Sony Tidbits…

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Laowa Goes Wide With Four New Lenses For E Mount and Micro Four Thirds

Sony 100-400 GM + 2x Teleconverter vs. Panasonic 100-400 and 100-300 (Hunter Peress).
Sigma 16mm f/1.4 review: Weird AF Issue, but super sharp (Photogearnews).
Zeiss Batis 40mm test at DC.watch.
9 Light Pollution Filters Tested: Do They Really Work? Part 1 (Explora).
Sony RX100 VI Underwater Camera Review (Backscatter).
24 hours with the new Sigma 105mm 1.4 SONY E MOUNT (Manny Ortiz).

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

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

We have our own Facebook camera groups and pages you can join to discuss the upcoming new cameras in detail:
Sony A9 group and Sony A9 page.
Sony A7rIII group and Sony A7rIII page
Sony A7sIII group and Sony A7sIII page
Sony A7III group and Sony A7III page
Note: In groups you can post your own stuff like images, news and questions. While on pages you will read the specific camera news from SAR.

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Sony RX1R II marked as “discontinued” in Sweden

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Scandinavianphoto.se marked the Sony RX1R II as “discontinued”. I don’t know yet if that’s a local Scandinavian status or if Sony globally discontinued the camera.

Some see the Zeiss ZX1 as real successor of the RX1 line. I don’t think that’s the case. But I wonder if we will ever see a new RX1 camera again. If I would be in charge at Sony I would try to make an RX1 camera with the new 100 megapixel medium format sensor that costs 35% less than the GFX-100 which is rumored to cost $10,000.

What should Sony do with the RX1 line?

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Kamlan 50mm f/1.1 review at Lensip: “you won’t be disappointed”

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Lenstip tested the Kamlan 50mm f/1.1 lens which you can buy at Amazon US, Amazon DE, Amazon UK, Amazon FR, Amazon IT and Amazon ES. This is an APS-C lens and Lenstip texted the X-mount version. But the performance is the same as on the E-mount:

Pros:

  • sensible build quality of the barrel,
  • good image quality in the frame centre,
  • moderate lateral chromatic aberration,
  • slight distortion,
  • nice appearance of out-of-focus areas,
  • affordable price.

Cons:

  • very weak image quality on the edge of the frame,
  • some spherical aberration problems,
  • huge coma,
  • distinct vignetting,
  • weak performance against bright light,
  • some casualness when it comes to aperture markings.

Ok., own up: who was taken in enough to believe that a lens with just 5 elements, an aperture as fast as f/1.1, and costing just $180 will produce excellent images? Realists, who don’t believe in miracles, cannot be surprised by results presented in previous chapters and they won’t be disappointed. I count myself among them so the summary is going to be positive.

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Sony Tidbits…

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iphone XS Max Vs Sony a7iii

Zeiss Batis 40mm f/2 Hands On Review (ParkCameras).
Bokeh is overrated (Denae & Andrew).
Sony 85mm F/1.8 vs Sony 85mm F/1.4 GM (Enthusiastphotoblog).
Unveiled: LaCie High-Performance Portable USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C External SSD (Explora).

Lionel:There a video how I dress up my 400f2.8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVZnyb652YM. Review in real word is coming but I must take some serious picture before… There I have already tree: http://apvl.ch

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

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

We have our own Facebook camera groups and pages you can join to discuss the upcoming new cameras in detail:
Sony A9 group and Sony A9 page.
Sony A7rIII group and Sony A7rIII page
Sony A7sIII group and Sony A7sIII page
Sony A7III group and Sony A7III page
Note: In groups you can post your own stuff like images, news and questions. While on pages you will read the specific camera news from SAR.

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Lucid Vision Labs measured the performance of the new Sony 31.4MP APS-C Global Shutter sensor

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Just a short time ago Sony introduced a new range of Global Shutter sensors. We can be certain Sony will use them on their own future Alpha cameras too.

For now the biggest global shutter they announced is a 31.4 MP APS-C sensor in 4:3 format. The first company using it is Lucid Vision Labs. And they shared their preliminary Lab results:

I am not expert enough to give a correct evaluation of those numbers. Might be interesting to read the comments from some of our expert SAR readers!

via Image Sensor World.

