These new Zeiss Touit lenses look like a very great addition to the new E-mount lens range. SAR reader Rob had the pleasure to test these lenses on the Sony NEX-5n: “I just posted à long hands on review of the Carl zeiss touit 12mm on à Sony nex 5n. See http://transcontinenta.wordpress.com/2013/05/08/hands-on-review-van-de-carl-zeiss-touit-2-812mm/
I also did Many shots with the Sony nex 7 and the Same lens in the Dutch Keukenhof . See our flickr account for that with Many high res touit samples taken With the 32mm on à fujifilm XE-1 and à Sony nex 7.”

And there are plenty of new image samples and news to read: A new Zeiss Blog entry that talks about the lens design, 12mm Hands-on at Photographyblog and image samples at Photographyblog. 32mm Hands-on at Photographyblog and image samples at Photographyblog. Image samples also at Diglloyd. 12mm image samples at ThePhoBlographer.

Zeiss preorder links:
12mm f/2.8 at BHphoto, Adorama and Uniquephoto. In Europe at CameraCenter UK and FotoMundus.
32mm f/1.8 at BHphoto, Adorama and Uniquephoto. In Europe at CameraCenter UK and FotoMundus.

We have the first three “Lens Turbo” feedbacks from SAR readers (eBay auctions here):

1) SAR reader Gary (Click here) tested the Pentax to NEX Lens Turbo and you can see plenty of images on his blog. Some of his early findings:

- The build quality on the unit is fantastic,
- The field-of-view is actually a bit narrower than I expected,
- There is also a hint of vignetting wide open, and the adapter seems to add a slight green tint to the image, as well as a hint of distortion,
- it does seem to smudge and swirl the bokeh a bit.

2) Southerns: I’m returning my Lens Turbo. There is a large bluish dot in the center. Shot with a FS700 – http://youtu.be/zYB0lesJaxo I used the Samyang 14mm and Samyang 24mm. I also tested at the same time with the MTF adapter and that was ok. No filters were used at all. The camera was in the shade and I get the blue dot facing the opposite direction away from the sun too.

3) SAR reader Donny shared his Len Turbo image samples. Click on them to enlarge. The George Takai magazine, 2 Flower Shots, and Payphone were all shot with the Nex 5n plus, Lens Turbo Nikon-NEX adapter, and Nikkor 50 1.4 AIS.The rest were shot with the Samyang 35 1.4. All with an aperture of /f1.4 on lens (which becomes f/1.0 witht he Lens Turbi).

Current Lens Turbo auctions:

1) Hong Kong store Roxens sells the Pentax K to NEX adapter on eBay (Click here), Canon FD to NEX adapter on eBay (Click here) and Nikon F to NEX adapter on eBay (Click here) and Minolta MD to NEX adapter on eBay (Click here)
2) Shanghai store Jinfinance has three adapters:  Pentax K to NEX adapter on eBay (Click here),  Canon FD to NEX adapter on eBay (Click here) and Nikon F to NEX adapter on eBay (Click here).

There are four new auctions of Lens Turbo Adapters (the Chinese version of Speed Boosters):
1) Hong Kong store Roxens sells the Pentax K to NEX adapter on eBay (Click here), Canon FD to NEX adapter on eBay (Click here) and Nikon F to NEX adapter on eBay (Click here) and Minolta MD to NEX adapter on eBay (Click here)
2) Shanghai store Jinfinance has three adapters:  Pentax K to NEX adapter on eBay (Click here),  Canon FD to NEX adapter on eBay (Click here) and Nikon F to NEX adapter on eBay (Click here).

Please notice that I don’t know these stores. But you can pay via PayPal with all the guarantees you get through it. And the stores have a high 99,5% positive feedback. The real doubt we have is if these adapters are as good as the Metabones Speed Booster. There is a first feedback on Dpreview forum written by “Forpetessake”:

“Adapter looks well made, lenses are coated, it feels heavy. The adapter fits very well on the Sony body, but the lens mount feels tight.
Optically it’s better than I expected. I took a few pictures with the Lens Turbo and with a dumb adapter from the same distance, only changing the FL to get the same FOV. The images looked sharper with Lens Turbo than with a dumb adapter, though I didn’t do any measurements, so I don’t know yet if the resolution or contrast improved or the lens is simply better on the long end. Since in real life shooting, all other things being equal, the lens will be closed more with Lens Turbo than with dumb adapter, the improvements in sharpness should be even better. But that’s my speculation. The light gathering improved, though I can’t verify if it’s one stop. Because of the variable aperture lens in this experiment, I got around 1.6 (1/160 sec exposure vs 1/100 sec) improvement.
Now, the negatives. There is a noticeable vignetting on the short end at a fully open aperture. It decreases as the aperture being closed. That was expected, and might not be a big problem in real shooting. There is also a glare in high contrast situations when shooting towards light source. It looks like a fuzzy bluish spot near the center. It might be the light reflected from the sensor and the rear surface of the Lens Turbo, which is flat. Other than that I didn’t notice any other problems.”

Would be nice to see a Speed Booster vs Lens Turbo real world comparison! Some reviewers out there ready to do this for us?

The RX1 is a unique camera so it doens’t come as a surprise that it just won two awards. It has been voted as best Premium Compact camera at the German TIPA award and it also won the CamerGP 2013 award (Source: DC.watch). The Sony 10-18mm got the price as bext expert lens for mirrorless systems and the best pro camcorder is the NEX-VG900 FF camcorder.

RX1 links roundup:
RX1 at Amazon, B&H, Adorama, J&R, eBay.
RX1 Gariz accessories:
1) They made a new half leather case in Black and Brown (Click here to see them on eBay).
2) The new lens cap (Click here to see them on eBay).
3) The new entry is the anti loose button(!) (Click here to see them on eBay). Don’t know if that will be really useful for you RX1 owners. Someone has it and call it how it works? Thanks!
4) And this is the really first time I see that. A special Leather skin hood! (Click here to see them on eBay).

The Hasselblad Lunar is all about high quality material and luxurious outlook. And exactly that “feature” has been shortly reviewed at Genotypewritings (Click here). And what he writes really doens’t sound good: “the camera immediately becomes disappointing in terms of its finish. This particular model felt very plastic-like all over. To make things worse, they have chosen the most plastic and rubber-like materials for the knobs.”

And if you read the rest of the article you can find some other issues on the camera (like the ON button without OFF mark) and so on. I really like Hasselblad camera history. And of course it’s also ok to move into the luxury segment. But the Lunar seems to not have that luxury feeling they were targeting for. I hope this was just an unfinished prototype camera.

found via PR.