Sony announced that it will split off its semiconductors operations and create a separate company. This will help them give autonomy to accelerate decision-making and make them more accountable for their profitability.

Engadget. writes:

The move means that Sony’s core businesses are now mobile, gaming, imaging (cameras), movies, music and financial services. Those businesses — especially mobile — will now have to stand on their own without sensors to prop them up.

As we know from previous reports the camera division is doing fine. And todays Sony decision will not change anything for the future.

Not only we hobbyist on SAR purchased the new Sony A7rII :) The White House is using the Sony for their official pictures! Check out the EXIF on Flickr.

And here are two more A7rII news:

Dpreview published the A7rII Dynamic range test and writes:

When comparing against the Nikon D810, the differences between the two cameras are subtle. The difference between the Sony and the Canon EOS 5DS is much easier to illustrate.

ThePhoBlographer posted a High megapixel camera comparison between the Canon 5Ds, Nikon D810 and Sony A7rII:

Sony is very close to catching up with all that Canon and Nikon can do; but it’s still not totally there. In many ways, they’re far ahead of what Canon and Nikon are capable of–and those ways appeal most to the non-professional photographers. For working pros in the wedding and photojournalism world that need TTL flash and more lens selections; we’re going to need to wait.

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

Adobe just updated Lightroom which now added full support for the new Sony A7sII. The A7sII is the first Sony camera with 14 Bit uncompressed RAW and will ship starting from next week.

Another good Adobe news is that they added Lens Profiles for many third party lenses many SAR readers here do own:

– Canon FD 28 mm f/2.8
– Canon FD 50 mm f/1.4
– Canon FD 135 mm f/2.5 S.C.
– Carl Zeiss Distagon T* 45 mm f/2.8 (Contax 645)
– Carl Zeiss Distagon T* 35 mm f/3.5 (Contax 645)
– Asahi Pentax Super-Takumar 55 mm f/1.8 (M42)
– Fujifilm Fujinon 50 mm f/1.4 (M42)
– Fujifilm Fujinon 55 mm f/1.8 (M42)
– Minolta MC Rokkor 58 mm f/1.2
– Minolta MC Rokkor -PF 55 mm f/1.7
– Minolta MC Rokkor -X PG 50 mm f/1.4
– Minolta MC Tele Rokkor -PE 200 mm f/4.5
– Minolta MC W.Rokkor -HG 35 mm f/2.8
– Minolta MD 50 mm f/2
– Minolta MD Celtic 135 mm f/3.5
– Minolta MD Rokkor -X 45 mm f/2
– Minolta MD Rokkor -X 50 mm f/1.7
– Minolta MD W.Rokkor -X 28 mm f/2.8
– Minolta MD W.Rokkor -X 28 mm f/2.8
– Nikon Nikkor 24 mm f/2.8 AI
– Nikon Nikkor 50 mm f/1.4 AIS
– Nikon Nikkor 50 mm f/1.8 AI
– Nikon Nikkor-H Auto 50 mm f/2
– Nikon Nikkor-P.C Auto 105 mm f/2.5 AI
– Nikon Nikkor-S.C Auto 50 mm f/1.4
– Nikon Nikkor-UD Auto 20 mm f/3.5 AI

Cool!

Lightroom CC at Adobe (Click here).
Lightroom 6 at Adobe (Click here), Adorama (Click here), BHphoto (Click here).

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found via Mirrorlessrumors.com

FDtimes published a PDF document containing an interview with Zeiss Vicepresident Winfried Scherle. Here are a couple of interesting tidbits:

1) Full Frame is the future:
“I’m convinced that in the near future the relevant innovations and improvements will be made with Full Frame sensors. With the huge number of FF still picture cameras being sold, these sensors will be available for attractive prices. Canon started with the 5D MKII and was, according to my understanding, surprised that the community used the still camera for motion pictures. Sony has the a7RII and a7S which is dedicated for motion pictures. I’m convinced we’ll see more and more cine cameras with Full Format sensors.”

2) About the lens strategy with Sony:
“We have regular strategy meetings with Sony where we discuss roadmaps and so on but please understand that we can’t disclose further details.”

3) About E-mount:
“I think they were surprised about the success when they introduced the first mirrorless cameras in an environment that was dominated by DSLRs. So the E-mount market and mirrorless cameras have been a really disruptive technology. It started to be very popular in Japan but now it’s spreading around the world. And it’s getting even more relevant with the a7 series Full Format cameras. We are convinced that this will also drive the motion picture industry.”

It’s very clear how Zeiss is focused on Full Frame E-mount lens development. I don’t think we will ever see a new [shoplink 41087 ebay]Zeiss Touit APSC lens[/shoplink] launch anymore!

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For European readers: Gold Box deal on the Sony RX1R at Amazon Germany (Click here).