Sony Alpha A33 and A55 Official: First Translucent Mirror DSLRs

The rumors that have been circulating in recent weeks were spot on: Sony has just announced four new DSLR cameras: the A33, A55, A560, and A580. As expected, the A33 and A55 are the world’s first pellicle mirror DSLRs, and have the features and specs we posted just yesterday: phase-detect autofocus while recording HD video or shooting 7fps or 10fps respectively.

Additional features include a swiveling 3-inch LCD, 3D panoramas, and automatic HDR creation.

Here’s a recording of an official promo video, published by Pocket-lint:

The A33 will arrive in September for $650, while the A55 hits the market in October at the price of $750.

In other news, the A560 and A580 are more standard upgrades to the Sony DSLR lineup. They boast 1080p HD video recording and shoot 7fps with those old-fashion flippin’ mirror things. The A560 has 14.2 megapixels, while the A580 as 16.2. ISO goes up to 25,600, and both cameras can also do Auto HDR and 3D panoramas. The A580 arrives in October for €900 (~1.1K USD), while the A560 will appear early next year for €800 (~1K USD).

Finally, Sony also announced three new lenses to the Alpha lineup: the 24mm f/2, 35mm f/1.8, and 85mm f/2.8. The 24mm will ship in late September for $1,250, the 85mm will arrive the same time for $250, and finally the 35mm hits the market mid-October for $200.

Now that Nikon and Sony have made their big pre-Photokina announcements, let’s see what Canon has up their sleeve.

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