Tuesday March 18 at 1:00pm EST: Live Discussion with Mark Weir!

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Tomorrow (March 18 at 1:00pm EST) BHphoto will host a Live Stream Event about the Sony A7 series. You can read more about the event and submit your questions on that BHphoto page (Click here). The guest list includes Mark Weir from Sony, Pulitzer prize winner and Sony A7r user Brian Smith.

Let’s hope Mark Weir will take the chance to talk about both Sony A and E-mount strategies! Be sure to send in the “right” questions :)

—Current Sony US 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) , Adorama (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:
Total of $398.90 free extras comes along the NEX-6 body at BHphoto (Click here).
Sony NEX-6 double lens kit for $869 via third party resellers at Amazon US (Click here).
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).

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(SR5) The Sony 2014 rumored camera and lens timeline roundup (A77 successor, FE high end camera and lenses, RX and 4K).

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The Sony roadmap that hinted a new A-mount camera release. A camera positioned between the A77 and A99.

I don’t want you to get lost on rumors so here is a roundup of SR5 rumors only. This is what you can expect in 2014:

1) Sony A77 successor. The camera will be announced in early May and is supposed to have a terrific AF speed. It will hit the stores in June.
2) New FE lenses. Three new Sony FE lenses will come in 2014. If we are “lucky” two of them will be announced along the A77 announcement.
3) New Full Frame E-mount camera(s). Definitely to come right before Photokina. And they will not be a direct replacement of the A7-A7r cameras.
4) New 4k photocamera. There is definitely at least one 4K capable camera to come. No 100% reliable specs yet. Coming end of summer.
5) New RX cameras. One new Full Frame and probably new RX100 cameras to come too. No exact announcement date yet (but RX FF likely at Photokina).
6) New manual focusing Zeiss FE lenses. Definitely to be announced at Photokina. Likely “based” on the great [shoplink 25191 ebay]Zeiss ZM (here on eBay) series[/shoplink].

Still to be confirmed as SR5: A-mount Full Frame. I still didn’t manage to get 99% reliable info about it.

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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.
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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A5000 is now shipping in Asia and Europe. First reviews roundup!

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With all the A6000 buzz we forgot there is another new Sony camera that is now starting to ship in Asia and Europe!

In Europe it in Stock at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, AT, NO, FI, SE, CH, PL and at non Sony stores like Redcoon DE, Amazon DE and Amazon UK.
In Asia it ships at Digitalrev (Click here) and Amazon Japan (Click here).
In USA it will ship soon at Amazon US (Click here), BHphoto (Click here) and at SonyStore US (Click here).

First A5000 test:
You can read full reviews of the camera at Trustedreviews and ePhotozine. And some mroe image samples at Photograpbyblog.

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Free 20mm lens with the NEX-5t! $400 free extras with the NEX-6.

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Here are a couple of new Sony deals:
Sony is clearing the stocks of “older” NEX models. Tha’s why they are now selling the NEX-5t with free 20mm lens and other extras at BHphoto and BestBuy.
Sony NEX-6 double lens kit for $869 via third party resellers at Amazon US (Click here).
Total of $398.90 free extras comes along the NEX-6 body at BHphoto (Click here).
$200 off on the Rokinon 8mm fisheye lens for A or E mount on [shoplink 25197 ebay]eBay US (Click here)[/shoplink].
List of all Lightning Deals at Amazon US (Click here).

—Still running 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) , Adorama (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).

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Test of the new Zeiss 24-70mm on the Sony A7R (Guest post by Dierk Topp)

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The following is a guest post written by Dierk topp. Please contact me (Andrea) at sonyalpharumors@gmail.com if you want to write an article to be published on SAR. Thanks!

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Test of the new Zeiss Vario-Tessar FE 4/24-79 ZA OSS on the Sony A7R

This is no professional test and was planed for my own judgment of the lens.  After looking at these images I hope, that we soon will get profiles included in the next Adobe Camera Raw!

Setup:
autofocus, tripod, horizontal control with  bubble level, IR remote control
LR 5.3 default development, export JPG 92%, sharpening for screen during export
OOC JPEG images with camera defaults (I never use JPEG out of the camera and did not adjust any settings)
focal lengths 24, 50 and 70mm, with f/4, f/5.6 and f/8
I found severe distortions in all focal lengths and apertures  in the RAW files. These distortions seem to be very good corrected in the camera JPEG with the effect, that you loose parts of the 100% image!
I added the OOC images with f/4 for these three focal lengths. EXIF is included in all images.

You find all test images in full resolution on my flickr album (Click here)
together with a set of the OSS test images, of course a complete individual result!

as example 50mm at f/4 from RAW

and OOC JPEG

P.S.: The new Zeiss 24-70mm is in Stock 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).

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Full A6000 review at SLRclub.

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The Korean site SLRclub posted the full A6000 review. As usual they do post the text as jpg. picture and that’s why there is no english translation. But it’s worth to check out the site to see their youtube autofocus tests and the many image samples they posted.

For portueges&brazilian friend: An A6000 unboxing in brazilian portuguese  on youtube :)

Sony A6000 preorder list with US and Europe links:
Sony A6000 at Amazon (Click here), Adorama, BHphoto (Click here), SonyStore (Click here). In Europe at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, AT, NL, BE, CH, FI, SE, PT, WexUK.
Silver A6000 at WexUK (Click here).
Sony A6000 with lens at Amazon (Click here), Adorama, BHphoto (Click here), SonyStore (Click here), Sony Canada (Click here), WexUK (Click here).
Silver A6000 with lens at WexUK (Click here).
Sony 70-200mm FE at Amazon (CLick here), BHphoto (Click here), SonyStore (Click here). In Europe at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, AT, NL, BE, CH, FI, SE, PT

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