Shotkit made an interesting survey. Summary of Our Key Findings

1. Mirrorless cameras are more popular than DSLR cameras for professional photographers. 63% of professional photographers use a mirrorless camera, while 36% of them use a DSLR camera. Only 1% use both.
2. Mirrorless cameras are more popular than DSLR cameras for amateur photographers too (but not by much). 54% of amateur photographers use a mirrorless camera, while 46% of them use a DSLR camera.
3. The most common reason why professional photographers use mirrorless cameras is that they are smaller and lighter. The second most common reason was that they offer better autofocus.
4. The most common reason why amateur photographers use mirrorless cameras is that they are smaller and lighter. The second most common reason was that they offer in-body stabilization.
5. Nikon is the most popular camera brand used by professional photographers. 31% of professionals use Nikon, closely followed by Canon (28%) and Sony (20%).
6. Canon is the most popular camera brand used by amateur photographers. 27% of amateurs use Canon, closely followed by Nikon (25%) and Sony (16%).
7. The Sony a7III is the most popular camera used by professional photographers. 7% of pros use the Sony a7III mirrorless camera, with the Canon R6 mirrorless camera and Nikon D750 DSLR camera coming in joint 2nd and 3rd.
8. The Alpha a7III and the Nikon D850 are the most popular cameras used by amateur photographers. One is a mirrorless camera and the other is a DSLR.
9. Professional photographers like to use the Sony a7III for their personal photography pursuits too. The Fujifilm X-T3 and Nikon D850 are also popular choices.
10. The most common reason why both amateur and professional photographers use DSLR cameras is due to the superior lens selection. The second most common reason was that switching to the mirrorless system is too expensive.

CYME launched the new Peakto 1.2 update (Click here to see all features).  You can as usual test it out for free. The one major feature of this update is the following:

Peakto now allows photographers to find their best shots by location

• Peakto adds a new map view that displays photos according to where they were taken.
• Combined with an AI that rates the quality of their photos, photographers can now quickly select their best shots from the shoot location.
• Peakto is a great cataloger for photographers to gather all their images in one place, sort them automatically, explore them easily and create multi-source albums.
  November 16, 2022

Montpellier, France – Today, CYME announces the availability of a new map view in Peakto, a meta-cataloger for photographers that allows them to explore all their photos in a single interface. Photographers’ photos can now be displayed on a beautiful world map according to the places where they were taken. This display offers to professionals and amateurs a new navigation experience. Thanks to the combination with Peakto’s AI that classifies and rates, photographers can now find their best photos from any selected location.

Best shots from the same location
Thanks to the GPS coordinates of the photo or the photographer’s annotations, Peakto locates the images on a world map. Selected photos on the map can be analyzed by Peakto’s AI based on their content or aesthetic score. Photographers can thus easily access their best shots and photos, automatically categorized by portraits, architectural shots, food pictures, etc. This intelligent curation lets photographers rediscover their favorite moments and hidden gems from a new perspective.

Peakto is the ideal companion for photo editing software. It offers additional services to photographers. For example, it allows Capture One or Luminar users to benefit from a map view that they did not have before.

Peakto helps photographers manage their photos
Peakto was developed by CYME to help photographers easily find images and to give them back the pleasure of browsing through their photos. Peakto is a photo management software where photographers can find a preview of all their photos and discover their pictures automatically categorized by image recognition.

Why is this such a big deal? Because the time required for photographers to wade through thousands of photos (thanks to digital technology) has taken away the pleasure of diving into their images. Instead of leisurely perusing an assortment of images to select their best shots or favorite angles, finding a picture is now a matter of searching for a file name. But exploring catalogs scattered in the cloud, on different hard drives or in different photo editing software is complicated and time-consuming.

Peakto gives photographers back the pleasure of browsing through their photos by gathering them all in one place, automatically sorting them by category, searching through all the catalogs and allowing the creation of multi-source albums.

