The following is a guest post from Phil Rudin (http://www.uwpmag.com/). To write a guest post on SAR follow the instruction on that page.

Zeiss Batis 18 Mm F/2.8 & Zen DP-200 Dome review by Phil Rudin

Zeiss the company founded by Carl Zeiss in the mid 1800s’ is among the most renowned of lens manufacturers. The company offers a wide range of optical products ranging from vision care and medical use to camera and cine lenses. Among the Zeiss products is a line of lenses for the Sony FE mount mirrorless cameras. The Zeiss “Batis” line of auto focus lenses recently expanded
to include an [shoplink 51094]18 mm F/2.8[/shoplink] rectilinear lens of exceptional quality.

From the presentation text:

Photographer Joe Brady explores the next biggest thing for Sony shooters, Elinchrom’s new EL Skyport Plus HS system with Hi-Sync capability. This system allows you to shoot studio and portable strobes with shutter speeds up to 1/8000th of a second. Check out the results as Joe Brady goes in-depth using this exciting new unit.

The Elinchrom EL-Skyport Transmitter Plus HS for Sony can now be purchased at BHphoto (Click here).

This is a guest post from Dierk Topp:

Cheap solution for Long Time Exposures with Sony NEX and Alpha cameras beyond 30 seconds

A few weeks ago I noticed a very special phenomena. When I left our house for a few minutes of fresh air at about 11 PM I noticed incredible flashes in the clouds, no noise or thunder but flashes every few seconds or even faster.

I hurried to get a camera. I decided to use the A7RII and the FE 24-70 f/4 zoom to be flexible with the angle of view. And I took a tripod and the IR remote shutter release. For the long exposure time I set the camera to B (bulb) and used the IR remote release. I was pressing the release for about 20 seconds and noticed, that the shutter stayed open after I finished pressing and then the shutter closed after I pressed it again! ?

I don’t know if this was described earlier but for me it was new. I know an undocumented trick like this for the Leica M9 (by using B in combination with the self timer).

If you know old cameras or large format cameras you will know, that you have a shutter speed of ‘B’ that keeps the shutter open as long as you press the shutter release, just like on the Sony and other cameras. And you have a shutter speed ‘T’ that opens the shutter when you press the release and stays open until you press it again. But on these older cameras you can use a cable release that is  not possible on the Sony cameras, that I know (without any additional hardware) .

What can you do for longer exposures without shaking and blurring the image by holding the shutter release all the time? With the little trick described here you even get a ‘T’ exposure like with the old cameras and get any desired exposure time.
When do you may need very long exposures?

• as in this example for pictures of flashes
• or if you want to use high density ND filters for interesting long time shots of water and/or clouds
• and several other situations where 30 sec. exposure on ‘A’ or ‘B’ is not long enough

How to find the right exposure time?

To find the right exposure time you take a test shot with high ISO and/or open aperture in order to stay below the 30 sec. limit and calculate the exposure time for the desired low ISO and aperture.

Here again how it works:

• set the shutter speed to B
• use a remote IR controller (mine is a cheap one from ebay)
• press the controller once for starting the exposure
• press the controller again to finish the exposure

It works with my A6000, A7R and A7RII and it may work with many other Sony NEX and Alpha cameras as well.
There are other solutions like APPs and or for example intervalometer, but if you have a cheap remote IR release this is by far the easiest solution and does not eat the battery of your smart phone.

If you don’t want or need the Long Exposure Noise Reduction (LENR) and wait the same time till the camera is ready for the next shot you can deactivate it in the menu.

Have fun to test it.

Here is an example with 67 seconds exposure time.

[shoplink 50835]Sony 85mm GM[/shoplink] vs [shoplink 50836]Nikon 105mm[/shoplink] vs [shoplink 50837]Canon 135mm[/shoplink] (via CameraSize and PCH)

The following article is a Guest Post from Johnny Perkka. To write a guest post on SAR follow the instruction on that page.

