Dpreview tests the new Sony A7rII 14 Bit uncompressed RAW files.

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Bildschirmfoto 2015-09-23 um 17.42.39
Image from DPreview showing the absent artifacts on the new 14 Bit RAW file (on the right)

DPreview is the first site having access to Sony’s new 14 Bit uncompressed RAW files. They tested it and those are the benefits they noticed:

1) No Artifacts on high contrast edges:no longer introduce errors and artefacts around high-contrast edges.
2) Very small Dynamic range improvement:There’s possibly a tiny improvement if you try to brighten very deep shadows but the difference is so subtle that we don’t consider it to be photographically significant. But, even without this, the camera’s Raw files are more flexible than they were before.

The files are twice as big as the previous compressed RAW files. And also very interesting: Sony’s new 14 BIT upgrade offers “uncompressed RAW files” and not “losslessly-compressed Raw”. The reasons are limitations of working with the cameras’ existing processors. But Sony said they will investigate the possibility to add “lossless compression system if there’s sufficient user demand.

A7rII store list:
In USA: at Amazon, BHphoto, AdoramaSonyStore US, FocusCamera, Uniquephoto.
In Europe at Amazon DE, Amazon UK, Wex UK and ParkCameras.
In Asia at Digitalrev, CameraPro.

The A7sII preorder list:
In USA at Amazon, BHphoto, FocusCamera, Adorama.
In Europe at WexUK.
In Asia soon at Digitalrev.

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Gold Box deal on the Sony 32GB SD card at Amazon US.

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Sony32GB

There is now a Gold Box deal on the Sony 32GB SD card sold by Amazon US (Click here). A full list of Gold Box deals can be found here. And on Bhphoto here.

Reminder: new list of refurbished and grey imported Sony deals:
Refurbished Sony A7r for $1,299 on [shoplink 40699 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
Refurbished Sony A5100 with two(!) lenses for $469 on [shoplink 40700 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
Refurbished Sony A6000 with two(!) lenses for $629 on [shoplink 40701 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
Grey Imported Sony A7s for $1,699 on [shoplink 40698 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
Grey imported Zeiss 16-35mm FE lens for $1,19 on [shoplink 40702 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
Grey imported Sony FE 70-200mm lens for $1,144 on [shoplink 40703 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
Grey imported Zeiss 24-70mm FE lens for $899 on [shoplink 40704 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].

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Sony A7rII tested by TheCameraStoreTV: “Blows the Canon 5DSr out of the water”!

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TheCameraStoreTV team posted their Sony A7R II Hands-On Field Test Part 1 With Kyle Marquardt. And they compared it against the Canon 5DSr and they say the A7rII simply blows the Canon out of the water! With one exception: The Canon still beats the A7rII for sports photography because of the much more accurate autofocusing on moving objects. Something Sony has to improve on the future A9 :)

More A7rII tests:
A7rII Dynamic Range Tests at Luminous Landscape with a video from Michael Tapas who defines the A7rIi as a “very very very game changing camera“!
A7r II and Voigtlander lenses (Mirrorlessons).

A7rII preorder list:
In USA: at Amazon, BHphoto, AdoramaSonyStore US, FocusCamera, Uniquephoto.
In Europe at Amazon DE, Amazon UK, Wex UK and ParkCameras.
In Asia at Digitalrev, CameraPro.

A7rII case:
Gariz leather case in [shoplink 39113 ebay]Black (Click here)[/shoplink], [shoplink 39108 ebay]Camel (Click here)[/shoplink], [shoplink 39110 ebay]Orange (Click here)[/shoplink], [shoplink 39111 ebay]Brown (Click here)[/shoplink] and [shoplink 39112 ebay]Red (Click here)[/shoplink]. Also available on Amazon US (Click here).
Gariz Alcantara case in [shoplink 39094 ebay]Black (Click here)[/shoplink] and [shoplink 39095 ebay]Red (Click here)[/shoplink]. Also available on Amazon US (Click here).
Lim’s case in [shoplink 39107 ebay]Black (Click here)[/shoplink], [shoplink 39102 ebay]Brown (Click here)[/shoplink], [shoplink 39103 ebay]Red (Click here)[/shoplink], [shoplink 39104 ebay]Yellow (Click here)[/shoplink], [shoplink 39105 ebay]Navy Blue (Click here)[/shoplink] and [shoplink 39106 ebay]Khaki (Click here)[/shoplink]. Also available on Amazon US (Click here).

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(UPDATED) Bad news if true: Samsung kills their camera business?

