Sony A7s review by TheCameraStoreTV! A7s is shipping in US, Europe and Canada!

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Chris from TheCameraStore tested the new A7s and to learn what he thinks about the camera just watch the video I posted here on top!

The A7s is shipping in US and Canada according to mails I got from SAR readers.

Lee: “Got my a7s today at my local camera store in san diego. open box link if you don’t already have one. https://www.flickr.com/photos/canonmonster/14492680316/”

Thodoris: “Yesterday I got my hands on the Sony A7s – I covered Ejekt Festival 2014 with it. Ejekt is a festival in Athens, Greece, and the big names this year were Editors and Kasabian. Here are the results: http://thodorismarkou.com/blog/2014/06/ejekt-festival-2014-editors-kasabian/
I used the new Carl Zeiss 24-70mm/f4 and the 1993 Minolta 85mm/f1.4 with the LA-EA4 adapter. The autofocus was amazing with both lenses. I was expecting the contrast-detection system to show a bit of lagging, but no, it was focusing on the ever-moving musicians quite easily. It was lightning-fast as my A99 but it was very accurate and did not hinder me at any point.
All of the Kasabian images were shot on ISO 6400, and some of them were shot in even higher ISO values. I found that I could easily shoot ISO 12800 and match the performance of the Sony A99 at ISO 4000-5000. The last (setlist) image, for example, is ISO 20000. I’ve left the EXIF information on the files.
I gave the camera here and there to professional Nikon and Canon guys, and there was a lot of jaw-dropping with the high-ISO performance of the Sony A7s – they could not believe that this camera can shoot ISO 51200 and produce such clean results.”

Anonymous: “Sony Store in Toronto Canada just called. My A7S is in. I’m going to pick it up today.”

Sony A7s store links:
Sony A7s preorder in USA/CA at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, Sony USA, Sony Canada.
Sony A7s EU pages: Sony DE, UK, ES, FR, IT, NL, BE, AT, CH, SE, NO, FI, PL. And Wex UK.

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Zeiss promises a fix for the Touit 50mm macro flash delay problem.

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Our reader Jim noticed an issue with the new Zeiss Touit 50mm macro lens:

I have recently purchased the Touit 50 macro for my Sony a6000 and was delighted with the combination until I found that the lens is unusable with the camera when the flash is deployed. There is a 3 second delay from pressing the shutter button to the flash and shutter operating.

He contacted Zeiss to ask for a solution and that’s their answer:

Yes, this flash problem with the Sony cameras could be solved with a firmware update for the Touit lens. A new firmware is under development and is scheduled to be released during this summer.
When a new firmware update is available, we will inform you by email.

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Hasselblad HV A-mount luxury camera in Stock at BHphoto. Don’t look at the price :)

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If luxury is what you want than jump over to the Hasselblad HV page at BHphoto (Click here). It’s in Stock right now and ships in a high quality box with the Zeiss 24-70mm lens.

—————————All other US deals:

System cameras
Buy the Sony A7R Interchangeable Lens Camera and Save on Select Lenses and Accessories (Click here).
Save up to $200 on Sony Interchangeable Lens Cameras (Click here).
Save up to $300 on Select Sony Lenses with a Qualifying Sony Compact System Cameras (Click here).
Buy a Qualifying Sony Alpha Digital SLR Camera and Save up to $250 on Select So. (Click here).

Sony-Sigma lenses:
Save up to $100 on Select Sony Lenses (Click here).
Save up to $200 on Select Sigma Telephoto Lenses (Click here).
Save up to $200 on Select Sigma Lenses for Sony Cameras (Click here).
Save $50 on Select Sigma Wide Zoom Lenses (Click here).

RX and QX:
Free Case and Memory Card with Sony QX Lens-Style Cameras (Click here).
Free Case with Sony RX100 Cyber-shot Digital Camera Purchase (Click here).
Free 32 GB Memory Card with Sony RX100M2 Digital Camera Purchase (Click here).

Compact and Action cameras:
Save up to $100 on Select Sony Digital Cameras (Click here).
Save $50 on the Sony RMLVR1 WiFi Remote with Sony Action Video Camera Purchase (Click here).
Save up to $120 on Sony Digital Cameras (Click here).

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Competition news: Nikon D810 features Sony 36MP sensor.

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This is likely one of the most unexciting camera updates ever. Nikon announced the new D810 (specs at Amazon) which features the Sony 36MP sensor and brings only very minor improvements over the D800 (electronic first curtain and so on). The news that matter for us are:

1) There is no new Sony FF sensor in use with the camera. This is the same A7r sensor. Don’t know if that means that Nikon has no exclusivity on new Sony sensors anymore…
2) This may be a chance for Sony to close the gap with their new A-mount FF that could be announced at Photokina in September.

It will be far more intersting to se what Canon is up with their new FF sensor tech. Going to be an exciting rumor summer :)

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Sony Tidbits…

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Stunning Aerial Video of Spring Flooding in Alberta Shot with a Drone-Mounted NEX-5N (via PetaPixel).

