Charles Chiho Lo‎
Watch Your Step, beware the ants.
Causeway Bay, Hong Kong.
Shot with Sony A7 and Voigtlander 12mm.

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Sony A7 with the new Zeiss 28mm f/2.0 FE lens..

The same FE lens mockups that were shown at Photokina have been shown at CES too. You can see the new pictures over at Dpreview (Click here). They share some info about the lenses:

90mm f/2.8 OSS macro: “Due to be available in March, this lens features a focus limiter and inbuilt OSS optical image stabilization. Build quality is high. ”

Distagon T* FE 35mm f/1.4 ZA: “is a gorgeous thing. The manual aperture dial is sure to appeal to experienced photographers. This aperture dial can operate in click detents, or smoothly (the latter being ideal for aperture adjustment during video capture). You can switch between the two modes using a click on/off switch on the lens barrel. ”

So far the “unofficial” info is that:

– 28mm f/2.0 G should cost 499 Euro (February shipment)
– 35mm f/1.4 Zeiss should cost 1399 Euro (March shipment)
– 90mm f/2.8 G macro should cost 999 Euro (March shipment)
– 24-240mm f/3.5-6.4 should cost 1099 Euro (March shipment)
– both converters should cost 229 Euro each (March shipment)

I guess Hasselblad really wants to focus on the “fashion” aspect of their camera business. At least that could be the reason why they choose Perry Oosting as new CEO. Hasselblad just recently announced the Stellar II which is their fourth Sony based luxury edition cameras after the [shoplink 22672 ebay]Hasselblad Lunar (here on eBay)[/shoplink], [shoplink 22673 ebay]Stellar (here one Bay)[/shoplink] and the Hasselblad HV (here at BHphoto). Now let’s see if and how they will continue to expand that kind of business with the new CEO.

Here comes the full press release from Hasselblad:

[shoplink 32354 ebay][/shoplink]

The Koran company Gariz announced the new A7II lleather case. You can buy it in [shoplink 32354 ebay]Black (Click here)[/shoplink], [shoplink 32396 ebay]Brown (Click here)[/shoplink],  [shoplink 32355 ebay]Orange (Click here)[/shoplink] and [shoplink 32356 ebay]Camel (Click here)[/shoplink]. A7II Gariz case sellers can be foudn with that general eBay search.

And the A7II is now in Stock in USA via Bestbuy as sole [shoplink 22691 ebay]body (Click here)[/shoplink] or with [shoplink 32402 ebay]kit lens (Click here)[/shoplink].

Reminder:

eBay Sony deals:
1) A7r sells for $1,599 via [shoplink 32388 ebay]CameraLand on eBay (Click here)[/shoplink]. That’s $500 off!
2) FE 55mm f/1.8 ZA Lens + 3 Year USA Warranty for $799 on [shoplink 32369 ebay]eBay US (Click here)[/shoplink]. At the moment of writing that deal is on hold (says out of Stock). But it should be back soon I hope! Anyway, 6av sells the same lens for only a ouple of bucks more..[shoplink 32376 ebay]$817 on their eBay page (Click here)[/shoplink].
3) Open Box Sony A7 for $1,150 at [shoplink 32378 ebay]Samys eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
4) Refurbished RX100M3 for $664 on [shoplink 32371 ebay]eBay US (Click here)[/shoplink].
5) RX100 II Digital Camera + 2 Batteries, 16GB & More for $534 on [shoplink 32370 ebay]eBay US (Click here)[/shoplink].
6) Refurbished NEX-5T double lens kit for $399 on [shoplink 32372 ebay]eBay US (Click here)[/shoplink].

Amazon Sony deals:
– Save $200 on the Sony A77II Interchangeable Lens Camera (Click here)
– Save Up to $400 on the Sony A7 Family of Interchangeable Lens Cameras (Click here)
– Save $100 on the Sony A5100 Interchangeable Lens Camera (Click here)
– Save $100 on the Sony A6000 Interchangeable Lens Camera (Click here)
– Save $50 on the Sony A5000 Interchangeable Lens Camera (Click here)
– Save $50 on the Sony RX100MII Fixed Lens Camera (Click here)
– Save $50 on the Sony QX Family (Click here)
– Save Big on the Sony Family of Action Cameras (Click here)

That image has been shared by Sony in a presentation somewhere in China. It shows how Sony sees the “equivalence” between the E and A-mount cameras. Not all makes a lot of sense to me like:
A7 below the other A7 cameras
or A7 equivalent to A77II.

Anyway as you see the A-mount low-end segment misses some of the equivalent E-mount cameras. And there is till room on top for PRO cameras…tiny spot left out for the A9? :)

DxOmark (Click here) published their A7II sensor results. And it’s really no surprise that the sensor performs very close to the A7:

Improvements to build quality and handling alongside the addition of a new sensor shift image stabilisation system make the new Sony A7II an even more appealing prospect to both serious amateur and professional photographers. Packing essentially the same 24.2Mp full frame sensor there’s no discernable improvement in image quality over its predecessor the Sony A7, but it still remains one of the best scoring sensors on our database ranking in 11^th place overall.

At CES Sony also launched that new A7II promotion video. And there is also a new review by Tony Northrup:

USA/Canada A7II links:
Sony Alpha a7II (Body Only) for $1,698 at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, SonyStore and Sony Store Canada.
Sony Alpha a7II with FE 28-70mm OSS Lens for $1,998 at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, SonyStore.
Sony 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 G SSM II Lens for $1,148 at BHphoto.

EU A7II links:
Sony Alpha a7II (Body Only) for 1.799 Euro at Sony Germany, Sony UK, Jessops UK, Sony France, Sony Italy, Sony Spain, Sony Austria, Sony Switzerland, Sony Netherland, Sony Belgium, Sony Portugal, Sony Sweden, Sony Finland, Sony Norway.
Sony Alpha a7II with FE 28-70mm OSS Lens for 2.099 Euro at Amazon Germany, Wex UK, Jessops UK, Verkkokauppa.

Asian/Australia A7II link:
Sony A7II at Sony Store Australia, Digitalrev and Amazon Japan.

Zeiss issued a new firmware update for their 12 and 50mm E-mount Touit lenses. This is what you get:

Touit 2.8/50M E-mount:
A firmware update to Version 02 is now available for the Touit 2.8/50M with E-mount. It corrects the following behaviour that may have occurred with the previous lens firmware version with particular camera menu setting and in particular situations:

• clearly noticeable shutter release delays when pressing the release button with activated flash
• ‘hunting’ for the focus point with the camera in AF-C mode
• all Touit 2.8/50 macro lenses for E-mount cameras ever delivered already support phase detection autofocus and the fast hybrid autofocus of newer Sony E-mount cameras with their proprietary firmware.

Touit 2.8/12 E-mount & Touit 1.8/32 E-mount:
An update to firmware version 02 is available for the Touit 2.8/12 and Touit 1.8/32 lenses with E-mount. With this version, the lenses also support phase detection autofocus and the fast hybrid autofocus of newer Sony E-mount cameras.

Zeiss Touit lens pricing and specs at Adorama (Click here) and BHphoto (Click here).