Note: The Sony A7sII now got listed at Amazon US too (Click here)!!!

Yesterday Sony announced that it will add 14 Bit RAW recording on the A7sII, A7rII and yet not defined “additional cameras”. There is one uncertainty highlighted by Diglloyd:

I am puzzled why an uncompressed format would be offered versus a lossless-compressedformat. The core issue is file QUALITY, not file FORMAT. Lossless-compressed is identical to uncompressed in quality, but saves a lot of space.

1. An “uncompressed” A7rII file would creat 74MB per file (75% larger than the current Sony 11-7 Bit compression).
2. An “lossless-compressed” would create files that are almost one-third less big than the uncompressed version

Some more open questions:
1) Will Sony add the feature on A-mount cameras , first generation A7 cameras and on the A6000 too?
2) What will be the effect on the buffer memory?
3) Will it (and by how much) slow down operations (playback and so on).

Let’s hope Sony will answer those questions soon…

Sony RX10-ii test by Gary Fong.

Great 8mm Smayang lens deals at 18:00 today at Amazon Germany (click here and scroll down to the horizontal deals bar).
A good 200mm lens for a7 (SonyAlphaForum).
Review of a very 4K-apable camera – the RX100 IV (Alin Popescu).
Sony FE 90mm f/2.8 Macro G OSS review at Admiringlight.
Street Photography and the Sony A7s (Lensrentals).
This one’s nice: Turn your smartphone into a 3D hologram projector! (TheNakedCamera).

Evan Knight: “I used my new RX100 mk. IV to capture some HFR video while making coffee this morning. I love this camera! Best RX100 iteration yet! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zC_InSQHv7g”

Brad: “Thought I share this shot with you. Recently switched from Nikon to Sony. This was taken with the A7II along with the 90mm macro that just came out. There are some others posted on the site as well. https://www.facebook.com/photosbybradclawson.”

Luke: “Just got my hands on the newest Came-Tv Mini-2 3-Axis gimbal. After spending about an hour assembling the stand and balancing it, I took the Mini-2 to the streets of Boise, Idaho to give it a try during the local farmers market. I am pretty happy with the results, but I do think it takes a little practice to get the hang of it. I used my A7s and Voigtlander 35mm 1.4 with the Mini-2 and shot for about 30 minutes straight before my arms gave up. https://vimeo.com/135152360“

After AlphaUniverse als Sony.com confirmed the news: 14 Bit uncompressed RAW files are coming to the A7sII (included right from shipment start) and A7rII (via fw upgrade). The big question now is…what kinf of improvement can we expect to achieve with the new RAW files?

The “possible” benefits lists:
– more shadow data (increased dynamic range)
– no compression of tonal differences on near high-contrast edges. No more posterization effects and improved image quality in high-contrast night scenes.
– greater processing latitude
– Less complains on SAR and other websites ;)

Possible drawback of the new 14 Bit RAW:
Of course you get much bigger files to deal with. And we have to see how fast (or slow) the Sony A7sII and A7rII processor can deal with that amount of data. And we don’t know how slow that processing will be on older cameras (A7, A6000 or so if they will ever add 14 BIT to those).

Reminder: Her eis an image from Rawdigger.com showing the posterization effect on Star Trails:

A7rII store links:
In USA: at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, SonyStore US, FocusCamera, Uniquephoto. In Asia at Digitalrev, CameraPro.
A7sII store links:
In USA at BHphoto (Click here) and Adorama (Click here).

This is an incredibly good day for the Sony folks! We got two great news:

1. Sony announced that it will launch 8 new FE lenses til Spring 2016!
   So after all our source was right and Sony announced the launch of new FE lenses at IBC! Sony will unveil the detailed specs of all lenses at Photoplus (that info is coming from multiple sources). In an interview with Amateur Photographer Yoshiyuki Nogami (Sony) said: “Lens line-up expansion is very important and it is a must for Sony to do so.“
2. Sony announced Uncompressed 14-Bit RAW image on the A7sII and A7rII!
   The A7sII will be shipped with built-in uncompressed 14 bit RAW in October. The A7rII will get a firmware update soon: ” uncompressed 14-Bit RAW still image capture via firmware update to additional cameras beginning with the recently introduced α7R II full-frame mirrorless model.“

Damn is that a good day. Can’t wait to see if the new 14 BIT RAW will bring some visible improvement. Reviewers now will have to redo all their image quality tests. And maybe the A7rII will get an even higher score at DXO where it already is marked as best FF camera tested to date!

