Sony had a press announcement today during the World Photo Award: They are expanding their PRO support program to the UK.

This is the press text:

Sony today announced the expansion of its Imaging PRO Support programme to include the UK. The programme is scheduled to start in the UK in September 2016 and continues to gain momentum as an increasing amount of professional photographers are switching to Sony cameras.
Imaging PRO Support offers advice and help to members including a dedicated telephone help desk offering professional photographers support in using their α camera equipment. There’s a free collection and return service for units requiring repairs, plus a free back-up loan unit to keep professional photographers up and running. In addition, members can benefit from a free twice-yearly image sensor cleaning service with filter glass replacement if necessary and firmware check-up to keep their cameras in top condition.
There’s no membership fee for the service that’s offered to professional photographers[i] who own at least two Sony α camera bodies and three Sony α lenses from the qualifying list detailed beneath.
The Sony Imaging PRO support programme is now live in Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and the United States. Rollout in other European countries is currently under consideration.

Source: Sony Eu.

Metabones T Smart IV vs Fotodiox Canon EF adapter on the Sony A6300

Magic Lantern and Sony (SonyAlphaForum).
Sony a6300 Review at RonMartBlog.
German lego advertisement shot on the Sony A7 (Welt).
Sony A68 image samples at Optyczne.
Sony A68 review at Techradar.
Sony A7II Fimware Update 3.10 review (Dsphotoblog)

Christian: “My friend Alessandro Della Bella and I just released a project that might be interesting for you. „Zurich by Night“ features some quite fancy aerial nighttime images and consists of interactive panoramic images and a short hyperlapse movie. The images are put together of 42 single photographs shot with a Sony a7RII and have a size of more than 800MP (4GB Tiff).
Check out this: http://www.helvetiabynight.com/panos/en-index.html
Some of this aerial night shots are also part of our new movie: vimeo.com/161820611“

As you know Japan got hit twice by a very strong earthquake. Sony issued the following press release:

(Tokyo, April 18, 2016) Sony Corporation (“Sony”) extends its deepest sympathies to all those affected by the earthquakes in Kumamoto.

Due to the earthquake of April 14 and subsequent earthquakes in the Kumamoto region, the following Sony Group manufacturing sites have been affected:

Operations at Sony Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation’s Kumamoto Technology Center (located in Kikuchi Gun, Kumamoto Prefecture), which primarily manufactures image sensors for digital cameras and security cameras as well as micro-display devices, were halted after the earthquake on April 14, and currently remain suspended. Damage to the site’s building and manufacturing lines is currently being evaluated, and with aftershocks continuing, the timeframe for resuming operations has yet to be determined.

Although some of the manufacturing equipment at Sony Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation’s Nagasaki Technology Center (located in Isahaya City, Nagasaki Prefecture), which is Sony’s main facility for smartphone image sensor production, and Oita Technology Center (located in Oita City, Oita Prefecture), which commenced operations as a wholly-owned facility of Sony Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation on April 1, had been temporarily halted, the affected equipment has been sequentially restarted from April 17, and production has resumed. Sony Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation’s Kagoshima Technology Center (located in Kirishima City, Kagoshima Prefecture) has continued its production operations after the earthquakes, and there have been no major effects on its operations.

Sony has confirmed the safety of all of its and its group companies’ employees in the region affected by the earthquakes.

The impact of these events on Sony’s consolidated results is currently being evaluated.

SLR Magic 50mm F/1.1 Review (4K video samples)

Canon 70-200 F4 L + Sony A7II review (Dsphotoblog)
The Best Lens for the Sony a6000/a6300 — Craig Litten
a6300: Continuous Eye AF – My review (SonyAlphaForum).
Frame by frame: ‘live view’ continuous shooting with the Sony a6300 (Dpreview).
Sony a6300 compact mirrorless field tested: Amazing tech in a small package (Cardinalphoto).

Bernhard: “If you are interested on posting reviews – sorry, ist german – I wrote a real-life-review oft he awesome Voigtländer 35mm 1.7 on Sony A7s lately:
http://www.wimair.at/WP/?p=5521”

Martin: “I have been using the Sony FE 24-240 Superzoom on my A7RII for some time now and wrote an article about it, how this low-resolution yet very useful lens works on the high-resolution A7RII. http://www.spuelbeck.net/sony-fe-24-240mm-f3-5-6-3-oss/“

Image courtesy: Christian Dandyk (http://christian.dandyk.de). Please do not repost image without his permission.

Click on the image to enlarge and see the full Batis and Loxia field of view comparison. Now let’s see what Zeiss will bring us as next….

