Special Sony eBay Deals page!

Share

Today eBay launched a special Sony deals section. And here are the camera related deals:

[shoplink 25024 ebay]Sony NEX-5t with 16-50mm lens (Click here)[/shoplink]. Price is $60 lower than regular price at Amazon.
[shoplink 25030 ebay]Sony RX100II (Click here)[/shoplink]. $45 off and free extras.
[shoplink 25027 ebay]$20 off on the Xperia Z1 (Click here)[/shoplink]. No an A-mount camera but is the first smartphone with Sony G lens :)
[shoplink 25028 ebay]Sony NEX-5t with 16-50mm lens (Click here)[/shoplink]. Price is $35 lower than regular price at Amazon.
All other deals on the special Sony deals section.

–

All other current Sony deals:

Sony A99:
A99 with a free(!) grip for $2299 at Amazon (Click here), BHphoto (Click here) and Sony Store (Click bere).
Buy.com (now Rakuten) is selling the Sony A99 for $1,899.99 only. The offer runs out of time within the next couple of hours.

Sony A7 and A7r:
A7-A7r up to $650 savings are still running at Amazon (Click here), BHphoto (Click here) and Sony Store (Click bere).
You can trade it any camera you have (also a $10 cheap used compact) and get a $300 credit for the A7 or A7r purchase at Focuscamera (Click here) or BHphoto (Click here).

Sony RX10 and RX100II:
Save $240 on Select Accessories with the Purchase of the Sony RX10 Digital Camera at Amazon and SonyStore.
Save up to $550 on Select Sony Accessories with Sony RX1 Series Camera Purchase at Amazon.

“Old” NEX series:
Sony NEX-7 with two lenses and extras for $899 (substract the $100 gift card) at BHphoto (Click here).
NEX-3n with kit lens is again back in Stock for $299 only at Amazon US (Click here).
NEX-6 with kit lens sells for $599 at Amazon too (Click here).

Share

Imaging Resource says A7 light leak is a “non-issue” (Canon 5dmarkII leaks much more!).

Share


Sony A7r Light Leak video by Ferrell McCollough

Our friends at Dicahub found that official Sony Korea note where they say that the LIght Leak issue isn’t a “general problem”. But they will investigate further and then notify their more detail action in March. But now we have to report a quite interesting and surprising report:

Imaging Resource tested the light leak and said it’s actually present in Nikon and Canon cameras too and the [shoplink 25011 ebay]Canon 5dmarkIII[/shoplink] actually shows an even greater leak! They write:

Drawing it together, is a light leak of the sort seen in the A7 in any way unusual? Absolutely not. The best Canon and Nikon models exhibit similar behavior. While a perfect camera might block every last photon, the tolerances required of lens and flange make this exceedingly difficult.  To our minds, based on what we’ve seen with our A7 and the best competing models, this is really a non-issue.

Well, I guess this will quiet down some of the noise around the A7-A7r light leak issue :)

Share

Great news! Sony A7 and A7r firmware update coming on March 19!

Share

Sony Japan officially announced a new A7 and A7r firmware release for March 19! And these are the improvements (translated from Japanese):

– support for the focus hold button of the new SEL 70-200G lens
– Start up time reduction
– Image quality improvement
– Adds Live view grading and smooth reflection application. Improves “Time Laps” APP.

I am now wondering what they mean with “Improved Image quality”!

—

Specs and Store Links in US and Canada:
Dedicated Sony announcement page at Amazon US (Click here).
Sony A7r body at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS. TheCameraStore Canada.
Sony A7 body at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS. TheCameraStore Canada.
Sony A7 with 28-70mm kit lens at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS. TheCameraStore Canada.
Sony RX10 at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
Zeiss 24-70mm at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
Zeiss 35mm at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
Zeiss 55mm at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
70-200mm A-mount at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
Sony A-Mount to E-Mount Lens Adapter at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto.
Sony A to E adapter with mirror at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto.
A7/A7r leather case at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
A7/A7r vertical grip at Amazon, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
Sony W Series Battery Charger at Amazon, BHphoto.
Sony FA-CS1M Off-Camera Shoe at BHphoto.
Semi-Hard LCD Screen Protector for A7-A7r at Amazon, BHphoto.