Peakto is compatible with many photo catalogs, including the most popular photo editing software– Lightroom Classic, Luminar AI/Neo, Capture One, Aperture, and iView Media. It allows photographers to find all the photos taken with an iPhone thanks to its compatibility with Apple photos and, of course, connects with all the image folders saved on a computer or hard disk. Peakto always stays up to date with photo sources to give photographers a perfect view of all their catalogs.

Price and availability
Peakto is a software for macOS, available by subscription or one-time purchase on CYME.io and on the Mac App Store. Peakto can be tested for free for 15 days (no credit card required on CYME.io). Peakto is available on a monthly plan at $9.99/month; a yearly plan at $99/year; or for one-time purchase of $189.

If you like me already own the Sony A7rV and want to use it with Lightroom (no official support yet), here is a small “Hack” to convert the RAW files. Sparris on Dpreview forum wrote:

Magic Wedding Photographer on Youtube has found a workaround to convert the raw files from Sony A7R V so they can be opened with Lightroom and Camera Raw! I just tested it and it works. I suppose it rewrites the header of the file to the one found in A7R IV.

Download Exiftool from https://exiftool.org/ and use the command line in Windows:

“exiftool -sonymodelid=”ILCE-7RM4″ -ext ARW -r” followed by the file name, for example

exiftool -sonymodelid=”ILCE-7RM4″ -ext ARW -r 011.arw

if 011.arw is in the same folder as exiftool.exe

I regularly do use Apple AirTag to secure all my gear. But now CosmoCap allows me to keep track of my Sony camera too! Check out their project on Kickstarter (Click here).

This is how it works:

More hot Kickstarter/Indigogo projects:

• You safe 48% on the new Philips 4K projector on sale on Indiegogo (Click here).
• The new POD Mini macro light is now available on Kickstarter (Click here).

Well what now? pic.twitter.com/qPZvDaAY1u

— Jordan Koman (@jordan_koman) November 17, 2022

Today Sony issued a new FX3 and FX30 firmware update. But plenty of SAR readers reported that there is a huge BUG that causes the camera to reboot repeatedly!

UPDATE 2: Other readers reported the update did go well:

I have updated and it's fine! Now it's a bomb and it goes even faster 🚀

— Alessandro Pavanati (@APavanati) November 17, 2022

Sony issued a new firmware update for the FX3 (download here) and the FX30 (download here). UPDATE: SAR readers reported about issues after the firmware update…don’t perform the update now!

FX3 Benefits and Improvements

• Fixes an issue where the movie file rotated in the camera may not be rotated on the computer
• Fixes an issue where the touch operations do not work in the Imaging Edge Mobile apps when DISP (Screen Disp) Set option is set to No Disp. Info.
• Improves the operational stability of the camera

FX30 Benefits and Improvements

WARNING! Make sure that there is only one BODYDATA.DAT file on the memory card. If you have used the card for a previous update, format the memory card in the camera before downloading a new file.

• Fixes an issue where the movie file rotated in the camera may not be rotated on the computer
• Fixes an issue where the touch operations do not work in the Imaging Edge Mobile apps when DISP (Screen Disp) Set option is set to No Disp. Info.
• Improves the operational stability of the camera

Sony a7R V Photoshoot and B-Roll (Behind the Scenes)

Today deals at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, Amazon DE, Amazon UK, Amazon FR, Amazon IT, FotoErhardt DE, FotoKoch DE.
My Dream Lens!? – Tamron 20-40mm f/2.8 Review (Gerald Undone).
Exploring the Sony range of cameras & lenses with Sony Manager (Adrian Salisbury).
Announcing the ProGrade Digital Memory Cards (Explora).
Sony a7R V – Real World Video and Photo Examples (Sidney Diongzon)
8 Vibrant Photography Tips for Colorful Images that Pop (42West).

Follow our new Youtube channel.
I kindly invite you all to follow our Discord channel, Instagram, Facebook 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.