Why do some people say that it only took Sony a few years to surpass traditional DSLRs? Is it some kind of masterstroke?

Hello, it's 2019 and Sony has long since replaced Nikon as the number two in the photography industry, and will most likely even replace Canon as the industry's leader in the next 3 years.

So why has Sony, in the last few years, grown so rapidly?

I specifically talk about:

First, some people say it is because of the acquisition of Minolta

This, unfortunately, in the first 10 years of Sony's acquisition of Minolta, Sony has actually been mixed up with the bad.

What's more, Minolta is a DSLR, not a microslr.

The photographic lenses or proprietary technology from the Minolta era has long since been all cleaned up, almost ah.

Second, Panasonic was the first to launch a microsingle, but, the Panasonic microsingle is now a very small market

So, it's not because Sony launched a microsingle as early as possible either.

Sony's APS microslice, launched a long time ago, but has been also not hot anymore.

Three, the reason why Sony micro-single recently developed so quickly, as follows:

1, Sony determined to abolish the A-mount single-electric camera camp. This to completely abandon a thing, in fact, it is very difficult anymore.

If Sony is not determined to give up, I'm afraid there will not be today's situation.

2, Sony determined to develop a full-frame digital micro-single, pouring all their efforts, and quickly perfected the lens group.

And as it happens, videography is Sony's old favorite.

You've got videography that would have knocked Canon off its feet in a heartbeat.

4, Sony has core competence in the development of electronic components.

Canon, Nikon, in the development and manufacture of electronic components, not strong enough.

5, Sony is willing to spend money on marketing and promotion, Nikon is not so generous.

In summary, Sony's rapid development in recent years, most notably due to Sony's determination, pouring all the resources to give full play to the advantages of research and development of electronic components.

As a photographic player who has played all the way from the Minolta era (exposing his age) to the present, and watched Minolta come all the way from the A port, turn into Komei, and be acquired by Sony, and played with a large number of photographic equipment during the period, my opinion on this issue is that it is inevitable that the Sony camera surpasses the traditional DSLR, and it can even be said to be the sooner or later thing that is going to happen.

Why? The reason is very simple, the core component of the camera, that is, the technology of the photoreceptor processor, is currently monopolized by Sony.

Although in the era of film, Sony knows nothing about cameras, but after all, the lifeblood of the digital camera is the CMOS in their own hands. It's not Sony's style to rely only on selling parts and not develop its own line of cameras. Therefore, in the early development of digital cameras, Sony and Zeiss produced some good home DC models. But after all, only do DC can not go to the high-end, sorry for their own mastery of the CMOS core technology as well as the shiny Sony gold sign, the lack of lens technology, although it is a serious problem, but want to quickly enter a certain field, the best way is to acquire, so in 2006, Sony took advantage of the situation to buy the difficult Minolta camera department, launched its own DSLR cameras.

To understand Sony cameras, you have to start with the previous Minolta. I've seen replies that Minolta cameras didn't help Sony develop a microslr, and that's just not true. Not to mention the E-mount 100mm STF lens, which has a clear legacy, but in fact the key to Sony's acquisition of Minolta was that it got a complete DSLR lens system, and the user base didn't have to be cultivated from scratch, which was critical.

In the film era, Minolta was the third largest manufacturer of photographic equipment after Canon and Nikon. It had a lot of unique skills of its own. For example, in the days when Canon and Nikon cameras still had manual focus, Minolta developed and marketed the first camera with autofocus. Later, Minolta also released the only autofocus reflex lens, the only autofocus microscope head, and the amazing STF lens ......

The picture above is Minolta's AF 3x-1x F1.7-2.8 microscope head, which looks very small in the picture, but is actually very large. You can clearly photograph the paper fibers, and even the cell walls of plants (the cell structure is not enlarged enough to see). The biggest use of this product is to turn film I once spent more than 10,000 to receive a, play and found that it is a toy, not much use, and then off is justified. But anyway, it's a very distinctive lens, and it's a shame that it was killed off during Sony's acquisition of Minolta ......

