Sony Tidbits…

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Weekend with: Sony 90mm f/2.8 Macro G OSS

Gold Box on the Transcend 16GB SD card at Amazon Germany.
Sony RX10 M2 – first part of my review and a mini-comparison with the A7S and Canon 1D C (EosHD)
50mm Vergleich von 5 Objektiven an Sony A7 u. a. Bokeh (FotoWorkShop).
Canon nFD 4/300 L (SonyAlphaForum).
Comparing the Sony A7s vs Canon 6D shutter lag for light painting (Diyphotography).
RX100m4 test by German Chip.de.
My new Land & Cityscapes with the A7II (SonyAlphaForum).

Danas:I have some videos made with Sony A7s and ActionCam AZ1. For example this travel video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jWlng3MfGE. Or blog from Bolivia (video coming in few days): http://offtosomewhere.net/bolivian-rum-diaries/

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XEEN Cine lenses are 6K compatible with future Sony 6K cameras.

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New 24mm XEEN on the new Sony A7rII (Image courtesy: DSLRmagazine)

As you know recently Samyang/Rokinon launched the new XEEN Cine lens line. Those lenses are much cheaper than other current Cine lenses from Zeiss and Schneider. Full specs and preorder are available at BHphoto:
Rokinon Xeen 24mm T1.5 Lens (Click here).
Rokinon Xeen 50mm T1.5 Lens (Click here).
Rokinon Xeen 85mm T1.5 Lens (Click here).

DSLRmagazine (google translation here) tested the lenses on the A7rII and added an interesting note. He got informed by Samyang that those lenses are not only superb for 4K recording but they are also 6K ready if Sony or other camera manufacturer will launch those kind of cameras in the near future.

Newsshooter tested those lenses on the Sony A7rII to see if they can come close to the Zeiss-Schneider quality:

In the test the XEEN lens appeared to be warmer than the Sony or Zeiss. In 4K the XEEN also appeared to be the sharpest of the three. The Sony had a nice image and bokeh was quite pleasant, but there was a slightly strange rendition of the light on the phone. To my eye the Zeiss did look more cinematic, but you may have a different opinion. The Zeiss was also the only lens to exhibit obvious lens flares.


XEEN 85mm T1.5 vs ZEISS CP.2 85mm T1.5 vs Sony CineAlta 85mm T2.0 with Sony a7R II. Ungraded

There is also a first impression review at BH Explora (Click here):

I found the Rokinon XEEN Cine Lenses to be well made, easy to work with, and overall I enjoyed the image quality. They rendered naturalistic images with good contrast and a pleasing, slightly warm feel. Intercutting between the lenses required no additional color correction beyond applying the same LUT to the footage. It is my preference to shoot more closed down than wide open, and I did feel the lenses performed best starting around T4, but I was still satisfied with footage shot at T1.5. Overall, I was pleased with the XEEN lenses and look forward to working with them again.

Bildschirmfoto 2015-08-09 um 20.42.00

Full specs and preorder are available at BHphoto:
Rokinon Xeen 24mm T1.5 Lens (Click here).
Rokinon Xeen 50mm T1.5 Lens (Click here).
Rokinon Xeen 85mm T1.5 Lens (Click here).

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New A7rII reviews: ePhotozine: “fantastic camera”. Richard Auger: “right direction for landscape and fine-art photographers”.

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The A7rII is in Stock at Amazon US and is now on top of the Mirrorless Camera Sales ranking. And here are two new camera reviews:

Film Photographer’s Review by Richard Auger.

I’m excited to have finally found a digital camera system that’s going in the right direction for landscape and fine-art photographers. Because Nikon and Canon stuck with the 35mm SLR format in the early 2000s, as well as the lack of viewfinder technology at that time, people like me have been stuck with the DSLR format. Its an exciting time for digital photography, where we finally are seeing some real camera choices. If only I could find a dedicated panoramic digital camera.

ePhotozine writes:

The Sony Alpha A7R II is a culmination of all the best features from Sony’s expertise rolled into one fantastic camera.

