Sony a6100 review by Dpreview: “one of the most powerful point-and-shoot cameras available”

Sony A6100  at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, FocusCamera. In EU at Calumet DE, Park UK, WexUK.

The Sony A6100 is now in Stock and shipping. And right in time Dpreview published the full review of the new camera:

The Sony a6100 is able to act as one of the best family or travel cameras we’ve ever used. We said something similar about Sony’s RX100 VI and our reasoning is informed by the same thing: the simple and effective autofocus system. Combined with a touchscreen, there’s no camera that makes it so easy to get so many of your shots in focus, whatever the situation.

Although the camera and its menus could initially appear daunting, with a couple of settings changes, much of this can simply be ignored: you can concentrate on your subject and the camera will do the rest. It’s difficult, until you’ve tried shooting with the camera, to appreciate how simple the a6100 makes it to take consistently in-focus images, especially of people.

First review of the new Sony E 70-350mm lens by Marc Alhadeff


E 70-350mm F4.5-6.3 G OSS at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama , FocusCamera. In EU at Calumet DE, Park UK, WexUK.

Marc Alhadeff tested the new Sony E 70-350mm lens. Here is the conclusion:

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The new Sony 70-350mm F4.5-6.3 G OSS (900 euros) is the professional photo zoom we needed for Sony APSC cameras. It is the counterpart of the excellent Sony 100-400 mm on full frame but for 2.5 time less.

Sharpness is very good to excellent and background blur is very nice at 135mm and above. The optical stabilisation is a must for such telephoto lens and will allow to use it without issue on older Sony APSC cameras like the A6000.

What is surprising is that the lens is almost full frame : the entire frame is covered except at 350mm , although with very important vignetting and distorsion

The lens is not without compromise with a very important distortion for which automatic corrections should alsways be on, a small aperture at 350mm making ISO climbing fast, a medium resistance to flare and a minimum focusing distance a little bit too big

It does not reach the excellence of the Sony E 16-55mm F2.8 G in term of color rendition and bokeh but overall it is an excellent lens for the price and a very versatile telephoto lens

Pros

  • Very Good to excellent sharpness thought the range. Sharpness is better than the Sony 70-300G full frame
  • Extended Zoom range very suited for Animals or outdoor Sport photography
  • Excellent for portrait from a distance (>135mm) with very nice background blur
  • Price is reasonable considering range and quality of the lens
  • Very fast and efficient AF outdoor (less indoor in low light)
  • Very good build quality
  • Very good background blur above 135mm
  • Low CA
  • Low vignetting

Average

  • Background blur between 70-100 mm is limited
  • Bokeh balls are ok but not perfectly rounded and with some onion rings sometimes
  • Resistance to flare is ok but below other lenses of same price
  • Size and weight : reasonable for such kind of lens but bigger and heavier than most APSC zoom on E mount
  • Limited aperture requiring to use quickly high isos

Cons

  • Distorsion is huge
  • Min focusing distance is quite big not allowing for proxy photography

Alternatives

  • Sony 70-300G full frame : a Good lens but color rendering is a little bit less good and sharpness is less good, but more suite for full frame and less distorsion

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Preorders:
Sony A6600 at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, FocusCamera. In EU at Calumet DE, Park UK, WexUK.
Sony A6100  at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, FocusCamera. In EU at Calumet DE, Park UK, WexUK.
E 16-55mm F2.8 G at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, FocusCamera. In EU at Calumet DE, Park UK, WexUK.
E 70-350mm F4.5-6.3 G OSS at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama , FocusCamera. In EU at Calumet DE, Park UK, WexUK.

