The winners of the Camera Grand Prix 2024 award have been announced. The A9III was selected as winner by the Japanese press and also separately by the Japanese readers.

Grand Prize: Sony “α9 III”
Lens Award: Nikon “NIKKOR Z 135mm f/1.8 S Plena”
Best camera award you choose: Sony “α9 III”
Best lens of your choice: Nikon “NIKKOR Z 135mm f/1.8 S Plena”

The jury writes about the A9III:

By being able to expose all pixels in the screen at the same time, it eliminates the distortion of moving objects that occurs with conventional electronic shutter photography. It received many votes as the best camera for capturing decisive moments in sports and wildlife photography. Flash photography can now be synchronized at full speed up to 1/80,000 seconds ( *2 ), and is also compatible with the company’s first pre-shooting. This is a technological innovation that expands the possibilities of photographic expression, and some expressed hope that it will be rolled out to popular models in the future. In addition, the model was highly evaluated for its ability to minimize the size of the previous model while refining the detailed shape and making it easier to use as a tool.

Sony A9III at BHphoto. Amazon. Adorama. FotoErhardt. Fotokoch. Calumet. WexUK.

Today only you save $100 on the fast Lexar SD cards sold by BHphoto. The same card is in Stock for $199 at Amazon.

Reminder: Those Sony rebates run this til June 2 at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama. Some special mentions:

Cameras:

• $400 off on the Sony A7rV at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama.
• $300 off on the ZV-E1 at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama.
• $200 off on the Sony A7IV at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama.

Lenses:

• $100 off on the 50mm f/1.2 GM at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama.
• $100 off on the 85mm f/1.4 GM at BHphoto, Amazon, Adorama.
• $100 off on the 35mm f/1.4 GM at BHphoto, Amazon, Adorama.
• $100 off on the 14mm f/1.8 GM at BHphoto, Amazon, Adorama.
• $100 off on the 12-24mm GM at Amazon. BHphoto. Adorama.
• $100 off on the 200-600mm G at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama.

Accessories:

• Up to $400 off on Sony CFexpress Type A cards at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama.
• Up to $400 off on Sony Tough SD cards at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama.

Tamron:

• Tamron 28-75mm III lens for $699 only at Amazon US, BHphoto and Adorama t This is the lowest price ever on an excellent and much beloved kit lens!

You save up to $300 on Sigma E-mount lenses sold by Amazon, Bhphoto, Adorama.

Preorders:
Sigma 24-70mm II at BHphoto, Amazon, Adorama, FotoErhardt, WexUK.

Press coverage and reviews:
Explora. Elliot Aubin. Antonia Moers.

Youtube reviews:

Today Fujifilm announced the GFX100IIS (at BHphoto, Amazon, Adorama) and the FujiFilm X-T50 (at BHphoto, Amazon, Adorama).

Weeks ago I told you that Fuji’s X-T50 film simulation dial was a winning addition that would create instant hype and be loved by influencers and young people. This is the kind of ‘gimmick’ that cameras need to sell to this group. Some people said I would be a fool to think that, so I made an effort to contact some of the major shops in the US, Europe and Asia. They all told me the same thing: re-orders for this camera are very high! The highest ever for any X-Txx camera!
Granted, not as high as the FujiFilm X100VI, but still much higher than usual.

Let’s be honest, I’m a middle-aged classic photographer and I don’t need that dial. But I want companies to keep producing new cameras that focus on photography. And the only way they will do that is if they can make money on this kind of ‘different’ cameras as well. That way they can keep the whole business profitable. This is why the upcoming Sony ZV-E10II is so important. Not because we like it… but because it is the best-selling E-mount camera and is always at the top of Amazon’s ranking (click here). I still don’t know when the ZV-E10II will be announced…first rumored dates were late May but there might be a small delay of a couple of weeks….

I am old school guys…and I really don’t care about smartphones.  But you might be interested to see what kind of new “Alpha” alike features the new Xperia 1 VI & Xperia 10 VI have. So check out the video on top!

The multi-year long rumored Canon R1 has been finally announce…or more like pre-announced! From the press release it sounds likely this camera will be on market by early 2025 and that’s also when I heard that Sony might announce the new Sony A1II.

You can read the full press text on Explora but here are the key interesting aspects:

• It’s going to use a new CMOS sensor (so no global shutter)
• Uses the same “old” Digic X processor of the Canon R3. UPDATE: CanonRumors corrected me and this is not the “same” processor but a variation within a family of processor.
• promises to have the best in class autofocus…beating the Sony A1 and Sony A9III AF system.
• Will be field tested at the Olympics

So the key really is the Autofocus performance. I have a hard time believing they can beat the A9III but at the end we all have to hope they can pull this off. This will put some pressure on Sony to give us a stunning new Sony A1II ;)

Here are my thoughts:

Sony A7sIII Firmware 3.01 has been officially released (Click here to download it).

Benefits and Improvements

• Fixes the following issues with the ISO value:
  • The ISO value is displayed incorrectly when outputting a RAW video to a RAW-compatible device connected via an HDMI cable
  • The upper and lower limit setting ranges are incorrect when the ISO value is set to Auto
• Fixes an issue where the camera may not be able to connect to the network
• Improves the operational stability of the camera

UPDATE: Sony A7IV Firmware 3.01 has been officially released (Click here to download it).

Benefits and Improvements

• Fixes an issue where the camera may not be able to connect to the network
• Improves the operational stability of the camera