I am going to start with a comment on the Sony Translucent Mirror camera and then make a separate post about the Camera of the Year.

Sony is revisiting an old idea that in twenty plus year old technology worked but had some serious problems.

Canon for those of you who do or do not remember made at least two cameras with the semi-translucent or pellicle mirror. They were the EOS RT and the EOS 1n-RS. The R was for Real Time and the design was intended to serve several purposes including simplification of the camera and thus enhance speed. Both cameras certainly could burn through film!

I used an EOS 1n-RS for several dozen up to maybe an 100 rolls or so one summer and fall. About three years ago I got to shoot a couple of rolls in an original RT brought over from Asia as well. Great for framing on the fly as the image never disappears and you can always see what you are tracking and shooting! However, as the light goes, so goes the viewfinder as it isn't as bright as a conventional moving mirror. They have to share light with the image. The image in the viewfinder can in a lot of conditions actually be dim!! This also presents another problem that isn't usually brought up.

The light path is always going to have that translucent (also known as a partially silvered mirror) element in the way. That's one more piece of glass in the path of every photograph taken. It also cuts the transmitted light by usually a half-stop or so to the film/sensor. Newer digital technology can easily boost the ISO enough for this to not be a major problem, but still there's a slight additional degradation to the image production in every shot.

The EOS pellicle mirrored cameras were notorious for the mirror suddenly starting to degrade. The reflective coating would start to fracture or flake off. And it often wound up being visible on the film. As this is a fixed mirror, unless Sony has engineered a miracle of field replacement, this probably means a trip to the repair depot if this problem starts with the new alphas with this design for a new prismatic element.

I'd like to play with one for a few days with a couple of top end lenses along with a similarly 'sensored' conventional DSLR body. If it works and is durable it could have a profound effect. But its going to take a year or so of beating this cameras up to see if they hold up and don't present other issues that caused the prior demise of this design.