New set of low ranked rumors (Sony A9-A9r, medium format, Olympus Zuiko FE, A99II)

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SonyA9_side
The mirrorless DSLR styled Sony protoype (A9 is rumored ot have such a style)

Time for out roundup of rumors from completely unknown sources and therefore unlikely to be true. Rarely one of those gets true but I hope some of the info here turns out to be correct because it really sounds too good:

Sony Medium Format

“Sony will introduce a Camera utilizing the IMX161 Image sensor soon. This Sensor has 50 MPixel on an area of 44x33mm (Middle format). Details still are a bit fuzzy but will be revealed soon
So resolution and low light performance will be even better than on the A7R2″

Sony A9 A9r:

“The Sony A9r will not get a new 70+ FF sensor due the Kumamoto sensor production damage. There will be two new A9 cameras with bigger A7 alike body and new battery grip:
a9:
– 24 mp (new sensor)
– 400 AF points on the entire frame
– 14 fps
– ISO 50-204800
– Shutter speed: 30″-32000
– dual XQD slot
a9r:
– 42mp BSI
– 400 AF points on the entire frame
– 8 fps Buffer 40 RAW
– ISO: 50 – 102400
– Shutter speed: 30″-32000
– dual XQD slot
– weather sealed

There will be also a new A to E-mount adapter.  Price of both cameras will be around $5,000.”

Next generation Sony A7 (or A9?):

The current A7 range was made from existing internal parts ‘forced’ into a new form factor to see how the market reacted to that style of camera. Obviously Sony’s experiment was fruitful so the next range will be made to measure and designed from the ground up to work in such a style of camera

Sony A99II:

“Killer speed af, 36 mpix bsi chip, 4k, 5axis ibis, dual slot, dual 2core bionz x2 cpu’s, weather proof”

Olympus 35mm FE lens:

Olympus Zuiko 35mm lens f/2.0. It WILL be branded as Zuiko and not Sony or Sony/Zuiko.

–

My hope is that there is some truth behind the Olympus folks joining the E-mount system….

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New Low Prices on GM lenses in Europe (while price increased on all the rest of the lenses)

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85mm-GM

First the bad news: As reported back in early July most Sony lenses and cameras prices increased this month in Europe.
Now the good news: The only exception are the GM lenses. Their prices went a bit down:

Sony 85mm GM price went down from the original 2000€: Amazon Germany (€1773), 1778 Euro at Amazon Italy (€1788), Amazon Spain (€1782) and Amazon UK (£1500).
Sony 24-70mm GM went down from the original 2000€: Amazon Germany (€2283), 1778 Euro at Amazon Italy (€2226), Amazon Spain (€2249) and Amazon UK (£1795-no price change).

Those are the graphs showing the price drop:

85mmgraph 24-70mmgraph

Thanks Phillip for spotting this!

 

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Educational discount: Up to $220 off on Sony A7 cameras

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Edu_SonyA7

Students can get a nice up to $220 discount on Sony A7 cameras sold by BHphoto (Click here)

Reminder:
Up to $280 off on Sony E-mount cameras and lenses at BestBuy (Click here).
The brand new Rokinon 14mm f/2.8 Full Frame E-mount autofocus lens can be preordered bow at BHphoto (Click here). It costs $849 and it will ship on October 4.
$100 off on the Speedmaster 50mm f/0.95 Lens for Sony E-Mount at BHphoto (Click here).
The Easycover for the Sony A63000 is in Stock at BHphoto and Amazon.
The new Sony Water/Dust/Shock/Bend Proof SD cards are now in Stock at BHphoto (Click here) and Adorama (Click here).
The new Rokinon 50mm FE f/1.4 autofocus lens is in Stock at Amazon US (Click here) and at BHphoto (Click here).

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Sony a7II, Sony a7sII and Sony a7rII – Firmware Update Request (by Photochirp)

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A7rII_Gariz_alcantara

The following is a Guest Post from Photochirp. To write a guest post on SAR follow the instruction on that page.

—-

The Sony a7rII is a great camera and I am mostly satisfied with it. There are a few things I would like to be implemented or changed but most of those things exist within a software update and not necessarily a hardware update (of course, I would like dual card slots). I’m not sure how to get the communities support on this, but please let me know what you think of these ideas.

Sony a7rII Specific Firmware Improvements For The Sony a7rII 3.30 Firmware Update

  • The battery drains after a while even if the camera is not in use or switched on
  • Crop mode should be easier to access, perhaps as part of the quick menu so that it can be quickly enabled for videos
  • Video mode crop mode should be separate from photography crop mode, therefore videographers don’t have to continuously change this when taking photographs or making videos ~ This is an extremely important feature for the Sony a7rII
  • Lossless compressed raw should be an additional option for the RAW file format ~ Lossy compressed is lossy and uncompressed creates incredibly large files

