(Dath vader voice:) Impressive!
That’s what I thought. 
(minus Darth Vader sadly…)
The bit about it allowing flash sync at any speed is especially interesting, given that (AFAIK) only leaf shutters have had that ability in the past.
If you think about it, it makes sense … progressive capture of sensor data is akin to focal plane shutter progressively exposing part of the image.
This, however, is NOT progressive but rather global, virtually instantaneous capture. How they (Sony) achieve that electronically is a fascinating question to ponder: just how many bits wide is their data bus???
I wonder if that adds to the heat output, or they implemented an efficient processor or cooling system.
I know this is a big technical breakthrough but I can’t help feeling “so what”.
The improvements are only for people working in very, very small and very, very specific niches. Current gear is already way over the top in terms of capabilities and performance. This will not make a difference to our visual culture.
In a few years, this will be a huge deal! The thing is, this camera can take multiple shots in quick succession without any shutter blackout. This means any longer exposure can be broken into many shorter exposures without losing any data.
This has various practical applications:
- any single exposure that might blow out highlights can be broken into several shorter exposures that don’t blow out. Highlight clipping will be entirely eliminated as a problem. Long exposures of open aperture will become possible without ND filters. Infinite dynamic range will be available regardless of sensor full-well-capacity.
- long exposures can be broken into several shorter exposures, and these can be shown on the screen before the long exposure is done. You can see long exposures “build up” in real time, while they’re being recorded. Olympus can already do this (imperfectly) with their “live ND” functionality.
- you can autofocus on each subframe, even at hundreds of frames per second.
- you can shoot the three subpixel panes separately in very quick succession, entirely eliminating the loss of resolution due to the color filter, at least for short exposure times.
- you can eliminate camera shake with “lucky imaging”, that is, take many short exposures and discard any blurry ones. (wherever some shutter lag is permissible)
All of these things are already implemented in smartphones. Some of them are imperfectly available in (fast-reading) Olympus bodies. But they all require continuous, blackout-free shooting, which no other big-sensor camera can currently do. Some require blackout-free readout of 1/1000s exposures. The Sony can do at most 1/120s, as far as we currently know.
Also, this entirely eliminates the jello-effect of rolling shutter, and enables flash syncing at arbitrary shutter speeds (turn day into night, eliminate any fluorescent flicker, shoot wide-open in bright daylight).
So once all of this software magic is implemented, it will be a huge deal! It will enable a jump in quality from the current state of the art that is comparable to the jump between a smartphone raw capture, and a smartphone rendered image, which is staggering. We’ll see how much of that will be available with the initial firmware. Also, the current sensor is limited to ISO 250 and 1/120s, which is not enough for all of these applications.
For Photography I can immediatly see two killer applications
- Flash sync at any speed, WOW!
- Being able to omit a mechanical shutter (if I understood correctly that this is possible)
But apart from that @bastibe post is comprehensive.
But 6k-ish €/$ for the resolution is a bit meh. Then again, I am not in the Sony system, so 
The camera is impressive. No doubt about it.
One downside in my view is the CF express type A (the Sony own card). These are going to be needed to achieve the speed and as of now they are very expensive.
Oddly enough - for the cinema line (like Burano) they went with CF express type B (the cheaper more popular card) if I am not mistaken.
For the pros - that make money out of it - A or B likely doesn’t matter much as it is a business expense at the end.
But even when the technology trickles down to consumer cameras - the speed demand is going to remain and this can be a turn off for consumers because of the price.
Also with storage utilization - one can only imagine how much demand will be on it (many TB of it as far as I can see it).
And on the positive note - usually the new development manifests to the consumer cameras (in whole or part).
And - did you see the lens - 300 F2.8?
The thing is that it’s very rare that people, including professionals, make full use of the resolution and dynamic range of current sensors. The prints are already to large for most rooms. That is if they are event printed. Leaf shutters exist for those with flash sync needs.
I know I’m doing a “640K ought to be enough for anybody.” But with photography there are human and physical limitations that have no comparisons with computer memory.
Occasionally someone dreams of an amazing future where you just grab a frame from a movie to make a photo. This completely fails to understand what a complete nightmare that would be in terms of time and workflow.
A critical and perhaps “killer app” feature of photography is the editing and selection done in real time by a skilled photographer.
Again considering where we are already at IQ and performance wise these improvements are pretty unimportant except for an utterly tiny group of people.
These techniques are radical in what they allow for in small devices. Not so much in larger ones.
Which is pretty much ensured by the $6000 price tag, anyway. I’m sure the features will eventually come to lower priced cameras, though.
But even if it was free it would make no difference for an enormous majority of users. There is simply no reasonable way of “consuming” that extra IQ. Zooming all the way in on some device and going ooh aah is a very short lived enjoyment only cool as novelty. Now it’s not a negative development but only a decent “nice to have” thing.
I’ve just seen some posts on a Nikon group basically saying “Nikon better do something quick or we’re selling all our kit” (paraphrased slightly).
I mean what?
Not long ago (at all!) everyone was crowing about the latest Nikon Z8…
As you’ve said, the use cases are quite specific.
I must be getting prematurely old and grumpy.
I’m sticking with my decade old full frame DSLR!
For my son and me, it was the D-850.
If I was going to upgrade, that would be it…
Nikon is always the last to the table, but they put out the best cameras when they get around to it… The Sony seems like a video camera, not sure Nikon can or will compete with that.
In continuation of the Star Wars reference:
VADER: “VERY impressive!”
LUKE: “6,000?! We could buy our own ship for that!”
Sorry; couldn’t resist. 
Efficient bus system with a good cooling system I suppose.
Here’s the Canadian gang waxing poetic:
Don’t know about that. Pretty much everyone doing video will appreciate the lack of rolling shutter. That’s hardly a very small, specific niche. And while daytime flash photography might not be the biggest segment, there are still plenty doing it with the help of high speed sync. They too will be very happy to not have to deal with HSS.
How many leaf shutter lenses exist for the mainstream (ie. not medium/large format) systems?
Not just that, but you’re being rather elitist and narrow-minded, frankly.
It actually looks like the IQ improvements, in terms of noise and DR at least, are going to be modest. This is all about the possibilities that the global shutter will unlock for the photographer without access to the really expensive gear.
Those larger systems tend to be rather more expensive than this.
Exactly. I suspect that, if this spreads to more modestly priced cameras, we’ll start seeing a lot more daylight flash photography for example.