NEX-5 Gold Box auctions and RX100 superkit for $625.

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

New Lens Turbo NEX adapter auctions (Minolta, Canon, Nikon and Pentax). And first impression report.

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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? :)

Rokinon 8mm price drop. Discounted iPad 16GB sells like hotcakes.

 

For today only you can get the Rokinon 8mm fisheye lens for Alpha for $269 at Amazon (Click here)Adorama (Click here) and BHphoto (Click here). I know this is not a “mainstream” lens but it’s always good if you can save some bucks!

What is way more mainstream and selling like hotcakes is that $50 discount on the [shoplink 18396 ebay]16GB iPad 4 with Wifi on eBay US (Click here)[/shoplink]. They sold over 1,849 iPad’s in 24 hours!!! UPDATE: The deal is now over and a new special offer started on the [shoplink 18409 ebay]iPad mini where you save $30 (Click here to grab it)[/shoplink].

First A99 auctions for less than $2,400….

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in US and Canada the A99 can now be bought for less than $2,400 at [shoplink 18364 ebay]Electro Electro store on eBay (New York)[/shoplink] and at [shoplink 18365 ebay]CamWatch store on eBay (Toronto)[/shoplink]. Theses are likely bodies sold from the original $2799 superkit offer (here at Amazon).

But the price is still a couple of hundreds higher than the cheapest Nikon and Canon FF models. I hope that the next FF model coming in early 2014 may be a super cheap FF DSLR :)

A99 Mothers day deal. Open Box

Mother’s day:
There is a long list of “Mother’s day deals” you can check out at BHphoto (Click here). The list includes the two particularly interesting Sony deals:
1) $500 discount on the Sony Alpha SLT-A99 Digital Camera with 28-75mm f/2.8 Lens Kit (Click here to see it)
2) Free Ruggard Streak 15 Shoulder Bag (Black with Yellow Accenting)Tiffen 49mm UV Protector FilterSanDisk 32GB SDHC Memory Card Ultra Class 10 UHS-I with the purchase of the NEX-7 (Click here to see it).

Also Amazon (Click here) has a long list of Mother’s day deals but there is no major Sony deal.

RX1:
Three Open Box RX1 for $2500 at [shoplink 18276 ebay]BeachCamera on eBay US (Click here)[/shoplink]

New Samyang TS and Tamron 24-70mm in Stock!

The new 24mm Samyang (or Rokinon) Tilt Shift Lens is in Stock at Adorama. A bit weird that it is available with both brand names. As Samyang (Click here) and as Rokinon (Click here). And it can be preordered (as Rokinon) at Amazon (Click here) and BHphoto (Click here).

And the Full Frame Brand NEw Tamron 24-70mm f/2.8 A-mount lens is in Stock too at BHphoto (Click here), Adorama (Click here) and for preorder at Amazon (Click here).

P.S.: Save up to $130 on Select Sony Cyber-shot Digital Cameras at Amazon (Click here).