The Sony FE 70-300mm lens got tested by the German guys from Photozone. They are not impressed by this lens performance:
Honestly, the Sony FE 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 G OSS disappointed us a little. You are buying such lenses primarily for its potential at the very long end of the range which is where the performance may not be bad but it certainly doesn’t reflect the promises of a G-class lens nor its high price tag. Now that being said – the center quality is still very good at 300mm and that’s where most of the action is at this setting. The lens is a bit expensive relative to its performance. If you want to have 300mm, you just don’t have another choice at the moment but if you can live with a little less we’d rather recommend the Sony FE 70-200mm f/4 G OSS instead.
Note: You now have a choice! The 100-400mm GM….but it costs twice as much :(
ePhotozine tested the Sony 18-110mm PZ OSS f/4.0 E-mount lens. The conclusion:
This is a lens that crosses the requirements of two worlds of photography, stills and video. It can quite easily be used for both, with the proviso that to do so for stills could be quite an expensive option. Having said that, it is very well made, very versatile, can be set up to suit the purpose and handles like a dream. Regardless of the price, it has to be Highly Recommended.
Whether you’re working in video, cinema or something in-between (as most people do nowadays), I think this lens is really worth a close look. There’s currently no other lens that compares to it in terms of versatility, price and physical design. Furthermore, I found the optical quality achieved in tandem with Sony’s internal electronic solutions and automatic lens compensation to be really impressive.
Here is a new A9 news and test roundup:
Sony α9 – First Impression by Jan Tichy
The Sony a9 5x Slow Motion (120fps) by Gary Fong.
Sony Removes SLOG on Sony a9? (ThatCameraGuy)
Sony A9 – Not so hot on second look? (PeterGregg).
Sony A9 4K Video ( low light test ) at Cameras Tested.
100-400mm preview by PCmag.
Electronic shutter evolution: Sony A9 and Olympus OM-D E-M1 II (Mirrorlesscomparisons).
Canon, Nikon, Sony : on compare les prix (Focus Numerique).
Kurz ausprobiert: Sony Alpha 9 (Photoscala).
Sony a9 offers powerful pro-level customization (Dpreview).
Sony Alpha A9 Full-Frame Mirrorless Camera – First Look by Cameta Camera
The Belgium PCH Store is doing a Sony A9 Pre-order gift. For each a9 Pre-order they give for free the battery Grip and a free battery till the end of June !
Please support SAR:
You know me, I work my ass off to get the best news and rumors on SAR :) And this is the right time to reward me by using these affiliated links for your purchase! I will get a small commission and you don’t have to pay a cent more for that. Thanks!
Win an AMEX card ($4,500) at BHphoto: US readers preordering the A9 at BHphoto using our links (and our affiliated links only!) have a chance to win an AMEX card mathching the value of the Sony A9 ($4,500). The winner will be randomly selected by BHphoto by end of June after the preorders shipped out!
The conditions and legal notes of the sweepstake can be read here: sonyalpharumors.com/official-bh-sonyalpharumors-a9-launch-sweepstakes-rules/
Win an A9 at Adorama: If you preoder the Sony A9 at Adorama through our affiliated links only (it doesn’t work on links of other sites!) they will refund one lucky customer their $4,498 price on the A9! This will be for pre-orders. Once the orders start shipping (some time the end of May) Adorama will filter all the orders that came from SAR, and randomly select one A9 order and refund the customer their money. This is for the camera only and not the new 100-400mm lens or accessories.
The conditions and legal notes of the sweepstake can be read here: sonyalpharumors.com/official-adorama-sonyalpharumors-a9-launch-sweepstakes-rules/
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Join our new Sony A9 Facebook group!
There are many new A9 tests. So let’s check them out:
Editorial journalist Nick Didlic did use six A9 camera to shoot the Kentucky derby. The full report can be read at Alphauniverse. What Nick liked most is:
Everybody else is shooting 10 to 12 frames per second and I’m shooting 20 frames a second…I’m seeing those horses’ hooves off the ground more than anybody else is!’
Here is a video from Nick Didlic at 20fps:
And Sam Palis posted this A9 test video:
And this is a video of the A9 focus following a buggy:
Please support SAR:
You know me, I work my ass off to get the best news and rumors on SAR :) And this is the right time to reward me by using these affiliated links for your purchase! I will get a small commission and you don’t have to pay a cent more for that. Thanks!
Win an AMEX card ($4,500) at BHphoto: US readers preordering the A9 at BHphoto using our links (and our affiliated links only!) have a chance to win an AMEX card mathching the value of the Sony A9 ($4,500). The winner will be randomly selected by BHphoto by end of June after the preorders shipped out!
The conditions and legal notes of the sweepstake can be read here: sonyalpharumors.com/official-bh-sonyalpharumors-a9-launch-sweepstakes-rules/
Win an A9 at Adorama: If you preoder the Sony A9 at Adorama through our affiliated links only (it doesn’t work on links of other sites!) they will refund one lucky customer their $4,498 price on the A9! This will be for pre-orders. Once the orders start shipping (some time the end of May) Adorama will filter all the orders that came from SAR, and randomly select one A9 order and refund the customer their money. This is for the camera only and not the new 100-400mm lens or accessories.
The conditions and legal notes of the sweepstake can be read here: sonyalpharumors.com/official-adorama-sonyalpharumors-a9-launch-sweepstakes-rules/
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Join our new Sony A9 Facebook group!
Dpreview analyzed the A9 RAW files (note: pre-production camera!). First the good news:
Noise appears to be well-controlled, and they’re very malleable, even at the high ISO values we found ourselves shooting at.a
And now the bad news:
These issues with color are exacerbated with auto white balance that struggled under artificial light (see the skaters at the top of the page). Sure, it’s not difficult to dial in a custom white balance for a sideline photographer shooting under the same light all evening, but it’s something to note nonetheless as auto white balance can be valuable for fast-moving photographers in fast-changing situations.
While this is also in some measure a matter of personal taste I kinda have to agree that Sony still is a tiny bit behind the great color quality of Canon. Of course this isn’t something to worry about if you have time to work on files. But I do hope Sony will further improve the color performance via future firmware upgrade so that we have to spend less time on post processing.
The video on top shows a quite funny autofocus and buffer test. During the A9 presentation (in Hong Kong?) a guy tries to fool the A9 AF tracking by moving a black card around the frame as fast as he can. But as hard as they try the A9 keeps the AF points right on the card. Really impressive!
We also got a bunch of new Sony a9 High ISO Examples by Spencer Pablo.