A7rII store links:
In USA: at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, SonyStore US, FocusCamera, Uniquephoto. In Asia at Digitalrev, CameraPro.
A7sII store links:
In USA at BHphoto (Click here) and Adorama (Click here).

A7r (not new A7rII) vs D810 RAW comparison by Photographylife

Sony Alphauniverse just broke the news! Sony will add uncompressed 14-Bit RAW on the A7sII and via firmware upgrade on the A7rII and later to many more cameras. Read here:

Sony Electronics, a worldwide leader in digital imaging and the world’s largest image sensor manufacturer, has today announced user selectable Compressed and Uncompressed 14-Bit RAW image capture will be featured in the new α7S II once it arrives in stores this October.

Additionally, they have announced plans to add user selectable compressed or uncompressed 14-Bit RAW still image capture via firmware update to additional cameras beginning with the recently introduced α7R II full-frame mirrorless model.

“The voice of our α community remains the most important guiding force of our product development plans,” said Neal Manowitz, Deputy Vice President for Digital Imaging at Sony Electronics. “The addition of Uncompressed 14-Bit RAW processing is a direct result of customer feedback. Widely requested by photo and video enthusiasts, we believe the choice of RAW processing types will further elevate the performance of these extraordinary cameras.”

The α7S II and α7R II are compatible with Sony’s growing lineup of α -mount lenses, which now totals 63 different models including 12 native ‘FE’ full frame lenses. By early 2016, Sony will add an additional 8 new lenses to its FE full frame lineup, bringing the FE total to 20 lenses and the overall α -mount assortment to over 70 different models.

Wow! That’s a huge news! And as I reported yesterday the new FE lenses will be announced right before the Photoplus start in October! Expect new 24-70m GM, fast prime lens, telephoto len, 21mm FE Loxia and more.

And I can’t wait to see how much difference the 14BIT will make on my Sony A7rII! Thanks Sony for listening to your customers!

Sony FE 70-200 f4 – Photoshoot REVIEW by Matt Granger

First time out wih the FE16-35 (SonyAlphaForum).
Chromasira RX100m4 test videos on Youtube: One, Two, Three, Four, Five and Six.
Generating 3D-images in the 19th century (TheNakedCamera).
Sony RX10 II First Shots posted! Take a look at the new stacked-sensor high-speed superzoom (Imaging Resource).

Martin Wagner: “My SloMo-Tutorial for the RX10M2 and RX100M4 …in German, but a lot of clips and the Menu…enjoy! https://vimeo.com/134112362”

Alex: “I am planning to shoot an indie feature film and I started to do some gear testing. Because of budget and features (codec, touch screen focus…) one of my main options is the A5100.
I heard a lot about the overheating issues, but sadly there is very little accurate information in the internet besides some random comments. So I put together a little video to show some real data before deciding whether or not buying an external recorder because of that. I hope it can be useful to some other Sony (future or current) users in case you want to share it on your “Tidbits” section.
Here is the link: https://youtu.be/M14jS5Hb9js“

Portrait Shoot in an Ethiopian Church w/ Sony A7ii, Sony FE Zeiss 35mm, & Sony 90mm by Jason Lanier

Gorgeous A7 macro pictures at SonyAlphaForum.
Lokee – Coolest Adaptable Grip Cage to Make Video Better (Kickstarter).
PXW-FS7 In-Depth Review by RedShark News (Sony Blog).
Storm Chasing with the A7R at Richardfoxphotography.
Sony Distagon T* FE 35mm f/1.4 ZA Lens review at Talkemount.
Sony RX10 II review at Wimarys.
Subtle decentering in the Sony Zeiss 55mm f/1.8? (SonyAlphaForum).

Andrea: “I just want to share with you this video, an example of an interview work/journalistic work entirely shot in 4K with my A7s + Atomos Shogun and two lenses, the Nikon Fisheye 16mm f2.8 and the canon fd 50mm 1.4. Edited in FCPX and color corrected with Color Finale. I conformed the video to 1080p.
The video was shot in Milan into the COOP stand in EXPO 2015.
‘Do you want to know how the supermarket of the future will be?’
The video is entirely subtitled in English.
Here the link: https://youtu.be/hoDjfmFuw6Y
I have to say the 4K quality of the A7s is just amazing. I really want to try asap the internal 4k of the new A7r2.”

Hai: “I see a lot of videos shot on A7ii, A7S etc. on SAR and though it would be a good joke to share my video shot on A77 (not even mark ii) https://vimeo.com/124074849“