Lensrentals analyzed the weather sealing of the A7rIII by tearing down the camera
Except for the bottom this camera has thorough and extensive weather sealing, as good as any camera I’ve seen.That being said, the bottom of the camera is not protected worth a damn. If you’re out in a sprinkle or shower, this probably doesn’t matter; water hits the top first. But if you’re in severe weather, near surf, or might set your camera down where someone might spill something, you need to be aware of that. If I knew I was heading out in such conditions, honestly I’d tape up the bottom of the camera or encase it in plastic taped all around the body. Yeah, battery changes will be a pain, but the new battery is supposed to last a lot longer.
We now know where Sony needs to improve the weather sealing. I hope the next A7s3 will have fixed this issue.
Voigtlander 35mm f/1.4 FE lens is in Stock for the very first time via BHphoto.
Phillip Reeve is the first review testing the Voigtlander 35mm f/1.4 FE lens. And his findings so far are very disappointing:
“With the “classic” in the name and based on what I have seen from the M-mount version my expectations were rather low. As it seems so far for good reasons: this lens is in no way competitive to modern designs. Sharpness is anything but great, corners never reach the quality of most other primes and many aberrations like Coma or Astigmatism are not well corrected. So for now I think this is a lens mostly for people who just like the look of the harsh and nervous bokeh, but still want to enjoy some modern features like Exif data and decent coatings or do not want to get into adapting legacy lenses.”
I do own the older 35mm f/1.4 M-mount lens and indeed it doesn’t perform that well. But still, if you need speed and a compact lens this new 35mm FE will do the job.
The new Loxia lens preorders are now available at BHphoto and Adorama.
This lens isn’t going to create large excitement among the Sony Alpha crowd. But nevertheless this lens promises to deliver high quality in a tiny package.
With Zeiss, you can always expect solid image quality to a very high standard. The Zeiss Loxia 25mm f2.4 isn’t any different at all. This isn’t Zeiss’s fastest 25mm lens and so you can’t expect the bokeh to be anything like an f1.4 lens. But Zeiss’s color and lack of chromatic aberration are surely there. At this point, that’s all pretty standard though I’d be shocked to see if most people could tell the difference between Zeiss color and Sony color–and they’d be even more surprised as to how much their color profile plays into that. As always, Zeiss’ sharpness is also fantastic. You can’t fault this lens at all when you nail the focusing.
The Loxia range is an attractive proposition, with useful focal lengths and, if the 25mm f/2.4 is anything to go by, excellent qualities. The new 25mm f/2.4 is compact, beautiful to use in a most traditional way, full of the tactile high grade feel that is rarely seen. The price may be slightly on the high side, but then again what price quality? Some may question the manual focus, but with this lens it is so easy to find the point of focus that with minimal practice it should soon become second nature. Admittedly that will not suit everyone. All in all, a lovely lens that matches well to the Sony FE full frame mirrorless cameras.
Opticallimits (former Photozone) is a damn serious review site that has no fear to destroy a lens reputation when it deserves it. But luckily the 24-105mm FE managed to impress them:
Overall the Sony FE 24-105mm f/4 G OSS is an obvious choice in the Sony lineup. It may not be able to touch the center quality of the Sony FE 24-70mm f/2.8 GM but the border quality is surprisingly high for such a lens – at least when stopping down to f/5.6. Lateral CAs are moderate. The quality of the bokeh is quite good for a lens within its scope.
The Sony lens isn’t flawless but just to provide a framework for comparison – it is superior to both the Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 USM L IS II and Nikkor AF-S 24-120mm f/4G VR. So it’s certainly a lens we can recommend to Sony FE users.
Sony 24-105mm G FE at [shopcountry 66153].
Reminder: Don’t forget we from SAR are giving away one 24-105mm FE lens for free! Check this article to learn how to have a chance to win this lens.
Chuck Meyers sent us an email with this video link. He told me this “I made a video taking a closer look at some of the images I got while shooting an NFL Game with the A9 and A7RII.“
How to shoot continuous frames with the A9 and external flash, my findings by Alin Popescu – Sony Image Ambassador, Romania
My very first frustrations with the A9 and event photography was the use of flash in different situations. This was actually my only complain about this magnificent camera.
What bothered me most, except the lag before the shot was taken, was that it was almost impossible for me to take continuous sequences with flash, without getting a miss or two, and by that I mean a flash-missfire or out-of-sync during the continuous shoot. I knew Sony cameras can do it, since the launch of the A7R III back in London when we shoot at 10fps with Profoto gear.
So today I tried everything I could, with every setting I imagined it might have a “saying” in this situation and I’ve finally found the “perfect” solution. I’m not saying I’ve discovered the wheel, maybe I was too stupid and did something wrong before, but trust me, I’m no beginner at this.
What I did?
First of all, I’ve upgraded all my equipment to the latest firmware. So this is what I’ve used:
Even if the Godox is the TTL version, for consistency between frames, I prefer to go full manual and set the trigger accordingly to shoot at 1/32 power.
A9 was on continuous M and Mechanical Shutter (the only way you can use flash on the A9), at 1/125s and F4, with an ambient value at -2.0 EV so I could clearly see if a no-flash shot happened during my sequence. ISO was set to 100 for no variation either and focus was AF-C.
I’ve filmed this with my iPhone on Slow-Mo at 240 fps, just to be able to “see” if flash popped at every shutter opening.
What I’ve discovered?
The lag we all noticed before is still present, but only at the first frame of the sequence. You can see in slow-mo, the complete black-out of the LCD, just before the first flash was fired, and then no black-out or any other lag. I’ve tested also afterwards if focus is working accordingly and it did, moving the camera to close and distant objects, did the trick.
What is to be solved? This mysterious blackout at the initial start of shooting. I have no explanation for this, since it wasn’t a TTL sequence I could blame on, as the flash/camera needed to perform pre-ttl flash to measure everything. Hope Sony will give us a no-lag system soon, but until then I’m happy I can shoot sequences without missed frames.