Having a blast with the Sony A7s (Steve Huff).
Sony A7s test at Kasayapa (google translation).
Sony Action Cam Blog! Comeback at http://sonyactioncam2.blogspot.com/
A7s test at Cnet Japan.
Review: Sony RX100 Mark III Top-of-the-Range Compact Camera (Digitalversus).
Sony AX100 review at Camcorders.Reviewed.
video comparing the RX10 and the FZ1000 at Cameras.reviewed.
Mirrorless Cameras for Professional Work: Where they prevail & where they fail (Bestmirrorlesscamerareviews).
Sony A7 vertical grip review at SonyAlphaLab.

Nick: “Actually not a rumor, I did somewhat of a comparsion between the Mark III and the new Mark IV Metabones Canon EF to NEX Adapter. You will find it here:
http://www.iso72.de/metabones-sony-nex-smart-adapter-mark-iv-vs-mark-iii-sealed-comparsionreview/”

Chiek: “I just let us know GX680 modification project is Done. http://chiek.co.kr/6807 image https://imageshack.com/a/zViz/1”

Jason: “A crazy guy shoot amazing milky way photos with RX100M3, great unboxing article in Chinese – http://www.mobile01.com/topicdetail.php?f=545&t=3960833”

Carlo: “Thierry Weber from Breew. His Talk is gonna to be about Drones’ history, rules, laws & procedures. And most importantly, how to use them to take beautiful pictures and videos. He’ll share his tips and the luckiest of us will have the chance to control one for a quick flight! http://www.swisstechtalks.com/events/drones-video-mariage-parfait/?l=L1”

Jörg: “I wrote a german review about the Sony A7r with the Zeiss Distagon 18mm F3.5 – which is a really great kombo! It’s now one of my favourite lenses and a great choice for the A7r. http://www.cetus-a.de/blog/2014/5/sony-a7r-und-zeiss-18mm-f3-5-zf2-das-dreamteam”

Luke: “Just received my RX100iii from Amazon yesterday and went out and filmed some of my friends working, and then having dinner. I must say that I am very happy with the new additions . I have a first version of the camera that I use at my work and while I liked it was never overwhelmed by it. The new XAVCs codec is awesome, and I am kind of disappointed this was not included in the flagship A7R and is only now coming out with the A7S. The popup viewfinder and ND filter put this camera over the top. https://vimeo.com/99033121”

 

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The A and E-mount US deals reminder.

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These are the USA savings on current A and E-mount lenses:

E-mount lenses:
$200 off on the 24mm Zeiss at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and Sonystore.
$100 off on the 18-200mm OSS at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and Sonystore.
$100 off on the 18-200mm OSS PZ at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and Sonystore.
$100 off on the 10-18mm at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and Sonystore.
$50 off on the 16-50mm at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and Sonystore.
$50 off on the 35mm f/1.8 at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and Sonystore.
$25 off Sony 30mm f/3.5 at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and Sonystore.

A-mount lenses:
$50 off on the 11-18mm f/4.5-5.6 DT at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and SonyStore.
$100 off on the 16-35mm f/2.8 Zeiss at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and SonyStore.
$50 off on the 16-50mm f/2.8 at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and SonyStore.
$100 off on the 16-80mm f/3.5-4.5 Zeiss at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and SonyStore.
$50 off on the 16-105mm f/3.5-5.6 DT at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and SonyStore.
$100 off on the 24mm f/2.0 Zeiss at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and SonyStore.
$100 off on the 24-70mm f/2.8 Zeiss at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and SonyStore.
$25 off on the 30mm f/2.8 at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto.
$100 off on the 35mm f/1.4 at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and SonyStore.
$25 off on the 35mm f/1.8 at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and SonyStore.
$100 off on the 50mm f/1.4 Zeiss at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and SonyStore.
$25 off on the 50mm f/2.8 macro at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and SonyStore.
$100 off on the 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 G at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto.
$100 off on the 70-400mm f/4-5.6 G II at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and SonyStore.
$100 off on the 85mm f/1.4 Zeiss at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and SonyStore.
$25 off on the 85mm f/2.8 at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and SonyStore.
$50 off on the 100mm f/2.8 at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto.
$100 off on the 135mm f/1.8 Zeiss at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and SonyStore.
$100 off on the 135mm f/2.8 at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and SonyStore.
$100 off on the 300mm f/2.8 G II at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and SonyStore.

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(SR2) A-mount rumors: New 135mm Zeiss shipping early 2015. New 85mm Zeiss coming too?

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A99 with the Zeiss 135mm lens (Courtesy of Adalbert).

Two weeks ago I told you how the current Zeiss 135mm f/1.8 A-mount lens would get replaced at Photokina. The new version is said to have the same optical design but it will be upgraded with the “SSM” focusing mechanism. According to a source from the French site Chassimages the new Zeiss will ship in early 2015 (has 77mm filter diameter and weights 1050g). The source said that also the current 85mm f/1.4 A-mount lens will get a similar update later.

Both current Zeiss lenses got a $100 discount in US:
$100 off on the Zeiss 135mm at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and SonyStore.
$100 off on the 85mm f/1.4 Zeiss at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and SonyStore.

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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.
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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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