Zeiss announced a new special case for Loxia lenses. You can preorder it now for $386 on BHphoto (Click here). SAR reader Tanner made an interetsing observation:
More deduction that rumor, but B&H has an interesting new case for the Loxia lenses in stock. Notice there are slots for 4 lenses. Currently there are only 3 lenses in the series. That does confirm that a new 4th lens with the same small outer diameter as the first 3 lenses is on the way! And probably sooner rather than later, otherwise they’d release a 3 slot case and sell a bigger case later.
The following is quite a challenging rumor to evaluate. While the source is legit he himself is not sure if the information he got from Sony has been “correctly communicated”. But anyway here is what he told me:
A high ranking Sony distribution guy just told me not to be too fast going towards Hasselblad. He hinted towards Sony releasing a medium format camera at Photokina together with a series of new lenses. As the presentation of the Hasselblad I was pretty disappointed as 4K video did not work yet and the Phocus software couldn’t process the raw files right, it will take until June/July anyway to decide if this makes sense – so I will wait until Photokina. There seems to be a good chance that we see the world’s first mirrorless medium format camera from Sony.
I find it a bit unlikely that Sony will launch both a new High End FF E-mount camera and a new medium format system camera this year. It may be that the Sony distribution guy meant that the A9 will have “medium format quality” or so…
That said I would love to get a mirrorless system camera with the new 101 Megapixel sensor from Sony. But I still think they should first use their resources to launch some great A-mount stuff and some new APS-C E-mount lens…
Andreas: “Recently I bought a Sony A7II as second camera (with fullframe sensor) as a supplement to my A77II (with APS-C sensor) which I use a lot for equestrian sports photography. With my A77II I’m used to have a perfectly fast and accurate AF and I was wondering how the new A7II would behave in this discipline…
Therefore I made a AF tracking test using the same Sony 70-400m G SSM II lens (using the LA-EA3 adapter on the A7II) on both camera bodies.
The test consisted of photo series from approaching cars in Continuous Shooting Mode (with AF in continuous mode). Cars where first tracked (with release button pressed halfway) and the shutter was released when the cars reached a specific point (the pedestrian crossing) I used same settings on both cameras and a focal length of 200mm on the A77II vs 300mm on the A7II (to compensate the different sensor size)
3 series were shot for each test scenario in order to have more consistent results:
A77II (with latest Firmware 2.0) 3 series with sports program (12fps), Continuous AF, AF field: expandable flexible spot (on center) 3 series in High mode (8fps), Continuous AF, AF field: expandable flexible spot (on center) 3 series in Low mode (4fps), Continuous AF, AF field: expandable flexible spot (on center)
A7II (with latest Firmware 3.1) 3 series in High mode (5fps), Continuous AF, AF Feld: field (on center) 3 series in Low mode (mit 2.5fps), Continuous AF, AF Feld: field (on center) 3 series in High mode (5fps), Continuous AF, AF Feld: flexible spot (on center)
Sigma ART 50mm vs Zeiss 55mm vs the new Samyang 50mm size comparison by Eggry.blog.
I got some good news on the new Samyang 50mm f/1.4 FE autofocus lens. Our reader Egrry wrote:
Representative said the price is not set but would be less than 600 USD and more than 400 USD with tax in Korea. It won’t be available until late June.
This is a very competitive price! Finally a fast FE lens that everyone can afford to buy! The question for you now is…
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He also shared some more tests and findings on Eggry.blog. It’s Korean but he did it sum up for us in English (Thanks!):
1) AF lenses is not named yet. They’re conducting naming contest in Kora. That’s why it’s just engraved like AF 14/2.8 FE. 2) 14mm f2.8 is not ready for the exhibition so no hands-on time. 3) 560g. almost double of FE55.8ZA but it’s f1.4. Sigma 50.4 Art is 860g even without adapter. 4) closest focus distance is 45cm which is not suprising in Fifties. 5) Aluminum casing feels good, very similar to Sony lenses. 6) Unfortunately, focus ring is focus-by-wire. They confirmed it. 7) Sharpness at 1.4 is not surprising. It improves vastly at f2. There’s some amount of CA from 1.4 to 2. from 2.8, there’s nothing bothering in my eyes. 8) AF is good. not fast as 55.8ZA but I guess faster than 50.8. for sure it’s faster and reliable than Sigma 50.4 with MC-11. Wobbling is bigger than Sony lenses. Noise is not big but noticable than Sony. 9) Movie AF is not satisfying. You can check it another article here.(also sharpness and Bokeh test! sharpness at f2 is certainly wrongly focused.) http://www.popco.net/zboard/zboard.php?id=samyang 10) Price is not finalized yet. Samyang is listening visitors’ opinion. I said 600 USD with tax and they said it won’t be that expensive. The other said 400 USD and told it will be more than it. So I guess it would be around 500 USD. I think it’s good positioning. 11) All lenses are beta version. so it can be improved when launched.
You cna see the first image samples at Popco (Click here). There is also a new autofocus test video:
Long time SAR reader Eggry shared to use the world’s first real world images of the new Samyang 50mm f/1.4 FE autofocus lens! These are the pictures he posted on Twitter:
“Size is reasonable. Bigger than 55.8 but much smaller than Sigma 50.4 Art. Also quite light weight. not heavy at all. Aluminum casing feels good, very similar design and feel of Sony lenses. AF is good enough, not fast as 55.8 but faster and reliable than Sigma+adapter. 14mm f2.8 is not ready for the exhibition(P&I 2016) so no hands on with it. ”
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