But why did Sony eventually ditch the A-mount, which it inherited from Minolta? The reasoning is simple: the A-mount is a hybrid mechanical/electronic mount, kind of like the Nikon F-mount that was already showing signs of decay; it's too old in construction. And Minolta released very few new lenses due to all the turmoil in the years before they were bought by Sony.

Can you imagine that several of Sony's famous little blue-label lenses for the A-mount: the 16-80 3.5-4.5ZA, the 85 1.4ZA, and the 135 1.8ZA, as well as the 35 1.4G lens with its critical focal length, and the 16mm 2.8 fisheye lens, are all just slow-focusing, noisy, mechanical-motor focusing? Mechanical lenses all updated again, so to speak, is a daunting task. Moreover, following in the wake of Canon and Nikon to do what others have done is not the style of Sony's "black technology" manufacturers.

So for Sony, after a period of transition, gradually get rid of Minolta's system, the introduction of their own camera system is the best policy.

This is what many A-mount users have been complaining about, why the A900 was released after the release of the release of the big three, but the delay in the small three, why the 35, 85, 135 such an important focal length of the lens is delayed SSM ......

The above doubts in the A7 series of full-frame microsingle cameras After the launch, it was cleared up. It's all or nothing, that's Sony's style.

The structure of the E-mount is very advanced compared to the earlier Minolta A-mount, and even Canon and Nikon's EF and F-mounts. It's fully electronic, has an exceptionally short flange distance, and is compatible with lenses from various manufacturers via third-party adapter rings.

More importantly, because the E-mount ditched the backward structure of the reflector and pentaprism that had been carried over from the film era, much of the structure of the E-mount is uncapped. Although there are still people who questioned the slow electronic focus, electronic viewfinder delay, distortion and a series of other drawbacks when the A7 was first released, but when the A7M3 was released, the vast majority of the doubts have dissipated. Theoretically, with the development of semiconductor technology and processor speed, the E-mount camera continuous shooting speed is only limited by the memory card writing speed, and theoretically can achieve the largest aperture, the fastest continuous shooting speed, the fastest focus ......

For example, the photography industry, "Old Masters But the Sony A9, theoretically, can make the bird from takeoff to landing, non-stop continuous shooting at the same time non-stop focus, complete a series of clear photos.

While it's clear that the Sony A9 can't do that now, that doesn't stop it from doing it in the future. The thing is, as long as the DSLR structure is retained, then the 1DX and D6 will certainly not be able to do it in the future, no matter how much they improve. So it's a matter of when, never if, E-mount cameras will now sweep traditional DSLRs into the trash heap.

In fact, I'm still sticking to A-mount at the moment, on the one hand, A-mount has tended to be obsolete, the market collapsed, the lenses are cheap, the price of A-mount big threes have almost equaled the price of other mounts of small threes, and the performance of A99II in the next few years of the future visible has also been enough, and I'm not a professional photographer, the lens side does not need to burn so high, the cost-effectiveness of the road is the king, On the other hand Therefore, the grip of a full-frame microslr is not as good as that of a traditional full-frame DSLR, especially with heavy FE 70-200 2.8, FE 135 1.8 and other specifications of the master lens, inevitably giving a feeling of "top-heavy, bottom-heavy root shallow".

And it's clear that the E-mount is just a mount, and the short flange length doesn't prevent Sony from making a camera with this mount as big as a traditional DSLR. So I'm looking forward to Sony's future release of an A99-sized pro camera using the E mount.

Second, Sony's three-dimensional folding viewfinder, which was already in place on the A77, A99 and other DSLRs, has become a full-frame microslice with a screen that can only be folded up and down, which is clearly a step backward. This is a clear step backward. I guess this is reserved for future "toothpaste squeezing".

As long as these two points are basically met in future Sony cameras, I'm almost certain to take the A off the E. And indeed, Sony is doing it. And, in fact, Sony is doing it. From the earliest A7R to the current A7RIV, the step-by-step increase in size is obvious to everyone.