Additional Editor’s note: This isn’t a fair comparison because you should compare lenses with the exact same focal length and aperture. But theses are the three lenses Johnny had in his hands so take it easy :)
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Sony 85mm G master vs the new 105mm Nikon vs Canon 135mm L Bokeh comparison by Johnny Perkka

Yesterday we here at fotomonza.com received two copies of the eagerly waited [shoplink 50836]Nikon 105mm f/1.4 AF[/shoplink]. Naturally we wanted to put it throught it’s paces and did some quick tests. The bokeh was highly hyped as the ”[shoplink 50837]Canon 135mm f/2 L killer[/shoplink]”. Since I happen to have the fabled Canon lens with the Sigma adapter on my A7rII and am a happy owner of the [shoplink 50835]Sony 85mm G master[/shoplink], renowned for it’s bokeh performance,  I thought it was high time for a bokeh shootout. We threw in the latest Tamron 85mm f/1.8 Di USD in for a good measure and a reference point of what you get on a budget.
Now mind you this is far from a scientific test, and we obviously know that bokeh is also determined by the relative distance of the background to the subject. But the point is, that when you are going for a particular framing of the subject, which weapon you choose for the shot to get the best OOF effect is not determined with a ruler in hand but with a artistic vision. So precise measurements are out, we are going for the look and feel in real world. Of course we assessed the sharpness while we were at it, but someone with a more golden eye can probably prove us wrong, and it’s all good, I ain’t mad. This is just what we did and our conclusions.

So first crops are SOOC with lightroom edits to get the lighting and white balance relatively close on all images. Sharpness was turned to zero, because the G master WAS TOO SHARP if lightroom sharpness was applied. The point was to compare the bokeh in a normal situation. The lenses are top left: Nikon D750 with the Tamron top right the new Nikon 105, bottom left the Canon 135mm L f/2 and lastly on bottom right, the Sony G Master.

To me the Canon is still the bokeh king, but it would be surprising if it wasn’t given the focal length difference. But the real surprise is that bokeh-wise it is very difficult to say which one is better of the 105mm vs the G master. To me the G master is a bit smoother but not much. The Tamron is obviously the loser here, but with a price only one third of the Nikon and Sony, it is understandable.

The next set is a bit closer look, same order of the lenses. The older design of the Canon was evident with visible chromatic aberration on the hands.

Last set is a sharpness crop. Amazingly the Nikon was very sharp wide open, but the G master was sharper still. Like I said, almost too sharp. The feel of the canon is nice, and also very sharp, but not as razory as the G master. The Tamron was on a different league obviosuly, and it was somewhat hard to get to focus properly in the first place.

So the conclusion is, Sony owners are lucky to have such fantastic lens at their disposal and congratz to Nikon guys for getting an awesome lens. Not too bad at all.

Johnny Perkka / fotomonza.com

Sony 85mm GM store links: [shopcountry 50835]

Should you go for the new excellent Zeiss Planas 50mm f/1.4 FE lens or for the much cheaper but still very good new Rokinon 50mm f/1.4 FE lens? Max Yuryev compared both and he is really impressed by the Rokinon which he says 90% as good as the Zeiss.

Sony Planar T* FE 50mm f/1.4 ZA Lens at BHphoto, Amazon, Focuscamera. Calumet.de. Amazon Germany. Cyberport.de. PhotoPorst. Jessops. WexUK.
Rokinon 50mm FE f/1.4 autofocus lens at Amazon US, BHphoto, Calumet Germany

Sony G Master 70-200 Hands On Review For Shooting Video.

Sony informed the dealers that they expect to ship a new Stock of 70-200mm GM lenses “sometimes in September”. I guess it’s more likely this means by “end of September” otherwise they would have a more precise shipping info. Check the 70-200mm GM in Stock status at BHphoto, Amazon, Adorama, Focuscamera. Calumet.de. Amazon Germany. Cyberport.de. PhotoPorst. Jessops. WexUK.

And now let’s check out the latest 70-200mm GM test videos:
Sony 70-200 G-Master Initial Sports Review (Volleyball) by ThatCameraGuy
(4K) Battle of the Sony Long Range Zooms | Sony 70-300 vs 70-200 vs 24-240 by Noba Tech
SONY 70-200 mm G MASTER – Test und Vorstellung | DEUTSCH

The following article is a Guest Post by Steve Lawlors. To write a guest post on SAR follow the instruction on that page.
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I have done a study of travel tripods in search of a suitable yet lighter one than the Promaster X525 at 1.25kg that I currently use.

