[shoplink 41931 ebay][/shoplink]

Hot reminder: $500 off on the grey imported and 1 year US warranty Sony A7rII sold by [shoplink 41931 ebay]Electronicsvalley on eBay US (Click here)[/shoplink]. Only a few left in Stock!

Fstoppers posted a Sony A7R II vs Canon 5DS R vs Nikon D810 Camera Shootout (video above). The conclusion is that switching system for the A7rII is yet not recommended:

The Sony A7RII is a great camera. If you don’t already have a lot of money invested in a camera system and 2.8 lenses aren’t a necessity right now, the A7RII may be a fantastic choice. I just didn’t feel like the Sony was able to outperform the DSLR competitors in an area other than 4k video recording. That leads me to conclude that the A7RII isn’t actually better than the D810 or 5DSR, it’s just a really great smaller option.

Sony 14 bit RAW. First impressions (DearSusans).
PIX2015 – Sony Alpha 7R II Technology at the Sony Booth by Dpreview.
Color test @ daylight ACR RAW by Marcio Cabral.
Hello, new to forum Canon user looking at A7RII (SonyAlphaForum).
Minolta 28-135 F4-4.5 (Handshake) on A7Rii w/ LAEA4 (SonyAlphaForum).
SONY A7RII + SEL28135G 4K Birds at the Beach (Youtube).
Shooting family portraits with the Sony a7RII and Zeiss & Canon lenses (movetomirrorless).
A7rII review at Chromadic.
Ongoing reviews of Leica M mount lenses on SONY A7RM2 from 12 – 135 mm at German DSLRforum.

Dave: “Sony sent me an A7rII to try because I was considering dumping my Nikons and Fuji X T1 for their system. I used it on a big photo shoot up in Duluth, Superior, Bayfield and Northern Wisconsin. I loved the camera, but one deal breaking feature has stopped me from making the switch: the camera won’t shoot when writing to the card. So close to selling all my other gear, but that is a flaw I can’t live with. http://wisconsinbikefed.org/2015/10/09/testing-the-sony-a7rii-on-the-camba-and-coggs-trails/”

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.

Marc Galer made that nice and simple Sony 70-400mm f/4-5.6 G SSM II introduction video. It’s a great A-mount lens to use on your E-mount camera too!
Price check here: [shopcountry 41708]

Reminder: Open Box Sony and Zeiss lenses for sale:
[shoplink 41436 ebay]$300 off on the A7rII on eBay (Click here)[/shoplink]
[shoplink 41213 ebay]FE 24-240mm on eBay (Click here)[/shoplink]
[shoplink 41214 ebay]FE 24-70mm Zeiss on eBay (Click here)[/shoplink]
[shoplink 41215 ebay]E-mount APS-C 16-70mm Zeiss on eBay (Click here)[/shoplink]
[shoplink 41216 ebay]E-mount APS-C 18-200mm on eBay (Click here)[/shoplink]
[shoplink 41437 ebay]Silver A6000 kit on eBay (Click here)[/shoplink]

The PhotoPlus opened yesterday and the first Sony booth images and videos are being published on the web. A special mention goes to Emin Kuliyev who tried to shoot the new Mitakon 135mm f1.4 (3Kg!) with the Sony a7RII. See him on Youtube.

More reports:
What’s Happening at Sony and Samsung | Photo Plus Expo 2015 (Youtube).
Adorama Exclusive – PhotoPlus 2015: The Leica SL Camera (Youtube).
Adorama Exclusive – PhotoPlus 2015: Sony RX1R II, a7S II and a7R II (Youtube).
Adorama Exclusive – PhotoPlus 2015: Sony FS5 4K XDCAM Camera (Youtube).
What’s Happening at Sony and Samsung | Photo Plus Expo 2015 (Youtube).
Hands-On from the Mitakon booth with the 135/1.4 and 35mm f/0.95 for APS-C E-mount is now up on Admiring Light.
Hands-On with the Leica SL and Leica Q, including the 24-90 and 90-280mm lenses, with full size samples (Admiringlight).
Hands-On with the Sony RX1R II, Sony A7S II and Zeiss Loxia 21mm f/2.8, including full size samples from the Loxia 21mm (Admiringlight).
Hands-On with the Fujifilm 35mm f/2 and 1.4x TC (Admiringlight).

Photographyblog posted that size comparison picture between the new Leica SL and the Sony A7rII. Damn is that SL big …and for my taste a bit ugly :)

By the way, the Leica SL has Panasonic’s V-LOG and very likely also Panasonic autofocus system and other know how. A FulL Frame Gh camera may be on the way and this could certainly become a real Sony competitor.

Sony A7r II – Buffer Test with compressed and uncompressed RAW

Sony A7rII firmware 2.0 is out (Download here for Windows or Mac). I checked the first tests done by the community and so far that’s what people noticed when shooting uncompressed RAW images:

1) You get 80+ megabyte files
2) Buffer size is much less (You can shoot around 10 frames of RAW until you reach the limit on a fast card).
3) Image quality difference is only visible in extreme conditions (when you push files at +5EV). Artifacts in high contrast situation are gone.

More test links:
Sony A7R II Uncompressed RAW with Adobe DNG Converter (Photographylife).
Sony a7r II uncompressed raw file support in Camera Raw and Lightroom (Adobe).
First impression by Ricky Ban.
Bulletproof Guide to firmware upgrade by Brian Smith.
First comment by Diglloyd.
Comments on SonyAlphaForum.

