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Canon, Nikon, and ... Sony?

Unlike in the manual market where several brands were playing around, the digital photography market was clearly monopolized for years by Canon.

Nikon is taking back market space lately, which is a good sign, and is offering a wide range of digital reflex cameras, pro and semi pro.
But the others don't seem decent players in the DSLR market: Sigma did an attempt being a new one, Minolta has one body, Olympus a few, but they clearly focus on the smaller cameras.

Way back when the first digital cameras appeared, there was some surprise to see Sony jump in the market: they didn't have any camera experience before, and yet they launched a series of hybrid camera's, with success.
Their main advantage was certainly the use of Carl Zeiss lenses: laser sharp.

For a long time there were a lot of rumors Sony would make a DSLR and many of the avid Sony users were waiting for it. Sony and Minolta announced a joint development team, making the new camera based upon the camera experience of Minolta, with the same mount.
Yet some months later Minolta announced they would stop making DSLR cameras.
For a moment it was feared the Sony DSLR would be cancelled, but it wasn't.
It finally arrived in the market: The Sony Alpha, meant for the amateur, lacking professional lenses.
I still don't know it became a big success, I didn't see many of them.

There are quite some new rumors going around these days, as the launch of the new Alpha got announced.

“We believe an SLR camera should be a part of a larger culture, encompassing the entire product line of lenses and accessories, and not just the camera body itself. To successfully create this culture, it’s not enough to offer a body and two or three lens options, which is why, starting this summer, we will launch more than 20 new lens models over the course of a year. Combined with the over 16 million compatible lenses that have been sold to date, we are bringing our entire camera culture toward an ever-expanding future for our customers.”
3 Carl Zeiss lenses included... And a pro body announded...

Seems Sony is taking a second yet serious shot at the DSLR market...

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