The Mitakon 135mm f/1.4 FE lens is one of the kind of lenses you want to absolutely hold in your hands at least one time! And Dpreview had the lucky chance to test one:

The 135mm F1.4 is a massive piece of glass, and in its E-mount flavor, absolutely dwarfs Sony’s a7 bodies. With a 105mm thread, fully manual operation and a weight of over six pounds (about 2.7kg), it can be rather intimidating, and is near impossible to use hand-held. With the proper support in place though it isn’t difficult to use at all, and can reward patient use with dramatic, unique results.When viewing our samples, it’s worth bearing a couple of things in mind. Firstly, this lens is one-of-a-kind. Almost literally. So it has no direct competitors that we can shoot alongside. Also note what we said earlier – we were using an engineering prototype that was not cosmetically final, and may not be completely representative, optically, of the finished shipping lenses when they become available (although it’s likely to at least be extremely close).

Image samples can be seen here: dpreview.com/sample-galleries/8958190061/mitakon-speedmaster-135mm-f-1-4

On behalve of BH John R Harris selected the cameras of the year (full article here).

The A7rII got selected because:

“those who were clinging to their DSLRs until a “worthy” camera came along have been convinced to make the mirrorless move to this camera.”

The RX100m4 got selected because:

“the RX100 demonstrates how a well-designed compact camera will create much better images than your phone and will still fit easily in your pocket.”

All current Sony Christmas deals:

$200 gift card from Amazon US:
There is a new “hidden” Black Friday deal offer: You get $200 off on all major Sony cameras  if you click on that Amazon link (Click here) and use the code “CAMERAGIFT” at checkout. Here are the detailed Instructions: http://amzn.to/1lLDni1
Plenty of photo accessory Gold Box deals at Amazon US (Click here).

Sony A6000:
$50 gift card on the A6000 superbundle sold by FocusCamera (Click here).
Free extras and an additional $50 gift card for free with the A6000 double lens kit sold at Adorama (Click here).
$150 off on the Sony Alpha a6000 Mirrorless Camera w/ 55-210mm Lens & Acc kit at BHphoto (Click here).
$230 off on the Sony Alpha a6000 Mirrorless l Camera w/ 16-50mm Lens & Acc Kit at BHphoto (Click here).
Sony Alpha a6000 Mirrorless Digital Camera – Body only Deluxe Bundle at Amazon US (Click here).

Sony A7rII, A7 and A7II:
Free $200 gift card and free Metabones Smart adapter with the A7rII sold by BHphoto (Click here).
Sony a7R II Full-Frame Mirrorless Interchangeable Lens Camera, Body Only Deluxe Bundle at Amazon US (Click here).
2% reward and free extras with the A7II sold by BHphoto (Click here).
Sony A7 with free $100 gift card at BHphoto (Click here).

RX100m4:
Free $100 gift card with the RX100 IV at BHphoto (Click here).

Full Frame E-mount lenses:
$100 off on the 24-240mm lens at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto.
Camera Hotlink deals at Adorama (Click here).
$80 off on the Rokinon 14mm f/2.8 FE lens at BHphoto (Click here).

APS-C E-mount lenses:
$50 off on the 50mm f/1.8 lens at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto.
$50 off on the 35mm f/1.8 lens at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto.
$100 off on the 10-18mm lens at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto.
$25 off on the lens 30mm macro at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto.
$150 off on the 18-200mm PZ lens at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto.
$100 off on the 18-200mm lens at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto.
$50 off on the 16-50mm lens at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto.
$200 off on the Zeiss 24mm f/1.8 lens at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto.

A-mount lenses:
$50 off on the 11-18mm lens at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto.
$50 off on the 16-50mm lens at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto.
$100 off on the 16-105mm lens at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto.
$100 off on the Zeiss 24mm lens at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto.
$25 off on the 30mm macro lens at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto.
$25 off on the 35mm lens at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto.
$25 off on the 50mm DT lens at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto.
$100 off on the 70-300mm II lens at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto.
$25 off on the 85mm lens at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto.
$50 off on the 100mm macro lens at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto.
$100 off on the Zeiss 135mm lens at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto.