For German readers -> [shoplink 41753 ebay]Batis 85mm in Stock at Foto Siegl eBay[/shoplink].

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.

The new Nissin Di700A & Air 1 wireless TTL flash for Sony

I used the great wireless i-TTL flash for many years with my Nikon DSLRs and after switching to Sony some time ago I was missing this wireless TTL flash most.
Many weeks ago I read about the new Nissin flashes here at SAR and tried to order them. Many dealers offered the flash and some the commander Air1 too, but no one could deliver! I had to wait several weeks, till I got the kit set and one extra flash unit.

I want to mention, that I payed for the gear and do this post for the readers of SAR!
you find the following pictures here in my flickr album

Here is what I got.

The camera is the A7RII with the Zeiss Batis 2/25mm. The Air 1 commander is mounted on the camera, the two flashes are mounted on the included stands and you can see the box with the batteries. Nissin offers extra battery holders for a fast replacement of batteries during shooting. They also offer extra power boosters. If you want more info go to the Nissin homepage.

The A7RII with the Zeiss Otus 1.4/85 and the Nissin Di700A (do some exercises
for you arm befor you start shooting :-) )

I would like to share with you how I used the flashes.

Let’s start with a typical setup for a portrait.

One flash simply bounced against the white wall and ceiling.

Sony A7RII with Zeiss Makro-Planar 2/100@f/5.6

And one flash with a silver umbrella reflector

Sony A7RII with Zeiss Otus 1.4/85@ f/4

Next is a test with the use of HSS (high-speed synchronization)

This HSS also works with the A7R and even with the NEX-6!!

A7RII with Otus 1.4/85@ f/4 and 1/640. One flash and umbrella reflector.

I reduced the exposure of the background by -3 EV. With shorter exposure times you can of course eliminate the ambient light completely.

the same situation with automatic exposure without flash, f/4

Macro

Sony A7RII with Zeiss Makro-Planar 2/100 ZE@ f/11,

one remote flash outdoor

Sony A7RII with Micro Nikkor PC 85mm/2.8
light tent, two flashes left and right

Stills

Sony A7RII with Zeiss Makro-Planar 2/100@ f/11 light tent, two flashes left and right

Same set up, the exposures with white object and black object are both perfect!

Architecture

All with Sony A7RII and Zeiss Batis 2/25mm@ f/2.5, 1/250, ISO 100 first without flash

Two flashes in front of the building, same camera and lens, same time

Again two flashes positioned next to the camera, f/2.0, same time, distance to the building about 40m!

and last but not least

Digitizing with Sony A7RII for slide/film

copy slides and negatives with 5.300 DPI, exposure controlled with TTL

The set up:
this is a normal bellows, in this case for Nikon, with a slide duplicator adapter. The lens is a Leica Focotar 4.5/50mm enlarger lens. You will get enlarger lenses for very good prices now. It is set on f/11. Or look for “Slide Duplicator”, I just saw one for 87$ including the bellows.

There are not many scanners, that can do it and with this set up you need only seconds per “scan”, no scanner is that fast. For 6 negatives you need about 20 seconds, every image ist perfectly exposed.

To protect the lens against the flash, I put some dark paper over the lens and the slide holder. Not used here for better demonstrating the set up.

What I like:
the price
the menu system
wireless radio (tested up to 30m, may be more), not IR
zoom reflector from 24-200mm and 16mm
three groups of multiple flashes
individual remote control of exposure and zoom reflector for every group
remote control of TTL with/without HSS or manual exposure from 1/1 to 1/128

What I don’t like
—

I hope, these infos are helpful for you

regards

dierk

https://www.flickr.com/photos/dierktopp/

Jordan and Chris from TheCameraStoreTV just published their Sony A7S II Hands-On Field Test made in New York. And Newsshooter tested the Sony a7S II vs the original.
Cameralabs posted three new A7sII videos:
Standard style: https://vimeo.com/142411589
S-Log 3: https://vimeo.com/142412840
Cinematic Grade – S-Log 3: https://vimeo.com/142474695
In progress review at CameraLabs.
A7sII test by Brian Smith.

d-pixx.de posted a 1. test of the Sony A7S II with a series of pics taken at all ISO-settings and in a second post we show 19 full-size-shots taken at the event in Munic.
http://www.d-pixx.de/2015/10/sony-a7s-ii-erster-test/
http://www.d-pixx.de/2015/10/sony-a7s-ii-praxisbilder/

Sony A7s Mark II: First Images by Three Blind Men and An Elephant Productions.

Brad: “Wanted to share with you an unboxing video I just did of the new Sony A7s ii. I run LStopMedia.com and we received our copy a bit after noon central time today in Chicago. I captured the unboxing using the Sony a7r ii, at 4K, 30p using the Zeiss 24-70, with audio captured using the rodelink wireless system connected into the xlr-k2m. It just uploaded and is still processing, so the 4K may not be available yet. Please feel free to share and spread this video around if interested. Let me know if you have any comments or questions. http://youtu.be/-0UaeU-QWW4“

The new Sony A7sII is now shipping in USA at Amazon, BHphoto, FocusCamera, Adorama. And in Europe/Asia at ParkCameras, WexUK, Jessops and Digitalrev.

And Samy’s Camera Los Angeles is having a free event for the Sony A7SII launch! Just sign up using the link below! Learn how to take your 4K footage to the next level! Also, take advantage of the Trade Up Program!