a couple of hours to go…

It’s 04:20 here in Berlin and it’s only 2-3 hours to go until the final Sony announcement. I am still not 100% sure if the announcement will be made at 5am in the morning London time. I expect many reviews, news and preorders to be posted at that time. I would be happy if you can help me to not miss any of these news. Send me the links at sonyalpharumors@gmail.com. There is such a lot of stuff that a full preorder list will be posted at Alphacameradeals. A shorter list will be available on SAR.

I am incredibly tired and will try to sleep a couple of hours before to get back to work on SAR. I really Thanks you all for the help and support you gave me in these weeks. I am sooo tired I am really looking forward to recover the days after Photokina!

See you soon!

P.S.: One particular thanks goes to the amazing facebook SAR comunity that helped me many times to find the leaks on Asian sites.

 

 

Short roundup before the storm: New VG30 pic, new K-5II with Sony sensor and Hasselblad-Sony partnership?

 

I have to catch up with some news before to keep talking about the big A99, RX1 VG900 and NEX-6 cameras that are going to be announced tomorrow! So here are three interesting news:

1) We have some new VG-30 pics you can see her eon top. Click on the pictures on top to see the full size version.

2) Pentax announced the new K-5II with 16,3 Sony Exmor sensor without AA filter (Specs and price here at BH).

3) Hasselblad will announce a mirrorless camera with a larger than Full Frame sensor. And it is rumored that the sensor is made by Sony! The camera will be similar to current [shoplink 13933 ebay]Hasselblad Xpan cameras (they are here on eBay)[/shoplink]. I certainly hope that’s a true rumor! More info at MirrorlessRumors.

4) Sony A57 review at Photographic-central.

 

Important: Announcement tomorrow (Wednesday) at 4-5 int he morning London time. And as I told you yesterday I just noticed that I gave you the wrong links to our social network. Here are the correct links to the RSS feed (Click here) and Twitter (Click here) stream and the Facebook fan page (Click here). By joining us you will not miss any rumor about the future NEX-9, A1 and other cameras to come the months after Photokina :)

Samyang announces the 24mm Tilt Shift Lens for Sony.

There is a new A-mount lens for us! Samyang just released the 24mm f/3.5 ED AS UMC Tilt Shift lens. This is the press text:

Samyang Optics is about to release a new lens with the perspective control function — Samyang T-S 24mm 1:3.5 ED AS UMC. The official product presentation will take place on September 18th 2012, during international photographic Photokina fairs held in Cologne.

New Samyang T-S 24mm 1:3.5 ED AS UMC is a wide-angle, full-frame lens fitted with the perspective control and tilt-shift functions. Its unique optical and mechanical construction makes it an ideal tool for architecture and landscape photography. The product will be also extremely useful when convergence of the lines in the frame is required. Owing to the mechanism of optical axis tilt, focus depth operation brings utterly new quality and possibilities, enabling photographers to shape the image according to their individual needs, both on digital and nalog carriers.

Optical design of Samyang T-S 24mm 1:3.5 ED AS UMC comprises of sixteen lenses arranged in eleven groups, including two aspherical lens and two lens made of ED glass with low dispersion factor. Thanks to this solution, the lens perfectly reproduces detailed elements and gives splendid image plasticity, also with the T-S function on. Each optical component of the product was covered with multi-layered, anti-reflective UMC coatings, which provide great light transmission factor, high contrasts and render only natural colors of the photographed scene. With sophisticated optics and developed T-S function, Samyang T-S 24mm 1:3.5 ED AS UMC is currently the most advanced lens produced by Samyang Optics and may compete with similar lenses of other brands.

Tilt-Shift function

Tilt-Shift function in Samyang T-S 24mm 1:3.5 ED AS UMC allows for smooth and individual adjustment of the focus plane angle by +/-8.5 and enables parallel shift of the optical axis by +/-12 millimeters. To make Tilt-Shift function even more seamless, both the lens mount as well as Tilt-Shift section may be rotated on the optical axis. The Tilt-Shift section may be rotated left by 90 degrees (with 30 degree adjustment), while mount of the lens may be rotated both in left and right direction by 90 degrees, also with 30 degree adjustment.