Upt to $300 off on Sigma A-mount lenses:
$250 off on the 18-250mm F3.5-6.3 DC OS HSM at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto.
$250 off on the 70-200mm F2.8 DG OS HSM at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto.
$300 off on the 105mm F2.8 DG OS Macro HSM at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto.
$250 Instant rebate on the 17-50mm F2.8 DC /OS at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto.
50mm f/1.4 ART for $849 at Amazon and Bhphoto.
Save $370 on the Tamron 150-600mm A-mount lens sold by [shoplink 42888 ebay]BuyDig on eBay US (Click here)[/shoplink]. Add the $120 mail in rebate and you pay $699 only.

Hasselblad:
Huge savings on the Hasselblad Lunar and Stellar Sony camera clones at BHphoto (Click here).

As you know SD cards to display many information on their front side. But what do they actually mean? Explora (Click here) posted a detailed tutorial where you can learn how to understand the info on SD cards.

In very short:

1. Name: some card manufacturers identify their card by the targeted user; in this case, the Lexar Professional series is aimed at photographers and videographers.
2. Read Speed: the speed at which data is read from the card.
3. Type: as mentioned above, this will either be SD, SDHC or SDXC. Differences in capacity or speed are shown elsewhere on the card.
4. Another speed rating, which can be calculated into MB/s with this formula: x rating/6.6666 = MB/s. 1000 ÷ 6.666 = 150 MB/s
5. Class rating: this is the minimum sustained data writing speed, and class 10 is the highest right now, capable of 10 MB/s. The slowest rating is Class 2, which has sustained data writing speeds of 2 MB/s.
6. UHS Rating: The UHS rating and the Class rating are closely intertwined. UHS rating of 1 means that the minimum sustained data writing speed is 10 MB/s, and UHS 3 is 30 MB/s. However, the UHS rating is more important for shooting 4K video, as the minimum data rate must be higher so frames are not dropped. For photographers, a UHS 1 and a Speed Class 10 is basically the same thing; however, the UHS cards are more effective in a device that supports UHS bus architecture, and not all devices do. So conceivably, you could have a Speed Class of 10 and a UHS 3 rating, but without a UHS device, it defaults to the speed class rating of 10.
7. This number shows what UHS standard this card conforms to—I or II. There are four bus speeds for memory cards: Normal, High, UHS I (Ultra High Speed), and UHS II. This number shows what the bus architecture of the card is. These classifications were designed for theoretical jumps in speed, and added as the cards got bigger. There is no difference to the end user between a UHS I or UHS II card.

Now you know what card you need for the Sony A7rII :)

Milvus 50mm on the A7 (image courtesy: 3D-Kraft ).

The new Zeiss Milvus lens comes in native mounts for Canon and Nikon DSLR. Of course you can sue it on Sony FE cameras too. But how much sense does it make to use those lenses on a Sony? 3D-Kraft (Click here) posted a comprehensive view on the Zeiss Milvus family tested on the Sony A7. The conclusion is:

“As a mirrorless shooter always striving for highest achievable image quality with equipment as lightweight and compact as possible when on the move, I must concede that I am in a kind of conflict with the Milvus line. Their extraordinary solid mechanical quality in a wheather sealed metal housing comes for the price of size and weight. Most of the Milvus lenses seem to be better balanced when used on full frame DSLRs but on the other hand, manual focusing is far better supported by mirrorless systems with in-body stabilization working in live view mode with focusing aid by zoom magnification and peaking. For Sony Alpha with FE mount meanwhile you get many native and more compact pendants from Zeiss in the same price range like the Loxia line (a Loxia 21 review will follow soon, stay tuned!) or primes including AF support like the FE 1.8/55 and Batis 1.8/85.
However, the optical quality (sharpness, bokeh, micro contrast, flare resistance, distortion control) – especially of the new designed 1.4/50 and 1.4/85 – is very good, the only weak point is their lack of apochromatic correction so that you will see some axial CAs (“boke fringing”) at open aperture especially from the f/1.4 lenses. Usually this type of CA can be removed in post processing quite easily. If you look for “no compromise” apochromatic corrected lenses, you might consider lenses of the Otus line (Otus 1.4/28 review coming soon on this site!) but those do not have features like wheather sealing or declickable aperture ring, which you find in the Milvus line.”

