Fuji, Ricoh and Leica can’t keep up with the orders they received for the X100VI, GRIII and Q3. Sony surely has already developed prototypes of their RX1rIII but they have to announced it soon to profit from the competition’s success!

Just a bit of details of what’s going on:

• Fuji will need months to fulfill the X100VI preorders they had the first day only!
• Ricoh announced it’s stopping to take reorders on the five year old Ricoh GRIII because  of the extremely high demand
• Leica says it’s selling a ton of Q3 camera and BHphoto reports it’s on “back order”.

So as you can see there is a big demand for high quality fixed lens cameras. The question now is…what’s Sony’s plan?

Sony RX1rII successor rumors:

All I got so far is rumors about a market research done by Sony over a year ago. They asked selected photographers questions about the future new RX FF fixed lens camera. I guess Sony already made working prototypes, but I have NO confirmation form trusted sources if Sony will launch a Sony RX1rIII this year. I do believe that if they don’t do it they will miss a huge opportunity to win over some of the potential X100VI, GRIII,Q3 buyers.

A new fixed lens Full Frame camera from Sony would basically have no competition: it would have better Image Quality than the APS-C competition and still be much less expensive than the only Full Frame fixed lens camera there is yet on the market.

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Let me know in the comment system what you think about a possible new RX model and what features it should have to appeal to you. In my dream world the camera should have the following specs:

Sony RX1rIII

• 61MP sensor (if sensor would be curved it would be amazing)
• 28mm f/1.7 lens
• Integrated EVF
• Manuals controls for ISO and SPEED
• vintage design inspired by the Minolta CLE

We are used to get full info about the camera sales on the Japanese market. But we rarely get some info from the rest of the world. So it’s curious to see what CameraBeta posted today: They shared the list of the most used gear from Bird Photographers. As I don’t speak chinese I didn’t fully understand how the data was collected. Would appreciate if some of our Chinese readers can send me additional info…thanks!

So here is the list:

Most used cameras for bird photography:

1. Canon EOS R5
2. Canon EOS-1Dx Mark II
3. Sony a1
4. Canon EOS R3
5. Nikon Z 9
6. Canon EOS-1Dx Mark III
7. Nikon D500
8. Sony a9
9. Canon EOS R7
10. Nikon D5

Most used lenses for bird photography:

1. Sony 200-600mm FE
2. Canon 600mm f/4.0
3. Canon 100-500mm
4. Sony 600mm f/4.0
5. Nikkor 500mm PF
6. Canon 600mm f/4.0
7. Canon 400mm f/2.8
8. Nikon 600mm f/4.0
9. Sigma 150-600mm
10. Canon 200-400mm f/4.0

Sigma Japan issued a note of temporarily suspension of orders for the “85mm F1.4 DG DN” and “56mm F1.4 DC DN” E-mount lenses:

The reason for this is that orders exceeded expectations and production cannot keep up. For items that have already been ordered, it may take some time for the products to arrive at your doorstep.

Sony 24-50mm G at BHphoto, Adorama, Amazon, FotoErhardt, Calumet, Fotokoch, WexUK, ParkCameras, Jessops.

You might have noticed that the last product announced by Sony (A9III, 300GM, 24-50G) did only ship out 3 months after the announcement. Moreover I do know from trusted sources that the rumored 16-25mm G lens launch has been delayed because of production issues at Sony. Lately also Sigma and OM Digital announcement shipment delays. I have no info about what the reasons could be. But today Yaotomicamera wrote that there are “Difficulties in parts procurement“.

Could be that there is some kind of parts bottleneck that is affecting most of the industry? Latest info is that also the upcoming ZV-E10II will ship out later than expected. Hope sources can tell me more about this soon!

Sony 50mm f/1.8 Unboxing (Sony’s MOST POPULAR LENS)

Today deals at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, Amazon DE, Amazon UK, Amazon FR, Amazon IT, FotoErhardt DE, FotoKoch DE.
Ivan on Flickr: here’s a 20-minute project I did out of boredom to have a lens for my a6700 that’s only available for Fuji (TTArtisan 27mm Limited yellow/red).
How to Choose a Laptop for Video Editing (Explora).
The Ultimate Guide to Manual Focus in Photography (42West).
300mm GM review at DC.watch.
Tamron 17-50 F4 Di III VXD review (SonyAlphaBlog).
Test Sigma 70-200 mm f/2,8 DG DN OS Sports : télézoom haute performance (Phototrend).

Follow our new Youtube channel.
Join our SonyAlphaForum.
I kindly invite you all to follow our Discord channel, Instagram, Facebook, Threads and Twitter to not miss news and rumors

We have our own Facebook camera groups you can join to discuss the upcoming new cameras in detail:
Sony Alpha group. Sony A1 group. Sony A9 series group. Sony A7r series group. Sony A7s series group. Sony A7 series group.

A reader just went me this interesting technical note:

If you check the latest Sony paper on XAVC codec released November 2023, they mention the bitrate of 4K 240fps, which so far no camera can do. This could be a hint about next a7s4/FX3II. It does 4K 240fps using XAVC HE codec (h265) at 480Mbps in 4:2:0 which could work with V90 SD cards and 4K 240fps at 800Mbps in 4:2:2 and that would require Cfexpress.
Check page 7 in this PDF, there you can find info for both 8K 120fps and 4K 240fps. So codec-wise sony is ready for those frame rates.

Yes, I do think 4k240p will be available coin future Sony cameras. My real question now is…will there be a A7sIV or will this series merge into the future Sony FX3II?

Best selling cameras in second half of February according to Yodobashi:

1. Nikon Z f
2. OM SYSTEM OM-1 Mark II
3. SONY α7C II
4. Leica Q3
5. FUJIFILM X-T5
6. Nikon Z8
7. RICOH GR IIIx
8. Canon EOS R6 Mark II
9. FUJIFILM X100V
10. DJI Osmo Pocket 3

Best selling cameras in February according to MapCamera:

1. Sony α7C II Body
2. Nikon Z f 40mm f/2 (SE) Lens Kit
3. Sony α7C II Zoom Lens Kit
4. OM SYSTEM OM-1 Mark II Body
5. Nikon Z 8 Body
6. Sony α7 IV Body
7. Sony α7R V Body
8. Nikon Z 50 Double Zoom Kit
9. Sony FX3 Body
10. Nikon Z fc 16 -50 VR SL Lens Kit

The Sony A7cII sells hot in Japan!

We don’t have such accurate figures in the US and EU and we can only “rely” on the Amazon ranking:

• The Sony ZV-E10 is leading the sales at Amazon US (ranking here).
• The Sony A6400 is leading the sales at Amazon DE (ranking here).
• Sony A6400 and ZV-E10 are leading the sales at Amazon UK (ranking here).