SonyAlphaForum spotted the US patent 8866965 which discloses a mechanism to changes the flange distance between the mount and the sensor of a camera. It’s basically the Z-shift solution we wrote about last year. This could bring two advantages:

1) Adjust the flange distance depending of the lens

2) You can focus by changing the flange distance rather than focus with the lens. For example you could autofocus with manual Leica lenses.

If you love to read deeply tech details on this just click over at freepatentsonline.com/8866965.html.

Still not sure if such a camera is really coming one day…

P.S.. Do not forget to join the new SonyAlphaForum ;)

SAR reader Bruce contacted Sigma UK and asked them when they actually do plan to ship the 24-105mm and 600mm A-mount lenses. The answer he got from Sigma UK is:

At this stage, we do not have any further information I’m afraid, we are awaiting the updates currently ourselves at this stage unfortunately.

The Sigma A-mount lens can be preordered at Amazon (Click here), BHphoto (Click here) and Adorama (Click here).

Zach Ashcraft
Oct 30th, 5:10am
I took this on the A7r and Sony FE 70-200 F4. I literally just sold my entire Canon setup including a C100 and 5d mark 3 for an A7s and A7r. I’ve been looking for opportunities to test the a7r before my next paid shoot, and saw this herd of bison just off the freeway on the outskirts of Fort Worth. I couldn’t resist pulling over, and I’m glad I did! The amount of dynamic range and detail I can pull from the shadows is ridiculous, and it completely blows my Canon system out of the water in this regard.

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: https://www.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.

Sony is till facing a deep crisis and they reported a quarterly loss that was seven times greater than a year earlier as the company loses ground in the smartphone market to Apple Inc. and Chinese rivals (Source: Bloomberg). The full financial report can be downloaded here: sony.net/SonyInfo/IR/library/er.html. There are a couple of considerations to take here:
1) It’s only the mobile business that it’s really showing huge losses. All other Sony company segments are doing fine (games, imaging, financial services, music and so on).
2) Sony is selling less cameras but more high end and high revenue cameras. In short this means less “cheap” compacts” but more high end mirrorless and fixed lens (RX) cameras
3) Sony predicts to increase revenue in the Imaging Business.

In very short: If Sony would fix the mobile division by cutting costs or selling the whole segment problems would be solved (Just like they did with the selling of the PC business). And what matters for us the digital camera business is doing fine!

Sony A7s Test – OVER a month

Sony Artisans Speak at PhotoPlus Expo 2014 (Brian Smith).
Sony A7r – Macbook – Lightroom workflow at Hikeventures.
Sony 10-18mm E-Mount APS-C Lens On ‘Full-Frame’ Sony FE A7r (Soundimagesplus).
Quick 1st Look: Voigtlander 40/2.8 Aspherical Heliar for Sony E-Mount (Steve Huff).
Sigma S 150-600 mm f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM test at Lenstip.
Lens Style camera patent from Sony (Freepatentsonline).

David: “I run a photography studio in Dublin and last April we switched over to using the sony A7 as our primary cameras. Our last shoot was shot exclusively with the A7 and FE55F18 which you can find here (http://www.lightexplorers.net/albums/autumn-in-trinity/), might be of interest to the other readers. Heres our Facebook page if you’re interested. https://www.facebook.com/lightexplorers.net”

Matthias: “I did a review of a good 4K Sony camera that gets looked past quite a bit… its the Z3 :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vELgDkjYi5Y“

Zbigniew: “I would like to show you timelapse/hyperlapse made with a6000. I took around 10.000 photos in three days. Whole project was made in cooperation with Tropical Islands resort. Maybe SAR readers would like to see what timeplase quality(4K) you can get using only a6000. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2Df7DZOr6U and https://vimeo.com/108408115“

The official note from Sony Japan.

Sony Japan forgot to mention that also the A7s got an official firmware update (can be seen here on Sony US). At the time of writing als the few Sony Europe stores I have checked do not display the firmware update info for the A7s…

The official note from Sony Japan.

P.S.: I am continually updating this post with links and info (note that Sony hasn’t update all sites yet do it may takes 1-2 hours to have all download links!)

Sony just released the new firmware update for the A7,A7r, A6000, A5100 and A5000 (note only USA seems to have the new firmware yet!). The update is minor and Improves the power-on time after downloading the Smart Remote Control application of the PlayMemories Camera Apps™:

A7R firmware download:
Mac – Sony US, Sony Germany, Sony UK, Sony France, Sony Spain, Sony Italy, Sony Holland, Sony Belgium, Sony Austria, Sony Switzerland, Sony Finland, Sony Sweden, Sony Norway, Sony Portugal, Sony Australia
Windows – Sony US, Sony Germany, Sony UK, Sony France, Sony Spain, Sony Italy, Sony Holland, Sony Belgium, Sony Austria, Sony Switzerland, Sony Finland, Sony Sweden, Sony Norway, Sony Portugal, Sony Australia
A7 firmware download:
Mac – Sony US, Sony Germany, Sony UK, Sony France, Sony Spain, Sony Italy, Sony Holland, Sony Belgium, Sony Austria, Sony Switzerland, Sony Finland, Sony Sweden, Sony Norway, Sony Portugal, Sony Australia
Windows – Sony US, Sony Germany, Sony UK, Sony France, Sony Spain, Sony Italy, Sony Holland, Sony Belgium, Sony Austria, Sony Switzerland, Sony Finland, Sony Sweden, Sony Norway, Sony Portugal, Sony Australia