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I particularly like cheap and good quality lenses. And the Sony 50mm f/1.8 for NEX is certainly one of them. Too bad it’s not available in black as the silver color really doesn’t look nice on my Sony NEX-7. Anyway, here are a couple of test you have to read if you are currently considering to buy the lens:

Joseph Eckert (Click here) posted a new 5mm for NEX lens test: “The price is pretty good for a lens with this large an aperture, and combined with decent sharpness this can make a good portrait lens. But make sure you know exactly why you are buying this, otherwise it might end up sitting around in your bag.”

Also 3D-Kraft (Click here) is busy testing the lens. And actually he compared the lens with the 10 times more expensive Leica Summilux: “you still see an advantage for the (10 times more expensive) Summilux, which has about half a stop wider aperture and is able to render a perfectly creamy bokeh. But the E 1.8/50 OSS can make some points with autofocus and optical stabilization which helps a lot in more agile situations.”

And the Flemish website Nexblog (Click here to read the google translation) compared the 50mm F/1.8 E-mount vs. Minolta 50mm F/1.4 RS (Click here to see the Minolta lens on eBay).

One more thing: Readers from USA, Canada and Germany sent me emails to say that the lens is currently shipping in their countries. Here is the list of shops (click on names) I usually check to see when it’s in Stock. Good Luck!

Australia: Sony.au, Digitalrev, Amazon, Adorama, B&H, eBay.au
Austria: Amazon.at, Sony.at, eBay.at
Belgium: Sony.be, eBay.be
Canada: Sony.ca, B&H, Adorama, eBay.ca
China: Amazon.cn, Digitalrev, eBay
Denmark: Sony.dk, eBay
Finland: Sony.fi, eBay
France: Sony.fr, Amazon.fr, eBay.fr
Germany: Amazon.de, Sony.de, eBay.de
Hong Kong: Amazon, Digitalrev, B&H, Adorama, eBay
Ireland: Sony.ie, Amazon.uk, eBay.ie
Italy: Sony.it, Amazon.it, eBay.it
Japan: Amazon.jp, Rakuten, eBay
Netherlands: Sony.nl, eBay.nl
Norway: Sony.no, eBay
Poland: Sony.pl, Redcoon.pl, eBay
Singapore: Digitalrev, B&H, eBay
Spain: Sony.es, Amazon.es, Redcoon.es, eBay
Sweden: Sony.se, eBay
Switzerland: Sony.ch, Amazon.de, eBay.ch
United Kingdom: Amazon.co.uk, Warehouseexpress, eBay UK
USA: Amazon, B&H, Adorama, J&R, eBay

Here is the A77/A65 firmware info (Click on image to enlarge).

Finally some good news! The new A77/A65 firmware will arrive on March 29th. And here is the firmware update features list:

1) Expanded the number of automatic compensation compliant lenses (6 lens)
24/2 ZA　　85/1.4 ZA　　135/1.8 ZA
70-300/4.5-5.6 G　DT35/1.8　DT50/1.8

2) Improvement of response
・Improvement of response for Auto review
（Display of [Processing] will not appear）
・Shorten time lag between power SW operation and power off
・Improvement of response for front/rear dial and mode dial
・Improvement of response in play back mode

3) Improve AF response with 500mmF4 lens

4) Improvement of AF accuracy for low contrast objects

5) Improvement of compatibility of Minolta lens
[Konica Minolta] 1.4X TELE CONVERTER APO X [Konica Minolta] AF APO 300/2.8
[Konica Minolta] 2.0X TELE CONVERTER APO X [Konica Minolta] AF APO 300/2.8
[Konica Minolta] 1.4X TELE CONVERTER APO X [Konica Minolta] AF APO 600/4

The great news is the response improvement. There is no info about possible JPEG quality improvements.
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Sony A77 at Amazon, B&H, Adorama, J&R, eBay.
Sony A65 at Amazon, B&H, Adorama, J&R, eBay.

Our Chinese readers shared a link to a XITEK post from a mysterious source. Our Chinese readers said he is a good source but I have no records about him so please take everything with a grain of salt. I repeat this is not a rumor from MY trusted sources!

Here is the camera roadmap from Sony according to the Chinese source:

SLR:
a600, 1830 megapixel, 2012 (March) -> The A580 successor
a950 (a1), 36 million pixels, 2013 (February) -> The A900 successor

SLT:
a37, 16 million pixels, 2012 (March) -> The A580 successor
a57, 16 million pixels, 2012 (May) -> The A580 successor
a99, 24 million pixels, 2012 (September)

NEX
NEX-F3 2012 (March) -> The NEX-C3 successor
NEX-5G, 18.3 million pixels, 2012 (September) -> The NEX-5n successor
Fullframe NEX in late 2013.

I would be really (positively) surprised if Sony would launch an optical viewfinder DSLR. I hope it’s true but I am very very sceptical! But just for fun, let’s do a poll to let Sony know what of the “rumored” cameras you would like to see for real:

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Reminder (SR = Sonyrumor):
SR1=probably fake rumor
SR2=rumor from unknown sources
SR3=50% chance it is correct
SR4=rumor from known sources
SR5=almost certainly correct!

First we had that price increase in Hong Kong, than the rumored price increase in USA. Now one of my trusted sources told me that Sony is going to increase the price almost EVRYEWHERE This means that also European and other Asian countries will see new price increases. I don’t have exact info about how much the prices will raise. I only know you will see them in April

For now our USA readers can enjoy an Instant Rebate action at Bhphoto (Click here). It last until March 3th. And from April 1 the party is over with the following price increase:

Some of our readers noticed that Sony US (Click here) completely removed the A850 and A900 from their stores. A month ago we reported how Sony Japan announced the production stop of the current FF DSLR cameras. Now they are completely gone from the Sony website. A bit pity that we still have to wait until September to see the new Sony FF model. As you know this is an SLT camera with 24 Megapixel and 50-102.400 ISO. The camera is already being tested by photographers and I should get some more info soon.

A personal note: What I will miss form the A900 is the superb 100% viewfinder. It was really the best!

Here are the search links to the last two FF cameras with optical viewfinder (you may will not find them anymore):
Sony A900 Amazon, B&H, Adorama, J&R, eBay.
Sony A850 Amazon, B&H, Adorama, J&R, eBay.