Sony 35mm f/1.8 OSS First Impressions

Image courtesy: Matthew Durr Photography

After having used Nikkor AI lenses for a long time with his [shoplink 8454]Sony Nex7 (price & specs)[/shoplink], photographer Matthew Durr decided to get an E-mount lens and bought a [shoplink 6422]Sony 35mm f/1.8 OSS[/shoplink]. He writes:

So far, I’m liking what I’m seeing. Wide-open, there’s a bit of softness, but it doesn’t detract from images at normal viewing sizes in any way. Focus seems to be mostly consistent: using flexible spot at the center, focus is usually spot-on. […] For focus speed, I’d say it’s about twice as fast as the time it takes for me to find focus manually with my Nikkors (on static objects). […]

What I am loving without a doubt on the 35mm f/1.8 is the OSS. Not only does it help give another few stops of shutter speed advantage in low light and make handheld video smooth as silk (which I already knew it would do), but it makes composing photographs surprisingly easier! Framing can be much tighter when using the 35mm f/1.8; small movements which would translate to a jerk in the liveview with a non-OSS lens move the picture around very slowly with this lens. It’s a subtle, but nice touch to keep from needing to crop and rotate a bit in post-processing.

There are sample images and more in Matthew Durr’s first impressions review.

Sony Nex7 price check: [shopcountry 8454]

Sony 35mm f/1.8 OSS price check: [shopcountry 6422]

Sony RX1 Review By Ron Martinsen

[shoplink 15824][/shoplink]

Thanks Joe.

Sony’s little full frame wonder gets another entirely positive review. Ron Martinsen felt the beat of the [shoplink 15824]Sony RX1 (price & specs)[/shoplink] in a comprehensive review with lot of sample images. He writes:

Let’s just cut to the chance so I can answer the question that everyone wants to know about – is this camera really as good as a full frame DSLR? From an image quality perspective, the answer is without question – YES! The sensor on the RX1 is fantastic and the lens is on par with my best L lenses on my Canon gear. It’s got gorgeous color, dreamy bokeh at f/2.0, and creates sharp images even when examined in RAW. It’s high ISO performance is on par with most of today’s DSLR’s.

He found a small back focusing issue and discusses more RX1 issues, but for the rest the RX1 once more proves that Sony got it right and made a truly awesome camera. Check the high ISO samples! About the sensor Ron writes:

The colors are excellent, the detail is very good and the performance across the full spectrum of ISO’s from 100 to 25,600 is on par with the best DSLR’s on the market.

Ok, the fixed 35mm lens was felt as a limitation, on the other hand this is what characterizes the RX1. Check also the cool Gariz leather cases for the RX1 (click here).

Sony RX1 price check: [shopcountry 15824]

[via ronmartblog]

A double Sigma 35mm lens review and a Happy New Year!

Image courtesy: ePhotozine.

Both ePhotozine and Camerastuffreview tested the new Sigma 35mm f/1.4 lens. ePhotozine writes that “Sigma appear to have everything right with this new lens.” while CSR says: “With the first lens from the Art Series, Sigma actually sets a new standard. ”

The A-mount lens is availble for preorder at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here) and BHphoto (click here). To get notified when this lens is on eBay login and save this search at Slidoo.

Sony TidBits

Peru – Bring Your Kids – Trailer from Scott Booker (Shot on the RX100)

Short Sony news roundup:
ThePhoBlographer posted the full Zeiss 135mm f/1.8 lens review: “Not only is it super sharp, but it is extremely well built and focuses fairly fast. When the images are ready to be imported into your post-processing software of choice, you’ll have little work to do aside from some retouching.”
The ten cameras that amde history in 2012 at Quesabesde (translation here).
Nikon’s Series-E Lenses Compared (Matthewdurrphotography).
35mm f0.95 e-moun Mitakon lens test at TalkNex.
Sony 50mm f1.8 review at ThePhoBlographer.
Sony World Photography Awards 2013 (ePhotozine).

Murat: “I video recorded these scenes here in Hawaii with my Sony nex 6 with 50mm f/1.8 lens and also with the new 16-50mm power zoom. This is not a time lapse footage out of photos.
I recorded 60p videos as avchd and later on premiere speeded up the footage 800% for a creamier look. It was an extremely windy day. I had to park my car against the wind the protect my camera on the tripod. Still it is not 100% steady. But it looks good overall. I did not color correct nor sharpen the footage. http://youtu.be/hZdgVkYlq4Q“

First video of the Contax to E-mount AF adapter!

As you know we now have three AF E-mount adapters for the Canon EOS lenses. But most of these lenses are big and certainly not a valuable solution if you need to be “Light”. So it may interest you to know that a new Contax G AF adapter is coming too! And the video on top proves you that it actually works. It will be soon sold by MXcamera on their own [shoplink 15031 ebay]direct eBay Store (Click here to see[/shoplink]).

And here you see the list of great G lenses with links to eBay price:
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].

Sony A99 review ay Photoclubalpha (doens’t like it at all). And first price drops in Europe.

A900 versus A99. Image courtesy: Photoclubalpha

Long time Sony blogger David KIlpatrick posted the full A99 review at Photoclubalpha (Click here). And he is heavily criticizing Sony for releasing a camera like that: “In my British Journal review, I concluded that the Alpha 99 was between 30 and 50% over-priced and combined with the cost and limited range of Sony lenses there would be little good reason for any new full-frame entrant to prefer Sony over Nikon or Canon.”

and “Despite this, I would be very happy if Sony revived the highest end optical prism DSLR in future. An Alpha 900 quality version of the D600 would have been perfect. And I do not think I am alone in showing some regret for the apparent end of the single-lens reflex Alpha.”

Read the full article and comment his very detailed analysis. I have to say I found it honest and also a clear description of Sony’s current limitations. I hope Sony will take notice of it for the sake of the future FF camera development!

Meantime price is slowly falling down. You cna get a new A99 for 2499 Euro at [shoplink 16220 ebay]eBay Germany (Click here)[/shoplink] and 2430 Euro at [shoplink 16221 ebay]eBay UK (Click here)[/shoplink]. To get notified on more price drops save this search on Slidoo eBay (login to save it or change root country).

Wierd: A99 JPG quality beats the RX1 in Dynamic Range and Noise handling according to Techradar.

Image courtesy: Techradar.

The latest RX1 test made by Techradar (Click here) shows an unexpected result. The JPG quality of the RX1 is worse than the one delivered by the A99. While RAW files for Dynamic Range and Noise are very similar (with the A99 having the edge on mid ISO). I am surprised to see that the JPG quality shows that huge(!) difference. I actually was expecting a better result!

The only real image quality of the advantage of the RX1 can be seen at Low ISO when shooting RAW. Than you will get the best results (and better than the A99).

 

Click these links to check price and in Stock status: Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, Wex UK ,Wex Germany, Sonystore DE–UK–FR–IT–ES–NL–SE–FI–CH and more links at Alphacameradeals. Save $170 by simply purchasing the $7 cheap chinese metal hood ([shoplink 15410 ebay]there is one here on eBay[/shoplink]) instead of the original expensive Sony hood.