The A99 price if slowly dropping in germany too. Lately the price was floating at around 2600 Euro and now it dropped down to 2400 in Germany at Photo Preim. It’s even lower if you buy it at [shoplink 18534 ebay]eBay UK (a little bit above 2100 Euro)[/shoplink].
UPDATE: You get the battery for grip with the A99 at Wexphotographic UK (Click here).
Thanks Alexander for finding the deal!
Finally after a very ling wait the new Sigma 35mm f/1.4 A-mount lens will ship this week! Bhphoto (Click here) just anticipated the shipping date from May 30 to May 24.
There are a couple of new lenses that will ship soon in USA:
Sigma 35mm f/1.4 on May 30. Preorder at Adorama, Bhphoto.
Zeiss Touit 12mm f/2.8 on June 3 at Adorama, Bhphoto.
Zeiss Touit 32mm f/1.8 on June 3 at Adorama, Bhphoto.
Sony 50mm f/1.4 Carl Zeiss Planar T* ZA Lens on June 10 at Amazon, Adorama, Bhphoto.
For a couple of years companies market “3D” as the huge future for the television and camera industry. It didn’t really work out fine (at least not on cameras). Nowadays “4K” is the big new marketing trend. And for the first time Sony has now 4k Televisions in Stock and shipping at Amazon (Click here) and Adorama (Click here). As you know the NEX-FS700 (here at BHphoto) can now shoot 4K via the use of the external HXR-IFR5 unit. I think that by end of next year also high end A or E-mount cameras could be able to shoot 4K. That is the “new” future.
This is the first deal on the first Full Frame NEX camera, the VG900. You save $500 on the camcorder with 28-75mm lens at Amazon (Click here). The same $500 rebate is valid for the A99+28-75mm kit too (Click here). The recent A99 kit offers made it possible to get the A99 body only for less than $2,400 on [shoplink 18483 ebay]eBay US (Click here)[/shoplink].
UPDATE: The Bower (same as Samyang-Rokinon) 24mm f/1.4 got a $200 rpcie drop and sells for $499 at BHphoto (Click here).
Sorry to bother you again with Lens Turbo and Speed Booster news. But quite many SAR readers and NEX owners are interested to grab one of these. And since today they are now available in UK stores too:
[shoplink 18466 ebay]Canon FD to NEX (Click here)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 18464 ebay]Nikon Ai to NEX (Click here)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 18463 ebay]Pentax K to NEX (Click here)[/shoplink].
There is also a news on the original (and probably more high quality) Speed Booster from metabones. A new New Speed Booster Nikon G electronic adapter to be released by end of May. And Philip Bloom is right now testing the adapter on his Blackmagic Cinema Camera. We should see his reviews soon on his website.
There is a new Gold Box deal on the NEX-5 at Amazon (Click here).
And the deal of the day is that [shoplink 18442 ebay]RX100 superkit on eBay US (for $625 and free shipping)[/shoplink] that includes an External Rapid Charger for Sony NP-BX1, 16GB SDHC Memory Card (Class 10), 2x – Extended Life Battery for Sony NP-BX1 and a Deluxe Soft Small Camera Case
[shoplink 18380 ebay]
[/shoplink]
There are four new auctions of Lens Turbo Adapters (the Chinese version of Speed Boosters):
1) Hong Kong store Roxens sells the Pentax K to NEX adapter on [shoplink 18380 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink], Canon FD to NEX adapter on [shoplink 18420 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink] and Nikon F to NEX adapter on [shoplink 18421 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink] and Minolta MD to NEX adapter on [shoplink 18422 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink]
2) Shanghai store Jinfinance has three adapters: Pentax K to NEX adapter on [shoplink 18381 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink], Canon FD to NEX adapter on [shoplink 18382 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink] and Nikon F to NEX adapter on [shoplink 18383 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
Please notice that I don’t know these stores. But you can pay via PayPal with all the guarantees you get through it. And the stores have a high 99,5% positive feedback. The real doubt we have is if these adapters are as good as the Metabones Speed Booster. There is a first feedback on Dpreview forum written by “Forpetessake”:
“Adapter looks well made, lenses are coated, it feels heavy. The adapter fits very well on the Sony body, but the lens mount feels tight.
Optically it’s better than I expected. I took a few pictures with the Lens Turbo and with a dumb adapter from the same distance, only changing the FL to get the same FOV. The images looked sharper with Lens Turbo than with a dumb adapter, though I didn’t do any measurements, so I don’t know yet if the resolution or contrast improved or the lens is simply better on the long end. Since in real life shooting, all other things being equal, the lens will be closed more with Lens Turbo than with dumb adapter, the improvements in sharpness should be even better. But that’s my speculation. The light gathering improved, though I can’t verify if it’s one stop. Because of the variable aperture lens in this experiment, I got around 1.6 (1/160 sec exposure vs 1/100 sec) improvement.
Now, the negatives. There is a noticeable vignetting on the short end at a fully open aperture. It decreases as the aperture being closed. That was expected, and might not be a big problem in real shooting. There is also a glare in high contrast situations when shooting towards light source. It looks like a fuzzy bluish spot near the center. It might be the light reflected from the sensor and the rear surface of the Lens Turbo, which is flat. Other than that I didn’t notice any other problems.”
Would be nice to see a Speed Booster vs Lens Turbo real world comparison! Some reviewers out there ready to do this for us? :)
