Unlike most digital camera manufacturers, Sony was not a major player in the film camera market before entering the digital market. Sony cameras include the company's Cyber-Shot series of digital fixed-lens cameras and its Alpha series of DSLRs and mirrorless ILCs.
Sony was founded in 1946 as Tokyo Communications Industry Co., Ltd. as a telecommunications equipment manufacturer.
The company created paper tape in 1950 under the brand Sony and changed its name to Sony Corporation in 1958. The company focused on tape and transistor radios, tape recorders, and televisions.
Sony's global headquarters is located in Tokyo, Japan. Sony Corporation of America was founded in 1960 and is headquartered in New York.
Here are a few milestones that have shaped the brand’s history:
- In 1975, Sony introduced the half-inch Betamax video recorder to consumers.
- In 1984, it launched a portable CD player called the Discman.
After the VCR and Discman represented great innovations in the consumer electronics market, the company's digital camera phase went through several waves:
- Sony's first digital camera was launched in 1988. It's called Mavica, and it works with a TV screen display.
- Sony didn't launch another digital camera until 1996, when it released the company's first Cyber-shot model.
- In 1998, Sony launched the first digital camera to use a Memory Stick external memory card. Most previous digital cameras used internal memory.
Sony offers digital cameras for every level of photographer, from beginner to intermediate to advanced.
Sony's advanced digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) cameras use interchangeable lenses and are best suited for intermediate photographers and advanced beginners.
However, Sony no longer makes a lot of DSLR cameras, instead focusing on mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras.
Sony offers mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras that don't use a mirror mechanism to work with an optical viewfinder.
Therefore, they are smaller and thinner than DSLR cameras. This type of camera offers good image quality and a host of advanced features.
Sony also focuses on manufacturing advanced fixed-lens cameras with large image sensors to produce high-quality images.
This type of model will typically appeal to DSLR camera owners who want a smaller secondary camera that can still capture beautiful images. These advanced fixed-lens cameras are expensive, sometimes more expensive than entry-level DSLRs, but are still attractive, especially for portrait photographers.
Sony offers Cyber-shot point-and-shoot camera models with a variety of camera body types and feature sets. You can find ultra-thin models on Amazon and third-party retailers for around $300 to $400.
Some of the larger models offer high resolution and large zoom lenses, and prices for these premium models range from $450 to well over $1,000. Others are basic, low-end models, ranging in price from about $100 to $250.
However, due to the ever-increasing quality of smartphone cameras, Sony has all but exited this segment of the digital camera market, so if you want a Sony point-and-shoot, you're going to have to look for an older camera.
On the Sony website you can purchase a variety of accessories for the Cyber-Shot and other digital cameras, including batteries, AC adapters, battery chargers, camera bags, interchangeable lenses, external flashes, cables, memory cards, tripods and Remote control, among other items.
Sony also manufactures consumer and professional video cameras that are widely used in the film production industry as well as in home video.
Although Sony still makes many cameras, it is no longer as heavily involved in the point-and-shoot market as it once was. Many Sony Cyber-Shot models are still available, either as clearance models or on the secondary market, so fans of Sony's technology do have some options.
