Sony Alpha 7000
An SLR-style APS- C mirrorless body could be on the cards
VISIT the internet rumour sites and you’ll find that one of the most wished-for new cameras is a high- end, SLR-shaped Sony mirrorless camera with an APS- C sensor. Sometimes dubbed the ‘mini-A9’, the hope is that such a camera might place the impressive highspeed shooting and autofocus performance of the Alpha 6500 into a camera with considerably better handling. This would make the overall package much more competitive with high- end crop-sensor cameras such as the Fujifilm X-T3, Olympus OM- D E- M1 Mark II and Panasonic Lumix G9, all of which are considerably more pleasant to use than the A6500.
So what might such a camera look like? The A9 is a good starting point, with its AF-area selection joystick and dedicated drive and focus mode dials providing a much quicker control paradigm for action shooters, particularly when compared to the A6000series approach of using onscreen controls. But I suspect we’d need to accept a smaller, lower-resolution 2.36-million- dot viewfinder compared to the A9’s 3.69-million- dot unit to hit a sensible price point.
Size isn’t everything
I’d also like to see Sony take on board some of the feedback about the A7 series. A larger handgrip would be great, for use with telephoto lenses such as the stunning FE 100- 400mm f/4.5-5.6 GM. As Nikon has shown with the Z 6 / Z 7 design, adding a few millimetres in width and height can bring a significant improvement to handling without sacrificing the ‘small camera’ concept. Sony is still convinced that the tiny size of its bodies brings it a competitive advantage, but while that’s true in comparison to DSLRs, it’s not a decisive advantage compared to other mirrorless designs. Other welcome features would include a more flexible screen design that’s useful when shooting in portrait format, and a properly integrated touch interface.