BCN Inc., has released the final market shares percentages of the 2012 sales in Japana. These are the results of the digital video and camera market:

Digital camera (integrated lens)
Canon 17.6
Sony Corporation 16.5
Nikon Corporation 14.1
Digital camera (SLR)
Canon 52.7
Nikon Corporation 35.1
Sony Corporation 7.1
Digital camera (SLR mirror-less)
Olympus 29.8
Panasonic 23.3
Sony Corporation 20.1
Digital video camera
Sony Corporation 40.2
Panasonic 24.8
JVC Kenwood 18.2

As you can see Sony made it into the top three of each category. The maybe disappointing news is the DSLR market share which is insignificant compared to the Canon-Nikon duo. So neither the A77 nor the A99 had a significant impact. Sony is doing much better in the mirrorless segment which (in Japan) is exactly as big as the DSLR market.

Amazon ranking (just ro see what’s hot in EU and US):
US ranking (Click here).
DE ranking (Click here).
UK ranking (Click here).
FR ranking (Click here).

This isn’t really a surprise…The RX100 is the Compact Camera of the Year 2012 at Photographyblog. And I guess quite many here on SAR bought that little jewel. One more thing: In these days I also got a weird rumors from an unknown source saying that Sony would launch a new RX100 model. Let me know if you got something about it.

That said the cheapest price I found in US is at [shoplink 16489 ebay]BigValue (Click here)[/shoplink] and as super kit for $648 at Amazon (Click here). And to noble your RX100 you may look at the Italian Leather Gariz case.

Image on top: Alpa 35mm f/4.0 MC PC-Curtagon

A short update about the new Metabones Speed Booster adapter. There will be three of them for sale in February:
ALPA to NEX ([shoplink 16469 ebay]check Alpa lenses here on eBay[/shoplink]).
Canon EF to NEX
Contarex to NEX ([shoplink 16478 ebay]check Contarex lenses here on eBay[/shoplink]).
Contax C/Y to NEX
Nikon F to NEX
Leica R to NEX ([shoplink 16471 ebay]check Leica R lenses here on eBay[/shoplink]).

Source: metabones.
And again…it’s Alpa and not Alpha! I didn’t make a spelling error :)

Like you I am surprised they added support for the Alpa lenses!

As you know MXcamera will sell the new Contax G to Sony E-mount adapter starting from February. The “special” feature is that it supports full auto aperture and auto focus control. Only the 16mm and 21mm Contax  G lenses will not be compatible on a NEX camera. Anyway, the news today is that there are two more videos published by the store selling those adapters, MXcamera. One video you can watch on top and the second video can be found here on youtube. Yep, looks like the af works :)

MXcamera already sells the Canon EF autofocus adapter on [shoplink 16463 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].

—

Reminder: list of great G lenses with links to eBay price:
Hologon 16mm; 1:8 on [shoplink 16235 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink] -> (will not work on the DEO TECHART adapter).
Biogon T* 21 mm; 1:2,8 on [shoplink 16236 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink] -> (will not work on the DEO TECHART adapter).
Biogon T* 28 mm; 1:2,8 on [shoplink 16237 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
Planar T* 35 mm; 1:2,0 on [shoplink 16238 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
Planar T* 45 mm; 1:2,0 on [shoplink 16239 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
Sonnar T* 90 mm; 1:2,8 on [shoplink 16240 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
Vario-Sonnar T* 35 – 70 mm; 1:3,5-5,6 on [shoplink 16241 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].

Philip Bloom announced and tested the new Metabones “Speed Booster” adapter. And what it does sounds as it would be some kind of magic trick! It makes any lens faster, wider and sharper! Philipp explains how it works:

“In essence, it’s an optical adapter that attaches to the E mount of a Sony NEX camera (Super 35 sensor) and then to a full frame SLR lens. The Metabones ‘Speed Booster’ is a 0.71 x focal reducer, that will effectively turn your full frame 50mm f/1.8 lens into a 35mm f/1.2 lens. Note, doing so (as a guide) will increase the aperture of that lens by one stop. Your Sony NEX Super 35 E-Mount will effectively have near full frame coverage on a full-frame lens. It also serves ‘double-duty’ as a lens mount adapter, from Canon EF lens (but not EF-S) to Sony NEX, with auto-aperture and image stabilisation.“

Amazing or not? It will be available in January 2013 from Metabones’ web site http://www.metabones.com and its worldwide dealer network for US$599 / £372 plus shipping and applicable taxes and duties.

Here is an image that shows you how it works:

The image circle gets reduced and this actually doesn’t decrease the image quality. The only real drawbacks are:
1) the lens has no fast autofocus like the recently announced [shoplink 15341 ebay]EF to NEX Smart Adapter II (they are here on eBay)[/shoplink].
2) You have to use a Full Frame lens and you can use it on an APS-C camera only (not on FF cameras).

And here is a video sample shot by Philip:

194 grams from James Miller on Vimeo.

Question now….

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