SAR reader Abigail sent me this:

I spoke with a Sony Rep. @ photokina yesterday. I asked if he could give any insights regarding the Sony A7x systems. He said “In a month there will be a new firmware update that redesigns the menu system.” That’s all he said he could tell me. Lets hope this is true!

Wondering if SAR readers will be ahppy with this….

You can now preorder the new Sony A99II:
In USA at BHphoto, Adorama and Amazon.
In Europe at Calumet Germany and WexUK.

The Sony A5100 got marked as discontinued at Digitalrev (Click here). The A5100 is certainly long due for replacement. But I suspect the Kumamoto earthquake did mess up with Sony’s replacement plan.

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[shoplink 50150 ebay][/shoplink]
Image above shows the [shoplink 50150 ebay]Sony 135mm f/2.8 STF A-mount lens[/shoplink] (Image from Jörg Haag on SystemKameraForum).

Back in early August Kakaku reported about a news shared by Sony lens designer Mr. Motoyuki Otake. He said a new FE mount STF lens was under development. I have no solid info about the lens specs yet. But I got this from an Asian source:

October
FE STF 100mm F2.8 T4.5
Look forward to it!

Let’s hope he is right on this!

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For those of you who don’t know what “STF” stands for. This is the description copied from BHphoto:

Sony’s Smooth Trans Focus (STF) technology has a very unique effect on defocused light sources, changing the way defocused areas appear depending on how it is adjusted. Smooth Trans Focus (STF) employs a special “apodization” element that controls the parts of the image that are not in focus. This does not affect the focused part of the image, only what is out of focus, and is set independently from the camera’s focus and aperture via the STF ring.  

Image via Camerasize

Autofocus speed and reliability is certainly one of the key aspects for a camera success. And Sony manager Kimio Maki confirmed the next E-mount cameras will have to increase the performance in that aspect. Amateur Photographer asked him:

Sony A99II preorder links:
In USA at BHphoto, Adorama and Amazon.
In Europe at Calumet Germany and WexUK.

Hidden macro mode with the Sony E 10-18mm f4 OSS

Why I believe the Sony A7Rii is the best full frame camera vs d810 & 5D4 (Reddit).
Airpixel labs air commander for sony mirrorless cameras (BrianSmith)
Laowa 15mm FE first impressions by ThePhoBlographer.
Why a Sony Mirrorless user needs to know about ‘Setting Effect’ (Youtube).
Laowa 105mm review by Ken Rockwell.
To write a guest post on SAR follow the instruction on that page.

Scubapix: “https://www.facebook.com/scubapix/videos/1348628658490532/ Nauticam’s all new Atomos Shogun Housing that has now been revised and improved and 4K external recording has never been easier.”

Stanley: “For SAR Readers selection, not sure if this is fair since it’s a “collection” of photos, but this was shot w/ the A7s II with a Canon 17-40mm F4 and a 24-70mm F2.8 on my vacation to Maui this past week. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_J-5DIRRFE”

Tanveer: “Once again I am back with a Sony A7 and Sony RX10M2 shot timelapse. It was shot in the upper Himalayas at 15000ft over 10 days and nights. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yh35XwHG0jA“

Today almost all companies will announce their new cameras at the Photokina stand. But there could be one notable excpetion…Sony.

Sony is known for not announcing new cameras at such big shows. They did the same two years ago at the last Photokina show and they did it this year at the other big shows like CES and CP+. It’s really strange to see them do one hour conference in front of the worldwide press and announce…nothing. Sony said they are doing that because they want to get full press coverage by releasing new products off the show. But still, not sure it makes sense for classic photography shows like Photokina. So please dear Sony, for once surprise us and give us some great stuff today :)

Here is the full press conference list via MR:

12:30 Berlin time Panasonic (G80, FZ2000, LX10, GH5 pre announcement, new lenses)
14:00 Berlin time Canon (nothing new to announce, they will talk about the already announced cameras)
15:00 Berlin time Sony (probably nothing new to announce. If there is something new than maybe the A9?)
16:00 Berlin time Nikon (mirrorless surprise?)
17:00 Berlin time Fuji (New medium format camera)
18:30 Berlin time Olympus (E-PL8, 25mm f/1.2, 12-100mm f/4.0, 30mm macro, E-M1II pre-announcement)

One more thing: Sony announced the A7 and A7r cameras at the PDN show in October 16 2013. So that might be the right place for some new camera announcement also because at PDN usually we don’t get new cameras from the other companies ;)