Sony A7II 3 Axis IS with Nikon 500mm f/4P and Canon FD200mm f/2.8 (found via SonyAlphaRumors).

Sony wants to raise €3.2 billion so your phone can take better pictures (The42).
Alpha Festival in Berlin (alpha-festival.com).
First shots from FE 2.8/90 Macro G OSS (SonyAlphaForum).
Every photo that you take is a once-in-a-lifetime photo – make it awesome! (TheNakedCamera).
Sony FE 28mm f/2 Review (Photographyblog).
Shogun Firmware Update V6.4 (Atomos).
AX100 review at Cinema5d.

Filipe: “Hi my name is Filipe Abreu, i am from Portugal and Starded a new Channel on YouTube in Portuguese. I don’t know how many users you have that speak this language. I have a lot os Sony stuff and will review another sony cameras and lenses, if you think this is interesting you could share it ;) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdl9OxYkcIA”

Walter: “The address link of the moonlight music video shot with the Sony a7s from Lady B. (alias Roberta Serrati): https://youtu.be/8frSSFTuOsg“

Image from the Korea A7rII event by Koreatimes

Last Monday Sony had a big A7rII event in Korea. Koreatimes interviewed Sony Korea Manager Bae Ji-hoon and he said:

Sony will concentrate on full-frame cameras in the future. In the short run, we will target existing full-frame camera users and then attract those who use entry and mid-class models to upgrade their cameras in the long run, raising the popularity of full-frame cameras. To do so, we plan to boost our presence in the professional market such as photo studios and wedding photography. Besides the stagnant growth of the camera market, the entry-class segment of the lens-interchangeable camera market is slowing down drastically.
We held a 59 percent share in the mirror-less camera market last year and have been the top seller of mirror-less cameras for the last five years, but we have never topped the gross lens-interchangeable camera market on a yearly basis. Our goal this year is to become the leader in this market for the first time.

Koreatimes writes that Sony Korea pledged to focus on the full-frame camera market. Expectations are that Sony will seek to outperform Canon and Nikon, adding another blow after its success in the high-end compact camera and entry into the mid-end mirror-less camera segment.

And here are some videos from the event:

Two videos Showing a7rII – Burst and AF-C test
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAzAlw6Kg_0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvotUOQiU78

And some from Korean a7rII event ( don’t understand a word)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwhZrbZtv2c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mp0ZiN5ooM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyr3Ck1Jb68

A7rII preorder list:
In USA: at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, SonyStore US, FocusCamera, Uniquephoto.
In Europe at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT. Wex UK.
In Asia at Digitalrev, CameraPro.

Thanks Matt!
via Dpreview.

Tissana Kijsanayotin‎
Surfers
Sony NEX-5N + E 35mm f1.8 OSS
More of my work @ www.iamtk.xyz

1) Submit your picture with a message and picture here: facebook.com/sonyalpharumors or on the SonyAlphaForum image section.
2) Like and comment the pictures from other readers here: facebook.com/sonyalpharumors/photos_stream?tab=photos and on SonyAlphaForum.
3) A selection of most liked pictures by the community and by me SAR admin will be posted weekly on SAR.

Note: When sending a pic feel free to also add a link to your site to promote yourself!

Sony decided to close their online store on August 28. Full info can be read here: store.sony.com. All preorders will be fulfilled but from August 28 they will no more sell Sony products on their online site. I am yet not 100% sure but I also heard the same thing could happen in Sony European Stores soon too.

The reason for that is that Sony changed their sales strategy. They made big partnerships with major retailers and they feel it’s best for them to sell the products through them. I am not sure if that is a wise decision. But I certainly am not a marketing guy.

Jamie Unwin just sent me the video to his latest project:

Hi Andrea,
Thanks for sharing my film about wildlife crime and the Ivory trade a couple of months ago. Sony UK have again supported another environmental film I have produced, this time I followed Steve Backshall and his kayak partner as they paddled 125 miles from Devizes to Westminster down the river Thames finishing outside the houses of parliament. It took them 23hours and 30minutes of solid kayaking, they were raising money to buy a chunk of Colombian rainforest. So far they have raised enough money to buy a chunk bigger than a small country! I followed them the entire way filming them through the night, Sony UK provided the A7s, Handycam AXP33 and action cam to film their endeavour.
Hope you enjoy the short film!

Many thanks,
Jamie Unwin

Unique combination test: Russian Tair 11a 135mm f/2.8 lens on the Sony A7r on SonyAlphaForum.
Zeiss Batis 85mm test at Yodobashi and Mapacamera.
Zeiss Batis 25mm test at Yodobashi and Mapacamera.

Danas Danulis: “I’ve got RX100 IV for couple of days. Tomorrow I’m doing a bit more serious test, but today I filmed coulpe of wakeboarders. If you are interested… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaoXSPE7zyA“

SAR reader John Wilhelm sent me this picture he posted on facebook happily sleeping with his new Sony A7rII toy! While the picture is certainly nicely photoshopped I am pretty sure some of the new A7rII owners will keep the camera close to their bed the first night :)

If I sound critical is this brief description it’s because $3k cameras are not allowed to make excuses  :-)

-It’s massive, I really don’t like how big these cameras have become. I knew the weight had gone up hugely too and expected that to make it feel like a dense, top quality item. It doesn’t – it merely feels just like any other good DSLR.

-Packaging/presentation is standard fare, no more premium than any of their other cameras.

-Included: 2 batteries, USB cable, strap, nicely compact 11W USB charger.

-It accepted my non-Sony battery and happily charged from all my USB battery packs as well as an iPhone wall charger while in use.

-Viewfinder: nicer than I expected though flicker is very noticable, resolution adequate but pixels visible

-Speed of operation: Responsive, some extra (but still not all) functions can be used while it’s still writing to card

-Software: Many small improvements, eg more customisation, can add copyright, zooms into AF area chosen instead of the centre every time, AutoISO limits 

-Shutter: I’m going to love silent shutter and might leave it that way perminantly: I couldn’t make any rolling shutter-like artefacts appear when I tried

-Buffer: A sometimes-limiting 21 shots (RAW+JPG), and only 44 shots/min thereafter using a 280MB/sec card. RAWs are 43.5MB each.

 

Overall – When you say “Oh my God” loudly after viewing the very first shot, you know you have something special…makes me want to go reshoot everything I’ve had success with before and more :-D