This is a Guest post from Tomasz Kałużny. The text and images are copyrighted and have been reposted on SAR from the orginal authors site Darkshape.

Samyang 135mm f/2 first impressions and samples
by Tomasz Kałużny

Today I had a rare pleasure to lay my hands on an extraordinary lens: Samyang 135mm f/2. Thanks to the guys at infoto.pl who made this possible. It’s one of the latest releases from Samyang and I have been waiting for this for quite some time since the lens had a pretty good word of mouth right from the moment it was announced.

The Bulgarian Alphaforum (Click here) posted the very first full size image samples shot with the new A-mount lenses. Check them out!

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New A-mount lens preorders:
Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 ZA SSM II at Amazon, BHphoto and at Adorama.
Sony 16-35mm f/2.8 ZA SSM II at Amazon, BHphoto and at Adorama.

Dpreview (Click here) posted the full Sony A77II review. The camera earned the Silver Award for the following reason:

The Sony a77 II is the perfect choice for those seeking pro-grade shooting and AF speeds for well-under pro-grade prices. No moving mirror means the a77 II can successfully use continuous AF during both 12fps bursts and video capture, a major advantage over many of its DSLR competitors. And in-body image stabilization helps to keep both stills and video a bit more stable than the competition. Subject tracking, one of the a77 II’s most anticipated features, is unfortunately, not very reliable. And high ISO images have a tendency to be fairly noisy. Build quality and ergonomics, however, are very good. Overall, the a77 II offers a lot of camera, for a very reasonable price.

The A77II got announced exactly one year ago at the Sony World Photography Award. And today Sony will indeed announce new cameras again…but no A-mount today?

A paranoic-vegan naked guy (let me have some fun describing him) made that very (un)scientific test to claim the [shoplink 35573 ebay]RX100m3[/shoplink] is a dangerous radioactive camera. And he used a $34 ghost hunting Gauss Master (here on Amazon) to measure the radiation (LOL!).
I saw the video posted on some forums and thought it would be good the debunk the myth also with the little help of Marc Morris. He commented the video and said:

Remarkable paranoia. I’m impressed with your commitment but remain thoroughly UNswayed. All communicative products have screens of various properties and have EMR output that is negligible at best. Your HDTV makes the camera look like a piker, your cellphone is ALWAYS on and and is either on or near your person: no lead carrier blocks the radiation you’re so frightened of. It’s unavoidable. Most Gaussmeters of the cost effective variety will give seriously false readings when placed too closely to portable electronics like a cell phone or a camera: you are using a device that is not built to measure portable electronics accurately. What that thing is saying is that this RX100M3 is putting out a reading that meets the average reading of a hair dryer at normal usage distances, or that of standing underneath a transmission line outside a home (http://www.arpansa.gov.au/radiationprotection/factsheets/is_magfields.cfm). Asinine. The camera in its most nuclear phase could not do so. Prolonged exposure would mean hours set aside, of days and days on end of looking through the viewfinder without blinking, when in fact it is for mere seconds at a time and it would take months of work to have looked through the viewfinder for an hour in total. The premise and the good will are noted and lauded. The lack of thorough education is, on the other hand, absolutely not.

So please don’t be scared by the video. Just don’t use your RX100m3 while drying your hair and you will be fine :)

Disclosure:
Dear vegan readers, I am not anti Vegan and I only tried to make some fun. So please take it easy.

Image courtesy: ePhotozine

The new Sony 30x zoom compact cameras got a hands-on by many reviewers:
HX90V Hands-On Photos at ePhotozine, Amateur Photographer and Photographyblog.
WX500 Hands-On Photos at ePhotozine , Amateur Photographer and Photographyblog.

And the preorder ars up at:
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX90V for $428 at BHphoto (Click here) and Adorama (Click here).
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX500 Digital Camera for $328 at BHphoto (Click here) and Adorama (Click here).

The interetsing part is that I received a document disclosing why those 30x zoom cameras are important for Sony:

I am yet not sure but the graph is likely to show the market in Canada. Sony expects that 45% of the compact camera market will be “owned” by High Zoom cameras.

Moonriders from Christian Mülhauser on Vimeo.

If I am not mistaken this is the very first (or one of the first) Drone videos shoot at moonlight. And of course the author used the Sony A7s to make the video. Such kind of videos would be impossible to make if there wouldn’t be the A7s on this world :)

Sony A7s store links:
Sony A7s in USA/CA at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, Sony USA, Sony Canada.
Sony A7s in Eu at Sony DE, UK, ES, FR, IT, NL, BE, AT, CH, SE, NO, FI, PL. And Wex UK.
A7s Gariz leather case in [shoplink 27569 ebay]Black (Click here)[/shoplink], [shoplink 27570 ebay]Brown (Click here)[/shoplink], [shoplink 27571 ebay]Red (Click here)[/shoplink] and [shoplink 27572 ebay]Orange (Click here)[/shoplink].

Images and text by Jörg Haag.

As you know Sony relies a lot on in camera lens compensation. And SAR reader Jörg Haag made that big test to show you the advantages-disadvantages of Sony’s approach. Please note that text and images are propriety of Jörg Haag. So please do not reproduce it without permission from Jörg.