A source talked to a Zeiss manager who shared insights of the E-mount Zeiss strategy:

1. Leadership believes that people/the market for mirror less want small and light.
2. About the new 135mm f/2.8: It was much easier to make an f2.8 and make  it quickly before competition from Sony or other brands  and maintain a high quality zeiss level image.
3. If they made a 135 f1.8 (Otus quality!) with auto focus people still would not buy because the price would be near $5,500.00 usd.
4. Professionals are not on board with the mirror less yet and there for will not spend the money for professional otus level glass.

I understand that Zeiss wants to find a niche in the E-mount segment. And making Otus alike autofocus lenses will have to face three problems: 1) High price 2) Sony GM competition 3) Sigma will soon join the FE system with high quality low-priced fast prime lenses anyway

So the question is:

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Preorders:
Zeiss Batis 135mm f/2.8 lens at Adorama and Bhphoto.
Zeiss Batis 135mm lens shade at Adorama and Bhphoto.

Anankhepi spotted something interesting on the soon to be released new Nikon D850. He speculates this might be a hybrid EVF and OVF viewfinder. This would allow the Nikon to have the best of both world’s: The accurate and fast phase detection performance and the benefits of the mirrorless systems like focus peaking, WYSIWYG, and so on.

The screw holes on the image above seem to be eye detection sensors to activate the EVF screen. This is Nikon’s patent about this:

What does it mean for Sony? That the technological difference between the DSLR and Mirrorless system cameras is evaporating. It means more pressure on Sony because their distinctive E-mount arguments are now weaker. And at the end this is good news for us because Sony has to fight back with a really good and not overpriced Sony A7III, A7rIII and A7sIII camera.

UPDATE: Seems like Anankhepi and Angry Photographers speculation was wrong. The D850 is more likely to use a classic optical viewfinder only.

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original image via NR

I know with all those rumors it’s hard to keep track about what we can expect in 2017. Therefore I made this roundup of the so far more reliable rumors for products to be announced the second half of this year. Some changes still can happen for a variety of reasons so I expect around 80% of the following info to be correct:

Sony A7III:
Sony’s next FF E-mount camera should be the new Sony A7III. It will be announced around November at earliest. Shipment likely in early 2018. Specs known so far: 24MP, 4K and much improved AF (could be the same A9 autofocus system)

Sony compact cameras:
Sony registered two new cameras. One camera has the code “WW620081”. That camera got already registered two months ago. The “WW6” code is usually used for RX camera. The second code is “WW173777”. That kind of code is used for compact fixed lens cameras (non-RX).

Sony 135mm GM:
To be announced in late 2017-eary 2018. Aperture unconfirmed yet but I guess it’s f/1.8

Sony 400mm GM:
To be announced within 2-4 months. Aperture unclear yet.

Zeiss Batis and Loxia:
I have no specs yet about the upcoming lenses but there should be at leats one more lens announcement this year.

Sigma 35mm f/1.4 FE and FE zoom:
Announcement deayed to late 2017 for the 35mm f/1.4 FE. The second lens might be a zoom but it’s uncear if it will be announced along the 35mm prime or some times later

Voigtlander FE:
40mm f/1.2 wi be released in late 2017. After that we wil get the 35mm f/1.4 lens too.

Tokina FE:
They plan to release a new Super Wide and a fast wide FE autofocus lens by late 2017. A Standard zoom is expected to be released in 2018.

Surprises for 2017:
I heard there will be at least one more Sony FE lens announced in 2017. But there may be some lenses that will ship in 2018 only.

For 2018:
Sony A7rIII and A7sIII are more likely to be announced in 2018.

An anonymous source sent me this first image of the pre-fina IRIX E-mount adapter version (Thanks!). He told me this:

First image of the Irix original adapter for Sony. Infinity focus works, chip for focus confirmation too. And is wheater sealed.
Prices will be below $100.
Press release will be available in around a month.

The adapter is made to support Canon/Nikon IRIX lenses on E-mount cameras. I guess that you can use also original Canon/Nikon lenses on it.

IRIX lenses are currently on sale at Amazon US, Amazon DE, Amazon UK.

