[Klaus]

Thanks Klaus for this info. So maybe all those horror stories about the 16-70 have to be taken with a pinch of salt because te real culprit maybe the sensor. Would be nice to see whether positive stories about this lens are restricted to the 16mp sensor.

 

The problem is, however, that the 24mp sensor is mainstream today.

The A5000 has a 20mp sensor at the low end of Sony's range but the 16mp one is gone (except among users, of course).

 

Another aspect is that a lower mp sensor is much more friendly to lenses.

 

Higher mp = higher magnification of the flaws and a bigger spread between center (which can still scale) and borders (which struggle). The latter also is easily visible in the current EOS 5Ds R tests as well (stellar center, comparatively mediocre borders). 

 

Finally there are question marks regarding the future of Sony's APS-C camera segment. Sure, they released the A6300 (at an insane price) but unless I am mistaken they didn't bother to release new APS-C format lenses in 2015 (did they even release something in 2014?).  It's also worth to point out that the A6300 roughly costs as much as the A7 mk I so there's a bit of a message there as well ....