Sony A99 used my NG photographer Yamashita.

Focus Numerique (translation here) tested the sport-photography skills of the new Sony A99.In very short they found they where positively surprised by the AF and Video performance while the JPG quality above 3200 ISO may be a bit disappointing. They also didn’t not find an improvement on the A)9 EVF over the A77 although some readers do say quite the opposite like here at dpreview forum.

For the record, the A99 battery grip is now in Stock in Asia (here on Slidoo eBay). I guess it will arrive soon in EU and US too!

A99 in Stock status check at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, Jessops, Wex UK, Wex Germany, Sonystore DE–UK–FR–IT–ES–NL–SE–FI–CH and more links at Alphacameradeals.

Today we have the two new FF cameras in Stock. The A99 at Amazon (Click here) and now even the new VG900 at BHphoto (Click here).

And there is a new A99 review at Whatdigitalcamera. And although the camera earns a relatively high overall score of 89% they have some complaints: “All of these issues mean the A99 ends up being a camera likely to be as embraced as it is disliked. Should the camera’s operational speed be remedied by a firmware update it will no doubt hold more appeal. As it is, it stands as a camera which delivers in some areas with aplomb, but falls down elsewhere where it matters.”

At that point I have to say some kind words in favour of the A99. It really all depends from what you need. Pro Photographer Frank Doorhof wrote a very nice article about the A99 that really brings it to the point. The A99 has features that clearly differentiates it from the Nikon and Canon FF models. If those features are important for you than the A99 is absolutely the way to go! There is no camera that will help you to become a better photographer. There are only cameras that will suite you better for the needs you have.

More A99 bits: Rodkar is having a lot of fun with his new A99 and tested it a long list of A-mount lenses. Some more tests on vimeo, A99 vs A900 on dp forum.

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Sony preorder list:
A99 body Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, Jessops, Wex UK, Wex Germany, Sonystore DE–UK–FR–IT–ES–NL–SE–FI–CH and more links at Alphacameradeals.
A99 with kit lens links Alphacameradeals.
RX1 Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, Wex UK ,Wex Germany and more links at Alphacameradeals.
NEX-6 body Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, Wex UK, Wex Germany Sonystore DE–UK–FR–IT–ES–NL–SE–FI–CH and more links at Alphacameradeals.
NEX-6 with kit lens Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, Jessops, Wex Uk ,Wex Germany and more links at Alphacameradeals.
NEX-VG900 Amazon, BHphoto, Sonystore DE–UK–FR–IT–ES–NL–SE–FI–CH, Wex Uk and more links at Alphacameradeals.
NEX-VG30 Adorama, Amazon, BHphoto, Wex UK, Sonystore DE–UK–FR–IT–ES–NL–SE–FI–CH, and more links at Alphacameradeals.
Sony E-mount 16-50mm Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, Wex UK, Sonystore DE–UK–FR–IT–ES–NL–SE–FI–CH, and more links at Alphacameradeals .
Sony E-mount 35mm Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, Wex UK, Sonystore DE–UK–FR–IT–ES–NL–SE–FI–CH, and more links at Alphacameradeals.
Sony E-mount 10-18mm Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, Wex UK, Sonystore DE–UK–FR–IT–ES–NL–SE–FI–CH, and more links at Alphacameradeals.
Sony A-mount 300mm f/2.8 Amazon, BHphoto, Sonystore DE–UK–FR–IT–ES–NL–SE–FI–CH.

Engadget (Click here) posted the full Sony NEX-5R review and I agree with their conclusions when they write: “Picture and video quality, even at higher ISO settings, was stellar. The camera’s exposure was typically spot-on, and we never found a need to venture beyond the automatic white balance setting, with each shoot yielding accurate results. We’ve had some issues with past NEX models when shooting in tungsten or vapor light, but we were quite pleased with the images here. ”

Like any other company sometimes Sony makes bad products and sometimes Sony makes very good products. And few of you will disagree when I say that the NEX-5R falls in the latter category. When it comes down to analyze the features you get for the price you can hardly find any other mirrorless camera that can match it!

Along the RX100 this is my favorite camera of the year. And for you?

Sony NEX-5R in Stock status and price check at: [shopcountry 14168]
Slide through the NEX-5R auctions on Slidoo.com.

[shoplink 14167][/shoplink]

I guess you all remember photographer Michael Yamashita. He is the one that leaked the A99 in first place :) Sony Japan (Click here) now shows a dedicated online page where you can see his work with the A99 and NEX-6 cameras. It’s in Japanese only but pictures to tell more than thousand words…so they say. (Thanks Vadim for the link!).

Fengniao (translation here) posted a new NEX-6 test that includes a NEX-6 vs NEX-7 comparison:
ISO 3200: NEX-6 vs NEX-7
ISO 6400: NEX-6 vs NEX-7
ISO 12800: NEX-6 vs NEX-7

The new NEX-6 is shipping in many paces in Europe: Jessops UK, Redcoon Germany, Amazon Germany, [shoplink 15075 ebay]Fotoversand Germany (ships to EU)[/shoplink], [shoplink 15076 ebay]Allmedia Germany (ships to EU)[/shoplink], [shoplink 15077 ebay]Asdiscount France[/shoplink].

