Sony Tidbits…


Voigtländer 65mm f/2 Macro APO Lanthar – surprising quality? Lens review with samples

Smartphone replaced DSLR for everything except wildlife photography (Reddit).
7 Artisans 25mm F0.95 test at SonyAlphablog.
Sony A7 IV – die hochauflösende Hybridkamera im Praxis-Test (Calumet Germany).
What Is the Best Camera for Sports Photography? (42West).
In Defense of Small-Sensor Cameras for Live Events and ENG Work (Explora).

Personal photos and tests from SAR Admin Andrea on Instagram, Facebook, Flickr and 500px.

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Sony A7 series group.

 

Tokina has announced a new SZ 8mm f/2.8 fisheye lens for APS-C E-mount cameras

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The product page can be found here. And this is the press text:

Tokina SZ 8mm F2.8 X FISH-EYE and SZ 8mm F2.8 E FISH-EYE worldwide sales date announcement

Kenko Tokina Co., Ltd. is proud to announce the sales release of the Tokina SZ 8mm F2.8 FISH-EYE lens for Fuji X and Sony E (APS-C) camera mounts. SZ series offering a range of exciting products with specific features and valuable advantages.

Sales will commence on March 15, 2022.

The Tokina SZ 8mm F2.8 FISH-EYE is a compact and lightweight fast, ultra-wide prime, manual focus, full-frame fisheye lens designed exclusively for APS-C sensor mirrorless cameras. The line-up includes models for Fuji X and Sony E APS-C size camera mounts. Emphasized perspective and unique distortion makes this lens attractive for both still photographers and videographers.

Thanks to a compact, lightweight design and manual focus the Tokina SZ 8mm F2.8 FISH-EYE MF can be appealing to young active content creators from the price perspective. The suggested genres are landscape, nightscape, interior, architecture, street snap and pet photography. An ultra wide angle of view, unique perspective effect and a compact design allows this lens to be used for creating viral images for Social Networks such as Instagram as well as Vlogging.

Highlighted Features

  • Lightweight (280g) and compact (overall length 52mm) construction.
  • Fast f/2.8 lens for compact APS-C sensor mirrorless cameras.
  • High quality built and sophisticated exterior design.
  • Clickless aperture ring for smooth operation in video shooting.
  • Minimum focus distance of 10cm to include close-up objects in front of a wide background.
  • Detachable bayonet type hood to use with full-frame mirrorless cameras for achieving circular fisheye effect.

Luminar Neo Launched with Lots of New AI Features

Luminar Neo has now been officially released!. And til March 3 you get a special discount (Click here). Here are some of the new features:

Add and export images

There are just two tabs in the center of the top bar in Luminar Neo: Catalog and Edit. In the Catalog tab, you can add, view, and organize your images into albums and folders. You’ll also be able to favorite the images you like best.

You can quickly upload photos you took with your smartphone to your computer through the Luminar Share app. Download the Luminar Share mobile app by scanning the QR code below, then follow the instructions in the app to connect it to your Luminar Neo desktop app. Luminar Share also allows you to quickly export images to your smartphone and share them on your favorite social media channels.

Enjoy the easy workflow

After you’ve added your photos, it’s time to edit them. All the editing tools are stored in the Edit tab. Scroll through the tools you want to apply. You’ll find them grouped into four handy categories: Essentials, Creative, Portrait, and Professional. Find the tool you want to use and click on its name to apply it.

Achieve your goals with AI-based features

Luminar Neo’s AI-based tools let you achieve more with less effort. Make sure to use them in your edits to achieve pleasing and fast results.

Use Sky AI to replace the sky automatically and turn an ordinary photo into an amazing one. Save an image with an overexposed sky, add a unique sky, or make a photo unforgettable — all in just one click. You can also fine-tune the results if you want more control over the image.

Apply automatic content-aware image enhancements with the Accent AI slider (find it in the Enhance AI tool). One slider lets you make dozens of adjustments to shadows, highlights, contrast, tone, saturation, exposure, details, and more.

Automatically remove spots on your images caused by dust on your lens or sensor with Remove Dust Spots.

Declutter an image with the Remove Powerlines tool that automatically removes power lines.

Explore 3D features

Luminar Neo’s powerful technologies work under the hood to help you edit your images while taking into account depth.

Emulate a 3D light source and relight the scene by taking into account the depth of a photo withRelight AI.

Create amazing portraits by simulating a bokeh effect based on image depth reconstruction with Portrait Bokeh AI.


Of course, you can use basic color corrections in your editing too: Develop, Black & White, Crop AI, Denoise, Vignette, and other tools are waiting for you.

Boost your creativity with Layers

Luminar Neo allows you to work with multiple photos on one canvas. Add image layers, move them on top of each other, use blending modes and masking modes, make collages, add double exposure effects, and do more with each layer. Easily drag, move, place, rotate, and flip one or multiple images around the base photo.

What better way to explore the new Layers feature than with a whole library of Overlays? Experiment with the effects you can achieve: play with free built-in collections, including unique lights, bokeh, wall frames, and silhouettes of people and objects. You can also add your own Overlays or expand your collection by getting Overlays from the Luminar Marketplace.

Get fast results with Presets

Presets let you make one-click adjustments to your photos, or you can use them as a starting point for further adjustments. Presets combine efficiency with creativity. By using AI to understand the strengths and weaknesses of every image, Presets automatically correct common capture problems and apply enhancements that inspire new ideas. Presets can be saved and easily synced across large batches of photos — including across sets of images from different sessions and taken in different environments — to help you create a unique style in your photos.

Buy Luminar Neo here!