Surprise! Is the Sigma 30mm the best of all available E-mount lenses?

You ever wanted to know which one is the best lens to use on a [shoplink 8454]Sony NEX-7[/shoplink]? Lensrentals (Click here) posted a complete unexpected test result. He measured the resolution of all currently available NEX lenses including a Leica 50mm f/1.4 Summilux with Fotodiox adapter. And at f/2.8 and f/4.0 aperture there is a super unexpected winner….the Sigma 30mm f/2.8 lens which costs $199 only (at Amazon).
Lensrentals writes: “The Sigma is really amazing. Obviously it’s not really a wide aperture prime, with a maximum aperture of f/2.8, but it gives world-class resolution. The Sony 24mm f/1.8 is not the bargain the Sigma is, but from f/2.2 on it has amazing center resolution, although it lags behind the other two in the corners.

Damn, that is such a surprise! I hope Klaus at Photozone will ahve the chance to confirm these results soon! Meantime I give you the links to the two Sigma lenses:
The 30mm lens is in Stock at Amazon US (Click here), Amazon DE (Click here), Amazon FR (Click here).
The 19mm lens is in Stock at Amazon US (Click here), Amazon DE (Click here), Amazon UK (Click here), Amazon FR (Click here).

Cheap!!!

P.S.: NEX-7 in Stock status link check: [shopcountry 8454].

New “Shenyang Zhongyi” 35mm f/0.95 for NEX is coming

UPDATE: We just have been told that the company making the lens is “Shenyang Zhongyi” and not “SLRmagic”. Shenyang Zhongyi will make a new 35mm f/0.95 with native E-mount. There are even some image samples posted on via Xitek (Click here). I never heard about the company before!

P.S.: SLR magic made four lenses for the NEX system:
[shoplink 11187 ebay]SLR Magic 35mm f/1.7 MC (here on eBay)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 11186 ebay]SLR Magic Toy Lens 28mm Bokehmorphic lens (here on eBay)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 11185 ebay]SLR Magic HyperPrime 50mm f/0.95 (here on eBay)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 11186 ebay]SLR Magic 28mm f/2.8 lens (here on eBay)[/shoplink].
The 50mm for M-mount lens that has just been tested on a NEX camera at Photozone (Click here to read the review).

P.P.S.: Didn’t see it nefore but some Amazon stores also have a lens ranking: Amazon US (Click here to see the ranking), Amazon UK (Click here to see the ranking) and Amazon France (Click here to see the ranking).

Zeiss for NEX reviewed at Photographyblog. Gets an “Essential” recommendation!

That lens alone makes it worth to buy the [shoplink 8454]NEX-7[/shoplink]. And if you need to read a real review of that jewel go at Photographyblog (Click here). They rated the lens as “Essential” and they write: “With great build quality, fast auto-focusing and incredible image quality, this is one lens that we’re very sad to send back to Sony.

The Zeiss lens proves that it is possible to make a great lens for a high resolution sensor like the 24 Megapixel used for the NEX-7. So please Sony, do release some other new Zeiss!

Oh, and don’t forget to send this lens to our American cousins too! They still struggle to find it in Stock somewhere. It’s only available way overpriced at Amazon (Click here) and [shoplink 8450 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink]. ut at least the other much expected lens (the 50mm) is in Stock and shipping at Amazon (Click here).

Reminder: Sony launched a new rebate action on the NEX-5n in USA stores. You can get it for $50 less than usual at Amazon (Click here) and BHphoto (Click here). And do not forget to pair this camera with the finally now in Stock 50mm f/1.8 lens (Click here to grab it at Amazon).

Sony A77 at Cameralabs (Nikon D3200 vs A77)

Dpreview (Click here) tested the image quality of the Nikon D3200 with 24 Megapixel (Sony?) sensor. Do you see a difference in RAW between the A77 and Nikon RAW files? I guess Nikon did the usual “tweaks” on the Sony sensor.

And here we have some A77 and A57 news:
Sony A77: First Impressions from a Nikon User’s Perspective at ThePhoBlographer (Click here).
If you missed it here is the Sony A77 review at Cameralabs (Click here): “The SLT-A77 is the best SLT Sony has yet produced and, arguably, the one that puts SLT on a par with SLR, an achievement for which it deserves to be highly recommended.
SonyAlphaLab (Click here) got his hands on the new A57. Some funny A57 “Levitation” photos at Dpreview forum (Click here).

Two more NEX-FS700 videos!

I think Sony did a great work by releasing the new NEX-FS700. It is getting a lot of positive response on the web and from film makers (I am a film maker!). The video on top is made by Sony with the Sony NEX-FS700. And there is one more video at Studiodaily (Click here). While the camera is great what we are missing are dedicated video lenses with powerzoom, smooth aperture rings and so on. As long as these are missing it will be hard to jump on the E-mount camera :(

All I can say via my sources is that Sony knows that and that they are working on it :)

UPDATE: NEX-FS700 hands-on at Photographybay (Click here).

New NEX-7 versus X PRO1 versus E-M5 versus GXR.

The video on top is made by Kai from Digitalrev and shows a NEX-7 versus Fuji X PRO 1 and Olympus E-M5 comparison.

Bmupix (Click here) tested the Voigtlander 12mm f/5.6 on the NEX-7 and Ricoh GXR. As you know the NEX-7 really needs high quality lenses and particularly the image borders risk to degrade much more than on other cameras with lower resolution sensor. Björn Utpott writes: “Comparing the 24 megapixel crops, it’s obvious that the NEX-7’s native 24 megapixel sensor is capturing more fine detail in the central area of the frame. As you move to the edge of the frame, the output from the GXR starts to match (or even exceed?) the resolving power of the much higher resolution NEX-7.
The Voigtlander lens can be found on [shoplink 12363 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].

SonyAlphaRumor friend Mike Kobal (Click here) made a short NEX-7 versus Fuji X PRO 1 comparison.

Despite all buzz around the new X PRO and E-M5 the most sold mirrorless cameras at Amazon US remains the NEX-7: Amazon US (place 1), Amazon Germany (place 2), Amazon France (place 9) and at Amazon UK (18). Result do change hourly!

Sony 36 Megapixel FF sensor versus Medium Format.

I know Nikon guys will hate me because I keep saying the Nikon D800 sensor is from Sony :) But if I am right Sony will release a camera with such a sensor next year! The amazing team from TheCameraStoreTV tried to figure out if that sensor can match the quality of medium format cameras like the Hasselblad H4D-40 ($18.000 on Amazon). Watch the video to find out the answer.

But if you are on hurry I will unveil you the final verdict. The medium format camera still has the edge when it comes to get superb skin tones and dynamic range (particularly in the highlight area). But in terms of resolution the 36 Megpaixel sensor is pretty close, in the shadow area it even beats the Hasselblad and it’s an absolute winner at High ISO.

A look into the future: Sony already officially stated that they are working on 100 megapixel FF sensors. I dont’ need that :)