Image sourtesy: Photozone.de.

Our friend Klaus from Photozone is known to be a very sever reviewer. Unlike so many other reviewer sites he rarely marks lenses with the “highly recommended” badge. So it’s a nice to read that the new Sony FE 70-200mm “survived” his detailed tests and made a very favorable impression:

The Sony FE 70-200mm f/4 G OSS is, undoubtedly, a high quality with just a few weaknesses. The Sony lens is not only a looker but the mechanical quality is also truly impressive. It feels exceptionally solid and the control rings feel silky smooth. The weather sealing as well as the supplied tripod mount are also a nice bonus.

He also added that interesting note:

The A7R creates rather massive shutter vibrations that are a game spoilers when using tele-lenses – even with activated OSS. However, the A7 and A7s should be able to exploit the really high potential of the Sony FE 70-200mm f/4 G OSS. Therefore highly recommended.

Full review at Photozone.de.

Sony 70-200mm FE at Amazon (CLick here), BHphoto (Click here), SonyStore (Click here). In Europe at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, AT, NL, BE, CH, FI, SE, PT

This is a Guest Post written for SAR by Guiskard (http://guiskard.net). Feel free to share your stories and reviews by contacting me (Andrea) at sonyalpharumors@gmail.com.

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When I bought the A7r in December last year my decision was based on a couple of key features: Small Body, high resolution plus the possibility to adopt my old nikon lenses. Another aspect was the option to get Zeiss lenses perfectly suiting this camera. Now, almost half a year later I’d like to share my experiences with this blog that helped me a lot in terms of making up my mind if I really should spend money on this particular camera and later when I got it, how to get the most out of it. It’s not supposed to be another review with all the technical details – I think others did already a great job in that term. I’d rather write something about my experiences as a reportage photographer.

Recently I spent some time in India, using the A7r for a couple of features and I didn’t regret it at all. Let’s start with the dimensions. Compared to a DSLR the body is obviously a lot smaller, the Zeiss primes are light and small, too. This means that I could use a slim sling bag for all my gear (i.e A7r, the 35mm Zeiss, 20/50/135mm Nikon legacy lenses, adapter), a bottle of water, one or two books and some food. It’s such a big advantage traveling with just as little luggage as possible. It pays off even more when you are frequently in overcrowded trains or busses. At the same time it is a lot less obvious when you are shooting undercover. The A7r looks much more like an old analogue camera than the professional and very powerful tool that it actually is. To enhance this look I put black ducktape on all the logos and lettering. I got the impression that people were less cautious or didn’t pay that much attention – which was a big plus for me in many situations. If the shutter sound was a bit more discrete, it would have been even better. But the places where I usually shoot have some background noise anyway – so I don’t mind that much.

Nikon 50 mm, 1.8,
More important to me are the lowlight qualities because – again it reduces the weight I have to
carry. I’d rather get that not so fast but small and light lens instead of the heavy and bulky one that might be a stop or even two faster. Besides the whole system is even more compact like this. Up to ISO 3200 the results are very usable and in combination with noise reduction in post processing almost astonishing considering the 36mp sensor (I’ m really curious how the news A7s will behave here). And I don’t want to miss that large sensor anymore! Not only for the narrow depth of field that I really love – which is sometimes almost too difficult to handle, already with the 1.8/50mm – but mainly for the possibility to crop substantially. Again and again I’m totally amazed by the sharpness this camera delivers even if you zoom in like mad. Often things simply happen too fast in front of my camera to be able to think for a long time about composition or how to frame the subject. It’s so good to know that it just doesn’t matter. Sure I have to know which part of the image should be in focus, but for the rest I often do the job in post and still you don’t see it – not even in large sizes.

Being used to optical viewfinders I didn’t really know what to think of this EVF in the beginning. Looking through optics isn’t exactly the same thing as staring on a screen. But again it turned out to be a smart piece of technology. I really like the possibility to display different kind of levels and other information. However, most important to me is the constant brightness no matter what f-stop you choose. Even at night you’ll get a usable viewfinder image to work with. Shooting in bright daylight it’s very useful for briefly checking your results as one doesn’t see anything on the screen on the back of the camera. Another highlight is the the magnifying tool and focus peaking – both very helpful when using legacy glass. However, I must admit that the 35mm is a real always on lens for me.

