Note for German readers: Gold Box now on the RX1R (Click here).

It’s really great news that Sony finally got competition in the RX FF segment. Leica just announced their Leica Q camera (specs here at BHphoto). And I hope this will one more reason for Sony to finally unleash the RX2! Here is a short recap of the new Leica Q strong and weak points compared to the Sony:

advantages of the new Leica:
– ISO up to 50.000
– faster 28mm f/1.7 lens
– 3.68 MP EVF
– first reports indicate very fast autofocus in bright light conditions.
– better overall built quality and button layout
– longer battery life
– has a proper Q smartphone App

disadvantages of the new Leica:
– The RX1 is still a lot smaller
– video quality on the RX1 seems to be better
– The RX1 is cheaper (RX1 costs $2,800 and the Leica Q $4,250 although the Leica comes with integrated EVF).

Full Leica Q press coverage can be read at MirrorlessRumors (Click here).

Mathieu Legrand‎
Jade – Sony a7 II with 55mm 1.8
Www.mathieulegrand.fr

1) Submit your picture with a message and picture here: facebook.com/sonyalpharumors or on the SonyAlphaForum image section.
2) Like and comment the pictures from other readers here: facebook.com/sonyalpharumors/photos_stream?tab=photos and on SonyAlphaForum.
3) A selection of most liked pictures by the community and by me SAR admin will be posted weekly on SAR.

Note: When sending a pic feel free to also add a link to your site to promote yourself!

Hasselblad China just posted the first image of the new “Lusso” camera. This is a “luxurified” Sony A7r clone camera! It is NOT based on the newly announced Sony A7rII. Real world images of the camera can be seen on my previous SAR post.

Current Hasselblad Sony clones are:
[shoplink 37464 ebay]Stellar (Click here)[/shoplink], [shoplink 37465 ebay]Lunar (Click here)[/shoplink] and Hasselblad HV ($7,999 off on BH!).

With the three new cameras Sony also announced a new CLM-FHD5 monitor. Images and specs here:

At a Sony conference in New York Imaging Resource posted a nice set of slides. The one on top shows you that despite the shrinking worldwide digital camera market sales Sony managed to increase their sales in the interchangeable and premium compact market.

Among the other cools slides we have those (all via Imaging Resource):

Reminder:

Sony decided to allow preorders of the three new camera starting from June 17 at 16.00 London time (confirmed via BHphoto). In other timezones this means:
8am Los Angeles time
11m New York time
17:00 Berlin time
24:00 Tokyo time.

Be sure to be online on SAR on that hour as I will link to all major stores offering preorder options on the very first minute! If you want the camera as soon as it gets stay tuned on SAR :)

Store links:
In USA:
A7rII at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, Uniquephoto.
RX10m2 at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, Uniquephoto.
RX100m4 at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, Uniquephoto.
In Europe at:
A7rII at Sony DE, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT. Wex UK.
RX100m4 at DE, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT. Wex UK.
RX100m2 at DE, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT. Wex UK.
In Asia at:
A7rII at Digitalrev, CameraPro.
RX10m2 at Digitalrev, CameraPro.
RX100m4 at Digitalrev, CameraPro.

The new RX10m2 uses the same 1inch stacked sensor as the RX100m4. This means slow motion capability, resolution, 1/32.000 shutter speed and 4K capability are the same. See the full RX100m4 SAR report if you want to know more about those features. So let’s just see the differences between the RX10m2 and RX100m4:

The RX10mw uses a 24-200mm f/2.8 Zeiss lens (same as previous RX10).

AF performance of the RX10 II reaches speeds as fast as 0.09 second⁹. To help you capture momentary shutter opportunities without fail, the adaptable lens also provides the rapid, reliable Direct Drive Super Sonicwave Motor (SSM) for smooth and highly precise focus driving that works together with Fast Intelligent AF.

The RX10m2 records up to 14fps compared to the 16fps of the RX100m4.

RX10m2 image samples can be seen at Sony.net. Videos can be seen here:
RX10 II – High Precision 4K on Youtube.
RX100 IV & RX10 II – Super Slow Motion- Insects on Youtube.
RX100 IV & RX10 II – Super Slow Motion- Children on Youtube.
RX100 IV & RX10 II – Super Slow Motion- BMX Air Turn on Youtube.
RX100 IV & RX10 II – Super Slow Motion- Apple & Water on Youtube.
RX100 IV & RX10 II – Super Slow Motion- Snowboarder on Youtube.
RX10 II – Product Design | Cyber-shot on Youtube.

Store links:
In USA:
A7rII at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, Uniquephoto.
RX10m2 at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, Uniquephoto.
RX100m4 at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, Uniquephoto.
In Europe at:
A7rII at Sony DE, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT. Wex UK.
RX100m4 at DE, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT. Wex UK.
RX100m2 at DE, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT. Wex UK.
In Asia at:
A7rII at Digitalrev, CameraPro.
RX10m2 at Digitalrev, CameraPro.
RX100m4 at Digitalrev, CameraPro.

The new Sony A7rII autofocusing system marks a new high standard for third party and A-mount lens support:

Dpreview writes:

PDAF will work even with third-party lenses via existing adapters, including in continuous AF tracking mode.  This is potentially a huge deal – especially for Canon users. We’ve used an a7R II with a [shoplink 37334 ebay]Canon 24-70mm lens[/shoplink] and a Metabones adapter, and focus is indeed very fast indeed. We’ll be looking at this in more depth as soon as we have a production sample camera, but for now, we’re highly impressed. 

Sony correctly recognized that they need to add high quality autofocus support for Canon lenses if they want to gain Canon customers!

Sony press text says:

Additionally, the focal plane phase-detection AF system on the α7R II works well with Sony A-mount lenses when they are mounted on the camera using an LA-EA3 or LA-EA1 mount adapter. This allows users to enjoy the wide AF coverage of 399 focal plane phase-detection AF points, high-speed response and high tracking performance with a wider range of lenses. This marks the first time that the AF system of a mirrorless camera can achieve high performance with lenses originally designed for DSLRs.”

The A7rII is certainly the best “A-mount lens friendly” camera yet. I can’t wait to see a focusing performance comparison between the A99 and the A7rII. If the A7rII is really as good as Sony marketing says well….I will let you guess what this could mean for the A-mount system future…

Store links:
In USA:
A7rII at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, Uniquephoto.
RX10m2 at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, Uniquephoto.
RX100m4 at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, Uniquephoto.
In Europe at:
A7rII at Sony DE, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT. Wex UK.
RX100m4 at DE, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT. Wex UK.
RX100m2 at DE, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT. Wex UK.
In Asia at:
A7rII at Digitalrev, CameraPro.
RX10m2 at Digitalrev, CameraPro.
RX100m4 at Digitalrev, CameraPro.

 Loading ...