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I guess that after the Hasselblad Lunar we will soon get a second non-sense camera for rich people! What for a short moment appeared to may become the first Sony RX1 challenger turned out to be…a complete let down

The new highly teased (and leaked) Leica X Vario Type 107 camera will be announced on Tuesday and is a fixed lens APS-C camera with slow 28-70mm f/3.5-6.4. And guess what the price will be….2450 Euro! Almost the same price of the Sony RX1 Full Frame with superb 35mm f/2.0 Zeiss prime lens (2566 Euro at Photodirect).

P.S.: Don’t get me wrong, I would be glad to see some RX1 competition. Otherwise Sony will go lazy with price drops and new RX improvements!

I read some comment and got some mails with questions about the new RX FF pocket camera. Once again I want to make it clear that the RX1 is not going to be replaced. What’s coming by end of August is a “variation” of the RX1 and will certainly not replace it. I am still working on the specs but I think the new RX may be even a tiny bit more expensive than the current RX1. If you want the RX1 you have no reason to wait unless of course you have four months time to wait until you can get the new RX (In October-November).

The best price you can find in Europe is at Photodirekt UK (2566 Euro, shipd to all Europe and no tax to pay). In USA you can buy it for the normal price at Amazon US (Click here) and get 4% back as reward!

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The brand new Rokinon Tilt-Shift 24mm f/3.5 ED AS UMC Lens for Sony Alpha is in Stock for the first tiem at BHphoto (Click here). And also the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX50V is in Stock for the first time at BHphoto (Click here).

And both Amazon and BHphoto are offering a 4% Reward on a very long list of cameras and lenses. You can see the Amazon list here and the BHphoto list here. Here are some examples of the Reward you get:
$111 on the RX1 at Amazon or BHphoto.
$111 on the A99 at Amazon or BHphoto.
$36 on the A77 at Amazon or BHphoto.

One more new deals:
$50 off on the A-Mount Lens to NEX Camera Mount Adapter at Amazon (Click here).

Sony HX50V vs NEX-3N

The State of the Mirrorless Camera Industry – May 2013 by AdmiringLight.
Sony Alpha 58 review by Photoclubalpha.
Sony NEX-3N CSC Review at ePhotozine.
The Old Minolta 35 mm F/1.4 tested at Gubsphotologue.
Speed Booster vs. Les Turbo test using Makro Planar 50/2 at Dpreview Forum.
Super sensible sensor made of graphene at Mashable.
Sony NEX and HDR at Hdrone.

Anonymous: “A friend bought a Sony RX100 a month ago in a Sony store in San Diego and after two weeks using it, a problem showed up. The camera started to randomly turn itself on, showing the last shot taken on the LCD but without actually extending the lens. That happens with the camera in or out of its storage pouch, leading to to a total battery drain if not noticed and turned off! I did a quick research on the internet and found that this problem has been reported in some Forums ( including Sony’s ). Please check:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCp1m4vz4Oc
http://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3391660
http://community.sony.com/t5/Cybershot-Cameras/RX100-Battery-Drain/td-p/44245/page/1
I’m sending you this because it seems Sony has not officially acknowledged the issue and it may be a good opportunity for them to improve customer credibility by either issuing a Firmware fixing the problem ( if that’s feasible ) or ultimately performing a recall!
One can always dream.
Regards!”

Cezar: “Hello Andrea, i’ve been using my nex-7 with the zeiss 24 and the sony 50 1.8 for more than a year now. i just want to say that the nex-7 coupled with some really good glass is simply a gem for me. Here’s a link to my work (all photos shot with the nex-7): http://www.behance.net/cezararon. P.S: also a new review on the touit line-up i just found (it’s in romanian but still good for samples) http://www.f64.ro/blog/2013/05/30/carl-zeiss-touit-2-812-si-1-832-un-nou-inceput/”

Galen: “Sharing some photos taken with the a99 with the Sony Zeiss 135mm and 24-70mm. Absolutely loving the lenses as well as the dynamic range and accuracy of the a99. Such a pleasure to take photos with. http://500px.com/GalenScorer”

Eddy: “last week I received the 70-400 G II, just in time for an interesting event: a re-enactment of a battle in 1447. I have posted a selection on dyxum:
http://www.dyxum.com/dforum/forum_posts.asp?TID=98813&PID=1178518&title=what-a-fight-70400g-ii#1178518. The full set of pictures is posted on my photo blog: http://www.thelightpoet.be/2013/06/de-quaeye-werelt-june-2013/ And I have to say the 70-400 G II performed very well on my A900. Excellent sharpness and contrast. Really nice stuff.”

The Canon deal at DealsRunner.

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The incredible Full Frame price war between Canon and Nikon reached a new level with the Canon 6D now selling for $1499(!) at eBay US (Click here). This really sets two problems for Sony:
1) High End APS-C cameras will be hard to sell if you can get a Full Frame for the same price
2) Sony has no FF camera that can compete in that price segment.

What should Sony do?

I am certainly not an expert but my instinct tells me that Sony has little to gain and a lot to loose by entering a possible cheap FF camera war. Canon and Nikon sell in much higher numbers and can afford to sell the cameras with almost no profit. Sony should rather focus on developing key technologies that can create a quality gap between their cameras and those offered by Canon and Nikon. I hope this will happen with the new A-mount cameras to be released in 2014!

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All today new hot camera and lens deals can be seen at DealsRunner.com.