First image sample taken with the Mitakon 50mm f/0.95 Full Frame E-mount lens.

Almost three months ago we reported about the first image samples taken with a prototype Mitakon 50mm f/0.95 Full Frame E-mount lens (SAR post here). According to one of our trusted source the lens will now be launched on April 20th! And it will cost $799. That’s $220 more than their other E-mount lens, the [shoplink 14656 ebay]35mm f/0.95 lens for ASP-C E-mount cameras (they are on auction here on eBay)[/shoplink] which doesn’t cover the FF sensor area.

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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!

Cinema5D had the pleasure to help Sony with suggestions for the A7s development:

The cinema5D team was included in the design process and what Sony showed us yesterday was nothing short of a very pleasing result. They had listened to the shooters when they built this camera.

Good to hear Sony worked hard to get feedback from important sites. But like all other sites also Cinema5D isn’t sure about the final price:

There is no pricing on this camera yet, but it can be presumed that it will be in the $2000 range just like the previous A7 models.

By the way, notice the confusion on the price. DC.watch writes the price is a couple fo times higher than that of the A7.

Let me catch up with some A7s related news:

On top you can see Frederick Van Johnson youtube video interview about the Sony A7s. And a must watch video is this one posted by Den Lennie who is actually one of the few that had the lucky chance to test the A7s:

A7s Launch Film BTS from Den Lennie on Vimeo.

An absolute must read article for photogrpahers wondeirng why the A7s is that interesting has been written by Soundimagesplus (Click here):

The quality of the image is at least as important, if not more so, than how big it is.And that is where a camera like the A7s will really score. Better performance at high ISO’s means faster shutter speeds, narrower apertures and cleaner, sharper images. The photographer is also freed from the constraints of tripods, flash and lighting rigs in many instances. And 12MP is certainly enough for most publishing requirements. Sensors that improve dynamic range and allow us to document the non-sunlit world with clarity and definition is surely something we should applaud and encourage as photographers. I’m actually more excited about this camera than I thought I would be.

A7s eyes-on by Engadget on Youtube.
Spanish A7s NAB video by CineDigitalTV on Youtube.

A7s sites in different languages at Sony US, DE, UK, ES, FR, IT, NL, SE, FI, PL.

Adobe released Photoshop Lightroom 5.4 for Mac (Click here) and Windows (Click here). We also have the new Camera Raw 8.4 and DNG Converter 8.4 that now support the A5000 and A6000. Download for Mac (Click here) or Windows (Click here). It also contains Lens Profules for many A and E-mount lenses!

But the biggest news is that the company also released the new Adobe Lightroom mobile (for Creative Cloud Subscribers). You can read more about it here: adobe.com/products/lightroom-mobile.html. Plenty of How To videos can be seen at Adobes Youtube Channel. This may the future of photo editing?

Some of the interesting tidbits:

– A7s has been developed along the A7 and A7r cameras
– development took 2-3 years
– Reason why the camera doesn’t record 4K internally is because of power consumption and because of the heating produced by the large sensor
– The one big physical change compared ot th A7-A7r is that the A7s has a stainless steel made mount.

A7s sites in different languages at Sony US, DE, UK, ES, FR, IT, NL, SE, FI, PL.

Newsshooter is busy producing videos (by the way great work guys!). And here is the a video about the new Atomos Shogun 4K recorder for Sony a7S:

For the first time the new Sigma 30mm f/1.4 A-mount lens is in Stock at BHphoto (Click here). Great lens! Can’t wait to see the 50mm ART lens too!

UPDATE: 34 NABshow special deals now live on that BHphoto page (Click here).

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Today’s new deals on eBay Deal page (Click here) and Amazon deal page (Click here).

So here we are. Awake after the very long A7s announcement night. If you missed the A7s live announcement you just have to watch the latest 5 minutes of this 1 hour long video at Livestram. To quickly get all the information you need about the camera check out the A7s sites in different languages at Sony US, DE, UK, ES, FR, IT, NL, SE, FI, PL. The camera is listed at BHphoto but with no price or preorder option.

My first impression: This looks like a 4K camera made a bit in a hurry. And the not shared price info confirms that. So it’s hard to judge the camera without to know how much it actually costs but let’s sum the A7s weak and strong points:

CONS:
– no 4K recording on SD cards (Panasonic GH4 does it!)
– almost same A7-A7r autofocus system (why not use the A6000 hybrid AF system?)

PROS:
– no pixel binning at 4K
– 409,600 ISO!
– -4 EV auto focus sensitivity (A7-A7r has 0 ev)
– It has likely the best dynamic range and color fidelity of any Full Frame camera yet!

Professional videographers will use external recorders anyway (for 4:2:2 output) so the first cons I mentioned by not matter at all for them. I think the biggest strong point is the superb Image Quality you should get with the new 12 Megapixel Full Frame sensor. Would love to see some RAW’s of it! But I guess we will have to wait a couple of weeks until reviewers can test the camera. If the IQ is the best of any FF yet and the price is not too high than this could be a good day for pure photographers too!

And here are some more new news about the A7s: Hands-on at Newsshooter, Hands-on pics by Dpreview,  New Atomos 4K recorder for the A7s (Cinema5d), French presentation at Alpha Numerique, German press text at Photoscala, Short Japanese text at DC.watch.

Let’s see what SAR readers think about the new A7s:

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Image samples (Click on it to enlarge):