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There are small signs that Sony’s A99 price is falling down. Redcoon Spain (Click here) now sells it for 2499 Euro which is a 300 Euro price drop compared to the initial regular price. Also The German store Technikdirekt (Click here) now sells the A99 for 2666 Euro. In US the lowest price now is $2610 at BigValue (Click here). And My guess is that more price drops will follow soon. Canon and Nikon forces them to do so (and that’s good for us).

One more news…DigitalPhotographySchool posted their A99 review.

P.S.: The RX100 sells for less than 500 Euro at Amazon France!

I have to catch up with some recent RX1 tests. On top you see the latest X-E1 vs RX1 comparison by Steve Huff. Sony RX1 autofocus test at SonyAlphaLab. An RX1 long term review at DC.watch (translation here). More RX1 tests at http://tashley1.zenfolio.com/blog. Sony RX1 first impression review at Calebluke.

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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).

Image courtesy: Engadget.

As you know Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai is trying to restructure the company by focusing on profitable businesses. Engadget now reports that “Sony has announced that it has agreed to sell its New York headquarters building to a consortium led by The Chetrit Group. After settling its debts on the building, the $1.1 billion sale will net Sony about $685 million in operating income, potentially giving it the extra cashflow it needs to avoid a negative Q3 earnings report.”

I repeat it again, all that doens’t affect Sony’s commitment on digital cameras. Actually quite the opposite is happening. Sony elevated the Imaging Business on the top priority list and a lot of development is ongoing. Goals are pretty high and I expect some major breakthrough tech to come in 2014 (as I have written in my previous post).

The Canon EOS-5 A2(E) had Eye Tracking AF.

Yesterday I told you about the new three layer technology that will may appear in 2014. And so will the new Full Frame Mirrorless. The next key tech that may appear in this crucial year is Eye Tracking AF:

Sony is considering to implement that feature on their upcoming Flagship in 2014. They call it “Eye controlled Focus System”. This feature of the camera will track objects using some infrared sensors in the viewfinder following the eye movement. The advantage is the rapid change/move of focus points (e.g. from the middle to the border). The biggest disadvantage is that You will have to calibrate Your eye for this to work properly. Also this will only work using the viewfinder, it will not work using LiveView on the display. The feature can be enabled/disabled and will have a memory (calibration data) for 3 users. If or when this really comes in the final product, is uncertain. It will depend on the further development in 2013, but will be the absolute burner. Tests are promising, but the implementation might be to expensive for midrange products. We’ll see.

Note: this is not a new feature. It was in a real product from Canon – the EOS-5 A2(E) – built until 2000 (here on eBay). Can You see the similarities to the SLT technology?!? ;-))  Maybe Sony will be able to solve all problems and flaws and make this feature available for the “digital” photographic world.

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Special Thanks to the anonymous source for this! Hope to hear more from you in future

One more thing: What is the “Flagship 2014″?

There is a new action by Sigma. You can grab the two 30mm and 19mm E-mount lenses for the price of one single lens ($199) at BHphoto (Click here).

And as a reminder… here are still four deals at Amazon (Click here and than scroll down to “Sony Deals”).