DxOmark just published the Canon 650D sensor results. And once again we can see how Canon is struggling to get on par with Sony sensors. The Sony A65 dynamic range the beats the Canon by one stop! Still the Sony cameras would be even much better without the Translucent mirror: “we know from having tested various types of Translucent Mirror Technology that such systems usually reduce low-light scores by about 1/3 to 1/2EV. The SLT-A65 does in fact divert a portion of incoming light to support its electronic viewfinder, and… this is pretty much the only reason that the 650D can compete with Sony’s DSLR video in terms of low-light sensitivity.”

Anyway, the difference between the A77 and NEX-7 are negligible (here is the comparison). I really want to see how good the new [shoplink 14165]Sony A99[/shoplink] and RX1 sensor will be. And of course, if there is a major difference between the two.

Coming back to Canon, at least on the sensor front they are now clearly behind the competition. And keep in mind that Nikon, Olympus and very likely also Panasonic are now using Sony sensors too!

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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.

Luminous Landscape is one of my favorite websites and It’s always interesting to read their Sony reviews. They just posted a Sony A99 field review (Click here to read it). LL really likes the new features and quality of the camera “The A99 is a camera geek’s wet dream come to life.” and also writes that “Clearly noise isn’t an issue up to and including ISO 1600. From there to and including ISO 6400 a bit of noise reduction will produce highly acceptable images for most applications.“.

But they have on major doubt. It’s the use of an electronic Viewfinder on a Full frame camera. Read:
“has the recent development of very good on-sensor contrast detection AF, and now from Sony on-sensor phase detection AF, not rendered the whole translucent mirror technology somewhat redundant? Maybe not today, but in a year or two almost certainly.” and “But one of the key advantages, especially to Pros and advanced amateurs who are familiar either with full frame DSLRs of the past decade, or film-based cameras prior, is the large and bright view possible though a mirror reflex with a prism. Shadow areas are open rather than black holes, colours are accurate and natural, fine details are visible, and one can see and focus and compose even with the camera turned off. These are significant advantages, and for many experienced photographers are among the main raison d’etre for appreciating what full-frame has to offer.As good as it is, the Sony EVF just can’t compete in terms of realistic contrast, brightness and overall clarity to a full frame glass prism viewfinder.”

While the use of EVF makes sense on mirrorless cameras (for the sake of compactness) and on APS-C cameras (their optical viewfinder is very small anyway) they don’t find any reason to have it on FF. Let us know what you think about this:

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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.

Image by ePhotozine.

The Sony Hong Kong RX1 Press Release contains an interesting MTF resolution chart. Here is it:

The lines may don’t help you much without a comparison. Here are the resolution results of the [shoplink 13883 ebay]Zeiss 35mm f/2.0 Biogon ZM lens[/shoplink] at f/2.0 aperture:

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The RX1 lens is way better than the current ZM lens!
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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, Wex UK, Sonystore DE–UK–FR–IT–ES–NL–SE–FI–CH, and more links at Alphacameradeals .
Sony E-mount 35mm Amazon, Adorama, Wex UK, Sonystore DE–UK–FR–IT–ES–NL–SE–FI–CH, and more links at Alphacameradeals.
Sony E-mount 10-18mm Amazon, Adorama, 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, Sonystore DE–UK–FR–IT–ES–NL–SE–FI–CH.

Still didn’t get enough A99 image samples? Here is a short new list to some tests. As usual feel free to comment this post to add your links and tests! Thanks!

An Adobe RAW test. Image before Adobe RAW conversion, image after Adobe RAW conversion.
Some tests by Mark Galer (also on Flickr).
Black and White A99 tests by Amy Davies.
Sony A99 image samples at PConline.
Sony A99 and other new Sony stuff hands-on pictures from the Createc show in Japan (Dc.watch).
RAW image samples from Russia at Prophotos.
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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.

DxOmark (Click here) posted the full NEX-F3 sensor test. And as you see the performance is identical to the previous NEX-C3. This isn’t a bad news, the NEX sensors are already the best on the mirrorless market. The new Panasonic GF5 for example has an overalls core of 50 points only.

Something else. If you are a NEX camera owner you might be interested to buy the 16mm pancake lens which got a $60 price drop over the regular Amazon price. You can find them for $149 at [shoplink 14606 ebay]Bigvalue (Click here)[/shoplink]. The NEX-5N got another small prcie drop and you cna get it with lens included for $479 at Amazon (it’s here on top of the ranking). And to finish there is a 2% off on all Sony cameras and lenses at Amazon (Click here).

Adobe just added support for the new NEX-5R,NEX-6,A99 and RX100 cameras. You can download the updates by using these links:

Adobe released Lightroom 4.2
Mac update (Click here)
Windows update (Click here)

Camera Raw 7.2 and DNG converter 7.2
Mac update (Click here)
Windows update (Click here)

Our reader Joe (fotosiamo.com and SLRLounge.com) already tested the Sony A99 RAW files on Adobe and wrote: “the RAW files look way better once brought in to Bridge or Lightroom. Thank goodness.” You can download some A99 RAW file at fil.io (via Quesabesde).

Enjoy the testing and let us know what you think about the A99 RAW image quality!!!

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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.

The Sony 36 megapixel sensor used by the Nikon D800 (and D800E).

Peter from Nikonrumors compared the Nikon D600 (with Sony 24MP sensor) and the Nikon D800E (with Sony 36MP) sensor. I thought it would be interesting to link to it because we may have a high end FF model from Sony which sues the same 36MP sensor. TO be honest I don’t see that much difference in noise and resolution between the two cameras. Of course we have tot ake into the account thet the image form the D800E has been downsampled but I would have expected to see more detail on that crop…

P.S.: Sensorgen posted the D800 data.