Sony Unveils A700

With all the hubbub surrounding Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week, we almost missed a pretty significant announcement from Sony which gave us the release date and a few more details about the replacement of its very popular A700 model.
When we looked at the high-end digital SLR way back in September 2007 we were very impressed and the Alpha model went on to be a very successful and popular model for Sony. So a replacement was always going to be eagerly awaited to help continue Sony’s stellar rise in the world of DSLRs which started with the entry-level A100. We first sawa prototype of the successor model at Photokina last year (see below) and now a new image has been unveiled. The image above is one released by Sony who also this week announced the as yet unnamed model will be released “mid-year.”

While the name of the model has not been released, going by Sony’s naming conventions the likely monikers for this model will be the A800 or – following the A33 and A55 - it could be called the A77. The reason it could be the A77 is because this model employs the same Translucent Mirror Technology first seen in the A33 and A55 last year. As regards other specifications, Sony has been pretty tight lipped but did say the A800/A77’s body will also feature a new battery grip and new flash. It will also allow for Full HD video recording and sport Sony's newly developed Exmor APS HD CMOS sensor.
There was no mention from Sony what the sensor size would be but considering the A55 boasts 16.2 megapixels, the A800/A77 will probably be larger than this and somewhere around 18 megapixels would seem reasonable. Recent reports in the media suggesting the replacement for the A700 would have 25 megapixels was rubbished by a Sony spokesman this week. The other major issue for people considering upgrading to this model will be price but Sony has not released any information in this regard.

We will be eagerly watching this space and once a more concrete release date, specifications and a price are announced we will be bringing them to you.