Sony a7II, Sony a7sII and Sony a7rII General Firmware Improvements

  • Better manual focus options ~ manual focus should have the option to go straight to full zoom when you rotate the lens, and there should also be the option to only magnify a portion of the frame e.g. a small, 10x square around the selected focus point or focus area. This would allow you to compose the shot while focusing ~ I believe this is important and would improve the manual focus experience with the Sony a7II, Sony a7sII and the Sony a7rII considerably
  • Spot meter should be able to meter the focus point instead of just a point in the centre of the frame, in other words, interlock the focus point with spot focus
  • A customizable video menu should allow duplicates of what’s in the stills menu, this would allow people to create their own menu system in an order that did not irritate them
  • Facial recognition software should be put to better use for manual focusing, for example, it could automatically move the focus point to the subjects face and when you turn the focus ring, it magnifies around that area ~ This feature is fairly unimportant
  • The option to disable electronic first curtain shutter automatically with speeds above 1/1000 of a second. This would help to avoid situations where banding can potentially exist ~ This feature is important as if is annyoing having to disable EFCS (electronic first curtain shutter) with the Sony a7II, Sony a7sII and the Sony a7rII
  • Live histogram and zebra stripes should relate to the raw file and not the JPG settings
  • Live histogram should be adjustable so that it can display red, green or blue, and not just luminance
  • Maximum exposure length should be customizeable like auto ISO, for example, you should be able to have a maximum of 1 minute instead of 30 seconds
  • Save settings from the “gear” menu to the custom function settings i.e. “C1” should remember setting-effect has been set to “off” while “C2” remembers setting-effect has been set to “on”
  • Customizeable PASM dial, so “P” can become “C3” or whatever you want it to be

Sony a7II, Sony a7sII and Sony a7rII Wi-Fi Firmware Improvements and App Requests

  • Send to phone using a network connection already available i.e. connecting to a router, instead of having to create a new network and disconnecting the old network
  • An FTP, dropbox and an instagram app, and they should not require you to type in a password each time you use them
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This week SAR readers photos selection

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Stan Moniz
Evening colors. Shot with Sony Alpha a6300 | AquaTech ATB – 6300 water housing | Tokina USA 11-20mm f2.8

1) Submit your picture with a message and picture here: facebook.com/sonyalpharumors or on the SonyAlphaForum image section.
2) Like and comment the pictures from other readers here: facebook.com/sonyalpharumors/photos_stream?tab=photos and on SonyAlphaForum.
3) A selection of most liked pictures by the community and by me SAR admin will be posted weekly on SAR.

Note: When sending a pic feel free to also add a link to your site to promote yourself!

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The new Rokinon 14mm f/2.8 FE autofocus lens is on preorder at Amazon

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Rokinon

You can now preorder the new 14mm f/2.8 autofocus FE lens at Amazon (Click here) and BHphoto (Click here).

And don’t forget to check out those great Sony Open Box savings from BestBuy:
$200 off on the Sony A7II kit
$240 off on the Sony A7 kit
RX100 for $299
$325 off on the Zeiss 24-70mm FE
$300 off on the Sony FE 70-200mm lens
$300 off on the Sony Vario-Tessar T FE 16-35mm
$160 off on the Sony A6300 with kit lens
$300 off on the FE 70-300mm
$200 off on the 55mm Zeiss
$300 off on the Zeiss 16-70mm
$130 off on the 90mm FE macro
$220 off on the FE 24-240mm
$50 off on the FE 50mm

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A cheap solution for Long Time Exposures with Sony NEX and Alpha cameras beyond 30 seconds (Dierk Topp)

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This is a guest post from Dierk Topp:

Cheap solution for Long Time Exposures with Sony NEX and Alpha cameras beyond 30 seconds

A few weeks ago I noticed a very special phenomena. When I left our house for a few minutes of fresh air at about 11 PM I noticed incredible flashes in the clouds, no noise or thunder but flashes every few seconds or even faster.

I hurried to get a camera. I decided to use the A7RII and the FE 24-70 f/4 zoom to be flexible with the angle of view. And I took a tripod and the IR remote shutter release. For the long exposure time I set the camera to B (bulb) and used the IR remote release. I was pressing the release for about 20 seconds and noticed, that the shutter stayed open after I finished pressing and then the shutter closed after I pressed it again! ?

I don’t know if this was described earlier but for me it was new. I know an undocumented trick like this for the Leica M9 (by using B in combination with the self timer).

If you know old cameras or large format cameras you will know, that you have a shutter speed of ‘B’ that keeps the shutter open as long as you press the shutter release, just like on the Sony and other cameras. And you have a shutter speed ‘T’ that opens the shutter when you press the release and stays open until you press it again. But on these older cameras you can use a cable release that is  not possible on the Sony cameras, that I know (without any additional hardware) .

What can you do for longer exposures without shaking and blurring the image by holding the shutter release all the time? With the little trick described here you even get a ‘T’ exposure like with the old cameras and get any desired exposure time.
When do you may need very long exposures?

  • as in this example for pictures of flashes
  • or if you want to use high density ND filters for interesting long time shots of water and/or clouds
  • and several other situations where 30 sec. exposure on ‘A’ or ‘B’ is not long enough

How to find the right exposure time?

To find the right exposure time you take a test shot with high ISO and/or open aperture in order to stay below the 30 sec. limit and calculate the exposure time for the desired low ISO and aperture.

Here again how it works:

  • set the shutter speed to B
  • use a remote IR controller (mine is a cheap one from ebay)
  • press the controller once for starting the exposure
  • press the controller again to finish the exposure

It works with my A6000, A7R and A7RII and it may work with many other Sony NEX and Alpha cameras as well.
There are other solutions like APPs and or for example intervalometer, but if you have a cheap remote IR release this is by far the easiest solution and does not eat the battery of your smart phone.

If you don’t want or need the Long Exposure Noise Reduction (LENR) and wait the same time till the camera is ready for the next shot you can deactivate it in the menu.

Have fun to test it.

Here is an example with 67 seconds exposure time.

28171163701_82ba790ca8_h[1]

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