Quite a lot of users were complaining about the autofocus speed. As I rarely shoot action or birds or something comparably fast – the AF works just fine for me. The only downside is the complicated adjustment of the focus point – I wish that would be easier and quicker to do. Something that really gets on my nerves is the ISO dial. It happened again and again that I touched the wheel with my nose while shooting. OK, you might argue that it’s connected to the size of my nose but whatsoever, it is pretty annoying if you realize that you were using the wrong sensitivity. Usually it’s to high (otherwise I become aware of the slow shutter speed) and eventually the problem emerges only in post when I see noise in the image where it’s not supposed to be. It’s a pain but I’m aware of the issue now and try to be extra careful with my nose.

Finally, considering the whole system – ergonomics, built quality and sturdiness, sensor technology, the possibility to adopt a large variety of legacy glass and the quality of the Zeiss lenses – it seems to be a really good package for reportage photographers. I do enjoy the handiness of this camera in combination with the excellent sensor. It delivers great sharpness, offering good lowlight quality and an impressive dynamic range, being unobtrusive at the same time – right now I don’t see any other model to compete with the A7r.
Links: http://guiskard.net

[shoplink 26501 ebay][/shoplink]

Wimarys.com si the first site posting a more detailed review of the new [shoplink 26501 ebay]Mitakon 50mm f/0.95 Full Frame E-mount lens (preorder here on eBay)[/shoplink]. They posted a sharpness test article (here) and a bokeh test article (here).

Well, the reviewer says the one challenging thing is actually…to find the focus point at f/0.95 aperture :) And that’s what they write about the sharpness of the lens:

First image is taken at F/0.95. It is indeed soft. Not in an unpleasing way, but don’t expect a razor sharp focus point. There is heavy vignetting apparent too.

And about the bokeh his conclusion is quite “artistic”:

If you have a busy background, you get an effect not unlike an abstract impressionist painting. Think Excavation by Willem de Kooning.

The Lens will ship the first week of June. So preorder now at [shoplink 26501 ebay]MXcamera eBay store (Click here)[/shoplink].

The Sony RX100M3 is still leading the Amazon camera ranking (see the list here). Also the Sony A7s is doing well but is falling behind after reaching top 10 yesterday.

But now let’s take a look to some very interesting info about the camera shared by sites that actually had the RX100M3 in their hands. And there are actually some info I am sure most of you were not aware of like 5axis stabilization and the new “AA” aspherical lens type:

Image Quality:
ePhotozine: The camera features a new BIONZ X processor as used in other Sony cameras – this offers improved detail reproduction technology, diffraction reducing technology when using smaller apertures, as well as improved area-specific noise reduction.

Lens:
Dpreview: Sony is immensely proud of one of the technologies it has developed: the combination of two aspherical lens elements. This has been key to allowing such a wide and bright lens to be built into such a compact design. The lens can focus as close as 5cm at wide-angle and 30cm at the long end of the zoom.
ePhotozine: This is designed to enable better background blur and portrait shots in combination with the brighter f/2.8 aperture at the telelphoto end of the lens – a noticeable improvement over the RX100 and RX100 II.
DSLRmagazine: Note that of these 10 elements (lenses) 9 are aspheric, which certainly represents a record for a compact camera. The up to 3 stop ND filter comes handy seen that the maximum shutter speed is 1/2000.
Trustedreviews: Focusing distance has also improved with it now able to focus within 30cm of a subject at the long end of the zoom.
Photoscala: The lens has 9 aspherical elements and two of them are “AA” (=advanced aspherical). Lens is definitely not a Zeiss Biogon because distortion is corrected in camera.

Autofocus:
ePhotozine: Focus features have been updated to include: Lock on AF – continuously tracks moving subject, Easier auto focus area settings, Eye-detection auto focus for portraits, Auto object framing, MF assist, Focus peaking, and a Zebra mode has been added. You can also customise the size of the of the fous point, setting the size from large, medium and small.
Trustedreviews: Auto-focus performance was as good as we’d expect with the RX100 II locking onto subjects with minimal fuss, even in relatively low-light conditions.

Speed:
Trustedreviews: Claimed to operate three times faster than the previous Bionz engine, the RX100 III maintains a maximum ISO sensitivity of ISO 25,600 and is capable of shooting at up to 10fps in its Speed Priority Continuous Shooting mode.

LCD:
Dpreview: While the LCD has a total of 1.23 million dots, the actual resolution of what you see on the screen is VGA – 921,000 dots worth. The difference between those numbers comes from Sony’s WhiteMagic technology, which has a fourth white pixel, which allows for both a brighter screen along with reduced power consumption.
ePhotozine: The 3inch screen now tilts forwards to enable “Selfie” shots or group shots.