Samyang T-S 24mm 1:3.5 ED AS UMC will be available with mounts for Canon EF, Nikon F, Pentax K and Sony A. We welcome everyone to visit us at Photokina at our booth A025 in the hall 2.1.

I like Rokinon/Samyang lenses a lot and I recommend you the following two lenses for Alpha mount:
1) The 35mm f/1.4: In US you can find it as Rokinon at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here), BHphoto (Click here) and on [shoplink 7453 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink]. In Europe the name is Samyang and you can find it on [shoplink 7380 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink] and with the name Wallimex again on [shoplink 7831 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
2) The 85mm f/1.4: You can get for $274 on Amazon (Click here), branded with the name Rokinon on [shoplink 7456 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink] and branded with the name Samyang on [shoplink 7454 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].

Picture of a modified Sony RX100 ;)

You got a shock? Don’t worry this is a fake picture and NOT real! A designer from SLRclub created it because he is missing the hot shoe on his Sony RX100. And he added a Silver strip that I personally really like a lot! It makes it look more…elegant. We may should open a contest and let our SAR readers “imagine” how Sony camera should look alike. But first let’s see the real new stuff that is coming soon!

The RX100 rules on Position four of the overall Amazon US camera ranking (Click here)like no other Sony camera we have seen before. RX100 price search links: [shopcountry 13014].

RX100 accessory roundup:
I made a short list of accessories in case you need them. Click on the item name (All links to eBay):
Cases: [shoplink 13347 ebay]Official Sony LCJ-RXA case[/shoplink], [shoplink 13344 ebay]Gariz case[/shoplink], [shoplink 13345 ebay]more leather case[/shoplink].
Batteries: [shoplink 13346 ebay]NP-BX1 Battery[/shoplink].
Special stuff: [shoplink 13343 ebay]Multi-Coated LENS ARMOR UV[/shoplink]. Magfilter at Amazon (Click here). RX100 filter adapter on [shoplink 13486 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink]

 

You have to watch this: “Playmemoriescameraapps” website for the NEX-5R (and upcoming NEX-6)

The NEX-5R has been announced and the NEX-6 is coming next week. Booth have Application support and if you want to see how it works check out that well made site made by Sony: www.playmemoriescameraapps.com. Meantime NEX-5R preorders seem to be very low according to Amazon ranking (Click here). As yous ee there is no 5R within the top 100 while the $100 discount on the NEX-5N is selling well at Amazon (Click here) and BHphoto too (Click here).

And here comes the NEX-5R preorder link roundup including a reminder to my new still in very beta phase AlphaCameraDeals.com website:

USA:
Black NEX-5R body links to Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto.
Black NEX-5R with kit lens at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto.
Silver NEX-5R with kit lens at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto.
White NEX-5R with kit lens at Adorama, BHphoto.

Europe:
Black NEX-5R with kit lens Sonystore DEUKFRITESNLSEFICH
Silver NEX-5R with kit lens at Sonystore DEUKFRITESNLSEFICH
White NEX-5R with kit lens at Sonystore DEUKFRITESNLSEFICH
Important personal note: The next months I will create a lot of new features around my parallell AlphaCameraDeals.com website. The idea is to separate Deals news from SonyAlphaRumors. For now I will list all preorder options ont his website (like for the NEX-5R) If you are interested in getting detailed and localized Sony deals info subscribe the RSS feed and join the Facebook page. Thanks!

Gossip time! Carlos Boozer buys the Sony A77 :)

SAR reader Sean sent me this image and message: “Hey! I love your site to death, and I thought some readers might enjoy this. NBA star Carlos Boozer just bought an [shoplink 8461]A77[/shoplink] from my store in Chicago. Viva alpha!

I hope Carlos will not go mad when he will discover that the A99 is coming out soon. He should become a SAR reader too :)

P.S.: Carlos Boozer on Wikipedia.