CONFIRMED: Sony teases the launch of the new PTZ E-mount camera!

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A couple of hours ago I told you that Sony would announce four new E-mount cameras within the next 2 months. And shortly after Sony published this teaser for a September 6th E-mount announcement!

I will be the first to tell you that this is Sony’s first PTZ E-mount camera (you can find current PTZ cameras here at BH). This is the teaser video:

PTZ cameras are quite expensive robotic tools! I hope “someone” can share me the specs of this new toy ;)

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Sony camera roadmap: First a PTZ E-mount camera, then the compact Cine E-mount and then the ZV and A7rIV

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Two solid sources told me to expect the following cameras to be announced within the next 2-3 months:

  • First Sony will announce a new PTZ E-mount camera
  • It will be followed shortly after by a new compact, affordable Cine E-mount camera (announcement late September)
  • And then we will finally get the ZV APS-C camera and the A7rIV. Not clear if both cameras will be announced at the same time or at two different events. But there is definitely a product announcement scheduled for early October.

Here is a more detailed talk about the four cameras:

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Tomorrow (August 30) at 15:00 London time I will post a roadmap with Sony’s next four cameras (two of them not “regular” photo cameras)

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A second reliable source independently just confirmed bits of the Sony camera roadmap I got last week. This means I am a bit more confident that the roadmap could be correct. Tomorrow (August 30) I will be back from hiking and post a video about this roadmap at 15:00 London time.

Make me a nice favor and be sure to subscribe my new Youtube Channel. You will see the video there at 15:00! ……And teaser, two of the four cameras coming soon are not “regular” photo cameras.

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Sony is debating about future of APS-C Cinema Cameras?

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A new source told me about this ongoing debate within Sony Japan (NOTE: This is NOT from a reliable source…so please watch out):

Sony is debating about future of APS-C Cinema Cameras. At the moment there is no plan for any APS-C cine camera. Maybe in the future we will get it but it will be XDCAM line like FS5/FS7 but it will be not targeted to compete with Cinema Line. But that’s vision of future. Till 2025 we won’t get any APS-C cinema camera.

Overall I think Sony is missing out on the APS-C strategy. Fuji is taking the lion share coin this segment and I think cameras like the A7000 (A7 body with APS-C sensor and A1 alike features) could have a big impact!

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Meike AF 85mm f/1.8 STM Review by Opticallimits: “the lens is a steal at this price point”

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The new lens is available at BHphoto, Amazon, Amazon DE, Amazon UK.

Opticallimits tested the lens and concluded:

Unsurprisingly, a $200 lens can’t be perfect and this has to set the context in the discussions. In terms of the more formal characteristics, the Meike AF 85mm f/1.8 STM does a surprisingly good job actually. The image sharpness is available where it counts the most – near the image center. At large aperture settings, the corners aren’t hot but you probably don’t require superb corners at f/1.8 anyway. The somewhat reduced contrast may also be beneficial for portrait photography. Conversely, the lens is very sharp around f/5.6 where it can almost compete with the big boys. Image distortions are pretty low and both CAs and vignetting are also well controlled. A strength of the lens is the quality of the bokeh which is very smooth in the image background. Out-of-focus highlights are also pleasingly rendered. This is probably a positive effect of the old-school optical design. The same old-school design has also a negative effect with respect to the rather extreme bokeh fringing (LoCAs) f/1.8 and f/2.2, though. The fringing can be a spoiler in high-contrast scenes.
The construction of the Meike lens is fairly decent but don’t expect the tank-like qualities that we have seen from Meike’s manual focus lenses recently. The lens body is made of average-quality plastic based on a metal mount. The broad, plastic focus ring operates smoothly but you can feel some cost-cutting here as well. An exciting aspect of the lens is certainly its AF motor – something that we haven’t seen often from Chinese players until recently. It does its job but don’t expect it to be fast. Object tracking isn’t really an option and it isn’t noiseless either. The aperture can be controlled via the camera and it does also produce EXIF data. An auto-correction profile is not provided but given the decent results, this isn’t really needed.
There are, of course, better 85mm lenses than the Meike AF 85mm f/1.8 STM out there. However, as mentioned, everything is about context. Regardless of the mentioned flaws, the lens is still a steal at this price point and if you are on a tight budget, it could be a viable option.

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