Thanks to Christian Dandyk!
http://christian.dandyk.de
http://alphafotograf.de/

Links to all Batis and Loxia lenses:
Batis 18mm at [shopcountry 47045].
Batis 25mm at [shopcountry 45790].
Batis 85mm at [shopcountry 45791].
Loxia 21mm at [shopcountry 46456].
Loxia 35mm at [shopcountry 47046].
Loxia 50mm at [shopcountry 47047].

Sony patented a new sensor capable of “control the exposure start and end timings of each pixel“. On paper you can create super high dynamic range images on the fly. An amazing tech that would work perfectly for landscape shots. It gets more tricky when you have moving subjects like people. But Sony seems to have a “trick” for that one too as the sensor is said to be capable to correct the blur effect on moving objects. The sensor creates “a high-dynamic-range image of which camera blur has been appropriately corrected“.

Now the questions is…when are we going to see this on a Sony camera?

Sony reports that it has been recognised with a record five awards at by the prestigious Technical Image Press Association in their 2016 awards.

BEST DSLR ENTRY LEVEL: a68

The Sony α68 has a 24MP APS-C Exmor CMOS sensor with an ISO 100-

25,600 range. Its “4D Focus” system uses a 79-point dedicated phase detection AF sensor with 15 cross points. It can deliver accurate focus in light as low as -2EV, plus constant AF tracking at 8 frames per second. For video fans the Sony α68 can record Full HD in XAVC-S format with a bit rate up to 50 Mbps and continuous autofocus with accurate focus tracking. Other attractive features include SteadyShot Inside image stabilisation, an OLED Tru-Finder with 100% frame coverage and an articulating 2.7-inch LCD monitor. Full details of the α68 can be seen here.

BEST MIRRORLESS CSC PROFESSIONAL: a7R II

The Sony α7R II has a 42MP “Full-frame” Exmor R CMOS sensor housed inside a full magnesium alloy body. It features a hybrid AF system with 399 on-sensor phase detection points and 25 contrast detection points that allow still shooting at up to 5 fps at full AF. The α7R II can deliver 4K video with in camera processing and recording and Full HD (1080p) video in either NTSC or PAL at 60p/30p/24p or 50p/25p using the high bit-rate XAVC S format. It offers fully customisable colour and gamma controls, including the same SLog2 and S-Log3 Gamma curves found in high-end Sony cinema cameras. ISO range is 100-25,600, with extendable ranges to ISO 50 to 102,400.Full details of the α7R II can be seen here.

BEST CSC PRIME LENS: SEL85F14GM

The full-frame Sony FE 85mm F1.4 GM lens has a new XA (extreme aspherical) element plus three ED elements that can provide a fascinating combination of extremely high resolution of focused areas with a pleasing, soft bokeh in the background. The lens has a circular aperture with 11 blades plus Sony’s Nano AR coating, to reduce ghosting and flare. It contains a ring drive SSM (Super Sonic Wave Motor) to drive focusing and two position sensors for enhanced focus control. Constructed with 11 elements in 8 groups, the lens is dust and moisture resistant. Full details of the SEL85F14GM can be seen here.

BEST FULL-FRAME COMPACT CAMERA: RX1R II

Sharing the same 42.2 MP sensor and BIONZ X image processor with Sony’s α7R II, the RX1R II has an integral Zeiss Sonnar T* 35mm f/2 lens. The sensor has an impressive 399 phase detection AF points that work in conjunction with 25 contrast AF points to achieve fast and efficient focus. The camera has the world’s first optical variable low pass filter that can be set to off, standard or high, with low pass filter bracketing also available. Viewing is via a four-glass element EVF or a tiltable 3-inch 1.2 million dot LCD. The camera can deliver Full HD video with a choice of various framing rates. Full details of the RX1R II can be seen here.

BEST ACTION CAM: HDR-AS50

The Sony HDR-AS50 is a durable and highly portable POV video camera that weighs a mere 45g (1.62oz) and measures only 4.77 x 5.25 x 1.9cm. (1.88 x 2.07 x 0.75 inches). It is supplied with an underwater housing that can be used down to 60 metres and can be linked with a new Live-View Remote with full camera command functionality that can be mounted virtually anywhere, including as wristwear. The camera features SteadyShot image stabilisation, a must for action shooting, 4K Time-Lapse Capture, enhanced Full HD video capture, a built-in stereo microphone, and a Zeiss Tessar lens. To add to the excitement the angle of view can be varied between “Wide” and “Narrow” in two levels, plus zoom mode allows the user to zoom while shooting. Full details of the HDR-AS50 can be seen here.