And through our new website Slidoo you can live check the NEX-6 offers on eBay US/Canada (Click here), eBay Europe (Click here) and eBay Asia (Click here).

If you click on the image on top you will see the full ISO comparison between the A99 and 5DmarkIII posted by DSLRmagazine (translation here). But before to go into the details of this comparison I want to go back to the ISO test made by Focus Numerique (translation here) where they compared the results with the Nikon D600. First, my french is very bad and google translation doesn’t really help you that much. I made mistake and said these were RAW converted files while they were not. These are original JPG images (but you can download the RAW files too). One of our readers noticed that the Sony JPG files are actually having a size of 8MB only compared to the 15-16MB of the Nikon D800 (Example: ISO 1600 -> A99 vs D600).

This means that Sony JPEG Fine setting compresses twice more than the Nikon! Of course a Nikon or Canon will always look better when you compare apple with oranges :) We really have to see a real RAW comparison to get a more accurate idea about the A99 performance!

Back to the comparison made by DSLRmagazine. These are once again JPEG comparisons and as we now know Sony applies a stronger compression for their JPEG files. In short…dear reviewers…show us some real RAW comparison! :)

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UPDATE: Sonystore US has the A99 in Stock right now. Check out Alphacameradeals to see the full link list!

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Sony A99 in Stock status check: Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, Jessops, Wex UK, Wex Germany, eBay Europe, Sonystore DE–UK–FR–IT–ES–NL–SE–FI–CH and more links at Alphacameradeals.

New NEX-6 video preview.

Sony Tokyo event:
Sony had a big event in Tokyo and you can read the article on DC.watch (translation here). They showed some graph that demonstrates how Sony is recovering after the Thai Flood disaster from last year. Sony is ruling the worldwide mirrorless market and that market is strongly gaining shares at cost of the classic DSLR market. They also announced the definitive shipping info for the new lenses. The pancake zoom will ship in January, the 10-18mm zoom on November 16th and the 35mm lens in December.

NEX-6 shipping!
But today we also have good news for all future NEX-6 owners. The cameras is finally shipping today. Here is the list:
USA/Canada: BigValue has the [shoplink 15056 ebay]Body only (Click here)[/shoplink] and the [shoplink 15055 ebay]pancake kit (Click here)[/shoplink] in Stock via eBay.  Until few hours ago Amazon (Click here) had the info that the camera was set to ship from today. In Canada the camera is in Stock at Sonystore.
Europe: The German stores Fotomunds and Amazon have them in Stock. French and Italian shops are selling the first cameras on eBay (found via Slidoo).
Full NEX-6 and other new Sony camera and lens preorder list can be found at AlphaCameraDeals.

And here are some new NEX-6 videos:
AF test by SLRclub on youtube. Uboxing video on youtube. MXcamera EOS adapter on the NEX-6 on youtube.

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Sony preorder list:
A99 body Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, Jessops, Wex UK, Wex Germany, Sonystore DE–UK–FR–IT–ES–NL–SE–FI–CH and more links at Alphacameradeals.
A99 with kit lens links Alphacameradeals.
RX1 Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, Wex UK ,Wex Germany and more links at Alphacameradeals.
NEX-6 body Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, Wex UK, Wex Germany Sonystore DE–UK–FR–IT–ES–NL–SE–FI–CH and more links at Alphacameradeals.
NEX-6 with kit lens Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, Jessops, Wex Uk ,Wex Germany and more links at Alphacameradeals.
NEX-VG900 Amazon, BHphoto, Sonystore DE–UK–FR–IT–ES–NL–SE–FI–CH, Wex Uk and more links at Alphacameradeals.
NEX-VG30 Adorama, Amazon, BHphoto, Wex UK, Sonystore DE–UK–FR–IT–ES–NL–SE–FI–CH, and more links at Alphacameradeals.
Sony E-mount 16-50mm Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, Wex UK, Sonystore DE–UK–FR–IT–ES–NL–SE–FI–CH, and more links at Alphacameradeals .
Sony E-mount 35mm Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, Wex UK, Sonystore DE–UK–FR–IT–ES–NL–SE–FI–CH, and more links at Alphacameradeals.
Sony E-mount 10-18mm Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, Wex UK, Sonystore DE–UK–FR–IT–ES–NL–SE–FI–CH, and more links at Alphacameradeals.
Sony A-mount 300mm f/2.8 Amazon, BHphoto, Sonystore DE–UK–FR–IT–ES–NL–SE–FI–CH.

Sony NEX-VG900 Samples from Gear Jones on Vimeo.

ON top you can see one of the first VG900 video tests. The full manual is now available for download at http://pdf.crse.com/manuals/4436718111.pdf.

And BBC reporter Johhni Behiri tested the little NEX-VG50.

And our friend Mike Kobal is back from a long work that kept him away a long time from his blog. Here is his new NEX-700 test.