Voigtlander 40mm f/1.2 on the Sony A7 (image by Optyczne.pl).

The new Voigtlander 40mm f/1.2 manual focusing FE lens has been announced in Japan by Cosina. The dollar converted price is around $1,200. Image samples can be found here: cosina.co.jp/gallery/iida-40-1_2/index.html

And those are the full lens specs:

Oprema Optik just launched the Indiegogo funding campagn for the new Biotar 58mm f/2.0 lens. It’s also available as native E-mount option:

Press Text:

Oprema Jena Launches Campaign to Revive Biotar 58/f2
Lens’ one-of-a-kind design includes 17 aperture blades

Koblenz, Germany. New German lens maker Oprema Jena launched a campaign today on the crowdfunding site Indiegogo to resurrect the Biotar 58mm f2, promising to faithfully recreate the original lens’ optics down to its unique 17 aperture blade design.
The Biotar 58mm is Oprema Jena’s second lens project, following its successful Kickstarter campaign to revive the Biotar 75mm f1.5. Oprema’s plan calls for bringing some of the greatest lenses in history that are no longer being produced back to the market.

The new Biotar 58/f2 will be a truly remarkable lens that combines sharpness and bokeh in one sleek package. But what really sets the Biotar 58mm apart is what you’ll find on the inside — 17 aperture blades that will help it produce a one-of-a-kind background blur.
There’s not another modern lens on the market with that many aperture blades.

How can Oprema design a lens with that many blades when some of the best modern lenses on the market have 10 blades or fewer? The answer is in the Biotar’s fully manual design.
Auto-focus lenses are designed with fewer aperture blades to cut down on moving parts and reduce noise. Those are factors that the Biotar doesn’t have to worry about.
The Biotar 58 should be ready for the market in October 2018 at an expected retail price of $1,999 USD. However, backers on Indiegogo will be first in lines to get this special lens.
The Biotar lens family was originally produced by Carl Zeiss in Jena, Germany and both the 58mm and 75mm classic lenses are in high demand on the vintage market.

The Oprema Jena team includes Dr. Stefan Immes, who leads the Meyer Optik Goerlitz lens brand, famed designer Andre de Winter, who has won awards for the mechanical design of the Leica Summicron — M 35mm ASPH lens and the Leica Summilux — C lenses. Also on the team is Wolf Dieter Prenzel, a leading expert in the field of optical design of classic lenses. Prenzel, who worked for the original Meyer Optik, is the designer who created modern versions of several classic Meyer Optik lenses, including the legendary Trioplan and Primoplan lenses. Tokyo-based Tokina, one of the industry’s leading lens makers, will handle the production of the Biotar 58.

The Biotar 58 will be available in most major mounts, and, like the Biotar 75 will have rangefinder coupling, allowing it to be manually focused on the Leica-M rangefinders.

Mr. Goto Teng from Nikon got interviewed by the Chinese Weibo site. BeforeI start the mass discussion one important note: I relied on Google translation tool for this. I hope I didn’t misiniterpret something. But if I undertsood this correctly well Nikon was quite harsh towards Sony and the competition:

First: Nikon confirmed they will go Full Frame mirrorless soon

Second: They said they will not the modern design route from Sony A7 cameras. The google translation says: “Sony has a full frame but the shape we do not like”

Third: Nikon says “Just a small part of the real professional people to use their cameras (referring to Sony-Olympus-Fuji)“

Fourth: Nikon would not release so many cameras as Sony did. Sony had to go through a lot of failures before they came up with the A9. Nikon does not need to go through that process as they already went though that failures process due their long camera history.

Nikon really made some bold claims in this interview and in my opinione undermined the value of mirrorless players like Sony and Fuji. Probably this is a strategy to keep potential buyers from buying Sony and Fuji?

–

via Mirrorlessrumors

Frederic:

Please be informed that there are now more than 4200 sigs on the petition and it is now translated in spanish, russian and french. It would be – maybe – opportunate to post this information on the News section on your blog.

The link : https://www.change.org/p/sony-remove-the-star-eater-on-sony-a7-a7s-r-mk-i-ii-and-a9-cameras

Sony A9 Sports Photography: Using the LA-EA3 with A-Mount Lenses

Sony FE 55mm f1.8 ZA review-so-far (CameraLabs).
Sony FE 100-400mm F4.5–5.6 GM OSS Review at Photographyblog.
16-Time National Emmy Award Winner Jon Alpert Captures Boxing with Sony’s FS7 and SELP18110G Zoom Lens (Sony Blog).
Unraveling Mysteries in the Deep, Dark and Cold (Alphauniverse).
A Master’s Tools (Zeiss Blog).
Unterwegs mit der Sony Alpha 9 (Photoscala).
7 seasons of color on Game of Thrones, in one chart (Vox).

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.