THe US store BHphoto (Click here) expects to ship the new A57 on April 22. Meantime new tests have been published: ISO test at DCfever (Click here). A57 image samples at Lenstip (Click here). First impressions at DxOmark (Click here). Sony Alpha A57 at each ISO setting at ThePictureDesk (Click here).

The next new SLT camera should be the A37. And than the A99…

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P.S.: Zeiss for NEX is back in Stock at Amazon (Click here).

Image courtesy: Photozone.

Klaus from Photozone has some bad news for us. He tested three NEX lenses and all are delivering sub average results when used on the NEX-7. The 24 Megapixel sensors demands high quality lenses and the cheaper 16mm, 18-55mm and 30mm macro can’t exploit the full sensor potential. The only exception is the [shoplink 8448]50mm f/1.8[/shoplink] lens and very likely the still to be tested and wonderful [shoplink 8450]Zeiss 24mm f/1.8[/shoplink]. Here are the latest three tests from Klaus:

1) The Sony E 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 OSS (Click here to read the review) kit lens isn’t good enough for the NEX-7: “it may perform decently on lower resolution NEX cameras (the 3 and 5 series). However, its capabilities are clearly overstrained on Sony’s 24 megapixel sensor. In so far it is very surprising that Sony is also offering it bundled with the NEX 7.”

2) The 16mm f/2.8 pancake (Click here to read the review): “the Sony E 16mm f/2.8 may be a controversial lens on lower resolution NEX cameras. However, it seems rather pointless to use it on the NEX 7 – 24 megapixel are way beyond the capabilities of this tiny lens.”

3) Klaus also tested the A-mount Zeiss 85mm Planar lens on the NEX-7 (Click here to read the review) and while it definitely performs much better there are still some issues: “even the mighty Zeiss isn’t perfect anymore on the 24 megapixel sensor. At max. aperture the center performance is certainly very good but the border quality is a bit lower than expected. This is somewhat surprising considering the fairly big lens to sensor distance due to the required adapter. The decrease in border quality either relates to a difficult sensor characteristic or, possibly, to a sub-optimal sample of the lens.”

All these lenses do deliver a better performance on other NEX cameras with lower resolution sensors like the [shoplink 8452]Sony NEX-5n[/shoplink]. This is a call for Sony to focus on the development and release of good quality lenses! The NEX-7 remains a top seller surpassing the direct competition like the Fuji X PRO 1 and Olympus E-M5 at Amazon US (place 2), Amazon Germany (place 8), Amazon France (place 4) and Amazon UK (place 17). And they would sell ton of lenses if there would be more of them.

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Sony NEX-7 preorder search links: [shopcountry 8454].
Sony 50mm f/1.8 preorder search links: [shopcountry 8448].
Zeiss 24mm f/1.8  preorder search links: [shopcountry 8450].

As you know it is the Sony 36 Megapixel Full Frame sensor that powers the current Nikon D800 topseller camera (Click here to see the ranking). And as far as I know Nikon has a (one year?) exclusivity on that sensor. DxOmark just tested the sensor quality (Click here). It beats all current FF sensors and “is comparable to the best medium-format sensor, and in fact does even better — much better — as ISO increases.” It shows that Sony sensor technology greatly improved during the last couple of years. Even Canon has to worry.

My guess is that the Canon 5DmarkIII is loosing his war against the Nikon D800. This may be a chance for Sony if they don’t wait to much. A double SLT FF camera announcement (24 and 36 Megapixels) would probably be the right thing to do!