NDP Group reports that in Jan/Feb 2017 Sony did surpass Nikon and is now on 2nd place in the USA Full Frame system camera market. It’s Canon that is still the king of the market (Their DSLR still do rule the Amazon sales ranking). While 2 months for data are for sure not enough to mark a serious trend I bet the day will arrive Sony will take Canon’s throne too.

Here is the Press text:

SAN DIEGO, April 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — Sony Electronics – a worldwide leader in digital imaging and the world’s largest image sensor manufacturer, has announced today that their continued growth has vaulted them into the #2 overall position in the U.S. full-frame interchangeable lens camera market. ¹

Sony’s interchangeable lens cameras and lenses have seen record sales in 2017, in particular within the U.S. full-frame camera market, where they have experienced double-digit growth (+23%) ² compared to the same period last year.  The popularity of key models including α7RII and α7SII has been paramount to this success.

Additionally, Sony’s rapid growth has helped to drive growth of the overall full-frame interchangeable lens camera market compared to the same period last year.  Without Sony’s contributions, the full-frame market would be facing a slight decline. ³

“Our commitment to the industry is stronger than ever,” said Neal Manowitz, VP of Digital Imaging at Sony North America. “We are always listening to our customers, combining their feedback with our intense passion for innovation to deliver products, services and support like no other.”

A variety of exclusive stories and exciting content shot Sony α products can be found at www.alphauniverse.com , Sony’s community site built to educate, inspire and showcase all fans and customers of the Sony α brand.

Notes to Editors

¹The NPD Group / Retail Tracking Service, U.S., Detachable Lens Camera, Full Frame, Based on Dollars, Jan- Feb 2017
²The NPD Group / Retail Tracking Service, U.S., Detachable Lens Camera, Full Frame, Based on Dollars, Jan/Feb 2016- Jan/Feb 2017
³The NPD Group / Retail Tracking Service, U.S., Detachable Lens Camera, Full Frame, Based on Dollars, Jan/Feb 2016- Jan/Feb 2017

This is the first image of the new $4,399 Primagon 24 f/2.8 FF E-mount lens. Dr. Stefan Immes from Meyer Optik says about this lens:

“For this lens, we are concentrating on creating an extremely high resolution. As a result, we have designed the lens with a slightly smaller initial aperture than is typical for this lens class. With this design, we are able to achieve almost the same sharpness over the entire aperture range. This is something special and opens up many possibilities for design.
The pictures promise to be almost three-dimensional in the way the subject will pop out from the blurred background. We are very excited, as our test photographers interpret the possibilities of our lens in the test shots. This is often the most exciting part in lens development and part of our incentive to create new products.”

The lens will go on Kickstarter sometimes later this year. And unlike the other Meyer Optik E-mount lenses the Primagon is completely redesigned from scratch and not an adaptation of older exisiting lenses.

Venus Optics Laowa 12mm f/2.8 Lens, Sony A7sii, Zhiyun Crane [sample footage]

Sony G-Master 100mm Sample shots (SonyAlphaForum).
Instagram 101+ Photographing for Engagement (Explora).
Zeiss Loxia 85mm review at ThePhoBlographer.
a6300 vs a6500 complete comparison (Mirrorlesscomparison).
Oscars 2017: The Cinematography Behind the Top Nominated Films (Adorama Learning Center).
Free Lightroom plugin shows which focus point was active when the picture was taken (MirrorlessRumors).

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Adobe added the Lens profile support for the two new Sony FE lenses.

New Sony FE lens store links:
85mm f/1.8 FE at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama. Amazon DE. Amazon UK. Amazon IT. Amazon FR. Amazon ES. PhotoPorstNeuwied.
100mm f/2.8 STF FE at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama. Amazon DE. Amazon UK. Amazon IT. Amazon FR. Amazon ES. PhotoPorstNeuwied.

Samyang 135mm F2 ED UMC Lens Review | John Sison

A Slice of CP+ 2017 by Matthew Durr
Sony 50mm f1.8 Real World Review (Barisparildar).
Q&A On The Field Sony A7ii With 70-200 And Batis 85 (ThatCameraGuy).
10 Best Instant Cameras (Adorama Learning Center).
Eagle-eyed lenses (Science Magazine).
Sony A6500 Review + Sony Lenses I use for Video (Austin Black).
12 Recommended Travel Tripods (Explora).

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Tanveer: “A timelapse created with A7 andTamron 15-30 f2.8 of the night sky. We are made of STARS https://youtu.be/l54vPtF_7yI?t=12s“

We got two news from the competition:

1) Nikon today announced the D7500 (specs here on Amazon). It has the same D500 20 megapixel Sony sensor. This is basically a D7200 upgraded with the new D500 features. A bit surprising is that Nikon did get rid of the dual SD slot from the D7200 (the D7500 has one slot only). And the battery life is 15% shorter.

2) Ricoh-Pentax seems to be in trouble with their camera business (as so many do). They had to revise down the profit forecast and also announced that they will reduce their camera business to focus on High Value cameras only. Full story at Mirrorlessrumors.

How life changes everything: The big future market for Sony sensors is the Automotive Industry. We are going to see a lot of tech’s first applied on such cameras that may trickle down to the very small digital camera business.

And today Sony announced it’s First*1 High-Sensitivity CMOS Image Sensor for Automotive Cameras, Delivering Simultaneous LED Flicker Mitigation and High-Quality HDR Shooting. You can read the full specs here: https://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/News/Press/201704/17-034E/index.html