Competition news: Panasonic could launch a fixed lens Full Frame camera in May

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Just recently Sony officially discontinued the RX1rII. And now they have no camera that can compete against the hot selling Leica Q3 and Fujifilm X100VI. And it looks like the first company that could enter the booming market is Panasonic. They are rumored to announce a new fixed lens Full Frame camera this month!

Hopefully Sony will hurry up and undertsand they have to make a new compact FF too!

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New Sony 16-25mm G reviews by Jeven Dovey and Marc Alhadeff

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Preorders at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, FotoErhardt, FotoKoch, Calumet, WexUK, Amazon.

Marc from SonyAlphaBlog tested the lens and concluded:

The Sony FE 16-25mm F2.8 G (1399) euros is an excellent lens . It offer very similar performance to the Sony FE 16-35mm F2.8 GM II : excellent sharpness , AF, ergonomics, color rendition with on top lightweight, small size and “reasonable” price vs GM II. Its only weaknesses are the resistance to flare and distortion/vignetting

Its limited range is perfectly ok for landscape usage vs a 16-35mm. If you own the Sony FE 24-70mm F2.8 GM II it will be a very nice complement without overlap. Globally the 16-25mm F2.8 make more sense than the recent Sony FE 24-50mm F2.8 G

Alternatives

The Sony FE 16-35mm F2.8 GM II is the best in all domains except resistance to flare, it will offer more range, smoother background blur , less distortion less vignetting but similar sharpness
The Sony PZ 16-35mm F4 G is maybe the best one for video.
Sigma 16-28mm F2.8 DG DN Contemporary and Tamron 17-28mm F2.8 Di III RXD are clearly below on 61Mpix except maybe for resistance to flare.

The price of the Sony 16-25 F2.8 (1399 euros) allow to get the performance of the GMII (2700 euros) at half of its price and considering the improvement over the Sigma and Tamron in term of sharpness, AF, ergonomics, color rendition it is worth the price difference (1400 vs 900 euros)

Highly recommended

And here is Jeven Dovey’s review:

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Major Excire Foto 2024 Update

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Ther German company released the new Excire Foto 2024 update (Click here to get it).

Press text:

Excire Foto 2024 Update Adds Timesaving Features and Improved Search Functionality
PRC’s Revolutionary Photo-Organizing Software Receives Major Enhancements in Free April 2024 Update

Lübeck, Germany – April 23rd, 2024 – PRC, the AI company behind the award-winning Excire software, has today unveiled a major update to its flagship program, Excire Foto 2024.
Known for its futuristic image-management tools – including a prompt-search AI that allows users to instantly retrieve images by inputting text descriptions and an X-tetics AI that intelligently rates each image based on its aesthetic qualities – Excire Foto 2024 has propelled photographers into a new era of image organization. Now, thanks to enhancements included in the April 2024 update, Excire makes it easier than ever to find, cull, and catalog images so photographers can spend less time behind the computer and more time on their craft.

Improvements to Excire Foto 2024 include:

  • New filters to sort and locate images more effectively (including an option to identify files that have not yet been analyzed by the program)
  • Refinements to the Find by Keyword search selectors; users can now apply OR and NOT operations for increased precision when searching
  • Extension of the text-search feature to selectable metadata so users can locate images from the file path, file description, file headline, and more
  • Additional keywording features, including the option to select, copy, and paste a subset of keywords; drag-and-drop functionality when assigning keywords to photos; and automatic copying of keywords to the clipboard when performing keyword copy-paste operations
  • Significant enhancements for a more streamlined duplicate-search workflow, including a duplicate statistics dialog with intuitive flagging functionality; the option to exclude photo sequences from the AI-powered Find Duplicates search; and the option to select the first photo of each duplicate-search-result cluster to save time when cleaning up folders

Smaller upgrades include:

  • The option to change the loading behavior for lens model metadata
  • An “Invert selection” menu option
  • Keyword tree multiselection
  • A “Manage profiles” option in the “Renaming Profiles” dialog
  • Minor bug fixes, design changes, and improvements

Importantly, the update resets the 14-day trial period. Photographers who previously tested – but did not purchase – Excire Foto 2024 can once again download a 14-day trial of the program and evaluate the software’s updated features.
For customers who already own a copy of Excire Foto 2024, the April 2024 update is complimentary. Users will be prompted to download the update package upon launching Excire Foto 2024. It is recommended that users make a catalog backup before installing the new software.

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New Sony Europe cashback launched: 400€ on the A7rV and 300€ on the A7IV

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Sony has launched a massive cashback action in Europe! check out those special pages at FotoErhardt, Fotokoch, Calumet, WexUK, Amazon DE, Amazon UK, Amazon FR, Amazon IT, Amazon ES (Note: Amazon stores don’t display the cashback info you will have to get here: https://www.sony.de/cashback/sommer).

Some special deal mentions:

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Today only: Lowest price ever on the Lexar 2TB Portable SSD

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There are big savings today on Lexar memory sold on Amazon US (click here) and also on that second deals page with SD cards (Click here). For us photographers, the most interesting offer is the lowest price ever on the 2 TB portable SSD storage drive (click here). Definitely useful for backing up images on the fly. And V90 fast 256GB SD card from Lexar is now available for $197 only at Amazon US (Click here).

You get this lens for $70 less on Amazon US than in any other US store.

 

 

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Curiosity: Sony A1 in low Stock

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It’s the first time in years this is happening: The A1 is out of Stock nearly everywhere in the USA:

You can still find a couple of refurbished Sony A1 at Amazon US:

Don’t know why this is happening as I don’t think the A1II is coming any time soon. Probably has more to do with a temporary production bottleneck.

Thanks to the tipster!

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