Short heads up: I got the final confirmation the Sony A7rII (and RX100m4/RX10m2) online preorders will start at exactly 11am London time. If you preorder the new camera at BHphoto using my affiliated links you will have the chance to win a $100 rebate! Feel free to also send me links of other stores accepting preorders. This way we will make sure SAR readers will get the first in line on the very long A7rII preorder list :)

Rebate action notes: Four preorders will be randomly chosen by BHphoto. They will get notified by BH and get the $100 off (The A7rII will cost $3098). This “action” is available for all worldwide preorders and not only for US!

One more thing: SAR reader Alin Popescu was present at the Sony London A7rII presentation event. He told me that:

YES – you can charge via USB while using the camera (possible maybe with new firmware updates for other cameras too)
YES YES – you can reprogram the Record Video button to be used with any other customizable button (not with the shutter button though). Here is a small Demo video I did to show this feature
https://youtu.be/bSd2aQLK_LU
YES – new ISO Auto Minimum Shutter Speed
New focus area Flexble Spot with area (or something like this, I forgot the name). What it does, it uses close focus points to the one selected
And many more goodies. I’ve posted some more images on my blog – http://www.alinpopescu.eu/blog/test-hands-on-cu-a7r-ii-rx100-iv-si-rx10-ii-hands-on/

Store links:
In USA:
A7rII at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, Uniquephoto.
RX10m2 at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, Uniquephoto.
RX100m4 at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, Uniquephoto.
In Europe at:
A7rII at Sony DE, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT. Wex UK.
RX100m4 at DE, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT. Wex UK.
RX100m2 at DE, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT. Wex UK.
In Asia at:
A7rII at Digitalrev, CameraPro.
RX10m2 at Digitalrev, CameraPro.
RX100m4 at Digitalrev, CameraPro.

Sony slide via DSLRmagazine.

Hot reminder: Today at 11:00 London time be sure to be online on SAR! A7rII preorders will officially start at that time…wordlwide! And SAR will give away an extra $100 discount on four A7rII cameras!

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Sony Artisan Thibault Roland has a short Question and Answer session with Sony Tokyo. Here is some answers (full text at Thibault Roland’s blog).

Question: Is the Dynamic Range better and noise level lower than that of the a7R?
Answer: Yes! No formal test was done (it’s coming), but they confirmed that they were very impressed by the quality of the system

Question: Is the higher sensitivity going to be detrimental to noise level?
Answer: No! 1/ In the new design, the photodiodes are closer to the surface of the sensor, and that allows them to detect more light, hence a higher sensitivity. This sensor has a better detection rate in low light conditions than a “regular” sensor. 2/ The change of materials to connect the diodes to the rest of the electronics ensures a lower noise level as well. They did not go into specifics but these seem to be a two key points.

Question:Will the a7R II replace the a7S in terms of image quality at high sensitivity?
Answer:No! We were told that at the same high ISO number, the a7S will outperform the a7R II. The a7R II is “ideal for mostly still photographers who want to shoot videos and 4K from time to time, but videographers will still want to use the a7S in low light conditions”

Question: What about hot pixels?
Answer: They came up with an internal method to make them “not a problem anymore”

Question: Life expectancy:
Answer: I was absolutely amazed to hear them say that the shutter of the a7R II is expected to last more than 500K cycles!!! Yes, you read it right: 500K as in more than HALF A MILLION CLICKS!!

Question: Is the new build more resistant?
Answer: Yes! Because it is now made entirely of magnesium, the body is stronger and more resistant

Question: (LCD screen) Is it still going to be on all the time during long exposures?
Answer: Yes, but they are working on it to eventually turn it off

Question: (Lenses) Performance and resolution:
Answer: Some have raised the question as to if Sony lenses are build to provide a high enough resolution for high density sensors. We had the confirmation that the lenses had been designed with this particular aspect in mind. The engineers are confident that the optical quality of the lenses is more than sufficient for high resolution sensors.

Question: Autofocus performance:
Answer: We were confirmed that AF of Canon lenses was “much faster than before. With adapters (and in particular with a firmware updated Metabones mark IV) Canon lenses are almost as fast as on a Canon body“.
We were also told that the adapter for Sony A mount lenses made the AF very fast, but slightly slower than on an A mount body. We were told that “A mount lenses will find another life thanks to it”.

Question: What about the battery life?
Answer: It will be “slightly better than that of the a7R

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Time zone reminder: The preorders will start on June 17 at…
8am Los Angeles time
11m New York time
16.00 London time
17:00 Berlin time
24:00 Tokyo time.

Store links:
In USA:
A7rII at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, Uniquephoto.
RX10m2 at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, Uniquephoto.
RX100m4 at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, Uniquephoto.
In Europe at:
A7rII at Sony DE, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT. Wex UK.
RX100m4 at DE, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT. Wex UK.
RX100m2 at DE, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT. Wex UK.
In Asia at:
A7rII at Digitalrev, CameraPro.
RX10m2 at Digitalrev, CameraPro.
RX100m4 at Digitalrev, CameraPro.

