New Sony US deals roundup.

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[shoplink 21666 ebay][/shoplink]

There is one deal of the day for A-mount camera owners. You can buy the Tamron 75-300mm F/4-5.6 for $79(!) only on [shoplink 21666 ebay]Buydig (via eBay)[/shoplink]. It’s the deal of the day on eBay.
Another great deal is the A58 superkit with ten(!) free extra accessories at Camera (Click here).

More US deals:
$50 off on the Samyang 35mm f/1.4 at Amazon (Click here).
$50 off on the Sony SEL20F28 20 mm F/2.8. AF Lens on [shoplink 21664 ebay]CameraLand (via eBay)[/shoplink]
$10 off on the Toshiba 8GB Class 10 UHS-I Hi Capacity SDHC Memory Card on [shoplink 21665 ebay]CameraLand (via eBay)[/shoplink]
Hasselblad Lunar with free 8GB SD card on [shoplink 21663 ebay]Samys (via eBay)[/shoplink]! ok…not really a deal :)

And a list of all Worldwide deals of the day can be found on DealsRunner.com.

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(SR5) The two zooms aperture info (Sony G and Zeiss)

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The Sony 28-70mm FE lens design on a Sony patent (but the real lens has slightly different specs!)

Next week on October 16-17 Sony will announce the new A7 and A7r cameras. And I finally got the info on the aperture of the two zooms:

1) Sony G FE 28-70mm f/3.5-5.6. This lens will be sold as kit lens with the A7 cameras. I don’t know yet if the lens has OSS or not.
2) Zeiss FE 24-70mm f/4.0 OSS lens. This lens could be in store in early 2014 only (while the Sony G zoom will be available in November).

Price is yet unknown but the Sony G zoom will cost around 300 Dollars/Euro when purchased with the camera (should be around 500 Dollars/Euro if you buy it as single item). I have been told the 28-70mm lens (when bought as kit lens with camera) is the only “low-priced lens of the FE range which includes also the Zeiss 35mm f/2.8 and Zeiss 55mm f/1.8 lens.

Message to sources: You can send me more info anonymously by using the contact form you see on the very right of your browser. You can also contact me directly at sonyalpharumors@gmail.com.

For readers: Subscribe the RSS feed (Click here) and Twitter (Click here) stream and the Facebook fan page (Click here) in order to not miss any news!

Reminder (SR = Sonyrumor):
SR1=probably fake rumor
SR2=rumor from unknown sources
SR3=50% chance it is correct
SR4=rumor from known sources
SR5=almost certainly correct!

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ILCE and ILCA: The complete name confusion roundup :)

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The new weird Sony strategy also confused me and some of my sources! The last months I got rumors about an ILCE-7, NEX-7r, NEX-FF, A7, A7R, Alpha FullFrame, ILCE-5000 and an NEX -U212. And here is the answer about what is what:

1) The NEX-FF, NEX-7r, Alpha Full Frame and the ILCE-7 rumors I got are actually for the same camera….the A7/A7R!
2) The ILCE-5000 or A5000 is just the NEX-5T
3) And the NEX-U212 is….a new micro SD card! (I didn’t post that rumor on SAR before).

This is important to know because basically because it means:
1) There is no NEX-7r APS-C camera. The Sony fashion photographer that wrote about the “NEX-7r” camera was talking about the A7r! This also explains why one source was confused by the name and told me the NEX-7 successor is coming (he didn’t know at that time that it was an FF camera).
2) The rumors I got from a trusted source saying that in October there would be new Alpha cameras….well was also referring to the A7 and A7r and not A-mount cameras. The “real” A-mount FF are coming in early 2014.
3) The rumors I got from news sources saying that Sony would drop the “NEX” name on semi pro and pro cameras was correct. I didn’t post that rumor because I try to post as less SR2 rumors as possible. But these rumors are correct! The two new sources are now… trusted sources :)
4) In general all E-mount cameras will have as internal code the “ILCE” prefix. And A-mount cameras will have the internal code “ILCA“. So whenever a source sent me an info on an Alpha camera he may specify if it’s an ILCE or ILCA camera type!

It’s already a hard job to get rumors. Now imagine how crazy it was for me to get rumor about different names and cameras and then learning that basically all different names where for the same camera. I didn’t believe that Sony could mess the names in that way.

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(SR5) There will be a new LA-EA FF adapter.

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The image on top shows you the LAEA2 A to E-mount adapter. According to a very trusted sources there will be a new LA-EA FF adapter that will be announced along the A7/A7r cameras on October 16/17.

