Sony A7II gets Silver Award at Dpreview (and more A7II reviews).

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Bildschirmfoto 2015-03-11 um 14.06.14
A7II with Torii Koubou case.

Dpreview posted the full Sony A7II review and the camera earned a Silver Award:

The Alpha 7 II continues to push Sony’s full frame mirrorless line of cameras into ground-breaking territory. It is the only full frame mirrorless camera to offer in-body image stabilization systems and its performance is excellent. The body is comfortable to shoot with and offers a broad set of features that should appeal to both still and video shooters. Unfortunately the a7 II’s high ISO image quality is not as good as other full framers. Raw files are also less malleable than the competition and JPEGs tend to suffer from aggressive noise reduction.

Fstoppers writes:

The Sony a7II delivers a barrage of awesome features and terrific well-rounded performance that amateur and professional photographers will appreciate. Having image stabilization in conjunction with a full-frame sensor is something that excites you every time you go shoot because it gets to be used universally across your lens arsenal.

Tyson Robichaud writes:

If you would have told me 5 years ago that I could buy a Full Frame camera with in body image stabilization, WiFi for remote control and WFT, weather sealing, a top notch 24mp sensor that could quite literally fit in my pocket for $1700, I’d probably have said you were crazy, then maybe slapped you because you were nuts.

A7II links:
Sony Alpha a7II (Body Only) for $1,698 at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, SonyStore and Sony Store Canada.
Sony Alpha a7II (Body Only) for 1.799 Euro at Sony Germany, Sony UK, Jessops UK, Sony France, Sony Italy, Sony Spain, Sony Austria, Sony Switzerland, Sony Netherland, Sony Belgium, Sony Portugal, Sony Sweden, Sony Finland, Sony Norway.
Sony A7II at Sony Store Australia, Digitalrev and Amazon Japan.
A7II Gariz cases sold in [shoplink 32354 ebay]Black (Click here)[/shoplink], [shoplink 32396 ebay]Brown (Click here)[/shoplink],  [shoplink 32355 ebay]Orange (Click here)[/shoplink] and [shoplink 32356 ebay]Camel (Click here)[/shoplink].

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FE 35mm f/2.8 fw update issues: Sony says it will repair affected lenses free of charge

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zeiss35mm28

Sony issued the following statement regarding a possible issue with the FE 35mm f/2.8 lens:

Notice to Owners of the Sonnar T* FE 35mm F2.8 ZA Interchangeable Lens

March 31, 2015
Sony has recently become aware that some of the Sonnar T* FE 35mm F2.8 ZA E-Mount lenses sold during and after November 2014 are experiencing an issue when customers attempt to update the software to the new version released on March 4, 2015 (from Ver. 01 to Ver. 02).
Sony is planning to offer repairs for the affected lenses free of charge.
(Please contact the Sony Support Center listed below. Applications for repairs will also be accepted through the Sony website.)
In the case that the software update completes with no trouble, there is no need for repair.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused and thank you for your understanding and cooperation.

【Malfunction Symptoms】
The software update freezes at the screen below when the customer initiates the software update (from Ver. 01 to Ver. 02) that was made available on March 4, 2015.
Update that has frozen   Update that is proceeding normally

If the above symptom is exhibited, please remove the battery from the camera when the update freezes.
The lens can continue to be used with the pre-update Ver. 01 software.

※How to check the software version
1) Power on the camera
2) Select [Menu]→[Setup]→[Ver.]
The software version installed on the lens will be displayed (as below).

【Affected model and production numbers】
SEL35F28Z Sonnar T* FE 35mm F2.8 ZA
α™ (E-Mount) interchangeable lenses
Purchased during or after November 2014

※Affected production numbers
Some, but not all, numbers from
1812043 – 1851015 (AE Version)
1840715 – 1850381 (CN2 Version)

 

Thanks to the anonymous source who sent this!

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To counterbalance: The positive reviews about the 16-70mm Zeiss.

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The 16-70mm lens image by phillipreeve

The very negative conclusions drawn by Photozone created quite a buzz here on SAR. Our reader Victor pointed out that most of the reviewers out there actually gave a high score to the 16-70mm Zeiss lens: Sonyalphalab, ePhotozine, Photographyblog, Imaging-resource, Admiringlight, Kurtmunger, Stevehuffphoto, Phillipreeve.

I am pretty confident Photozone is a serious review site and so are most of the reviewers I linked to now. This just proofs that reviews are not an exact science and depend on various factors like, personal preferences, lab test quality, scoring system and quality of the tested lens samples.

Zeiss 16-70mm deal: You save $150 on the lens if you buy it refurbished on [shoplink 35043 ebay]Secondipity eBay US (Click here)[/shoplink]

A funny note: Some readers keep saying I am just a Sony fanboy. After yesterdays negative post about the Sony APS-C strategy some of them said that I am bashing on Sony. Just to be clear. I am a free-thinker and I take no side based on non rational arguments. I love to openly discuss positives and negatives about Sony. Because I think that at the end no company is perfect and that critics can (sometimes) help to improve the company behavior.

 

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(SR4) Either RX or A-mount cameras coming on April 23. No E-mount on that day.

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April23

I got one more confirmation from another trusted source that Sony will indeed launch new products on April 23. He also added that there will no E-mount camera or lens announcement on that day. These leaves us with two options:
1) Sony will launch new RX cameras. Very likely the RX2 with curved sensor and 35mm f/1.8 Zeiss. Or a new RX10 successor (The grat [shoplink 35004 ebay]Panasonic FZ1000[/shoplink] does 4K and costs less). Don’t think there will be a RX100m4 already…
2) Sony will launch a new A-mount camera. The A77II is only one year old so I guess we can either hope for a new A99II or a new A58II. Certainly a new A99II would be a strong signal that A-mount is alive!

Just for fun let me know…

I would love to get the...

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Reminder: E-mount stuff (a7rII and so) is likely going ot be announced in May!

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