Thanks to our more experienced readers we can share some additional info on the Sony patent describing a set of medium format camera lenses designed for a curved sensor:

1) The patent describes a broad use for this camera: “is applied to a telescope, a digital camera, etc.“. This is usual on patents because you want to cover as much areas of use as possible. An example is that on any camera patent Sony writes the camera could have a CCD or CMOS sensor even if all their new cameras keep using CMOS sensor only.
But that this is unlikely a pure astronomical camera is somehow proved by the fact that the patent also shows non-telephoto lenses which certainly are not ideal for industrial astronomy use (example is the 50mm FF equivalent lens which makes much more sense on classic photo cameras).

2) These are the five lenses patented for a 645 medium format camera with curved sensor. But first another important note: Sony Patents almost always have unusual focal length specs that will be rounded up once the lens gets produced (a 84mm lens will become 85mm or 258mm can become 250mm or 260mm). Also be aware that those are focal lengths on a 645 and not an FF camera. A 85mm lens is actually a 50mm lens (0.62 crop). So here are the patented lens specs:

• 387mm f/2.8 (lens length: 679mm) – in Full Frame terms this is a 240mm f/1.7 (using online calculator)
• 323mm f/2.8 (lens length: 576mm) – in Full Frame terms this is a 200mm f/1.7
• 258mm f/2.8 (lens length: 380mm) – in Full Frame terms this is a 160mm f/1.7
• 161mm f/2.8 – in Full Frame terms this is a 100mm f/1.7
• 84mm f/2.9 (lens length: 123mm) – in Full Frame terms this is a 52mm f/1.7 (it would be 2cm longer than the Zeiss 50mm f/1.4 FE)

Mistral shared to use these drawings from the patent and added the lens specs info (Thanks):

What’s clear form the patent is:

1. that these lenses do have a very simple design (thanks to the curved sensor)
2. that they are big lenses but also very fast (f/1.7 FF equivalent)
3. made for high Resolution sensors (thanksto their very high MTF)

No consumer available camera on the market so far could compete against this beast.

We have been told by a source that Tokina’s next FE lenses (a Super Wide and a fast wide FE autofocus lens) will ship in very early 2018 only even if the announcement will be made in late 2017. Tokina firsts wants to have the time to evaluate the sales of the new 20mm f/2.0 FE lens (here at BHphoto).

Reminder: Tokina will also launch a Zoom FE autofocus lens in 2018.

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Reminder (SR = Sonyrumor):
SR1=probably fake rumor
SR2=rumor from unknown sources
SR3=50% chance it is correct
SR4=rumor from known sources
SR5=almost certainly correct!

This is a roundup of rumors I got from anonymous sources and with no single hint of reliability. Unlike FAKE rumors we are here not 100% certain ALL this info is wrong. A FAKE rumor is when we 100% know the source and we know that this source keeps posting false info or fantasies like the A5 teaser source.

So have fun with this 95% unlikely to be true SR1 ranked rumors. And if one of these wil prove to be correct I will of course post their future rumors with a higher ranking.

Source 1:

Zeiss 24-105 F4  will come end of this year

Source 2:

Summer usually is the time for announcements for Sony
This year
no new RX100 will be announced
No new APS-C Camera will be announced
a new consumer compact / travel zoom is down the pipeline and one new A7 series
also there will be a new action cam sporting ultra slowmo

Source 3:

sony will launch in this year
400/2.8
200-600
24-105

(Note: that source also said A7III launch would be delayed til early 2018. The 400mm FE lens is actually a rumor which is going to happen because it got confirmed by trusted sources. But I have not heard ever from them that there is a 24-105mm FE and 200-600mm coming this year)

Source 4:

a7r111 48 mp

Notes on those kind of (im-)possible rumors:

• Fake rumors sent by so claimed sources that are known to create fake rumors are NOT included. What you see here are messages I got from unknown sources where I have no track of any “rumor history”
• It’s by readers request that I create this sum up of low ranked rumors. But please remind all that these are not rumors from trusted sources and don’t count me accountable on those kind of very low ranked rumors :)
• The last year a couple of those rumors were right (RX1rII and A6300 specs). So miracles sometimes can happen :)