Nikon D3200 to Use Sony 24-Megapixel Image Sensor

Over the past 7 years, while Nikon and Canon, the traditional camera giants, have slowly fallen asleep and failed to innovate, Sony’s been hard at work pushing their DSLR and NEX lines of cameras and moving past 100-year-old standards. Sony has proved that, by packing in a million plus pixels in their EVF, photographers can not only get realistic colors but also get a lot of technical feedback without having to revert to the larger on screen LCD. Sony has also been a pioneer of providing a swiveling LCD on their entire range of Alpha DSLR cameras, which helps you shoot from all different kinds of angles. So when you continue to innovate the camera and its internals like the Sony 24-megapixel image sensor, it’s not long before competitors come knocking to use your technology.

Nikon whose previously used Sony image sensors in the D7000 is once again planning on outfitting their latest, the Nikon D3200 with the latest and biggest from Sony. The partnership is expected to give Sony a 6 month exclusive window which places right in line with the availability of the Sony NEX-7 and Sony Alpha A77 which both utilize Sony’s 24-megapixel image sensor. Come April, Nikon will then gain access to the chip and will be releasing the D3200, which also happens to be 6 months after the launch of the NEX-7 and A77, despite their delayed released in the US, due to the devastating floods in Thailand.

An odd part of this rumor then hints that Sony might give Nikon a 6-12 month exclusive window for their Full Frame sensors, placing the long-rumored A99 in a September release time table. None of this has been confirmed by Sony of course but the timing definitely works for the 24-megapixel image sensor. Now it remains to be seen if the full frame time table is closer to 6 months or a year.

Either way, this a bold and good move for Sony in which they can profit from selling their own cameras and every time Nikon sells one. In return, they can take that money and further improve and invest with R&D in image sensors, thus keeping the cycle going.