Here's a joke from the photography world:

a7r: thanks to the short flange distance of the e-mount, we create a camera that is much lighter than a DSLR and call it a microslr, let's take a look at it~~

a7r2: emm, since everyone accepts a microslr, it's a necessity to move towards specialization, and it's not too much to add a little volume for the sake of specialization, and adding it is also a lot smaller than a DSLR. I'm not sure how much I'm going to be able to do this.

a7r3: we all like r2, point out some shortcomings, we change, plus touch plus battery plus focus, plus a little volume is also deserved~

a7r IV: what to look at, the old me the surface of the strongest 135 camera, this is the focus of how, you see me now still blowing "micro-single" with you? The first time I've seen a camera, I've seen a camera, I've seen it.

While I have not used Sony's micro-single, but as a video practitioner, often in contact with Sony cameras. The 5D2 opened a wave of full-frame DSLRs to shoot video, and since then, DSLRs or 135 cameras have been unorthodox, and have added video capabilities. Sony as the boss of the video industry, is not allowed to their own video camera market is diverted, because this part of the new media platform relying on the rise of the old masters, vloggers, studios, and even home this part of the user has been Canon diversion, which is the situation that Sony does not want to see. But Sony does not have much of a base to do SLR, and then do single electric, which is the predecessor of the micro-single. So, the powerful cmos and super mining 4K, slog and other black technology, to the whole series of cameras. Users with video needs seem to see the light, because ...... this is a camera that can take pictures, and Canon, the toothpaste factory, in order to protect their own video camera market, always in the SLR and mirrorless, deliberately neutered video features, itself in the field of video, Canon's market share is far less than that of Sony, so surely you can't sell the originally But Sony's video technology is decentralized to the camera. And so it was said that a Canon camera is a camera that can shoot video. This is very obvious, Canon and Nikon, or the boss of the field of photography, and Sony, obviously still the boss of the field of video, although Sony's parameters are very beautiful, but, commercial photography, not to see the parameters, but the ecosystem of equipment, that is, to have and the camera to match the adequate, mature lighting system, lens group and the maturity of the camera system, the ease of use, the cost of time, the cost of learning, are commercial photography must face the problem, so video photography has to face the problem, so the camera can not be sold. Photography must face the problem, so the video Gianni, play but Sony, photography, Sony play but Gianni.

Chinese people like to "create God", like "shortcuts", always fantasize about what "magic pills" can be eaten all of a sudden to ascend to heaven and become immortal.

This is the first time I've ever seen a person who has been in a position to do something like this, and I'm not sure if I've ever seen anything like this.

After Kodak invented the digital camera in 1975, the product has never been practical. The first company to make a digital camera practical and marketable was Sony with the release of the MAVICA digital camera. In contrast, Nikon and Canon both cut their teeth on digital camera products more than a decade later than Sony!

So Sony is not the so-called "latecomer" to the digital camera market.

In the circle of digital SLR, in addition to Canon to play "self-produced self-sales" set, the other brands are outsourcing image sensors. Among them, Nikon, Pentax has always been Sony CCD, CMOS key customers. And over time, Fuji, Panasonic, Olympus have become Sony's customers.

Even Canon, its own small DC has been relying on Sony to provide small-sized sensors (with the exception of the G1X series only, other models of Canon DC are using Sony sensors)

So, Sony as a supplier of the core components, and has a near-monopoly in the market, which is the core competitiveness of Sony to do professional cameras!

Here is a brief list:

In 2005, Sony released the R1 digital camera, which uses an APS-C format sensor with a Carl Zeiss 24-120 zoom lens, and a Sony R1 digital camera, which uses an APS-C format sensor with a Carl Zeiss 24-120 zoom lens. Zeiss 24-120 zoom lens. The Sony R1 is actually very close to today's micro-single cameras, and it was priced very high for its day! It can be seen as Sony's first move into professional cameras, but due to the lack of maturity of the technology back then, the Sony R1 ended in failure.

In 2006, Sony acquired Minolta, and in 2008, Sony launched its heaviest-hitting full-frame DSLR, the a900. at the time, it was the highest-pixel DSLR, and one of the hottest full-frame DSLRs of the year. Sony has spared no expense in promoting the a900 DSLR, and it has dropped a lot of advertising space. When I was wandering around in Guangzhou's computer city, I found Sony's billboards everywhere ......

