Small update on the newly announced Rokinon 300mm f/6.3 lens. It’s going to ship in July for $299. And on top of this post you can see the video showing the new lens. What I didn’t know until now (Thanks Mike) is that Rokinon already has a Mirror lens for Sony. It is the Rokinon 500mm f/6.3 for A-mount ([shoplink 18677 ebay]can be found here one Bay[/shoplink]).

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To get notified when the lens will be o auction on eBay save this search on Slidoo.

The New York Times posted an interesting article about Sony. As you know Hedge fond leader Mr. Loeb has a considerable share in Sony. Last week he asked Sony to drop the electronic business. But Sony CEO Hirai gave him a (metaphoric) kick in the butt and this is his answer:

“Mr. Loeb’s prescriptions for Sony are shortsighted, merely milking the company’s profit-making content business for good money to throw after the bad….He defended the company’s continued focus on electronics. “Electronics has a future. And it is in Sony’s DNA,” he said at a corporate presentation. “It is my mission to revive it.”

There are some glimmers that Sony is finding its way again, even as Apple and Samsung widen their lead. Sony’s sleek new XPeria Z smartphone has received generally rave reviews. Photography buffs have called its high-end, full-frame RX1 camera the most advanced compact camera.

“Not so long ago, we had despaired at Sony’s ability to ever again produce stellar products (especially when faced with duds like the Dash alarm clock and the Rolly music player),” Damian Thong, Tokyo-based technology analyst at Macquarie Securities, said in a report published Thursday.

“Yet we now have had a consistent run of beautifully designed, technologically advanced, class-leading products,” Mr. Thong said. “We think these products hark back to Sony’s glory days.”

Editor’s note: I like MR. Hirai way of thinking. A company is not only about making money, but also about dreaming and doing something. Also Mr.Dell told Steve Jobs to quit the Apple company (in the mid 90’s). And see what happened after. You don’t solve a problem by selling what doesn’t work. If you do that every time you have a problem you end up with not having a company anymore :)

Olympus manager Hiroyuki Sasa confirmed at Toyokeizai (Google translation here) that they are supplying Sony with their camera and lens tech. Also AP reports that “The imaging sensor has already started to source from Sony to Olympus. And the lens [parts] and lens units will start to source from Olympus to Sony.”

As I told you last week the first A-mount lens to come with Olympus design is the 400mm f/4.0. That lens will be launched in early 2014 along the first A-mount mirrorless cameras. Olympus is known for their superb Zuiko lens design that is second to no one. And they may do a f/2.0 zoom for Sony one day like their current [shoplink 17943 ebay]14-35mm f/2.0 (here on eBay)[/shoplink] and [shoplink 18657 ebay]35-100mm f/2.0 (here on eBay)[/shoplink] lenses. That would be crazy!

By the way, is there some other tech or idea you would like to grab from Olympus?

The official Asian Samyang retailer posted the images of the new Rokinon 300mm f/6.3 lens on facebook. A real beast! Are you going to grab this one?

Sony Alpha 58 review by DigitalCameraWorld.

Dumping Nikon for Sony at Stuckincustoms.
SEL 35mm f/1.8 review at Danhawk.
Sony 50mm f/1.4 review by Ken Rockwell.
Sony a99+grip+flash kit and a65 are sold this week at nice prices (EUR 2900 and  499 respectively) in Finland at  rajalacamera.fi
Sony A58 review at Photographyblog.
The Sony RX100 at Dublin Zoo (DigitalPhotographySchool).
Sony HVL-F20AM Flash tested by Ken Rockwell.
The Olympus OM-D vs Sony NEX 7 – Is Mirrorless More, or Less?  Blogarithms
Sony SEL-20F28 review at KurtMunger.

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I am very busy working on the new A-mount camera roadmap. As you know new FF and APS-C cameras will be announced in Q1-Q2 of 2014 and they will be very “advanced”. It’s really a very exciting time for me and my sources. And I am not forgetting the E-mount system neither! There will be a new NEX-7 successor and plenty of new lenses (including a 85mm f/1.4). But while I am chatting with my source about all that new stuff I collected your “dream features” for the new 2014 generation A-mount cameras (yep, I read all your comments and put them in a poll). I am now curious to see what feature is the most requested and should be done to be really competitive in the DSLR market:

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Sony posted a sort of How To for the RX1. These are the shortest How To clips ever made :)  Here they are: https://www.youtube.com/user/Sony?feature=watch (scroll down to see the list).

What’s much more interesting than the videos is the rumor about a new Leica Mini M release on June 11. This could be the first real Sony RX1 competitor. A new Leica fixed lens FF camera? I don’t know it, but I bet it will be too expensive…

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RX1 links roundup:
RX1 at [shopcountry 15824].
RX1 Gariz accessories:
1) They made a new half leather case in Black and Brown ([shoplink 16437 ebay]Click here to see them on eBay[/shoplink]).
2) The new lens cap ([shoplink 16439 ebay]Click here to see them on eBay[/shoplink]).
3) The new entry is the anti loose button(!) ([shoplink 16438 ebay]Click here to see them on eBay[/shoplink]). Don’t know if that will be really useful for you RX1 owners. Someone has it and call it how it works? Thanks!
4) And this is the really first time I see that. A special Leather skin hood! ([shoplink 16441 ebay]Click here to see them on eBay[/shoplink]).