personal attacks here?
In this regard, I do think it's important to warn others that there's no point to have a sane discussion with you. When you can shift completely anything you write in such short time for any imaginable and unimaginable excuses, except admitting you are wrong, what's the point to treat and respond to anything you write with any seriousness.
Hopefully this is my last reponse to you, but I'm not promising anything and may respond more if the need arises.
May 09, 2026 at 06:22 AM
Steve Spencer Offline • • • • • • • Upload & Sell: On
tctmp wrote:
Sorry I'm being factual while you are the one making personal attacks. Here is the recap. I posted my prediction a week ago, you initiated response to it strongly arguing why it's so wrong, then one week later, in the same thread you made a post same as my original position. When I questioned you how you can shift position so quickly especially after criticizing other's so strongly first, instead admitting you were wrong initially, you called me a stalker. Who's making personal attacks here?
In this regard, I do think it's important to warn others that there's no point to have a sane discussion with you. When you can shift completely anything you write in such short time for any imaginable and unimaginable excuses, except admitting you are wrong, what's the point to treat and respond to anything you write with any seriousness.
Hopefully this is my last reponse to you, but I'm not promising anything and may respond more if the need arises....Show more →
I think the point you a missing is that this is a rumor thread. There is no right or wrong. It is all guesses and speculation at this point, and yes my guesses and speculations have changed over the course of this thread. I fully admit to that.
I am not sure why you expect me to call that wrong, however. We will know on Wednesday what was right and wrong in terms of what is predicted. I think it is not only possible but quite likely that all of us are going to get some of our predictions and speculations wrong and some of our prediction right, but we won't know that until Sony releases the specifications. I doubt anyone will be right in all of their predictions. You obviously care a lot about being right or wrong in your predictions. I don't care about being right or wrong. I am in this thread and all rumor threads just to think a little more about what the camera might be and I don't think it is dishonest in any way for my guesses and speculation to shift.
That said at an abstract level some of my reasoning has not shifted. I think the A7r VI is going to be an intermediate level camera that will have high resolution, high dynamic range, and although much better at shooting action than the A7r V, it wont' be close to being in the same class for action as the A1 II. That is where I think Sony has positioned the A7r series of cameras and I think they will position this new camera in that series in same place. Concretely my opinion is that it will not be competive with the A1 series cameras or the Nikon Z8 and Z9 or the Canon R5 II for fast action photography. That is my speculation and guess for what this camera will be. We will see on Wednesday if I am right or wrong. If am wrong I will gladly admit it.
Now within this abstract understanding of what the camera will be I have shifted the specifics of what that will mean in terms of exact specifications of the camera. Does it mean a partially or a fully stacked sensor or a partially stacked sensor? I still think a partially stacked sensor is more likely, but I suppose there is some chance that it will be the by far slowest fully stacked sensor ever made. Either way the leaked spec, if it is correct, that the sensor scan speed is 16ms clearly is consistent with my general abstract view of the camera.
Also within my abstract understanding of the camera and where it fits in Sony's line of cameras I changed my specific veiw of what the A1 III might be. I initially believed and still think it is quite possible that the A1 III will not have a global shutter. The global shutter in the A9 III definitely does not have very high dynamic range at base ISO or even a very low base ISO, so that will be a challenge for the A1 III to improve those specs if they use a global shutter in tha A1 III, to do that and increase the resolution wll be a challenging engineering task. I have said all long that I expect the A1 series to eventually go with a global shutter, the question is just can they improve the technology enough to get such a shutter in the flagship A1 to get it in the Mark III edition. I initially thought that was too big of a task, on reflecting on what others said here and the marketing advantage of making it happen I now am hopeful Sony will rise to that challenge and include a global shutter in the A1 III. Somehow you see that change in my prediction as dishonest and frankly I am baffled by why you come to that conclusion and think it is a quite unfair evaluation of me, but I have been trying to let your personal attack roll off my back.
As to the stalker comment, let me be clear. Your last five posts have all been about my arguments and how you think I have behaved incoherently and dishonestly in this thread and most recently you have argued that you felt compelled to tell other people they shouldn't interact with me. The posts have all been about me and not the upcoming camera. I find that behavior extreme and overly focused on me and you have adopted a role in which you have sought to ostracize me from this forum. It has made me feel intiimidated and attacked, so yes, your posts have made me feel stalked. So let me make one more plea to stop making this about me and let's just have some fun guessing what the camera will be and then seeing how close or how far we come to that on Wednesday and let us all be very unconcerned about whether we were right or wrong about our guesses. This is all just rank specualtion at this point, anyway.
So am I wrong in my assessment? 