But the Sony a900 became a failure when Canon's 5D2 and Nikon's D700 joined forces to fight it. Since then, Sony has stopped developing DSLR cameras.

After the a900, Sony realized that in the SLR camera with Nikon, Canon two big brother dead beat is not a chance, and then launched a fixed reflector of the "monoelectric camera" concept. The Sony a99, a99 II is a typical representative of the "single camera".

The so-called "mono camera" is a DSLR with a fixed, semi-transparent reflector. 1/3 of the light is used for focusing, and 2/3 of the light is used for imaging. This design allows the camera to easily obtain high speed continuous shooting speed, but its high sensitivity performance, image quality disadvantage and make it into a chicken ribs.

After the failure of the "monocamera" concept, Sony corrected the original "NEX" series of micro-single cameras, which led to the current glory of Sony's micro-single cameras.

Overall, Sony's DCs have been one of the market giants since the 1990s, thanks to the brand's appeal and Sony's industrial design. Sony's share of DC products has also been higher than that of Nikon, but previously Sony cameras have not been able to enter the high-end professional market.

This is mainly due to the following reasons:

1, Sony's brand cultural appeal has a broad mass base, but lack of professionalism.

2, the tight mechanics of DSLRs are a huge challenge for most brands.

3, Sony in the field of optical lenses, lack of technology.

So Sony has been working on these areas, such as the acquisition of Minolta, the joint Carl Zeiss, Tenglong and other behavior. Zeiss, Tenglong and other behavior, are to inject their own brand "professionalism".

And Sony's success in the ranks of professional cameras, the most important thing is the development of CMOS technology, to solve the imaging, focusing, framing conflicts, so that Sony does not have to follow Nikon, Canon ass back to catch up, but opened up the "micro-single camera" so a new form.

So, Sony's success in the professional camera market is not overnight, but has experienced many failures to fight out. It's just that the previous failed products were forgotten by the market, and people were not impressed.

The following are the facts:

1, Sony full sub a few years ago has been the first in the global market share, 19 years BCN market first

2, interchangeable lens camera market, 19 years more than Nikon, the world's second. Nikon is the bottom of the first half of the year to do the camera.

3, in the context of the camera market shrinking dramatically, only Sony camera to achieve sales, turnover, profit growth. Other brands are declining, the magnitude of the decline is different.

4, Sony in the key core areas, cmos, have the most patents, have the largest production capacity, near monopoly market share, the most advanced products, the product line is also long enough

Plus the future trend, this is my point of view

1, based on the above facts, the future is Sony. Some of the so-called problems with Sony's current cameras, such as small mounts, yellow color, poor interaction, poor screens, and quality draws, are pseudo-problems, some are technical flaws, and don't affect the big picture.

2, Canon emergency turn mirrorless, with a huge user base, strong lens development strength, if the solution to the problem of cmos, the future can be a battle with Sony, who can come out on top, remains to be seen. Personally believe that within three to five years, interchangeable lens camera market share first, afraid to change Sony. Because Sony has not been in the cut-off sub-camera on the power, Canon with entry cut-off sub-camera low price, barely accounted for the first.

3, Nikon, the lens than Canon, cmos than Sony (this is a bit of a problem, because Nikon uses Sony's cmos), the rhythm of the market in recent years is not good to step on, and want to turn around, have to rely on a miracle, such as when Sony launched the A7 state.