Read the full detailed test at 3D-Kraft

Here are the detailed Lens info and preorder links:
Zeiss Milvus 100mm f/2M ZE Lens for Canon EF at BHPhoto (Click here), Adorama (Click here).
Zeiss Milvus 100mm f/2M ZF.2 Lens for Nikon F at BHPhoto (Click here), Adorama (Click here).
Zeiss Milvus 21mm f/2.8 ZE Lens for Canon EF at BHPhoto (Click here), Adorama (Click here).
Zeiss Milvus 21mm f/2.8 ZE Lens for Nikon F at BHPhoto (Click here), Adorama (Click here).
Zeiss Milvus 35mm f/2 ZE Lens for Canon EF at BHPhoto (Click here), Adorama (Click here).
Zeiss Milvus 35mm f/2 ZE Lens for Nikon F at BHPhoto (Click here), Adorama (Click here).
Zeiss Milvus 50mm f/1.4 ZE Lens for Canon EF at BHPhoto (Click here), Adorama (Click here).
Zeiss Milvus 50mm f/1.4 ZF.2 Lens for Nikon F at BHPhoto (Click here), Adorama (Click here).
Zeiss Milvus 50mm f/2M ZE Lens for Canon EF at BHPhoto (Click here), Adorama (Click here).
Zeiss Milvus 50mm f/2M ZE Lens for Nikon F at BHPhoto (Click here), Adorama (Click here).
Zeiss Milvus 85mm f/1.4 ZE Lens for Canon EF at BHPhoto (Click here), Adorama (Click here).
Zeiss Milvus 85mm f/1.4 ZE Lens for Nikon F at BHPhoto (Click here), Adorama (Click here).

On the video above Epicmind compares the A7rII vs the Phase One IQ160. Watch it to hear who wins.

And Nasim Mansurov from Photographylife posted his detailed A7rII review:

After having a pleasant shooting experience with the camera, I wondered how good Sony’s new BSI sensor would look when compared to both the D810 and the 5DS R. To my surprise (and as you can see from the previous pages of this review), the Sony A7R II demonstrated superb performance at handling noise at high ISOs, easily surpassing both cameras. In my past evaluations, Sony full-frame cameras always fell short when put head-to-head against Nikon DSLRs, so I did not expect the A7R II to do better either. But looks like the BSI CMOS sensor that Sony decided to utilize on the A7R II was the right choice, as the performance speaks for itself. Not only does it deliver exceptionally good ISO performance, but it also does it with more megapixels than the D810 and a far better dynamic range performance than the Canon 5DS R.

A7rII store list:
In USA: at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, SonyStore US, FocusCamera, Uniquephoto.
In Europe at Amazon DE, Amazon UK, Wex UK and ParkCameras.
In Asia at Digitalrev, CameraPro.

Carl Zeiss 25mm F2 Batis Lens Review by John Sison

PcMag tested the 85mm Batis and writes:

The Zeiss Batis 85/1.8 is a near-perfect lens, at a price that’s well shy of the company’s manual focus Otus line. It’s tack sharp from corner to corner, even at f/1.8, captures a heck of a lot of light, and draws wonderful portraits with a very shallow depth of field. The only real complaint is the pincushion distortion that it exhibits, and that’s something that’s easily corrected on a computer. If you’re in want of a prime lens in this focal range for your Sony mirrorless system, and you put an emphasis on portrait and general photography, look no further.

Chad Wadsworth writes:

The a7R II/Batis combination was simply praise worthy – it focused quickly and accurately, producing razor sharp images with pleasing bokeh.

Otto Schulze writes:

Yes, the Otus just in terms of sheer IQ wins but I was surprised by how close the Otus and the Batis were in pure IQ. Add to that equation the size difference and addition of fast and quiet AF and I have an absolute winner for my destination wedding work. And the 25mm Batis met all my needs on the other end of the spectrum as well. Just superb!

quick test between the Zeiss Batis 25mm f/2 and the Sony FE 28mm f/2 on Admiring Light.
Why I’m returning my Batis 85 mm f/1.8 (Alin Popescu).
Skydiving with the Batis 2/25 and Alex Torre (Lenspire)

Batis store links:
Zeiss Batis 85mm f/1.8 lens in US at Adorama, Bhphoto. In Eu at Amazon DE, WexUK. In Asia at Digitalrev.
Zeiss Batis 25mm f/2.0 lens at Adorama, Bhphoto. In EU at Amazon DE, WexUK. In Asia at Digitalrev.