Exploring the A7rII, by a Sony newcomer (DearSusans).
Spanish review at Quesabesde.

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Dpreview pulls apart Sony’s RAW compression: Indeed reduces dynamic range in certain situations!

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Bildschirmfoto 2015-09-03 um 09.42.48
A7r (not new A7rII) vs D810 RAW comparison by Photographylife

Dpreview analyzed Sony’s 11-7 bit RAW compression to see if there are any issues with those files:

Overall, the effects of this compression aren’t often visually significant. Their impact should mostly be understood as a reduction in processing latitude, since it tends only to be when you push and pull the Raw files that the missing data becomes visible. The compression curve throws away more shadow data than would be ideal: reducing dynamic range. There’s a further reduction if you shoot in a mode that drops the camera into 12-bit readout mode. Meanwhile, the localized compression of tonal differences only has an impact near high-contrast edges.

I am 100% sure Sony will fix this on future cameras. There is simply too much talk about it to avoid the problem. I just hope it’s really possible to add “real 14 RAW” via firmware update on the current cameras. Hopefully Sony is not using some kind of unavoidable hardware compression on our cameras…

More articles about that matter at Diglloyd, Photographylife, Kasson.

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Firmware updated for Techart EOS-E-mount adapter adds full A7rII 399 points phase detection support!

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[shoplink 39255 ebay]techart[/shoplink]

If you own or plan to buy the [shoplink 39255 ebay]Techart EOS to E-mount adapter (here on eBay)[/shoplink] than we have good news for you! Today the company released a new firmware 3.0 which adds full Sony A7rII support (Donwload at STKB.co.jp). I means you can all those nice 399 phase detection points. Here is a video that shows how fast it works:

Links: Current Techart Sony adpaters are sold on [shoplink 39255 ebay]eBay (See the list here)[/shoplink].

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Sony Tidbits…

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The Track: Portrait Of A Runner:
from Mike Kobal on Vimeo.

The Track: field report shooting with the Sony FE 28-135mm, Zeiss FE 16-35mm and A7s (Mike Kobal).
40mm Voigtlander Nokton being used on a Sony A7…(Fridaysushi).
Alpha-7 II and iOS remote control (SonyAlphaForum).
Sony A7s for broadcast Part II (Cinema5D).

Pascal:this is a little bit off topic, but if you’re interested, I have published a small review of the panorama feature in LightRoom 6 using a Sony A7r and various lenses. It’s an amazing way of creating huge files. One of those in the article is 120Mpix and would print well 8 foot high. It’s also amazing for those, like me, who feel there are more beautiful frame formats than 3:2 :) http://www.dearsusan.net/2015/06/29/370-panorama-freedom-discovering-lightroom-6/

Karlton:My short film has just won Best Action Film for the My Rode Reel contest and it was shot entirely on the a7s. All between the hours of 1 am and 5 am. I’m quite excited about this, and really just feel like telling people, lol. Here’s the link: http://www.rode.com/myrodereel/watch/entry/690

Matt:a7s + Ronin m + beautiful model (warning: 18+ content!) http://vimeo.com/enigmatt/janniephan

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First Tamron 35mm and 45mm f/1.8 lens image samples and full details.

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Today Tamron announced two new great A-mount primes which could be interesting for E-mount camera owners too because we don’t have cheap and fast native E-mount primes yet. So first of all you can preorder them now here:
Tamron SP 35mm f/1.8 Di USD Lens for Sony A at BHphoto.
Tamron SP 45mm f/1.8 Di USD Lens for Sony A at BHphoto.

To see all specs and some really great image samples check out here:
Tamron SP 35mm f/1.8 Di special Tamron page (Click here).
Tamron SP 45mm f/1.8 Di special Tamron page (Click here).
If you read German there is a greta test over at Blog.krolop-gerst.com. The reviewer says the lens quality is superb and easily resolves the 50MP from the Canon 5dsr. So if you are going to use this on the Sony A7rII you will be fine!

And this is Tamron’s official introduction video (note the lens comes for Nikon and Canon mounts too)

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