Optical versus Electronic viewfinder. A new POLL!


Today Sony made it clear once again that electronic viewfinders are the future while Nikon stated they are committed to optical viewfinders. A year ago I asked if users would prefer Sony to make camera with optical viewfinder or if they bet on the new electronic viewfinder “philosophy” from Sony. And the results were more on less on par. But one year ago we only had that not so good viewfinder technology from the A55 as reference and today we have that super high quality OLED technology from the A77/NEX-7. I am curious to see if you changed your mind and if in your opinion Sony is betting on the right horse:

I will buy the...

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In Stock status:
The only new NEX-7 I found is in Denmark and on sale on [shoplink 11147 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
The A77 is in Stock at Sony US (ships end of the month), Expanys USA (Click here), Expansys Canada (Click here), Expansys UK (Click here), Amazon Germany (Click here), Amazon Japan (Click here) and Amazon Cina (Click here).

Sony Interview: The future is mirrorless!

Imaging Resource (Click here) interviewed Mr. Mark Weir, Senior Manager of Technology and Marketing at Sony Electronics Inc.

– Sony clearly says that Optical Viewfinder DSRL are…dead: “It’s hard to imagine that 10 years from now, cameras will operate the way they did 60 years ago“. The future are mirrorless cameras!
– There is a tremendous demand for our NEX-5N and for the NEX-7: “and that cuts across the grain from what you would expect if the mirrorless segment was originally designed to attract that step-up point and shoot user who wasn’t ready for an SLR.”
– Thai flood and production status: “we’re looking forward to ramping up to meet the demand of our consumers in February and March.”
– Sony is clearly committed to Full Frame even if the vast majority of the market is APS-CI. It’s a big challenge to create a big size Translucent Mirror: “so it’s not for the faint of heart, but we’ll see.”

There is much more in the Interview but the general picture is easy to understand. Sony is working on a Fullframe SLT camera. But the main affords goes to the NEX system.

New (cool!) Sony HVL-LE1 LED light flash! A77 in Stock in USA/Canada/UK.

Sony unveiled that new hotshoe-mountable LED battery light. As you can see from the video on top it’s actually a super nice gadget you can tilt and angle. There is a dimmer you can adjust from 10% up to 100% power (1800 LUX maximum at 5500 Kelvin). There is even a filter slot for the use of a 3200 conversion filter. The It weights 250g and is priced at $250. One moge thing: you can use AA and Sony V or M batteries, the same used for the A77. Can’t wait to use that LED light on my future A99 :)

By the way, the A77 is in Stock at Expanys USA (Click here), Expansys Canada (Click here), Expansys UK (Click here).

 

 

One more…ehm lens adapter for NEX :)


via DC.watch

Neither DSLR/SLT users nor NEX camera owners could enjoy some real good news from the lens front at CES. We only had those two non spectacular Sigma lenses (with no offense to Sigma that can make some very superb lenses!). Now we have one more not so cool news :)

Kenko announced a new T to E mount adapter for the Tokina 400mm f/8.0 mirror lens (see picture on top). It’s an all silver edition. The adapter should be priced at $200. If you are really in the market for this I would rather go for the [shoplink 11116 ebay]Sony 500mm f/8.0 mirror (Click here to see them on eBay)[/shoplink] or the [shoplink 11117 ebay]Sony 900mm f/8.0 mirror (Click here to see them on eBay)[/shoplink]. Those are A-mount lenses and you can use them with any current [shoplink 11116 ebay]cheap Chinese adapter[/shoplink] :)

A77 SLT mirror light test (in Stock in USA, UK, Spain, Canada and Cina)

“HIDDEN”. One of the first short films shot with the A77 by philipnashphotography.

So many SAR readers still haven’t got the A77. Here is a short list of stores having the A77 in Stock: Expansys USA (Click here), Jacobs UK (Click here), Sonystore Canada (ships next week), Redcoon Spain (Click here), Amazon Cina (Click here) and in two weeks at Sonystore USA (Click here).

Now back to A77 related news:
There is a real A77 mirror measurement made by a German A77 owner. He took an A77 mirror and did a scientific test on the transmission as function of wavelength. That should finally stop the speculations on how much light is lost. The test description is in German language:
http://www.sonyuserforum.de/forum/showpost.php?p=1270217&postcount=206 (Click here for a google english translation).
This table from the same thread might help to translate the result into F-stops.
http://www.sonyuserforum.de/forum/showpost.php?p=1262520&postcount=119
In short, the test proves how the permeability is around 72-76% and it has a very “harmonious” distribution. And the light loss is indeed 1/3 EV “only”.

Stuckincustoms (Click here) wrote a quite “different” view on Sony SLT technology by  (conspiracy theory included).

Mike Kobal (Click here) posted some A77 + Zeiss 24mm image samples: “There is no need to stop this lens down, already very sharp at f2 I found myself shooting in the range btw f2 to f6.3. This lens is pure awesomeness!”

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Zeiss 24mm for Alpha-mount (not for NEX!) is avaialble at [shopcountry 3037].