Hasselblad just issued that press release to announce their latest SonyA 7r clone, the Hasselblad “Lusso”:

Press text:

The iconic Swedish camera maker Hasselblad, whose legendary 500EL was used by Neil Armstrong to capture the first images of the moon’s surface, has been in the market for lifestyle cameras since 2013, first with the [shoplink 37465 ebay]Hasselblad Lunar[/shoplink], followed by [shoplink 37464 ebay]Hasselblad Stellar and Stellar II[/shoplink].

The new Hasselblad Lusso E-mount mirrorless camera, featuring an impressive 36.8 megapixel 35mm full frame CMOS image sensor, brings the company’s strategy of offering consumers a symbiosis of elegant lifestyle, user convenience and state-of-the-art technology to a new climax.

The camera comes with a FE 28-70mm f/3.5-5.6 OSS lens. For its handgrip, a rich walnut Canaletto wood was selected not only for its strength but also for its warm essence. A matt finish obtained after a lacquering process retains the natural veins of this beautiful wood.

The Hasselblad Lusso, is a strikingly beautiful camera that will enthrall its owners not only by its beautiful aesthetics but also by its technical features and performance.

The Hasselblad Lusso will only be available at Lane Crawford and in selected camera stores in Hong Kong, Macau and China.

found via Digitalrev.

Current Hasselblad Sony clones are:
[shoplink 37464 ebay]Stellar (Click here)[/shoplink], [shoplink 37465 ebay]Lunar (Click here)[/shoplink] and Hasselblad HV ($7,999 off on BH!).

Sony announced an update to the timelapse app today that allows for automated panning: https://www.playmemoriescameraapps.com/portal/

P.S.: Thanks Scott!

Imaging Resource interviewed Sony engineer and manager Kimio Maki. The main talk was the new 42MP sensor and here are some key answers:

1) Why 42MP: 42-megapixel was the best pixel size to realize 4K movies. Super 35mm gives the best picture quality, from oversampling 15 megapixels down to the eight-megapixel 4K size. The picture quality is better than a professional video camera.

2) Noise improvement: in terms of ISO, this sensor’s sensitivity is better than 36-megapixel chips. The A7R Mark II has better noise performance; better than the A7R.

3) Why not 50MP: But 42 (MP) is not a good word. But actually, the engineers said “if you prefer 50, you have to lose sensitivity”. Of course 50 [would] give better resolution, and 45 would be more impressive, but it wouldn’t be perfectly balanced.

4) Advantages of backside illuminated sensors: in order to realize this kind of sensitivity, we have to prefer backside-illuminated. That’s the first priority, to gather lots of light, more light, effectively. The other decision was in the wiring layers; we used to use the aluminum, but aluminum is not good enough to transfer the data faster. Therefore we change the material from the aluminum to the copper to make it faster. [Ed. Note: Copper is more conductive than aluminum, so there’s less resistance in the circuit lines on the chip, meaning signals can propagate faster.] Therefore, then we could get a faster transition from the light to an electrical signal.

5) Uncompressed RAW: Sony RAW is compressed, not uncompressed. But if we’re getting a lot of requests for it, we should make such a kind of no-compression raw. We recognize the customer’s requirement, and actually we are working on it. And yes Sony could provide that via simple firmware upgrade!

6) Hybrid Autofocus: in terms of autofocus, we are using a hybrid focus, so first we use the phase-detection focus to get close to the object. Then near the object, we start to use contrast AF to get a clear peak. Then we adjust the focus. Then in order to make very precise focus (because 42-megapixel means very very small pixels), and also the focusing point could be a very small one, therefore we phase-detection together with contrast AF, contrast focus.

Recap: Hurray! Sony will give us uncompressed RAW at last! And let’s make no bargain here Sony, we want that addition on all current cameras :)

One more thing: Imaging Resource editor than writes:

They showed me as an example an A7R II with a Canon EF 24-70mm attached via a Metabones “smart” adapter. Even though we were in a pretty dimly-lit conference room, the A7R II seemed extremely responsive, with very little delay between me half-pressing the shutter button and the beep of focus-confirmation. Sony’s Mark Weir noted that this was the first time a full-frame mirrorless camera could focus traditional SLR lenses as fast as SLRs could. He noted that in this mode, the A7R Mark II was using only phase-detect AF, vs the two-stage hybrid approach Maki-san mentioned earlier.

Store links:
In USA:
A7rII at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, Uniquephoto.
RX10m2 at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, Uniquephoto.
RX100m4 at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, Uniquephoto.
In Europe at:
A7rII at Sony DE, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT. Wex UK.
RX100m4 at DE, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT. Wex UK.
RX100m2 at DE, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT. Wex UK.
In Asia at:
A7rII at Digitalrev, CameraPro.
RX10m2 at Digitalrev, CameraPro.
RX100m4 at Digitalrev, CameraPro.