Image courtesy: Photozone.

Klaus from Photozone just posted two new NEX lens reviews. This is actually the first time he is posting tests made on his new [shoplink 8454]Sony NEX-7[/shoplink]. This is going to be interesting to read because he is struggling with the corner issues of the 24 Megapixel sensor. Let’s start:

1) Sony 30mm f/3.5 macro lens (Click here to read the review)
The performance of that lens on the NEX-7 is disappointing: “The Sony E 30mm f/3.5 macro lens delivered a rather disappointing performance on the Sony NEX 7. The center image quality is absolutely great but the border- and especially corner-quality is sub-standard. The rather high amount of lateral CAs isn’t helpful either.” I hope Klaus can soon do the same test on the [shoplink 8452]Sony NEX-5n[/shoplink] to see if the poor corner quality depends from the 24 Megapixel sensor of the NEX-7 or not!

2) Sony 50mm f/1.8 lens (Click here to read the review)
In that case Klaus is much more satisfied with the lens performance. A part of the not so good corner performance (which doesn’t matter a lot for a portrait lens) he says: “The image quality is very impressive if you stop down to f/4-f/8 where the lens is almost capable of exploiting the potential of the 24 megapixel Sony sensor.” But this is a protrait lens and the real point that matters is the bokeh quality. And hee is were the lens shines: “A real highlight of the Sony lens is the quality of the bokeh which is among the very best that we’ve seen in this class so far.”

Again Thanks Klaus for making these detailed reviews!

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The real “issue” of the 50mm lens is his non-availability. You can find some of them on [shoplink 8448 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink] but not in “normal” Sony or other known stores. You can only preorder them at:
[shoplist 8448]

The video on top shows the NEX-7 on the [shoplink 11747 ebay]Vivicam Slider (available here on eBay)[/shoplink].

There is a new full NEX-7 review at ePhotozine (Click here) and of course it gets Highly Recommended. But no camera is 100% perfect and Klaus from Photozone says there are some corner issues on the NEX-7. Links:
http://forum.photozone.de/index.php?/topic/1904-sony-nex-7/
http://forum.photozone.de/index.php?/topic/1992-sony-nex-7-2nd-sample-results/
http://forum.photozone.de/index.php?/topic/2009-nex-7-vs-nex-5/
I know Klaus very well and I know he absolutely likes the Sony NEX system. The NEX-7 corner issue doesn’t change the fact that the NEX-7 is a damn good camera. Just like any camera be aware of the limitations!

UDPATE: There is one more hands-on review at SonyAlphaLab (Click here).

Another reader sent me this: “Still waiting for my NEX 7, but in the meantime my Hawk’s Factory Close Focus Leica M – Sony E adapter arrived.  Lets you mount Leica M lenses, just like any other adapter, but it also has a focusing helicoid built in to let you focus 50-80% closer than usual with any M lens.  Here’s my review, though you might be interested as it’s exclusively a Sony E mount product right now: http://jbhildebrand.com/2012/gear/hawks-factory-close-focus-adapter-review/“.
The in Stock status of the NEX-7 is changing every day. So feel free to use these linsk to check if and where it is in Stock: [shoplist 8454]

Today I am happy to link to articles and reviews of three of the friends I met through the work on SAR.

1) Remy shot his very first fine-art work with the A77 in Mongolia. Here are three links where you can check out his work (same fotos just different websites): Fubiz.net,  Fstoppers.com and Behance.net. Great portraits!!!

2) It’s always a pleasure to link to a new Sony review from Kurt Munger. And today it’s even more interesting to check his website because of his final NEX-7 review (Click here to read it).

3) My friend Mike Kobal (Click here) is shooting model stuff with the NEX-7. He will post one model NEX-7 video per month :)

Especially the great pictures of Maxime makes me remind that I have to post more of such stuff on SAR. We should know what pros can do with our cameras! So if you find some wort to mention work please feel free to send me a message and I will post it here!

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Search links to the two cameras:
Sony A77 [shopcountry 8461].
Sony NEX-7 [shopcountry 8454].

A couple of weeks ago we reported that Metabones would release a new Canon to NEX adapter that has electronic aperture control and Image Stabilization support. The estimate launch date for the adapter was January 21st but because of the high demand there is not a single of them in Stock at Conurus.com. At least our friend Andrew from EosHD (Click here) could get his hands on one of them and tested it on the NEX-7. I am not going to unveil you all his findings but I like that phrase he wrote: “The adapter works as you’d expect with no lag, and OIS works fine. It really is like having a Canon mirrorless camera.”

So dear Canon readers, why stress Canon to make a mirrorless camera when you can have it now thanks to that adapter? :)

P.S.: The Metabones adapter costs you $399. If you don’t need the AF and IS working than get the very cheap [shoplink 11174 ebay]Canon to NEX adapters on eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].

A short film shot with the A77 by students in Manchester.

Sony NEX-5n review at Mansurovs (Click here): “While it is not comparable to a DSLR in terms of features, autofocus, speed and versatility, it certainly is comparable to some of the best APS-C DSLRs in terms of image quality.”

Also Reghardware (Click here) tested the NEX-5n: “this revamped NEX model is very much the business, improving on its predecessor in sensible and efficient ways“.

Sony Announces 18MP/24fps BSI Sensor, 1080p/30 CCD, 4K Super-Resolution Video Processor (image Sensor World).

Sony NEX 55-210mm F/4.5-6.3 OSS review at KurtMunger (Click here): “At the short end, the centers and mid-sections are sharp at all apertures, although the corners remain a little soft even stopped down.  Moving to 100mm, I see basically the same thing, mid-sections good, corners a little soft.  At the long end, I see a pretty sharp frame all the way from the center to the extreme corners, that’s pretty good performance for this type of lens.”

Sony 50mm f/1.8 test images by Björb Utpott (Click here).

Sony World Photography Awards Exhibition (Photographyblog).

Amateur Photographer Awards (Click here). Sony wins plenty of prices!

Photoshop launched the new App for the iPad (Click here to see it on iTunes).