Steve Jobs passed away. What would have he done as chief of Sony’s camera division?

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Sad news today. Steve Jobs passed away. A visionary that had the talent to take tuff and revolutionary decisions. Not everything he has “invented” was successful or admirable but what I liked most about him was that he acted following paths that no others wanted to go.

Looking at the camera industry which is mostly driven by Asian companies I often see a very conservative and anti-risk inclined mentality. I am now guessing what Steve Jobs would have done now as chief of the Sony camera division. How would he develop the next camera? What would be the key features and innovations?

I am just guessing, but I suspect he would:
1) Introduce less cameras than Sony is doing right now.
2) Make camera usability easier and more intuitive.
3) Focus less on technical specs but more on real user needs (What the camera does…just works!).
4) The camera would have full connectivity to Internet and social medias
5) The camera an lenses would not be the center of the camera division, but just a medium of a whole system which has the (mass-)photographer in the center. He would probably create an APP store, accessories, make it easy for other companies to develop software and hardware for the Alpha system.

Those are just my ideas, but I am also honest enough to say that Jobs would probably go far beyond the points I have written here. What do you think?
Fact is I will miss Steve. No matter if you liked him or not, he definitely changed the computer industry.

UDPATE: Yes, Apple did once make a camera the [shoplink 9443 ebay]Quicktake (Click herer to see it on eBay)[/shoplink]. But it has been announced in 1994 before the comeback of Steve in 1996.

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Pancakes ideas for your NEX: Voigtländer Skopar 21mm f/4.0

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[shoplink 8851 ebay][/shoplink]

Introduction:
I am a happy NEX-5n user (and probably a future NEX-7 user too). But what I am missing in the current NEX lens lineup are pancakes! I’m googling around to find some nice pancakes I can use on my NEX and I thought it would be nice to share with you my findings!

The Voigtländer 21mm f/4.0:
If you are looking for a compact street photography lens the  [shoplink 8851 ebay]Voigtländer Skopar 21mm f/4.0[/shoplink] might eb your choice. You can use it on your NEX via Leica M to NEX mount adapter ([shoplink 8850 ebay]Click here to find them on eBay[/shoplink]). The lens itself costs around $500 and you can find plenty of them on [shoplink 8851 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink]. On your NEX this will become a 32mm f/4.0 lens. It’s an ideal walkround lens. Very compact, top build quality. The only thing you have to consider is that it is not very fast.

What I found:
A set of image samples from “Tam” taken with the NEX-3 on Flickr (Click here).
Another set of image samples from “Jeebus” taken with the NEX on Flickr (Click here).
Amazing night shots from “Jacknrain” taken with the NEX-3 on Flickr (Click here).
You can see a picture of the NEX with the Skopar attached at Tokyocamerastyle.

What do you think:

Choose the one camera Sony should absolutely release in 2018 to make you happy :)

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Ebay links:
[shoplink 8851 ebay]Voigtländer 21mm f/4.0 (Click here)[/shoplink]
[shoplink 8850 ebay]Leica M to NEX mount adapter (Click here)[/shoplink]

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Three Sony accessories in Stock

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Back in June Sony announced three new accessories along the new [shoplink 7207]Sony NEX-C3[/shoplink] camera. I don’t think I ever told you that all the three new items are in Stock. Here are the links:
Sony VCT-55LH Mounting Bracket with Accessory Shoe [shopcountry 9322].
Sony LCS-AMB/B Alpha Soft Carrying Case [shopcountry 9323].
Sony HVL-F43AM Flash [shopcountry 9324].

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Surprise: The real NEX competition is coming from Fuji!!!

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I couldn’t believe my eyes when I first read this! Fuji announced a new mirrorless system with interchangeable lens system that will use a very large sensor. Exact size of the sensor has not been unveiled but Fuji said it is the highest resolution and lowest noise sensor ever used and it will beat any current full frame sensor! That’s probably the first real competitor for the NEX system and probably also of the future full frame NEX camera! Amazing Fuji. You did what Nikon and Canon where not able to do for now!

Press release and pictures at: DC.watch.