Said a little too round it Because the mirrorless field Canon Nikon only began to engage. It is like Sony opened a baozi store, we all come to taste, Sony has produced their own is the world's first illusion, in fact, because the beginning of its one, because it can not dry next to the Nikon Canon ramen store, so can only open the baozi store. Now Canon Nikon take a look at the baozi store can make money, after all, there is the basis of opening a noodle store, also open the baozi store. After all, Sony's first time to do the bun just started too tender, did not design the caliber of the steamer (bayonet is too small), do not make a big filling bun, selling buns and expensive, often in the South Barbarians production, from time to time there is a bun bad deterioration (for example, there is a worm optical axis is crooked), gradually, we all know that the Sony bun parameters look good, eat up is not good. At this time, the buns came out, their own money to get a dxo gourmet network, boasting buns of high elasticity of meat filling, can pull the meat filling of five meters without stopping, you can continuously shoot the buns twenty without waiting for gasping for breath. This time Canon diners came out, said your buns how yellow not pull a few Sofa replied, you silly ah! Our buns have to be processed with raw meat and cannot be eaten directly! Canon diners shook his head, the hands of the Canon big white buns bites, pink and oily juice along the corners of the mouth out, wrapped his arms around the side of the girl while talking and laughing away.

The advantages of micro-single compared to SLR are:

1, small size, thanks to the abolition of the reflector.

2, continuous shooting speed, thanks to the abolition of the mirror.

3, more focus points, thanks to the abolition of the mirror.

4. Short flange distance, thanks to the elimination of the mirror. This allows you to use a variety of lenses through the adapter ring, including vintage lenses, what the Three Princesses, eight jade, eight feathered monster, great aunt, Dong Nai Tou, to enjoy the elegance of these specialty lenses. This is something that many people still don't know.

Because of the generation change.

Sony was one of the first to realize what it meant to expose a "huge" CMOS directly behind the lens.

The reason why I say "huge" is with the SLR manufacturers in the mirror to open a small gap, through the reflection of the sensor under the mirror box to send a small signal of a few megapixels is not the same as, Sony image analysis, do follow the focus, with a full-frame CMOS to capture all the pixels of the picture information. There is so much more that can be done with such high precision.

In other words, the camera starts shooting before you press the shutter, and Apple is not the only one that can do this.

It's the same gap that existed between the iPhone and Nokia when Sony figured out that it was building a computer. And other manufacturers are still thinking about building a "micro-single". The gap is that big.

Sony's power is not only in the field of cameras. In the home electronics industry, Sony is involved in a lot of projects. And, Sony's means of operation is worth learning, as long as it recognizes a variety, the first to master which is relatively important to the manufacturing of electronic components of the core technology, and the formation of productivity and then formed a monopoly. Second, in the formation of a strong production capacity at the same time, the integration of upstream and downstream resources, and the use of its excellent sales methods to the market. With the price, the product's leading function, the super sales channel, and the control of raw materials to suppress the industry leader. This kind of forceful posture is very easy to make rivals into a panic, and thus disorganize themselves. In order to achieve the purpose of substitution. Although this approach is very risky, but the benefits are also very substantial. Sony has made mistakes, but this does not affect its firm implementation of this strategy.

The reversal of the camera field fully proved this point. Based on the most central CMOS of digital cameras, control product upgrades. After obtaining the right to take the lead, unite with over-the-top brand companies, such as Meijia and Caijia. Utilizing their technology and market reputation, recombine the package. Make a combination of the most traditional and the latest technology to fight for attention. Keep in mind that change is the fiercest attack on any industry leader, and that's Sony's strong suit. It doesn't care about rules. You play with your technology and emotions, I'll play with my market and fans. If the fight for the price, Sony will be even more advantageous. After all, the core components of the right to ship in their own hands, production capacity at any time to increase or decrease. The market position absolutely prevails. Therefore, there are not many dare in the market and this predator spell teeth. With the consumer electronics products to engage in the traditional industry to stir up the water, the opportunity and meat will belong to Mr. Crocodile.

This is not a masterstroke, but it is enough to deal with the toothpaste and the deadliest. See, there's more to come!

Sony relies on the powerful cmos successfully stirred up the professional camera market, momentum is very fierce, but said that beyond the early point, I am from the 5d4 into the a7r3, Sony's main strong in the dynamic range, and the abolition of the structure of the reflector volume of the quality of the improvement, but the lens group weak, the development of the lens cost is high, and the market is destined to be less than a small number of lenses price is not very expensive, but as a Sony and Canon Users at the same time, I hope that Canon can improve their own cmos and processors, after all, Canon's lens is still very fragrant, I hope that Sony to reduce the price of the lens, the market retention increased is the king.