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Sony really hit a home-run with the NEX-7 but there is no time for them to sit down on their glorious success. I think the new Fuji camera you see here at Mirrorlessrumors is definitely going to challenge the NEX-7. Maybe Sony could lower the price of the NEX-7 to counterattack Fuji?

Joke aside, there are a couple of things that are nice on the Fuji.

1) it has a hybrid viewfinder. Actually the optical viewfinder zooms in and out depending on the kind of lens you use.
2) It has three wonderful prime lenses. Something that we really need for our system too!
3) it has an external phase detection sensor. It’s a new way to get fast AF without having to rely on the contrast AF or SLT technology. Sounds also very cool!

Anyway, I think Fuji did what Nikon avoided to do. A serious mirrorless cameras. Maybe the future battle will be between Canon, Sony and Fuji and no more a battle against Nikon and Micro Four Thirds.

We didn’t talk a lot about the new A-mount 16-50mm f/2.8 lens. So let’s take a deep look at the lens by reading the latest review from our friend Kurt Munger (Click here). He tested the lens on the probably last ever made Sony DSRL with optical viewfinder…the A580. He posted many interesting detailed test about the lens. I am not going to disclose here all his findings but in short he writes: “Probably the best quality of this lens is the nice contrast and resolution at F/2.8-4.  In fact, there isn’t a reason to stop it down further if sharpness is your main concern, depth of field of course is another matter.  Low-light hand-held shooters will love this lens.  Other nice optical qualities include low light fall-off, no coma, and manageable distortion at longer focal lengths“.

Good work Sony….we now need more of these kind of new high quality lenses!

While Sony has hard times to ship the A77+16-50mm lens kit it’s a bit easier to find the A77 body and lens in Stock as separate items. The lens is in Stock almost everywhere:
In USA-Canada at Amazon, Sonystore, Adorama, BHphoto, and Sony CA (Click on shop names to visit the lens search page)
In Europe at Amazon DE, Sony DE, Amazon UK, Amazon FR, Sony FR, Sony NL and Sony IT.
In Asia at Digitalrev and Amazon JP.

Of course this is a limited list of stores I check almost daily. Can’t really check every little store of the world Feel free to complete the list by adding your links to the comment section!

One of my favorite websites Photographyblog (Click here) reviewed the NEX-7. Is it a surprise that they like they camera? Certainly not but you don’t see often a camera getting the “Essential” mark like it happened today with the NEX-7: “The combination of an excellent built-in viewfinder, handy pop-up flash, tiltable LCD screen and a high-resolution APS-C sensor, all in a light and compact body, simply can’t be beaten“. And I agree with them when they say that the real only flaw of the NEX-7 are the….missing good quality NEX lenses

More testes:
Soundimagesplus (Click here) red-did the NEX-7 vs A77 comparison using exactly the same lens on both cameras. The: “NEX-7 files are slightly softer, slightly less noisy and also slightly darker.”
Some field test images by Outbackphoto (Click here).
And the German magazine Colorfoto (Click here) compared the NEX-7 with the GX1 and NX200. Easy to guess who won

In Stock….sorry…out of Stock status
I think most of you are now almost tired to read all those fantastic (for Sony) reviews. Most of you will still have to wait a couple of weeks or even months until you can get your NEX-7 camera. I am working behind the scenes to convince different online shops in Europe and USA to notify me in advance when they will receive the a stock of new cameras. As I said a couple of days ago preorder the body only and buy the lens separately to have more chances to grab one. The only problem is that if you want the all Black 18-55mm lens ships with the NEX-7 kit only (you cannot buy it separately).
Right now I didn’t find any store having the camera in Stock. There are some auctions on ebay but you have to perform two different kind of searches to find them all:
Ebay search for “NEX-7″ (Click here)
Ebay search for “Sony α (alpha) NEX-7″ (Click here). Yeah you will find more cameras here
Preorder search links: Amazon, B&H, Adorama, J&R, eBay.

Sometimes I have small info-rumors that I don’t know how to….place on SonyAlphaRumors. Here is a short list of info-rumors:

1) The HVL-MT24AM Macro Twin Flash has been discontinued (See at Bh). A replacement should be announced this year.

2) I got this rumor about an upcoming new video technology: “Sony is working on an interesting project. It’s a software that uses two different exposed 1080p video files out of an 3D Camcorder to get a stunning high dynamic range picturestyle.” This sounds pretty interesting! Thanks anonymous source!

3) Don’t know how this is possible but the first 50mm f/1.8 lens for NEX can be found here at eBay Germany. The lens is still not for sale in any store so I am wondering how that guy got the lens! The lens shipment is supposed to start in February or even March only! Check the lens preorder options at Amazon, B&H, Adorama, J&R, eBay (Those are search links, you may will NOT find the lens at all).

That said I am working on a bunch of important rumors. There is one bad news I will post soon and a couple of good news. Just give me the time to double check everything with other sources. Be patient!

Sony NEX-5N Users Guide Video

The Verge (Click here) selected the Sony NEX-5n as camera of the year 2011! Here is the motivation: “The door that Sony cracked open with the NEX-5 has been blown wide open by the NEX-5N. Besides making the body marginally thinner and adding a touchscreen, Sony endowed the NEX-5N with a truly supreme image sensor. Its 16-megapixel CMOS sensor competes with the Nikon D7000 and Canon 60D (each company’s latest and greatest midrange DSLR) for noise performance, while delivering image quality that leaves other mirrorless cameras in the dust. If the NEX-5N had a universal microphone input and a more generous battery, it’d be a formidable DSLR replacement for professionals as well. As it stands, it’s the top choice for any hobbyist looking for the best image-quality-to-camera-size ratio.”

I have to say that even If I love the NEX-7 I am testing in these days the Sony NEX-5n has still the edge when in terms of price-quality balance. While the A77 and NEX-7 are definitely more “spectacular” cameras the Sony NEX-5n simply does almost all the other two big cameras do, but for a far cheaper price and smaller package

P.S.: Dcresource (Click here) started a new NEX-5n gallery

The Sony NEX-5n is selling well in almost all countries. For months now you can find the different kit options under the top 20 of the most mirrorless stuff at Amazon US (Click hee to see ranking) at Amazon Germany (here for the ranking), Amazon France (here).

Here are some NEX-5n shop search links: Amazon, B&H, Adorama, J&R, eBay. While the camera is relatively cheap the external viewfinder is a bit too expensive: Amazon, B&H, Adorama, J&R, eBay.

P.S.: So why did I buy the NEX-7 to replace my NEX-5n (which is now owned by my girlfriend)? Easy answer, because of the Trinavi navigation. Good usability allows me to work more precisely and faster.