Sony books highest Q1 profit since 2007. Also forecasts it will sell more cameras than expected!

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forecast
Sony is boldly black to black and booked the highest Q1 profit since 2007!  You can read the full new financial report here: sony.net/SonyInfo/IR/library/er.html. And there is also very good news on the digital camera business front: Sony revised the forecast and expects an “increase in unit sales of digital cameras”. It’s the first time since many years that I read that Sony expects to sell more “units”! The merit likely goes to the new RX, HX and E-mount cameras.
Reminder for German readers: Today you save 10% on the following lenses by using the coupon code “SONYALPHA7″at checkout. The action ends on midnight. Please be sure to select the original Amazon sold item and not a third party reseller from the following links:
Zeiss 55mm f/1.8 FE lens (Click here).
Zeiss 35mm f/2.8 FE lens (Click here).
Zeiss 16-35mm f/4.0 FE lens (Click here).
Zeiss 24-70mm f/4.0 FE lens (Click here).
Sony 70-200mm f/4.0 FE lens (Click here).
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A7rII Help Guide available. New full size RAW files at Photographyblog.

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The A7rII is shipping in EU and Asia and will ship in six days from now in US according to Amazon (August 5). And here are the latest A7rII news:

1) You can download the full A7rII Help Guide here: http://helpguide.sony.net/ilc/1520/v1/en/print.pdf

2) Pixel peepers can download the many A7rII JPG and RAW images at Photographyblog.

3) High ISO images by Ricky Ban on Flickr.

4) A7Rii first impressions thread at SonyAlphaForum.

5) Sean Cook: “I just opened the files you linked to this morning, and for the first time we have a true high-iso photo. I have opened it in Adobe Camera Raw, and have attached the fullsize photo, a 100% crop and a 2000 pixel wide version. The photo is shot at ISo 25,600, and being an A7s owner, I have to say the file looks really good. I don’t generally shoot my A7s at 25,600 of couches in daylight, so I can’t say exactly how it compares, but it looks basically on par with the A7s. Maybe 1/2 stop behind: https://www.flickr.com/photos/97048644@N07/albums”

A7rII preorder list:
In USA: at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, SonyStore US, FocusCamera, Uniquephoto.
In Europe at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT. Wex UK.
In Asia at Digitalrev, CameraPro.

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Sony Tidbits… (Sony support BBC presenter Steve Backshall).

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Jamie Unwin just sent me the video to his latest project:

Hi Andrea,
Thanks for sharing my film about wildlife crime and the Ivory trade a couple of months ago. Sony UK have again supported another environmental film I have produced, this time I followed Steve Backshall and his kayak partner as they paddled 125 miles from Devizes to Westminster down the river Thames finishing outside the houses of parliament. It took them 23hours and 30minutes of solid kayaking, they were raising money to buy a chunk of Colombian rainforest. So far they have raised enough money to buy a chunk bigger than a small country! I followed them the entire way filming them through the night, Sony UK provided the A7s, Handycam AXP33 and action cam to film their endeavour.
Hope you enjoy the short film!

Many thanks,
Jamie Unwin

Unique combination test: Russian Tair 11a 135mm f/2.8 lens on the Sony A7r on SonyAlphaForum.
Zeiss Batis 85mm test at Yodobashi and Mapacamera.
Zeiss Batis 25mm test at Yodobashi and Mapacamera.

Danas Danulis: “I’ve got RX100 IV for couple of days. Tomorrow I’m doing a bit more serious test, but today I filmed coulpe of wakeboarders. If you are interested… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaoXSPE7zyA“

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LOL: SAR reader sleeps with his new A7rII :)

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The-a7rII-is-here!

SAR reader John Wilhelm sent me this picture he posted on facebook happily sleeping with his new Sony A7rII toy! While the picture is certainly nicely photoshopped I am pretty sure some of the new A7rII owners will keep the camera close to their bed the first night :)

SAR reader Le Butler posted his Sony A7rII first impressions on SonyAlphaForum:
If I sound critical is this brief description it’s because $3k cameras are not allowed to make excuses  :-)
-It’s massive, I really don’t like how big these cameras have become. I knew the weight had gone up hugely too and expected that to make it feel like a dense, top quality item. It doesn’t – it merely feels just like any other good DSLR.
-Packaging/presentation is standard fare, no more premium than any of their other cameras.
-Included: 2 batteries, USB cable, strap, nicely compact 11W USB charger.
-It accepted my non-Sony battery and happily charged from all my USB battery packs as well as an iPhone wall charger while in use.
-Viewfinder: nicer than I expected though flicker is very noticable, resolution adequate but pixels visible
-Speed of operation: Responsive, some extra (but still not all) functions can be used while it’s still writing to card
-Software: Many small improvements, eg more customisation, can add copyright, zooms into AF area chosen instead of the centre every time, AutoISO limits 
-Shutter: I’m going to love silent shutter and might leave it that way perminantly: I couldn’t make any rolling shutter-like artefacts appear when I tried
-Buffer: A sometimes-limiting 21 shots (RAW+JPG), and only 44 shots/min thereafter using a 280MB/sec card. RAWs are 43.5MB each.
 
Overall – When you say “Oh my God” loudly after viewing the very first shot, you know you have something special…makes me want to go reshoot everything I’ve had success with before and more :-D
Feel free to share your images and impressions on our SonyAlphaForum too!

A7rII preorder list:
In USA: at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, SonyStore US, FocusCamera, Uniquephoto.
In Europe at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT. Wex UK.
In Asia at Digitalrev, CameraPro.
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First Sony A7rII owners reports (with RAW files, unboxing video, A7rII special cleaning kit)

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The A7rII Stock image from Bojan Glamocak

As reported earlier the very first Stock of A7rII cameras shipped in Europe and Asia. Check the status at:
In USA: at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, SonyStore US, FocusCamera, Uniquephoto.
In Europe at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT. Wex UK.
In Asia at Digitalrev, CameraPro.

And here is a roundup of images and info I got from our readers:

1) Davide Roveri: “Yesterday, like some other of your readers, I’ve been lucky enough it pickup my α7R II here in London! I’m going to do a evolving hands-on/review of the camera in the next few days and i thought you may be interested! If you want to have a look, here’s the link to the blog page on my website: http://www.drlapse.com/sony-α7r-ii-review/“. Here is Davides unboxing video:

2) Richard Banton sent me the link to his first Flickr image samples.

3) Gwen: “Here is the first full set of raw files from the A7rII. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/q0bkmi8s65fow0d/AAD-rSqA6krq5MCODn6UxPcua?dl=0”

4) Ed Cheong also got that special A7rII cleaning kit. It has been given as a present by Sony Singapore on a special A7rII launch event. Sadly you cannot buy that :(

Reminder: A7rII RAW support at Adobe: blogs.adobe.com/lightroomjournal/2015/07/lightroom-6-1-1-is-now-available.html.

A7rII preorder list:
In USA: at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, SonyStore US, FocusCamera, Uniquephoto.
In Europe at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT. Wex UK.
In Asia at Digitalrev, CameraPro.

Batis store links:
Zeiss Batis 85mm f/1.8 lens in US at Adorama, Bhphoto. In Eu at Amazon DE, WexUK. In Asia at Digitalrev.
Zeiss Batis 25mm f/2.0 lens at Adorama, Bhphoto. In EU at Amazon DE, WexUK. In Asia at Digitalrev.

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