Be Alpha CES invitation says there will be “some surprises”

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Like I told you before the CES show isn’t usually used by Sony to announce new E-mount products. That said Be Alpha is holding a special Sony event and their invitation says:

There will be photo ops, food, lots of fun, and some surprises. If you’re in the Las Vegas area, you won’t want to miss this one!

Let’s hope the A7000 is one of the surprises :)

All we know with 99% reliability is that Sony will announce new 8k products (camcorder, TV and so on). The one source that told us the A7000 might be announced before Christmas was obviously wrong. My guess is that Sony had “only” an internal presentation of the A7000 before it goes official.

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Sony 24mm f/1.4 GM lens review by ePhotozine and ThePhoBlographer

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ePhotozine conclusion is:

There are some really excellent lenses available, and the Sony G Master range includes some of the very best. This continues with the new Sony FE 24mm f/1.4 GM lens, which performs impeccably and at a price level that is competitive with Canon and very much less than Nikon. There are third-party alternatives that are also very good indeed, but for those seeking the manufacturer’s own lenses then this offering is very, very attractive and an obvious Editor’s Choice, the high expectations that we started out with having been totally met.

ThePhoBlographer conclusion is:

Marrying a petite footprint with a feather like body, the Sony 24mm f1.4 G Master is capable of creating stunning images with razor sharp detail and dreamlike bokeh. A marvelous union of technological advancement and optics engineering, as far as 24mm f1.4 lenses goes, Sony simply did it better, smaller, and lighter than the competition.

Sony 24mm f/1.4 GM lens at Bhphoto. Adorama. Amazon. Calumet Germany. WexUK.

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Sony Tidbits…

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SAMYANG 24mm & 35mm Sony E MOUNT Pancake Lenses!

SLR Magic 35mm F1.7 :worst lens ever? (Sonyalpha.blog).
Fuji XT3 vs Sony A7iii Buffer Performance Test (Michael The Maven).
Sony RX10 IV – $1700 P&S Worth it? (Photorec).
10 On-Board Monitors to Suit Your Shoot (Explora).
Sony Mirrorless Camera Shopping Guide 2018 | a6000, a6300, a9, a7riii, and more (That1CameraGuy).

Interview with Sony shooter and Zeiss ambassador Greg Watermann:
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/01t8VMkC66M2xWUkXNQL1K
iTunes: http://zeissfullexposure.com/e/36bbbca5648734/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/bXtzUVZC6Rk

Personal photos and tests from SAR Admin Andrea on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and 500px.

Join the new Sony Alpha Camera Facebook group.
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I kindly invite you all to follow our RSS feed, follow us on Facebook and Twitter to not miss news and rumors

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New Laowa 10-18mm FE lens in Stock for the first time in the USA

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The new Laowa 10-18mm FE zoom is in Stock for the first time in the USA via FocusCamera (Click here).

Big software deals:
Skylum officially launched Luminar 3 with Libraries (Click here). You can preorder it today with a $10 discount using our code “SAR“.
Capture One 12 officially released. It adds a ton of new features and if you want to buy it (Click here) you get additional 10% off using our code “AMBSAR“.

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Sony A7III and A7rIII firmware update will be re-released in mid December

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In case you missed it: Sony confirmed it will re-release the 2.0 firmware update in mid December.

Notification of system software updates for customers using the α7R III (ILCE-7RM3) and α7 III (ILCE-7M3) interchangeable lens digital cameras
Thank you for using Sony products.

It has come to our attention that the following issues may occur with our α7R III and α7 III interchangeable lens digital cameras.

In rare cases, your α7R III or α7 III model may stop functioning while writing RAW data onto an SD card that has already been used multiple times.

Notes:

  • This may also cause abnormalities in the files managing the images, preventing the images from displaying on the camera
  • No image data in the memory card will be corrupted or deleted aside from data that was being written at the time the interruption occurred
  • If images no longer display on the camera, follow the steps below to use “Recover Image DB” feature:

Select MENU → (Setup) → [Recover Image DB] → desired memory card slot → [Enter]
Then, when taking a picture, back up the data on a PC or other device, and format the memory card on your camera.

2. With the α7R III, taking a picture while using the Auto Review function, may occasionally cause the camera to stop responding.

We will provide an update to the system software addressing to the above issues in mid-December. Until then, please take the following precautions:

While we are preparing to provide new system software, we will no longer offer updates to the current system software.

Before taking any pictures, format the memory cards in both slots on the camera, or use a new memory card.
Ensure the Auto Review function is off when taking pictures.

We would like to apologize for any inconvenience caused while using the affected products and thank you for your understanding.

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That’s weird: New versions of the FE 28mm f/2 have been “secretly” improved?

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Well this is quite an interesting finding. One of our reader shared it:

I am Le Minh Bui from Vietnam.

I want to share with you a surprise. A friend of mine accidentally found out that there are different versions of FE 28mm f/2 that show a huge change in the sunstar effect. He borrowed a new FE 28mm and it produces a fantastic sunstar, which is in contrast with the old lens (mediocre sunstar).

A closer look revealed that the new version has re-designed aperture blades that are curvy at the top and straight in the bottom, instead of being curvy from top to bottom (the old design). For comparison, I included the close shot of Voigtlander 28mm f/2, which shows a very nice sunstar even at f/4. Voigtlander blades are straight!

It seems nothing else is different between the two. Based on various reviews, I narrowed down the time when Sony made the change is in 2016-2017 period, but I can’t tell exactly from which batch. The easiest way to distinguish them is by the shape of the iris. If the lens is closed down and form a straight nonagon shape, it’s the new version.

I notice that all of the lenses that Sony has announced recently have the same blade design to balance the bokeh and sunstar effect, especially the new GM 24mm f/1.4 (very round bokeh even when stopping down to f/5.6, but the sunstar is very nice from f/8).

Maybe some readers can report if they had similar results on other lenses too?

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New exclusive deals for European and Australian readers (A6500, E-mount lenses and RX cameras)

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Today we got new Sony deals for our European and Australian readers:

Today only save on the Zeiss 16-70mm, A6500 and RX10M3 sold on this special Amazon Germany page (Click here).
And there is a new larger Stock of discounted Sandisk cards sold again by Amazon Germany.

And for Australian offer we have an exclusive offer: Use the coupon code SONYRUMOR$50 to save $50 on those items sold by CameraPro:

 

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