Dpreview thinks the Sony A7III is still ahead of the Nikon Z6 and Canon EOS-R competition

Dpreview compared the Sony A7III, Nikon Z6 and the Canon EOS-R. The conclusion:

Even without thinking about lenses, it’s clear that Nikon and Canon still have some work to do to catch up with Sony’s half-decade headstart. It’s not an insurmountable difference, though and both brands have brought their extensive experience of ergonomics and user interfaces, which Sony should probably be worried about.

All three cameras can produce excellent images but the Sony more readily adapts to a wider range of situations. The Nikon acquits itself well for certain types of photography, while also doing unexpectedly well at video, but the Z6 has the least dependable AF system of the trio, which counts against it. Canon has tried to make an easy-to-use camera, rather than simply mimicking its DSLRs, but, while we’re not fully convinced by the results of this first attempt, it’s still a very able camera.

Ultimately, though, the decision is likely to come down to what lenses you own, which lenses you plan to buy and how much faith you have in each company to produce camera bodies to match your needs, several years down the road. Because, if you’re trying to avoid major costs later, the camera body you choose now is likely to commit you to a new lens system for the foreseeable future.

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New Laowa 10-18mm lens reviewed by Phillip Reeve

You can get the new Laowa 10-18mm FE at BHphoto and at VenusOptics online store.

Phillip Reeve (Click here) tested the new Laowa 10-18mm 4.5-5.6 FE C-Dreamer lens:

The main selling points of this lens are the compact size and the widest focal length of 10mm. Laowa managed to produce a zoom lens that starts at 10mm – and at 10mm the resolution and vignetting figures look quite comparable to that of the Voigtlander 10mm prime – yet it is only slightly bigger and heavier (+120g) and you can zoom in all the way up to 18mm.
Laowa decided to do some things differently here compared to Sony with their latest UWA zooms: the emphasize is not on resolution but on giving you the widest possible lens in a small package, sunstars and usability with filters. Whether these main points appeal to you or not depends on your personal preferences.
If you are interested in a lens starting at 10mm but want something more flexible than a 10mm prime this lens might be for you.
If on the other hand you think you get a smaller and wider Sony FE 12-24mm f/4.0 G in a smaller package you will be disappointed, the 10-18mm won’t match it in the overlapping focal length range in terms of resolution and contrast.
The lack of exif data is quite a nuisance in a lens where electronic corrections (distortion and color cast) are necessary in many shots. I was using the lens mostly at fixed values of 10, 14 and 18mm to make post production a bit easier.
The biggest disadvantage for me is the flare resistance. With the sun in the frame I encountered ghosting and other artifacts quite regularly. Whether this bothers you depends a lot on what you shoot, but if this is something that bothers you I recommend to stick to the Voigtlander and Zeiss prime lenses.

Sony SENSOR hack – seeing light differently

Ted Forbes:

I recently had my Sony NEX 7 modified as a full-spectrum camera. Essentially this means the sensor will recognize the visual spectrum in addition to Ultra-violet and Infrared light. By using various filters on the lens, you can achieve some interesting results by limiting the light spectrum for both photography and video.

Sony 24mm f/1.4 GM lens review by ePhotozine and ThePhoBlographer

ePhotozine conclusion is:

There are some really excellent lenses available, and the Sony G Master range includes some of the very best. This continues with the new Sony FE 24mm f/1.4 GM lens, which performs impeccably and at a price level that is competitive with Canon and very much less than Nikon. There are third-party alternatives that are also very good indeed, but for those seeking the manufacturer’s own lenses then this offering is very, very attractive and an obvious Editor’s Choice, the high expectations that we started out with having been totally met.

ThePhoBlographer conclusion is:

Marrying a petite footprint with a feather like body, the Sony 24mm f1.4 G Master is capable of creating stunning images with razor sharp detail and dreamlike bokeh. A marvelous union of technological advancement and optics engineering, as far as 24mm f1.4 lenses goes, Sony simply did it better, smaller, and lighter than the competition.

Sony 24mm f/1.4 GM lens at Bhphoto. Adorama. Amazon. Calumet Germany. WexUK.

That’s weird: New versions of the FE 28mm f/2 have been “secretly” improved?

Well this is quite an interesting finding. One of our reader shared it:

I am Le Minh Bui from Vietnam.

I want to share with you a surprise. A friend of mine accidentally found out that there are different versions of FE 28mm f/2 that show a huge change in the sunstar effect. He borrowed a new FE 28mm and it produces a fantastic sunstar, which is in contrast with the old lens (mediocre sunstar).

A closer look revealed that the new version has re-designed aperture blades that are curvy at the top and straight in the bottom, instead of being curvy from top to bottom (the old design). For comparison, I included the close shot of Voigtlander 28mm f/2, which shows a very nice sunstar even at f/4. Voigtlander blades are straight!

It seems nothing else is different between the two. Based on various reviews, I narrowed down the time when Sony made the change is in 2016-2017 period, but I can’t tell exactly from which batch. The easiest way to distinguish them is by the shape of the iris. If the lens is closed down and form a straight nonagon shape, it’s the new version.

I notice that all of the lenses that Sony has announced recently have the same blade design to balance the bokeh and sunstar effect, especially the new GM 24mm f/1.4 (very round bokeh even when stopping down to f/5.6, but the sunstar is very nice from f/8).

Maybe some readers can report if they had similar results on other lenses too?

The very first review of the new Zonlai 50mm f/1.4 APS-C E-mount lens by Marc Alhadeff

Marc Alhadeff is the first person testing the new Zonlai 50mm f/1.4 APS-C E-mount lens (you can get it at Amazon US, Amazon DE, Amazon UK). The conclusion:

The Zonlai 50mm F1.4 (150 euros) is an excellent manual portrait lens for A6000, perfectly usable wide open (very good) and giving excellent results as of F2.8
The background blur and bokeh is very good and the global color rendition is good as well, it will only require small color correction to correct the magenta tint

Zeiss Batis 40mm is finally in Stock at FocusCamera. Deal of the day on Vanguard Tripod and Peak Design for Sony.

The new Batis 40mm FE lens is in Stock for the first time via FocusCamera.

Marc Alhadeff tested this lens and concludes:

The Zeiss Batis 40mm F2 is an excellent lens optically, it has an intermediate focal length between a classical 35mm for street photography and a 50mm more targeting portrait.
Using the Zeiss Batis is a pleasure and the results obtained are excellent in term of sharpness , color rendition, blurry background
However the autofocus is less performant than all the other Zeiss Batis (which was excellent) with issue with eye AF and very slow AF in video mode
Therefore if your primary usage will be for portraits I will be hesitating due to Eye AF issue (on A7Riii , not tested on A7iii)

Today only you have those two deals on the Vanguard Tripod and Peak Design for Sony at BHphoto:

Lexar 64GB card for $18 only at Amazon US (Click here).

Capture One 12 officially released. It adds a ton of new features and if you want to buy it (Click here) you get additional 10% off using our code “AMBSAR“.