EVF:
Dpreview: At the push of the button, the EVF rises up and turns the camera on and off when you put it back down. If you look right into the EVF on engaging it everything will be blurry, but that’s because you need to ‘pull’ the finder toward you. Once that’s done you’ll be impressed with the quality of this OLED display, despite the 800×600 pixel SVGA resolution (compared to XGA on some other Sony cameras). The company stresses the value of the Zeiss T* coating on the EVF’s outer glass, which attempts to reduce reflection on a finder with no enclosing eyepiece.
ePhotozine: It can be used to switch the camera on when activated. It also features eye-detection. The EVF measures 0.38inches in size, which is larger than most other compact cameras, which tend to use a 0.2inch EVF.
Trustedreviews: It offers a clear, bright view with good clarity, despite the resolution not matching that of the clip-on viewfinder offered for the RX100 II. Fundamentally, it’ll be more than good enough for most users.
Photoscala: There is a bit of lag when you move the camera very fast (but still it’s a very good EVF). And at the end I used the pop-up viewfinder more than I used the external EVF on the predecessor.

Video:
DSLRmagazine: It has clean HDMI output.
Trustedreviews: Dual video recording will also be appreciated by those who’d like to record high quality AVCHD/XAVC S footage alongside a smaller MP4 format file that’s easier to share.

Extra 3mm thickness:
Dpreview: The extra depth of the camera isn’t particularly noticeable though it restricts, still further, the number of pockets into which the camera will comfortably fit.
ePhotozine: The camera will be available with an optional leather case, and a rubber grip that attaches to the front of the camera is also an option.
Photoscala: While the camera became 3mm thicker it only weights 1 gram more than it’s predecessors.

More:
DSLRmagazine It’s the first RX100 series camera with Playmemories APP support.
Another first for the RX100 series is a 5-axis stabilisation system, which should help to ensure steadier movies are created.
Photoscala: Sony didn’t unveil the pricing in Europe yet.

Here are the full updated preorder links to the A7s and RX100M3:
Sony A7s preorder in USA/CA at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here), BHphoto (Click here), Sony (Click here), Sony Canada.
RX100M3 preorders in USA at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here), BHphoto (Click here), Sony (Click here).
RX100M3 preorders in Eu at Sony DE, UK, ES, FR, IT, NL, BE, AT, CH, SE, NO, FI, PT.
RX100M3 in Asia at Amazon Japan.
Sony A7s EU pages (no preorder yet): Sony DE, UK, ES, FR, IT, NL, SE, FI, PL.

SonyAlphaRumors support note: If you use these store links to preorder the camera I will earn a small commission that will help me to cover the cots and if preorders are high also reward me a bit for the daily work I do on SAR. Thanks for your help guys!!!!

These are the first four RX100M3 full size image samples (Source: Sony.net). In the meantime I have been told by one source that Sony in very last minute withdraw the A7s pricing release for Europe. He doesn’t know the reason why this happened. Also the Sony European RX100M3 pages do not accept preorders yet (price is 849 Euro). On the other side of the world you can preorder both the A7s and RX100M3 in USA:

Preorders:
Sony A7s preorder in USA/CA at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here), BHphoto (Click here), Sony (Click here), Sony Canada.
RX100M3 preorders in USA at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here), BHphoto (Click here), Sony (Click here).
RX100M3 preorders in Eu at Sony DE, UK, ES, FR, IT, NL, BE, AT, CH, SE, NO, FI, PT.
RX100M3 in Asia at Amazon Japan.
Sony A7s EU pages (no preorder yet): Sony DE, UK, ES, FR, IT, NL, SE, FI, PL.

SonyAlphaRumors support note: If you use these store links to preorder the camera I will earn a small commission that will help me to cover the cots and if preorders are high also reward me a bit for the daily work I do on SAR. Thanks for your help guys!!!!

Still, not many are going to buy these new cameras according to SAR readers poll:

Poll:

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Future A77II owner can “study” their camera by downloading the full manuals at Sony UK (Thanks Alphaguy). Ijsvogel is sharing his A77II tests at Dyxum.

The big reminder is that A7s pricing and RX100M3 camera could be announced on May 16 (likely at 5-6am London time).

Sony A77II specs, preorders and shipment date:
Sony A77 body in USA at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here), Sony Store (Click here) and BHphoto (Click here).
Sony A77 with 16-50mm lens at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here), Sony Store (Click here) and BHphoto (Click here).
Sony A77 body in Europe at Sony Germany, Sony UK, Sony France, Sony IT, ES, NL, BE, AT, CH, PT, NO, SE, FI and Wex UK.
Sony A77 in Asia at Digitalrev and Sony Australia.