New Sony A7rIV tests and tips

Shawn C. Steiner shared his thoughts on the new Sony A7rIV:

I’m most definitely upgrading my a7R III to the new a7R IV—the extra resolution and modified body are enough to convince me. What about you? Are you going to upgrade your camera system or are you thinking about your first mirrorless? Be sure to let us know your thoughts in the Comments, below, and tell us if you want to see a longer review, which would include video performance, Pixel Shift, and many of other new features.

ePhotozine published the full A7rIV review:

If you’re looking for a high-resolution full-frame camera, then the Sony Alpha A7R IV gives high resolution 61mp images, with ease, and a high level of success. You don’t need to use a tripod (unless you want to), you don’t need to use a self-timer, or worry about shutter shock, instead you can simply concentrate on your photography, framing, and composition, and shoot away. The camera has a reliable focus system, and gives good JPEG results straight from the camera. If you pair the camera with a high quality zoom lens, or a prime lens, then you can quickly get great results. 

Sony A7rIV and new accessories:
Sony A7rIV in USA/CA at BHphoto, Adorama, FocusCamera, Amazon, Henrys.
Sony A7rIV in EU at Calumet DE, ParkUK, WexUK, Calumet NL.
Sony A7rIV in Asia at Sony Japan. Sony Australia.
Sony VG-C4EM grip in USA at BHphoto, Adorama, Amazon, FocusCamera, ParkUK, WexUK.
ECM-B1M Digital Audio Shotgun Microphone at BHphoto, Park UK.
XLR-K3M Mic at BHphoto, Park UK.

Sony E 16-55mm F2.8 G review by Marc Alhadeff

E 16-55mm F2.8 G at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, FocusCamera. In EU at Calumet DE, Park UK, WexUK.

Marc Alhadeff tested the new Sony E 16-55mm F2.8 G lens. His conclusion:

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The new Sony 16-55 F2.8 G (1300 euros) is the pro zoom for APSC we were expecting for years. Results are superb and on on par with best E mount prime lenses

This could be your high quality lens for weddings, travel, portraits, studio shooting

Pros

  • Excellent Sharpness at all focal lengths
  • Consistent sharpness from centre to corners
  • Very nice and soft Background blur
  • Excellent color rendition
  • Very good build construction
  • Easy to rotate zoom with enough dampening for a smooth zooming
  • Ergonomics : focus hold button , AF/MF switch

Average

  • Size : the lens is relatively big in APSC standard but this allow to get corners as sharp as the centre
  • Bokeh balls : well rounded but some onions rings and fringing can be observed in some situations
  • Distorsion on the wide end is big and vignetting is visible.
    • This improve at 35 and 55 but distorsion is still visible.
    • This will be automatically corrected in a future Lightroom Lens profile
  • Some chromatic aberrations (low level)
  • Resistance to flare is only good

Cons

 

The Sony 16-55mm F2.8 G is definitively the Pro Zoom for Sony APSC cameras and would have deserved a GM label.

Globally it is much better than any other Sony APSC zoom currently available

Highly Recommended

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E 16-55mm F2.8 G at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, FocusCamera. In EU at Calumet DE, Park UK, WexUK.

Jim Kasson: Camera resolution and 4K viewing — a7S, a7III, a7RIII, a7RIV, downsampled

His conclusion:

  1. The Siemens star shows the differences most clearly. As the resolutions go up, the false color decreases, and the star is resolved nearer the center.
  2. For the text, that is also true, but the resolution differences are much more subtle. Except for one paragraph with a lot of false color in the a7III shot, the false color is about the same as the a7RIV. So is sharpness. The a7S shows a lot of false color, and it is not limited to just one paragraph.
  3. There are three checkerboard patterns of varying fineness to the right of the Macbeth color checker. There is negligible false color in those, even with the a7S. At this resolution, none of the cameras can resolve the checkerboard immediately adjacent to the Macbeth chart, which is the finest. All of the cameras resolve the checkerboard on the right of the set, which is the coarsest, and it looks about as sharp in all four images.
  4. The focusing target between the checkerboards is slightly more poorly resolved with the a7S, but the other three cameras do about the same job with it.
  5. The rest of the image look the same with all the cameras, except for color differences due to a combination of the camera’s CFA spectra and the Adobe Color profiles for each camera.