Benkjamin Zika: the perfect camera (concept) – at least for me

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Benjamin Zika sent me this:
You’ve posted a lot of Cameradesigns and Concepts by your readers before and one of the last posts on instagram (the one with the Idea to restart the Contax Brand brand by zeiss) inspired me to create a concept of my own. Another inspiration was that up until the last moment I hoped that the new zeiss camera would be e-mount – I’ve always found the Idea of a 100% photographers camera appealing while Sonys cameras (I do love them anyway!) are Jack of all trades.
In combination I dreamed up what in the Sony line-up would sit between the a6500 and a7iii – a rangefinder style fullframe camera.
As a name I chose Contax GD-1 as a digital continuance of the “asian leica”, the Contax G2 Film Camera. So rather than going retro this should be a state of the art camera in Rangefinder style suited 100% to the need of photographers. The most important thing was to actually ad buttons – I have my A7 configured so that a scarcely have to go into some menu. For most of the time three wheels in manual mode (Shutterspeed/Aperture/Iso) are everything you need! But sometimes you need other stuff too and frankly I don’t want to use a menu system for that and waste time – there’s a reason why TV-remotes still have buttons: because everything needs to be accessible in a fast and certain way. Also I’m not a big fan of touchscreens because I want to use my camera in the cold without freezing off my fingertips ;)
So attached to this mail is my concept – it’s a photoshop composition combining the best of a6500 and a9/a9 and some small additions. I do believe with Sony all the ingredients are there but they need to be rearranged. The Contax Brand would offer the possibility to make cameras without having to fit them into a line-up and to make them photography orientated.
Maybe Sony and Zeiss will see this somehow and be inspired!
Yours
Ben Zika BA (Instagram @ben.zika)
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First review of the new Viltrox 85mm f/1.8 FE lens

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Viltrox 85mm f/1.8 at Amazon US, Amazon DE, Amazon UK, Amazon FR, Amazon ES, Amazon IT.

The very first review of the new Viltrox 85mm f/1.8 FE lens has been posted by Marc Alhadeff on SonyAlphaBlog. And the lens is surprisingly good:

The Viltrox 85mm F1.8 PFU RMBH (265 euros) is an excellent surprise and a superb lens for portrait :

Pros

  • Very good to Excellent sharpness
  • Beautiful color rendition 
  • Very pleasing and soft blurry background ,
  • Very good bokeh,
  • Very low price ,
  • Very good build quality,
  • EXIF transmitted to the body,
  • Aperture control via the body
  • Strong vignetting but corrected via the Lightroom Zeiss Batis 85mm profile
  • Good resistance to flare

Cons

  • Manual lens, so not for fast action portrait
  • CA when facing sun

For 265 euros , highly recommended !

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The new Viltrox Full Frame and manual focusing E-mount lenses are now available here:
Viltrox 85mm f/1.8 at Amazon US, Amazon DE, Amazon UK, Amazon FR, Amazon ES, Amazon IT.
Viltrox 20mm f/1.8 at Amazon US, Amazon DE, Amazon UK, Amazon FR, Amazon ES, Amazon IT.

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(SR5) Here is the first video shot with the new (Yongnou?) 50mm f/1.0 Full Frame autofocus E-mount lens!

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One of my sources just sent me this video of the new 50mm f/1.0 Full Frame autofocus E-mount lens! This lens is rumored to be made by Yongnou but this has yet to be confirmed. They already make AF lenses for Canon and Nikon (they are on sale here on Amazon US, Amazon DE). I assume it’s very likely they are could make this lens. It’s also a nice to have a direct competition of the Nikon which will launch the 58mm f/0,95 lens this January but will be available as manual focus lens only. Of course, I don’t expect Yongnou to match the Nikon in terms of quality…but the Nikon also is rumored ot cost around $6,000 while Yongnou lens will be a lot cheaper.

The lens is rumored to be launched sometimes in early 2019. If you can find an image of that lens please drop me a message at sonyalpharumors@gmail.com. Thanks!

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Note: Unlike reported on the previous rumor the lens isn’t f/1.1 but f/1.0.

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Dpreview: What Sony should do in 2019…

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I wish all SAR readers a Happy New Year!

And this is our first discussion of 2019. Dpreview wrote this list of things Sony has to do in 2019. et me know if you agree with it:

Oh, Sony, we can’t keep up! At your current rate of product announcements, you’ll have released at least one new RX100-series compact, a GM lens or two and an a7 IV by the time we’ve finished writing this sentence. That’s fine, but in 2019 we’d like to see you taking a bit of a break, making some time to reflect, and maybe reprioritizing a little.

Sony – in 2019 we wish you would…

  • Create a Cyber-shot RX1R III (with a real battery, not that joke-shop one from last time).
  • Throw your a6000-series customers a bone and make some new APS-C lenses.
  • Make your video and stills AF experience consistent.
  • Speaking of 35mm, make an FE 35mm F1.8. Your non-pro and pro customers will thank you.
  • Focus on user experience, as well as technology. We get it, you’re smart!
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