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[shoplink 40686 ebay]samsung[/shoplink]

There are four companies that can do almost all of the tech in-house (sensor, processor and so on). Those are Sony, Canon Panasonic and Samsung. And if the rumors reported at Mirrorlessrumors are correct than Samsung just decided just killed the entire camera business on a manager meeting held in July.

UPDATE: Samsung just released an official statement at Imaging Resource:

Withdrawing from the camera business is not true and there is no official plan to stop production of cameras and lenses. Samsung continuously analyzes the varying needs and requirements of consumers in each market and region very carefully. However, we do not officially comment on rumors or speculation.

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Sony Tidbits…

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Sony Alpha Tips: Mitakon Speedmaster 85mm 1.2 FE Lens by Miguel Quiles.

Today only: Up to 20% off on SD cards at Amazon Germany (Click here to see the list).
A5100 is the best mirrorless camera for beginners (Engadget).
Sony A7s 6 cages review at Cinema5D.
Cheap lenses are not good II (Joerg Haag).
Sony A7R II with the Sony FE 35mm f/1.4 Sample Images (Photographyblog).
Sony α7S Flashback (Akihabara).
RX10m2 4K video sample by Camerahoarders.

Amin:I did a comparison of all the Sony 35mm lenses here: http://www.talkemount.com/threads/13393/

Alex:I just received my ​Di700A+Air1 kit this saturday. 20 minutes in to the session, the hot shoe broke. The fitting with the provided bracket is loose and, the woble of the flash with a diffuser and on a tripod was enough to break it. I was very disappointed with the plastic hotshoe and its weak design. I even went to check my i40 and for my surprise, the hotshoe was also plastic although the website describes a metal hotshoe as a key feature. ​Here you can see the pictures: http://www.marchetti.fot.br/clientes/nissin/​
The plastic hotshoe is too weak for such a big unit, specially considering that it was conceived to be used of camera.
I hope they provide me with a hot shoe piece to replace it. So far my emails came back. The hk email address does not exist an the japan email address returned the email with the photo attached. I big deception and awful begining to Nissin´s so expected flash line :-/

 

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Grey imported A7s sells for $1699.

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[shoplink 40698 ebay]Bildschirmfoto 2015-09-22 um 16.00.31[/shoplink]

The A7sII has been announced but it cost more than the first generation A7s. And the latter did not get any price drop yet (Still $2499). Therefore if you want to save $800 you can buy it Grey Imported by US seller [shoplink 40698 ebay]GetDigital on eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].

And here is a new list of refurbished and grey imported Sony deals:
Refurbished Sony A7r for $1,299 on [shoplink 40699 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
Refurbished Sony A5100 with two(!) lenses for $469 on [shoplink 40700 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
Refurbished Sony A6000 with two(!) lenses for $629 on [shoplink 40701 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
Grey imported Zeiss 16-35mm FE lens for $1,19 on [shoplink 40702 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
Grey imported Sony FE 70-200mm lens for $1,144 on [shoplink 40703 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
Grey imported Zeiss 24-70mm FE lens for $899 on [shoplink 40704 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].

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The Zeiss 24-70mm optical performance “sucks ” (Ken Rockwell, Matt Granger, Photozone, SLRgrear).

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Image courtesy: Photozone.

According to plenty of reviewers the Zeiss FE 24-70mm lens seems to not be worth of the Zeiss badge. The latest harsh critic is coming via Ken Rockwell whom compared the A6000 vs A7rII and Canon 5Dsr image quality performance. And the real weak spot in his comparison seems to be the Zeiss FE 24-70mm lens:

The reason the Sony A6000 & 16-50mm OSS look about the same as the Sony A7R II and Zeiss FE 24-70mm f/4 OSS is because the Zeiss FE 24-70mm f/4 OSS is pretty soft in the corners, so the better performance of the 16-50mm OSS renders the $598 combination about the same as the $4,300 Sony combo. Ouch, sometimes the truth hurts — sorry Sony.

Lately also Matt Granger shared his very negative opinion about the lens. More lens reviews with the same kind of conclusion can be read at Photozone. and SLRgrear too.

I guess we really need a new 24-70mm f/2.8 FE zoom soon. And please Sony…it should be really good (a Zeiss badge alone doesn’t do it) and it should be NOT more expensive than the [shoplink 40693 ebay]Nikon 24-70mm[/shoplink] and [shoplink 40694 ebay]Canon 24-70mm[/shoplink] lenses!

Reminder: Maybe that “SEL2470 GM” lens registered lately by Sony in Russia will finally be the one 24-70mm lens we were waiting for?

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