That satisfying clunk of the mirror swinging up and away, the rapid-fire clatter of DSLRs going into burst mode, could be on its last legs. Well, for Sony Alphas at least.
The company has confirmed that its translucent mirror tech, most recently confirmed to be coming to the A77 and earlier shown on the A55 and A33, will be coming to the entire Alpha line.
The sensor actually captures light through the mirror itself, which is just reflective enough to allow for real-time focusing even while capturing video.
It’s something of a bold move in the generally stoic DSLR market, and only time will tell whether it helps to boost Sony’s street cred up to Canon and Nikon levels.
A dark shadow has befallen the Sony NEX-3 interchangeable lens camera, the shadow of being described as “no longer in production” by its maker’s official website.
Coming out in June of last year alongside its more celebrated NEX-5 brother, the NEX-3 enjoyed some decent success with critics, mostly owing to its oversized 14.2 megapixel sensor, and showed no signs of struggling commercially, however Sony has seen fit to halt production within eight months of its introduction.
Reasons haven’t yet been given, though we imagine people were willing to spend the extra cash to upgrade to 1080p video recording and a magnesium alloy body on the NEX-5, which is what rendered the NEX-3 expendable.
At least we know the NEX-5 and the NEX-VG10 will keep E-mount lenses going into the future, so current NEX-3 owners should have little to worry about. If anything, their camera just became that extra bit more exclusive.
- Author: admin
- Filed under: Gaming
- Date: Jan 31,2011
Say it with us, finally a PS3 firmware update that actually does something useful! We’ve grown so accustomed to Sony refreshing the software on its console just to spite jailbreakers that we almost started to believe that’s all the word “update” entailed.
But, here comes Kotaku with word that v3.6 of the PS3′s firmware will come with a neat little addition: saving games to the cloud.
This seems a very logical step toward delivering Sony’s overall goal of giving users a holistic, integrated experience. Indeed, during the NGP presentation, guest speaker Hideo Kojima specifically referred to saving your PS3 game on the console and resuming it on the Next Generation Portable.
“Online Saving,” as Sony’s reputed to be calling it, would be the conduit through which that can be realized, though it doesn’t appear like it’ll come for free. Kotaku‘s sources indicate it’ll be part of the PlayStation Plus subscription, at least initially. Still, we like cloud storage, and if it means never having to see another hard drive again, we’re all for it.
Like the Sony A560 DSLR but need a few million more pixels at your disposal? That’s basically what you get with the A580, a successor to the A550 and doing basically everything the A560 does — but with a 16.2 megapixel sensor.
So it sports 1080i recording, a 3-inch tilting LCD, and 7fps burst shooting, but can’t match the continuous autofocus of the funky Sony A55 and its mystical, magical, translucent mirror and overheating sensor.
Overall performance and image quality are said to be good, with minimal noise up to ISO 1600 and fancy modes like HDR built in. All yours for about $899.
- Author: admin
- Filed under: Microsoft
- Date: Jun 14,2010
Today at its Xbox 360 media event in Los Angeles, Microsoft dropped a big piece of news: the launch of a slimmer version of the Xbox 360, which starts shipping today and will hit stories by the end of this week.
The new Xbox 360 comes in black, rather the current Xbox 360, which is white. It has 250 GB of disk space and comes equipped with built-in Wi-Fi, instead of using a direct Ethernet connection. And, best of all, it’s shorter and thinner than its bulkier counterpart.
The new console will cost $299 — for comparison’s sake, the PS3 Slim and the current 120 GB version of the Xbox 360 also cost $299 (that’s more or equal GB for your buck).
Microsoft is preparing for the Xbox 360’s biggest year yet as it puts all of its chips into Kinect, its controller-free gaming system. Formerly Project Natal, the new Kinect hardware addition will launch this November with 15 games and a ton of hype.
Making the Xbox 360 sleeker and more affordable has to be a priority for Microsoft in its quest to bring Kinect into living rooms everywhere. Releasing it now gives it a chance to permeate the market before it initiates the next phase of its plan for video game domination.
- Author: admin
- Filed under: General
- Date: Mar 17,2010
We knew vaguely that Google was looking toward the living room, but the NYTimes has the details on Google TV, an ambitious platform to deliver web content to Android-based set-top boxes and TVs through partnerships with Sony, Intel, and Logitech.
Google hopes that the new platform will succeed where dozens of lesser efforts have failed—to truly and seamlessly integrate web content onto TVs, bringing services like Twitter and sites like YouTube, in addition to games, webapps, and, of course, Google’s search, to the big screen. The Google TV software reportedly includes a version of Google’s Chrome browser for doing some light surfing, as well.
The Times says Google TV will be delivered on set-top boxes that use Intel Atom chips and run an Android-based platform, though the technology will also reportedly be built directly into Blu-ray players and TVs from Sony. Additionally, Google is working with Logitech to built a keyboard-equipped remote control for the platform. Read the rest of this entry »
- Author: admin
- Filed under: Gaming
- Date: Mar 13,2010
So you do your research, you read up on everything important about the PS3′s new Move controller, and you consider yourself well prepared for a future of wild merrymaking and multiplayer gaming parties.
And then you find out you can’t use four full sets of controllers with your console. As it turns out, the PS3′s Bluetooth module is only fit to address up to seven wireless devices at a time, which poses something of a puzzler when you consider that you need a pair of Move controllers (or a Move plus a sub-controller) to get your money’s worth and four times two is, well, a number greater than seven.
Perturbed by this, Gizmodo contacted Sony for an official response and the news gets even worse: Read the rest of this entry »
- Author: admin
- Filed under: Laptops
- Date: Feb 3,2010
Hey there, what’s this little surprise? Sony’s colorful VAIO E Series laptops have arrived to cheer us up — and it looks like they’re going to do the trick, we have to tell you.
These 15.5-inchers come in a wide range of colors, and you can mix and match lid and keyboard shades, if you dare. Inside, you get a 2.13GHz Core i3 CPU, 4GB of RAM, a DVD burner and a 500GB hard drive. A Core i5 version is also right around the corner.
You can pre-order one of these bad boys now for shipping in March — but it’ll cost you about $800. Hit the read link to check them out. There’s one more shot after the break. Read the rest of this entry »
We’ve been talking about retro Walkman players quite a bit during out Gizmodo ’79 coverage, so it is only fitting that Sony Europe unveils two new devices aimed at the entry level market. The Walkman E-Series and B-Series.
If OLED is too rich for your blood, the E-Series comes with the following features: Read the rest of this entry »
- Author: admin
- Filed under: Displays
- Date: May 11,2009
Sony introduces the world’s first Organic LED (OLED) TV panel. Not only does this panel revolutionize the LED TV industry but it does it with style. It features a 3mm thin panel and outstanding contrast and color reproduction.
Sony’s new OLED features fast response times, high brightness and various screen tilt capabilities. Most of all it is energy efficient and it uses organic material.
Sony’s new Organic LED TV is not only a must have gadget but also enviromentally friendly, what more can you ask for? Read the rest of this entry »