I want to hear from anyone who knows of a lightweight tripod thats not a tabletop low height model, or over 1.3kg (2.8lb), there are tens of good travel tripods between 1.3kg and 2kg (Read discussion at SonyAlphaForum).

Background:
I am religious about weight and compact size, why I never bought a DSLR in the past and waited a painful two years when I had the money to buy my first full frame dslr, for the A7r to come out.
My Lowepro Protactic 450AW backpack is about 8.5kg fully packed with A7r, 24-70, 16/35, F20m, F60m, lotsa batteries and other lightweight accessories. Although I usually put my batteries and tripod in my suitcase, I want to get the whole kit closer to 7kg or at least under 8 so I can go cabin baggage with the lot when flying.

Tripods:
I can’t find a better tripod than the Promaster X525 that I currently use, believe me I want to find one lighter with minimal compromise but I cant, if anyone else can beat its specs for the A7r with a strong focus on lower weight without losing reasonable height please reply.

Let me summarize features of the top contenders that I found in order of importance to me……all weights include the head.

Must have features in bold, Nice to haves in italic underlined

Promaster X525 V

Website: Promaster.com
Store Links: [shopcountry 50487]
Weight: 1.25kg (2.7lb)
Height: 160cm
Folded Length 40cm (with Head)
Weight Hook: Yes
Spirit levels: Yes 2
Monopod: Yes
Cost US$170
Cons: plate too big, can’t tilt A7r screen when attached, not a big deal but an annoyance.

Promaster also have a carbon version, X525c that has identical features to the X525 at $300 it is 960g, thats 290g less for 80% more in cost, the X525 is on par with the T-024x below but $60 more and 20cm more on height.

Manfrotto befree Carbon

Store Links: [shopcountry 50488]
Weight: 1.1kg (2.4lb)
Height: 144cm
Folded Length 40cm (with Head)
Clip legs (I recon this is much better and faster than the screw in types but have not used yet)
Weight Hook: No
Spirit levels: No
Monopod: No
Cost US$350
Cons: Price and items missing above, height is low, not much gain in weight loss 150g.

Sirui T-024x

Store Links: [shopcountry 50491]
successor of the T-025x, its updated with an adjustable centre column which I hear was a big stability weakness of the T-025x but unfortunately it adds 120g of weight making it 920g
Weight: 920g (2lb)
Height: 139cm
Folded Length 40cm (with Head)
Weight Hook: Yes
Spirit levels: No
Monopod: No
Cost US$269
Cons: low height
You could add the E or KX series ball head which have spirit levels but they add 80g for the E and 150g in weight for the KX, but I believe the T-024 comes with the C-10 head so you would have to buy two heads in total making it expensive.

Sirui T-025x

Store Links: [shopcountry 50492]
Weight: 800g (1.76lb) (various websites from Sirui’s to Adorama to BH photo give different weights for this tripod, showing the tripod as 700g with the head listed separately at 200g etc, but I think these are errrors and with head its 800G.
Height: 139cm
Folded Length 34cm (30 without head)
Weight Hook: Yes
Spirit levels: No
Monopod: No
Cost US$239
Cons: low height, stability issue described here http://www.dpreview…./thread/3235300

You can remove the fixed central column to resolve the stability issue but height goes to 95cm
Mark Galer reviews tye T025x briefly and other tripods here http://www.markgaler…he-tiny-tripods

My Conclusion:
1) The Befree is too expensive for just 150g less than the x525 and looses a lot of its nice to have features,
2) The Sirui T-024x is 330g less than the x525, its tempting but not enough weight loss to justify buying a new one
3) I would love the T-025x at 800g but the stability issue is stopping me currently
4) I struggle to justify the 80% more ($130) for the X525c compared to the X525, however at just 160g over the Sirui T025x and not loosing on height that looks like my best choice for my next tripod.

Currently I am tied between,
i) Sirui T025x (Unstable, 20cm less, 160g less and 6 cm less packed down) and
ii) Promaster X525c ($130 more, 20cm more and more stable)

But I am very strict on weight, so for anyone reading this I would recommend the X525 at $170 as the stand out winner here, after all I will keep that and buy a lighter model so I will have both, therefore maybe the lure of the 800g Sirui will take me before year end as my second tripod:)

Cheers, Steve
Lawlors Landscapes
www.lawlor.me