The new Pentax K Lens to Sony E-Mount Monster autofocus Adapter is now in Stock at BHphoto (Click here).

The new adapter has been tested by Dpreview. The conclusion:

While its performance will vary depending upon your chosen lenses and camera bodies, we found the LA-KE1 adapter to yield rather lesser AF performance than is natively available from Pentax bodies, even when they’re using their slower contrast-detection AF in live view mode.

But we also found that getting focus in the ballpark first helps significantly with performance, especially for screw-drive lenses or those with long focus throws. And while it wasn’t as peppy as the native AF, we found the LA-KE1’s AF speed pretty acceptable for all but very active subjects like sports.

And that tradeoff in performance brings more potential than the obvious advantage of being able to use your Pentax glass with a mirrorless body. For one thing, it means access to resolutions beyond the K-1 II’s 36 megapixels, and multi-shot high-res imagery that (unlike Ricoh’s) increases the pixel count still further.

For another thing, it gains you access to Sony’s eye-detection autofocus algorithms, which can be hugely helpful for portraits of people and pets alike. And you’ll have dense AF coverage across the frame, unlike Pentax’s phase-detection AF which has relatively few points and is centrally-focused.

The focus drive delivers sufficient accuracy not just for Sony’s cameras to nail focus in a precise area of the image, but also to allow for things like fine adjustments to focus when tethering. In fact, I even successfully used it for focus bracketing with Sony’s Imaging Edge Remote and the open-source B8Stack application.
It’s a great pity that support for video capture isn’t possible, as that’s long been a weakness of the Pentax K-mount which, if solvable, could’ve been a huge deal for Pentaxians. But MonsterAdapter has to work within the boundaries of what Sony’s lens adapter support allows, and so for now decent K-mount video must remain a pipe dream.

Really, the only sticking point is the pricetag. There’s no getting around the fact that this is quite an expensive adapter even when compared to similar products from much better-known names. For example, Sony’s own LA-EA5 adapter comes in at around $250, as do both Sigma’s MC-11 adapters for EF and SA-mount lenses.

But Sony and Sigma can subsidize its costs with body or lens sales, whereas the MonsterAdapter’s fortunes must stand on its own sales alone. The high pricetag isn’t completely unprecedented, either, as Metabones’ EF-mount adapters also come in at around $400.

Christopher Frost compared the different 50mm f/0,95 that are currently available on Amazon and BHphoto.

You can now preorder this new lens at Vensulens store (worldwide shipment).

Here are three new video reviews:

Lensvid writes:

Today we are proud to bring to you the most comprehensive lens review roundup we have done to date looking at five different full-frame E-mount lenses from Sony, Samyang, Tamron, Sigma, and Viltrox, all at the 24mm focal length in order to find out which is the best 24mm lens for full-frame e-mount cameras.

Preorders:
Sony 16-35mm at BHphoto. Adorama. Amazon. Calumet DE. FocusCamera. Fotokoch DE. WexUK. Calumet NL.

Here comes the big youtube video review roundup:

The Sony A7IV sensor score has been published here: https://www.dxomark.com/sony-a7-iv-sensor-test/. The key messages :

• With its new 33MPix sensor, it achieves a DXOMARK Sensor score of 97 and tops it predecessor by one point.
• It still shines for landscape use case with its 14.7 EVs maximum dynamic range.
• For the rest, sensor performance remains quite close to A7III, one of the main difference being that the A7IV activates its second read-out mode starting ISO400, providing a dynamic range boost, while the A7III activated it at ISO 800.

The conclusion:

 

As the 24 MP BSI-CMOS full-frame sensor equips the out-going Sony A7 III, and the majority of Sony’s rivals at this level, the new 33 MP BSI-type CMOS in the Sony A7 IV will also probably appear in forthcoming competitor’s models, so the results are doubly interesting.
While the new sensor doesn’t perform a lot differently from the outgoing device, there has been a useful increase in the overall pixel count of 37.5% (albeit a 16.8% increase in linear pixel count on the long-edge). This may appear somewhat incremental, but when combined with the various improvements in stills and video features, the new Sony A7 IV is an incredibly well-rounded hybrid and a highly attractive option for all sorts of genres.

Sony A7IV:
In the USA at BHphoto. Amazon. Adorama. FocusCamera. BuyDig.
In Europe at Fotokoch DE. Calumet DE. Foto Erhardt DE. Park UK. Wex UK. Amazon DE. Amazon UK. Amazon IT. Amazon ES. Amazon NL.

Preorders:
Sony 16-35mm in USA at BHphoto. Adorama. Amazon. FocusCamera.
in EU at Calumet DE. Fotokoch DE. WexUK. Calumet NL. Erhardt DE. Amazon Germany, Amazon UK, Amazon Italy, Amazon France, Amazon Spain, Amazon Netherlands.

Today we have three new reviews of the new Sony 16-35mm PZ lens:

Amateur Photographer writes:

It could be tempting to characterise the Sony FE PZ 16-35mm F4 G as being a lens for videographers, simply due to its power zoom design. But this would be to do it an injustice. Sony has overcome the usual irritation of clunky, imprecise zoom controls and delivered a lens that works just as well for shooting still images. I’ve been really impressed by its implementation of power zoom, and can imagine many more lenses being made this way in future.
At £1300, the FE PZ 16-35mm F4 G is, however, the most expensive of the compact FE-mount wideangle zooms currently available. Compared to its Zeiss-badged predecessor that sells for £1149, it’s usefully lighter and boasts much-improved operability, but doesn’t bring significantly better image quality. Meanwhile Tamron’s 17-28mm F/2.8 Di III RXD benefits from a faster maximum aperture at the cost of a narrower zoom range, and sports excellent optics too. At £849, it represents fantastic value for money.
As a result, the FE PZ 16-35mm F4 G is still likely to find most favour with those who can exploit its power zoom during video recording, at least at its launch price. But with its compact size, consistent image quality, dust- and splash-proof design, and excellent operability, it’s also an enticing option for Sony full-frame photographers looking to travel light.

Lenstip writes:

A small, shapely device that is sharp and properly sealed, doesn’t weigh a lot, comes equipped with an ordinary filter thread, and an efficient autofocus system – it would be hard to demand more. If you add to that features that might make many filmmakers happy, in a form of a powerzoom and an ability to declick the aperture ring, a group of potential happy users might get even larger.

Dpreview writes:

The PZ 16-35mm F4 G is a usefully small, light and optically impressive zoom. With a list price of $1200, it costs around the same level as Canon’s EF and Nikon’s F-mount equivalents were priced, back in 2014 and 2010, respectively, and below the launch prices of Panasonic’s L-mount version or Sony’s own 16-35mm F4 ZA.
The optical performance and lightweight convenience give it some appeal to photographers, whether as a wide-angle zoom on full-frame or a 24-52mm F6 equivalent on APS-C. But the more you look at the lens, how it’s designed and the features it offers, the more it appeals as a do-everything lens for videography. Or, at least, for those of us who aren’t looking at $5,500 cine zooms.