Specs and Store Links in Europe:
Sony A7r body at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT, WexUK, WexDE.
Sony A7 body at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT, WexUK, WexDE, Amazon UK, Amazon DE, Amazon FR.
Sony A7 with 28-70mm kit Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT, WexUK, WexDE, Amazon UK, Amazon DE, Amazon FR.
Sony RX10 at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT, WexUK, WexDE.
Zeiss 35mm at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT,
Zeiss 55mm at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT
Zeiss 24-70mm at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, SE, PT
Sony G 28-70mm lens at Sony DE, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO.

Asia:
A7r at Digitalrev.
A7 at Digitalrev, Amazon Cina.
A7 with 28-70mm lens at Digitalrev.

Share

Zeiss 24-70mm FE lens gest DxOmarked!

Share

The new Zeiss 24-70mm F/4.0 is finally in Stock and shipping in many stores: In USA at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS. And in Europe at Sony DE, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, SE, PT (Click on country name to see the lens site).

But how good is the lens?

Well DxOmark (Click here) just posted the full lab test results and writes:

Performance of the Zeiss Vario-Tessar is good overall but it’s not without some idiosyncrasies. On the one hand it has very good uniformity, barring a dip wide-open at 24mm, it’s sharp right out to the corners.
Control of other aberrations at the wide end – chromatic aberration, distortion and vignetting isn’t quite what we would expect, but at all other focal lengths the lens performs well. Given the not unreasonable price of the lens (and the camera body for that matter), Sony has managed to deliver a balance of performance and value, while at the same time offering something different to the mainstream options. There’s little doubt it’s an attractive combination, but it’s not quite the resounding success we believed it would be.

And here are more recent tests:

Zeiss 24-70mm lens test by Tim Ashley and this is what he thinks about it in very short:

It’s not perfect but I think it is the single most useful lens in the world right now. I really do. And it is a whole barrel load of fun.

And Leica Boss writes:

flexible zoom with a lot of very impressive qualities that will probably never dazzle me… but will certainly get the job done well.

Unboxing video by TheDigitalDigest:

Share

The fall of the camera industry: What should Sony do?

Share

Just click on the image on top to see a larger size version (Courtesy of Lensvid).

Our friends from Lensvid analyzed the CIPA data and put on graphs the facts that we already knew: The camera industry is facing a deep crisis.  DSLR, Mirrorless and compact camera market are shrinking. And it’s possible that the this will be the trend for the future too with the mass market focusing on using devices like Smartphones, Tablets, Google Glasses to take their pictures and videos.

I am pretty sure there will be always a market for large sensor cameras but it’s likely to become pretty “marginal”. We are on the verge of a big paradigm search in the world of photography where aspects like connectivity and creativity (in form of APPS) become more important than use of system cameras. Considering these aspects what would you suggest Sony to do?

One small thought: Unlike so many other analysts I see a bright future for Sony. Nikon and Canon depend more from the “pure” system camera market than Sony. Sony did a great job to focus on one aspect that will certainly survive: Image sensor production. They are number one and still growing. No matter if people are going to use a DSLR or Smartphone or other new kind of devices. Sony will be the one company making the sensors for it!

—

More info at Lensvid and a youtube video made by them:

Share

Sony US deals reminder: A99, A7r and A7, RX10 and RX100.

Share

We hade quite many new Sony US deals this week! Here is the roundup in case you missed some of them:

Sony A99:
A99 with a free(!) grip for $2299 at Amazon (Click here), BHphoto (Click here) and Sony Store (Click bere).
Buy.com (now Rakuten) is selling the Sony A99 for $1,899.99 only. The offer runs out of time within the next couple of hours.

Sony A7 and A7r:
A7-A7r up to $650 savings are still running at Amazon (Click here), BHphoto (Click here) and Sony Store (Click bere).
You can trade it any camera you have (also a $10 cheap used compact) and get a $300 credit for the A7 or A7r purchase at Focuscamera (Click here) or BHphoto (Click here).

Sony RX10 and RX100II:
Save $240 on Select Accessories with the Purchase of the Sony RX10 Digital Camera at Amazon and SonyStore.
Save up to $550 on Select Sony Accessories with Sony RX1 Series Camera Purchase at Amazon.

“Old” NEX series:
NEX-3n with kit lens is again back in Stock for $299 only at Amazon US (Click here).
NEX-6 with kit lens sells for $599 at Amazon too (Click here).

Share