Sony a6500 (First Day)

This is a roundup of new A6500 test videos.

A6500 at BHphoto, Amazon, Adorama, Focuscamera. In EU at Amazon.de, Fotomundus, Calumet.de. WexUK. PCHstore.

Sony a6500 + Sigma 18-35 (IBIS, Low-Light, AF)

Got My Sony a6500!! (Unboxing)

Sony a6500 Review I Tips from Daniel Peters on Vimeo.

Techart Pro Adapter working on Sony A6500 – Demo

Brad: “I wanted to share my first film assignment with the A6500. This was a freelance project I filmed for the local newspaper website the day after I received the new camera. I shot it in 4K using only the Sigma 17-50 lens with the MC-11 adapter. The five axis stabilization worked flawlessly. Edited 1080 in FCPX so I could crop when needed. My thought is the A6500 is an A6300 clone with IBIS and improved overheating.
https://vimeo.com/194307597“

Dpreview published the full A6500 test and the conclusion is:

For the money, you get a light-weight, weather-sealed body with excellent still image quality, excellent 4K video quality, a degree of in-body stabilization and the ability to photograph high speed action with ease. And if you take the time to fully customize the camera, you can really make it sing. Simply put, as an all-arounder, its pretty hard to beat what the a6500 offers, but as an engaging artistic tool, the a6500 may still leave some wanting more. 

A6500 at BHphoto, Amazon, Adorama, Focuscamera. In EU at Amazon.de, Fotomundus, Calumet.de. WexUK. PCHstore.

And this is their PROS and CONS list:

Pros:

• Excellent stills image quality in both JPEG and Raw
• Impressive buffer depth with buffer countdown
• In-body image stablization averages 2.5 stops of added stability
• One of the best APS-C cameras at high ISO
• Flexible Raw files with plenty of dynamic range
• Impressive autofocus performance and frame coverage
• Superb video quality
• Extensive video support features
• Solid construction
• Good degree of customization
• USB charging is convenient
• 14-bit Raw in most shooting modes
• 3rd party lens support for phase-detect AF
• New menus are less cluttered than previous generations’
• New highlight-weighted metering mode
• Eye sensor disengages when the screen is pulled out, EVF won’t switch on
• Redesigned eyecup slides on and locks in place, no longer prone to falling off

Cons:

• Touchscreen operation is laggy, feels unrefined
• Still no “My Menu” option for clustering most-used menu options
• Only one top plate control dial
• Rolling shutter when shooting 4K in both 24/30p
• No Lock-on AF area modes when shooting video
• Lock-on AF can be erratic (failing to distinguish chosen target)
• ‘Live View’ in 8 fps mode shows only static image between captures
• No in-camera Raw conversion option
• Lack of headphone socket for audio monitoring
• Drops to 12-bit mode in various modes inc. continuous shooting and silent shutter
• Risk of overheating limits use for extended recording periods
• Screen automatically dims when shooting 4K video
• Lack of included charger makes it hard to keep a spare battery charged
• Lossy compression of Raw risks occasional artifacts

The Techart PRO adapter opens a whole new world of possibilities. In the video below Mathieu Stern shows how to add autofocus on a 120 Years Old lens!

The Techart PRO adapter is available at Amazon, TechartPRO, Adorama and BHphoto.

Photogrpahyblog tested the new Zeiss Loxia 85mm f/2.4:

The Zeiss Loxia 85mm f/2.4 is a pleasure to use, thanks to its superb weather-proof build quality and wide, smooth focusing ring. When manually focusing the Zeiss Loxia 85mm f/2.4 delivered a very high percentage of keepers thanks to the A7R II’s excellent magnification and peaking features. Vignetting is apparent when shooting wide-open at f/2.4, but quickly disappears as you stop down to f/5.6, while both chromatic aberrations and pin-cushion distortion are very well controlled.
There are a few drawbacks to the Zeiss Loxia 85mm f/2.4 lens, though. You obviously don’t get auto-focusing, the 80cm minimum focusing distance is a little restrictive, it’s larger and heavier than its main rivals, and the asking price of $1399 / £1199 / €1399 is a lot of money to pay for a manual focus prime lens.

The lens is set to start shipping right before Christmas at BHphoto, Amazon and Adorama. In Eu at Amazon.de.

The infamous Fotodiox Nikon to E-mount adapter broke another camera. This time it’s the Sony A7II. Watch the video to learn more about it. And please warn the comunity…do not buy the adapter that is currently on sale at BHphoto (Click here to see it but don’t buy it!).

I do hope Fotodiox will help and/or reimburse all those affected by that issue!

The very first batch of A99II cameras shipped out. But it’s still impossible to find the camera in Stock in any US and EU stores. But now let’s switch over to this:

Imaging Resource posted a set of image samples you can download. And more important they added the A99II studio shots on their Comparometer. As far as I can see there is only a very small image quality difference between the A99II and the A7rII:

What are your thoughts?

Sony A99II preorders at BHphoto, Adorama. Amazon. PhotoPorst, Calumet Germany, Amazon UK and WexUK.

The non expert will have a hard time figuring out what all those numbers and classifications do mean on a memory card. A new and very well written overview of the fastest cards available can be read at Explora (Click here).

Within the article you can also read about the possible future standard camera memory cards:

XQD Cards are the reason CompactFlash cards aren’t getting a speed update, since they are the CompactFlash Association’s official replacement for CompactFlash cards. XQD cards are based on the PCIe standard (with an 8 Gb/s bus speed), offer far higher maximum transfer speeds than CompactFlash, are much smaller, and have a more rugged build than SD cards. There are currently two versions of XQD cards, Version 1.0, which allows for maximum transfer rates of 500 MB/s, and Version 2.0, which allows for speeds up to 1000 MB/s. While still limited in use, both versions offer faster possible transfer rates than the fastest CF or SD cards available.

It’s rumored that Sony is testing future A7/A9 cameras with such cards. The only problem I see for now is the relatively high price of the cards produced by Sony (Click here) and Lexar (Click here).