into the darkness – SONY α7S 4K shoot

You remember Stanley Kubrick shooting with a f/0.7 special Zeiss lens to shoot a Barry Lindon scene with the sole candle light? Well, that’s what you can do now with the new Sony A7s (which will ship soon). The video on top has been shot by Yoshihiro Enatsu and shows you the A7s performance with the light of one single candle. Below is another low light video:

Also Photoblog.hk posted two new videos: A Frame rate speed test (youtube video here) and an Autofocus test (youtube video here).

A7s and RX100M3 Preorders:
Sony A7s preorder in USA/CA at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, Sony USA, Sony Canada.
Sony A7s EU pages: Sony DE, UK, ES, FR, IT, NL, BE, AT, CH, SE, NO, FI, PL. And Wex UK.
RX100M3 preorders in USA at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, Sony USA.
RX100M3 preorders in Eu at Sony DE, UK, ES, FR, IT, NL, BE, AT, CH, SE, NO, FI, PT. And Wex UK,
RX100M3 in Asia at Amazon Japan and Sony Australia.

US note: Free premium case with the first generation RX100 at Amazon (Click here).

Imaging Resource (Click here) posted an interesting RX100M2 vs RX100M3 comparison. And despite both having the same sensor the difference are quite major thanks to the new Bionz X processor on the new RX. At ISO 100 IR writes:

There is a bit more detail in the thread patterns captured by the RX100 III on the right. It also does a good job of rendering our tricky red swatch, which has proven notoriously difficult for most cameras with sensors this size and smaller, even at lower ISOs.

At ISO 1600 IR writes:

Even though the RX100 II holds a bit more detail in areas of subtle contrast, it also shows slightly less noise in areas of flat tint in the background. On the other hand, the RX100 III’s image has a lot more “pop,” so might look better in reasonable-sized prints, vs pixel-peeping at 1:1 as above.

Interesting to see how different these cameras work on different ISO’s!

USA preorders: RX100M3 preorders in USA at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, Sony.
Europe preorders: RX100M3 at Sony DE, UK, ES, FR, IT, NL, BE, AT, CH, SE, NO, FI, PT. And Wex UK.

Roger Cicala from Lensrentals testes all the best 50mm lenses. The best lens is the 8000 Dollar/Euro [shoplink 27099 ebay]Leica Summicron f/2.0 (here on eBay)[/shoplink]. But the surprise is “again” the new Sigma 50mm ART lens. Roger writes:

I think it’s pretty cool that two SLR lenses (Zeiss Otus and Sigma ART) are able to hang right there with the f/1.4 Leica lens, the Summilux. Price-wise, you would hope the Otus would, but certainly the Sigma, one of the least expensive lenses in the test, has to take honors for hanging with the best at a tiny fraction of their price.

Note: The A-mount lens can be preordered in USA Amazon (Click here) at BHphoto (Click here) and Adorama (Click here). And in Europe at WexUK (Click here) and WexDe (Click here).

And the Sigma is very close to the Summicron lens at f/2.0 aperture:

Now let’s hope the 24mm and 85mm f/1.4 lenses coming at Photokina will be as good as the 50mm ART!

–

The A-mount lens can be preordered in USA Amazon (Click here) at BHphoto (Click here) and Adorama (Click here). And in Europe at WexUK (Click here) and WexDe (Click here).

SAR reader ED shared this Sony A77II AF Point Demo video. If you are (or will be) a A77II owner you might be interested to learn the new AF features.

Meantime Imaging Resource added the A77II test images to their comparometer. And this is the improvement over the previous A77 camera:

You can clearly see how the new Bionz X processor handles the noise in a better way.

UPDATE: WhatDigitalCamera (Click here) posted the full A77II review and the camera earned the Gold Award:

On the whole, with the Alpha 77 Mark II Sony has brought a host of advanced functionality to a consumer DSLT and as such is well worthy of consideration.

The camera will ship in 4 days from now according to Amazon US. Here are the full preorder links:

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.

Sony DSC-RX100 III test by BHphoto.

The RX100m3 will ship in two weeks from now and here are a couple of new RX100M3 image samples and tests. On top you can see a hands-on video from BH. And now let’s talk about a small surprise:
The ISO comparison done by Focus Numerique (google translated) shows how the RX100M3 beats the larger sensor cameras like the G1X and GM1 and almost matches the APS-C sensor performance of the Rico GR:

Quite amazing or not?

More tests:
RX100M3 Studio Comparison at Dpreview and real world samples (Dpreview).
Sony RX100 Mark III Photo Set on Flickr.
Fresh test of RX100iii, in Swedish on Swedish site Cyberphoto.
RX100M3 review by Yodobashi (google translated).

USA preorders: RX100M3 preorders in USA at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, Sony.
Europe preorders: RX100M3 at Sony DE, UK, ES, FR, IT, NL, BE, AT, CH, SE, NO, FI, PT. And Wex UK.

There is a new MK III version of the Contax G to Sony E-mount AF adapter from Mitakon. The video on top shows you how fast it focuses with the Contax lenses. The new version will be sold online soon (on eBay).

These are the Contax Full Frame lenses you can use on the A7-A7r-A7s and APS-C E-mount camera with full autofocus and electronic aperture control:
Hologon 16mm; 1:8 on [shoplink 16235 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
Biogon T* 21 mm; 1:2,8 on [shoplink 16236 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
Biogon T* 28 mm; 1:2,8 on [shoplink 16237 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
Planar T* 35 mm; 1:2,0 on [shoplink 16238 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
Planar T* 45 mm; 1:2,0 on [shoplink 16239 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
Sonnar T* 90 mm; 1:2,8 on [shoplink 16240 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
Vario-Sonnar T* 35 – 70 mm; 1:3,5-5,6 on [shoplink 16241 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].

[shoplink 26006 ebay][/shoplink]

The A6000 with Gariz case on eBay in [shoplink 26006 ebay]Black (Click here)[/shoplink], [shoplink 26007 ebay]Brown (Click here)[/shoplink], [shoplink 26008 ebay]Camel (Click here)[/shoplink] and [shoplink 26009 ebay]Red (Click here)[/shoplink].

Dpreview (Click here) posted the fulL A6000 review and writes:

The a6000 is a really solid camera and is better than its predecessor in almost every respect – anyone worried about Sony cutting corners to hit a lower price point should be reassured that it has done so intelligently. The result is a really capable camera, offering impressive image quality in both Raw and JPEG modes, plus class-leading video features. That it then does so in a small, convenient, well featured and competitively priced package is what really seals the deal for us. It’s strong in all areas and outstanding in some.

The camera therefore earned the Gold Award with a score of 80%.

Sony A6000 store link list:
Sony A6000 at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonyStore. In Europe at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, AT, NL, BE, CH, FI, SE, PT, WexUK.
Silver A6000 at Amazon US, BHphoto, WexUK.
Sony A6000 with lens at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonyStore, Sony Canada, WexUK.
Silver A6000 with lens at Amazon US, BHphoto, WexUK.
Sony 70-200mm FE at Amazon, BHphoto, SonyStore. In Europe at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, AT, NL, BE, CH, FI, SE, PT