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New Luminar 2018 with Sky enhancer tool launched (with discount and extra free bonuses)

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Today Skylum launched the new Luminar 2018 with Sky enhancer tool. For a limited time you get this package with a $10 discount using our code “SAR” and extra Bonuses (see list below). And in December you will get the Libary tool for free too.

Pricing:
● New users can purchase Luminar 2018 for US$59 ( US$49 with your coupon code).
● Current users of Luminar 2018 will be able to update for free .
● Current users of Luminar 2017 can upgrade for US$49 ( US$39 with your coupon code).
● Current users of a Luminar 2018 trial (those who have downloaded it before November 1) can purchase Luminar 2018 for US$49 ( US$39 with your coupon code).
● Owners of Skylum legacy products (Creative Kit, Noiseless, Intensify, Tonality, FX Photo Studio, Focus, Snapheal, Filters for Photos) can purchase Luminar for US$49 ( US$39 with your coupon code).
● Current users of Aurora HDR (2016–2019) can purchase Luminar for US$49 ( US$39 with your coupon code).
● Current users of Photolemur can purchase Luminar for US$49 ( US$39 with your coupon code).

Bonuses:
● ViewBug: 3-month Pro membership ($42 value)
● KelbyOne: 2-month Pro membership ($40 value)
● Rocky Nook: Choice of ANY e-book ($40 value)
● Daniel Kordan: Awesome Landscapes Tutorial ($29 value)
● Manfrotto & Gitzo: $20 gift card on any $120 purchase ($20 value)

Press text:

AI Sky Enhancer: More Than an Innovation, It’s a Breakthrough
Skylum has released a free update to Luminar that brings AI Sky Enhancer, designed to add detail and drama to the sky with just one slider.

Bellevue, WA, November 1, 2018 — Skylum Software today released a free update to its award-winning Luminar photo editor and presented the AI Sky Enhancer filter. Developed in the company’s AI Lab, AI Sky Enhancer adds depth, definition, and detail to any sky almost instantly, with only a swipe of a slider.

AI Sky Enhancer is a revolutionary new tool for automatically enhancing skies and making them beautiful without the need for masks and layers. This will save photographers an enormous amount of time in post-processing while allowing photographers of any skill level to achieve dramatic skies.

Hundreds of thousands of photos incorporating varying degrees of tonal skies were used to train a deep neural network that powers the AI Sky Enhancer filter and allow Luminar to analyze each image and detect (and adjust) only the sky. The result is complete automated control of the sky. AI Sky Enhancer works with sunsets, blue skies, partly sunny skies, storm clouds, and virtually any other sky scene imaginable.

“And while this update is great by itself, it’s just the beginning. Luminar now includes an innovative core neural processing engine that enables all Luminar users to harness the power of AI. This will give the Skylum team the possibility to introduce more smart and automated tools more frequently,” explains Dima Sytnik, CTO and co-founder of Skylum. “Expect more innovative AI-powered features in Luminar in the near future.”

The new AI-powered filter comes ahead of Luminar 3 with Libraries, which will start being rolled out to Luminar owners on December 18. Skylum has made the unprecedented decision to include every new feature of Luminar — big and small — at no additional cost to current Luminar 2018 owners until late 2019. This will include Luminar 3 with Libraries, which will allow photographers to organize, browse, and edit images on the fly. Additionally, Luminar customers don’t have to pay an annual subscription fee.

New and current users of Luminar will also receive a value-added promotional package including a three-month Pro Membership to ViewBug ($42 value), a two-month Pro Membership to KelbyOne ($40 value), a choice of any ebook from Rocky Nook ($40 value), the Awesome Landscapes Tutorial from Daniel Kordan ($80 value), and a $20 gift card toward the purchase of any Manfrotto/Gitzo product valued at $120 or more.

Luminar is available to new customers for just $59/€59/£53. Current users of other Skylum software including Aurora HDR, Photolemur, and Skylum legacy products can purchase Luminar for the special price of $49/€49/£44.

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