Message to sources: You can send me more info anonymously by using the contact form you see on the very right of your browser. You can also contact me directly at sonyalpharumors@gmail.com.

For readers: Subscribe the RSS feed (Click here) and Twitter (Click here) stream and the Facebook fan page (Click here) in order to not miss any news!

Reminder (SR = Sonyrumor):
SR1=probably fake rumor
SR2=rumor from unknown sources
SR3=50% chance it is correct
SR4=rumor from known sources
SR5=almost certainly correct!

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Smart: New K-3 uses IBIS to create AA filter effect!

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The competition announced two new cameras today: The Pentax K-3 (specs/price here at Amazon) and the Nikon D610 (specs/price here at Amazon). But the one camera we have to look at is the Pentax. It uses the same [shoplink 8461]Sony A77 sensor[/shoplink] but the real highlight is the smart AA filter effect created trough the on sensor stabilization.

In short: The camera has no physical Anti Aliasing filter. But if you want to avoid any moire you can mimic the AA filter by activating the “sensor-shift image stabilizer to deliberately move the sensor during the exposure, slightly blurring the image to mimic the effects of an optical low-pass filter.” (Source: Dpreview).

I think this is a “trick” that Sony could easily implement in future cameras. An incredibly smart idea to let us Sony users have both, a camera with and a camera without AA filter at the same time!

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(SR4) New Sony A7/A7r sensor have optimized microlens design

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Image source: Lesnumeriques

One of my sources told me that the A7 and A7r cameras have an “optimized” sensor design to avoid issues on corners. The new microlens alignment and gapless design has been developed specifically for the E-mount FF cameras. Similar to what Leica has done for their Leica M FF series. The performance of Full Frame lenses (also third-party lenses via adapter) is said to be improved over the current [shoplink 14178 ebay]Sony NEX-VG900[/shoplink] sensor.

The source also said he didn’t have the chance to test this. So we have still to see if these aren’t void marketing words or a real major improvement over the VG900 sensor.

Message to sources: You can send me more info anonymously by using the contact form you see on the very right of your browser. You can also contact me directly at sonyalpharumors@gmail.com.

For readers: Subscribe the RSS feed (Click here) and Twitter (Click here) stream and the Facebook fan page (Click here) in order to not miss any news!

Reminder (SR = Sonyrumor):
SR1=probably fake rumor
SR2=rumor from unknown sources
SR3=50% chance it is correct
SR4=rumor from known sources
SR5=almost certainly correct!

 

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Fast 21mm lenses for your A7 and A7r

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[shoplink 21603 ebay]

[/shoplink]

With the A7 and A7r Full Frame mirrorless will become affordable (compared to the expensive Leica M cameras). But the A7 and A7r only come with two FE primes (Zeiss 35mm 2.8 and 55mm 1.8 lenses). This means we have to look elsewhere to get some prime lenses. I thought it would be good to make a quick roundup of lenses we could use via adapter on our A7/A7r cameras. I will start with 21mm lens primes. Here is a short list of lenses you could use on the Sony (fastest lens on top):

[shoplink 21603 ebay]Leica Summilux-M 21mm f/1.4 (here on eBay)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 21602 ebay]Voigtländer Ultron 21mm f/1,8 (here on eBay)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 21598 ebay]Olympus OM 21mm f/2.0 (here on eBay)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 21604 ebay]Miolta MD/MC 21mm f/2.8 (here on eBay)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 21600 ebay]Zeiss ZM 21mm f/2.8 (here on eBay)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 21599 ebay]Olympus OM 21mm f/3.5 (here on eBay)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 21624 ebay]Leica Tri-Elmar 21mm f/4.0 (here on eBay)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 21607 ebay]Voigtländer Color-Skopar 21mm f/4.0 (here on eBay)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 21605 ebay]Konica Hexanon AR 21mm f/4.0 (here on eBay)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 21601 ebay]Zeiss ZM 21mm f/4.5 (here on eBay)[/shoplink].

It has yet to be seen how good (or bad) these lenses do perform on the Sony A7 series. The only test I found on the VG900 is with the expensive Leica Super-Elmar-M 21mm ASPH @ VG-900.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dakw23/8686006909/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dakw23/8686006001/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dakw23/8180002855/in/photostream/

If some of our SAR readers tested one of the mentioned lenses on the VG900 please comment this post! Thanks!

P.S.: Next series is for the 24mm lenses (send me your VG900 tests at sonyalpharumors@gmail.com).

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