Patrick Murphy-Racey:

At this point, in April of 2019, Real Time Tracking (RTT) is available in four camera bodies: a6400, a7III, a7RIII, and the venerable a9. RTT works best, as does everything else, on the a9. RTT combines all the traditional AF elements like distance, contrast, and phase detection but then adds into this mix, face detection, eye AF, color, and pattern.

The end result is amazing, allowing you to simply depress the shutter part way while pointing the camera at your desired subject (person, athlete, horse, car, motorcycle, etc.), then the A RTT system will track your subject anywhere in the viewfinder while you are shooting. You simply shoot when you want to and the camera takes care of focus.

This allows shooters to experience a new freedom never before possible so that you can just concentrate on content and moments, and then nail everything.

I recommend experimenting with sensitivity (1-5), depending on your sport of choice or assignment. I use 5 almost all the time for auto racing. For American football and basketball, I drop it down to 4. for tennis singles, 5, but for doubles, 3 or 4.

Dpreview just published the full Sony a6400 review. The camera earned the Gold Award and this is what the DP team writes:

Senior Editor Barney Britton says:

The story of the a6400 is really all about the autofocus system. With a high-quality lens attached, the a6400 is a dream camera for casual portraiture. I don’t love the ergonomics, but when you hardly have to fiddle with any buttons to get the shot, these sorts of handling frustrations matter much less.

Science Editor Rishi Sanyal says:

The a6400 is an unprecedentedly capable camera for its price point. Parents, enthusiasts and pros alike will appreciate the class-leading pro-grade AF system that’s also simple enough to use you can just ‘set and forget’. Image quality is up there with the best. Detailed 4K video and easy tap-to-track autofocus makes for a compelling run-and-gun video camera, though you’ll want to stick to stabilized lenses. To sum up: the a6400 truly impresses and is arguably more capable than many cameras at far higher price points. My only concern is its usability: I often find myself using it more as a point-and-shoot, although this isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Sony A6400:
USA at BHphoto, Adorama, FocusCamera, Buydig, Amazon.
Europe at Calumet Germany, ParkCameras UK, Jessops.
Asia at Sony Australia and Sony Japan.

CameraSize published this size comparison between the new Tokina 100mm f/2.8 macro and the Sony 90mm f/2.8 macro. We still have to see if the Tokina is a match for the superb Sony. All we know yet is that the Tokina is $400 cheaper.

Tomorrow the new 135mm GM will finally start shipping to US buyers too (get it here on Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama and FocusCamera). And here are some of the very early reviews of this lens:

Marc Alhadeff writes:

The Sony 135mm F1.8 GM is a new jewel in the GM serie, it will produce excellent results in Outdoor portraits, sports, weddings, street photography. Compared to its biggest competitor Sigma 135mm F1.8 , the Sony is lighter, smaller , a little bit more sharper , has a better color rendition and its AF is much more faster and accurate, Background blur is a little bit smoother , Bokeh Balls are better, the only areas where the Sigma has the edge is a little bit better resistance to flare, and the price (1400 euros)
A must have is you like the 135mm focal length

Phillip Reeve writes:

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the sharpest of them all? It is the Sony FE 1.8/135 GM, at least for all lenses that I have used yet. It is the first lens where nothing happens when I stop down except of decreasing vignetting and increasing diffraction. Even the macro and microcontrast is completely there wide open.
Besides sharpness, I can also praise the good CA correction, low distortion, low vignetting and the close up sharpness.The proven GM build quality makes using this lens a joy, especially the large amount of manual lens controls is very useful.

Sony 135mm f1.8 GM Live Unboxing & initial thoughts

Sony vs Sigma 135mm f/1.8 Portrait Lens Comparison

Sony 135mm f1.8 GM vs Sigma 105mm f1 4 Bokeh shootout

Preorders:
Sony 135mm GM at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama and FocusCamera. EU at ParkCameras, WexUK and Calumet DE.
Sony RMT-P1BT remote commander at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama and FocusCamera.
Sony T* Circular Polarizer Filters at BHphoto and Adorama.

Fengniao shared these gorgeous images of the new Sony 135mm f/1.8 FE!

Preorders:
Sony 135mm GM at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama and FocusCamera. EU at ParkCameras, WexUK and Calumet DE.
Sony RMT-P1BT remote commander at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama and FocusCamera.
Sony T* Circular Polarizer Filters at BHphoto and Adorama.

This won’t come as a surprise: The Panasonic S1 has been tested by DxOmark and Photonstophotos. And in both cases the S1 performed nearly identical to the Sony A7III. I think it’s a save bet to say the Panasonic uses the same sensor made by Sony (without the phase detection pixels). DxO writes:

With just one point between them in the DxOMark rankings and similar Portrait, Landscape, and Sports scores, the new Lumix DC-S1 sensor performs practically identically to its most direct competitors.

I am much more interested to see how the Panasonic S1R sensor scores at DxO…we should see these results soon!

via L-rumors

Preorders:
Tokina FiRIN AF 100mm F/2.8 Macro FE at Adorama and BHphoto.