Sony 10-18mm tested at Photozone (And Nex-6 kit for $799)


Image courtesy: Photozone

Quick note for US readers: $100 savings on the NEX-6 with kit lens that now sells for $799 at [shoplink 18017 ebay]CameraLand (Click here)[/shoplink].

Our friends at Photozone (Click here) tested the Sony E 10-18mm f/4 OSS lens. And they actually like the lens: “Upon first contact, you are positively surprised about the high build quality. All-metal lens body are fairly rare these days. The lens is capable of delivering sharp results at medium aperture settings.” But they also shared their thoughts about one quality issue: “while the build quality of the lens is very fine, we continue to be concerned about the centering quality of Sony products. Ever since we started the NEX tests, we are either terribly unlucky or the centering is as bad as it is”

I hope Sony is reading this…and improves the mentioned issue.

10-18mm price check at [shopcountry 14170].

First image samples taken with the “Lens Turbo”. Speed Booster now in UK.

The chinese blog Xitek posted the first image samples taken with the “Lens Turbo” adpater. You can see them here: Xitek-1, Xitek_2, Xitek_3. These have been taken with the [shoplink 18006 ebay]Pentax 40mm f/2.8 lens (here on eBay)[/shoplink]. The “Lens Turbo” is the chinese clone of the popular and twice as expensive “Speed Booster”. The Lens Turbo will be sold on eBay from May and I will let you know when the first sales will be online. Or if you use Slidoo save this search to get notified when there will be Lens Turbo eBay auctions (Click here and if required change country in settings). The price will be $249.

One more news: First Speed Boosters are for sale via [shoplink 18007 ebay]UK store on eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].

Sony NEX-3n in Stock! And gets DxOmarked (and RX100 for $597)

NEX-3n:
The Sony NEX-3n is finally in Stock at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here), and BHphoto (Click here).
DxOmark (Click here) published the full NEX-3n sensor test. And of course the results are pretty much the same of the predecessor (the NEX-F3) that had exactly the same sensor. The small differences are here because of the slightly different imaging processor.
The NEX-3N is a great little camera that beats many mirrorless camers from other manufacturers. Now let’s bring on the new NEX-7n Sony!

RX100:
The RX100 got a $53 price drop and sells for $597 at [shoplink 17716 ebay]BigValue (Click here)[/shoplink]. Free Shipping of course!

New Sony NEX-6 review. New APPs for the NEX-5r and NEX-6

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There is a new Sony NEX-6 tests at DigitalCameraReview (Click here). And like Dpreview also the DCR conclusions mentions as only drawback the “sometimes confusing menu system“. Otherwise the reviewer likes the camera: “The Sony NEX-6 is a great little camera and, one of my personal favorites“.

And if you are a lucky owner of the NEX-6 or NEX-5r you can download two new APPS for your camera at Playmemoriescameraapps.com.

NEX deals:
Three Open Box NEX-6 kits with $130 discount at [shoplink 17622 ebay]Samys (Click here)[/shoplink].
NEX-5r body for $486 at [shoplink 17623 ebay]6ave (Click here)[/shoplink].
Three Open Box NEX-7 kits with $100 discount at [shoplink 17626 ebay]Samys (Click here)[/shoplink].
Last two days of the NEX deals on Amazon Deals Page (Click here).

Luminous Landscape still doesn’t really like the Electronic Viewfinders…

There will be always discussions between people about the advantages or disadvantages of Electronic Viewfinder against Optical Viewfinders. In a recent short article Luminous Landscape admin describes “Why I Hate Electronic Viewfinders“. He says: “The reason why is that they are at best tiny TV sets, and as such have very low contrast ratios compared to the ability of the naked eye or a good optical or large DSLR viewfinder. In bright situations, where there is also deep shade, it can make visibility into the shadows when shooting highly compromised.”

It’s ture that current Sony EVF can’t give you the clarity of an Optical Viewfinder but I think that in time EVF will get very close to OVF. Plus you don’t have to forget that EVF gives you some inherent features that are simply non available on OVF. So let’s wait and see what the new generation EVF from Sony will be. 3+ Million dots for the NEX-7n sounds like a good improvement!