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Sony NEX-7 news roundup (and first unboxing video)

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There are a couple of new NEX-7 related news. As you know that camera will be in Stock by mid-November and I will certainly buy one! Now let’s see the list of news:
The video you see on top of this post shows an the high speed mode of the NEX-7 (10 frames per second with 24M RAW). There is also a Sony NEX-7 Russian fashion shooting video on youtube. New image samples have been posted at Fotopolis. SonyAlphaNex did a Sony Alpha NEX-7 vs Leica M9 size and spec comparison. The NEX-7 is really the closest “thing” to the Leica M9 which costs 5.500 Euro ([shoplink 5502 ebay]click here to see that cam on eBay[/shoplink]). And to see a real image comparison between the NEX-7 and Leica M9 click over to ThePictureDesk.
For our German readers: ClubSonus posted an unboxing video (Click here) and a German hands-on video (Click here).

Now, those are the NEX-7 preorder links (Click on store name to visit the NEX-7 product page): [shopcountry 8454].
And here is the new Zeiss lens links: [shopcountry 8450].
And than we have that nice “cheap” new NEX lens, the 50mm f/1.8: [shopcountry 8448].
For birds shooter or travellers there is the new 50-210mm zoom: [shopcountry 8444].

Those links are automatically generated. If for example you are located in Germany the links will lead you to Sonystore Germany and other big German stores. But many of our readers told me that in reality German readers do also buy in UK stores, or Spanish readers in German stores and so on. That’s why sometimes I give you the links to all stores I do usually check to get info about availability or price:
[shoplist 8454]

That’s it regarding the NEX-7. Now let me work on new rumors… :)

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Sony A77 review and in Stock in Canada and Japan (and how to recover a dead A77).

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Sony A77 stabilisation and AF test from Remi Chapeaublanc // LeCrapo on Vimeo.

I am going to summarize the latest A77 I received from my readers. First of all the A77 is now in Stock at Amazon Japan and Sonystore Canada. And if you are from Aberdeen you will get the A77 body for GBP977.45 instead of GBP1149 (Thanks Kenneth for sending this).

Whatdigitalcamera (Click here) reviewed the A77: “Sony’s uncompromising approach to the Alpha A77 has produced a camera that not only matches some excellent competition, but beats them in a number of areas too“. The camera earns the “Gold Award“!

If you are already an A77 owner and you are experiencing some black out issues try this:
1. Turn off A77.
2. Take out battery.
3. Insert battery again.
4. Press these 3 buttons (Menu+Movie+Ael) simultaneously.
5. Turn on A77 and keep the 3 buttons pressed for 5 seconds. There will be a green spot “blinks” on the lower left corner of the LCD screen. Then “alpha logo” should show up again.

Here is the succes story of some who have tried this (page 5 of the thread): Dyxum forum.

Another SAR reader tested the Toshiba 95MB/s SDHC card on A77. See video on youtube here and here.

Reminder: The A77 1.03 firmware will be released within the next two weeks and fix most (if not all) the A77 isssues!

Preorder: the A77 at [shopcountry 8461]

UPDATE: The Sony A77 manual is available in 17 laguages at support.sony-europe.com (Thanks B.)

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(SR4) Sony FF with 36 Megapixel sensor coming early 2012 (Nikon D800 with same sensor).

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Finally we can start to talk about “serious” full-frame rumors coming from trusted sources. First, our Japanese friend and administrator of DigitalCameraInfo (Click here) got an interesting info about the upcoming Nikon D800. The rumor confirms what we told you back in June: Sony developed a new 36 Megapixel sensor that is going to be used inside the next Nikon FF camera (Click here to read the original article).

And now the good news: I have been told by our sources that Sony will first share the sensor to Nikon and than use it on their own FF camera which will be announced early 2012! The exact release date has not been chosen yet but I have been told there are is a huge pressure to release it as soon as possible. Compared to the Nikon D800 the Sony (A99?) will have slightly different specs and a lower(!) price. The Nikon D800 can take 4 frames per second, records 1920 × 1080/30p and cost 300.000 Yen (3.000 Euro, or $4000). The major difference is that Nikon has an optical viewfinder while the Sony has SLT technology. Meanwhile the [shoplink 3028]Sony A900[/shoplink] has been discontinued and you will see some nice rebates soon. I will keep you updated with specs and news I am getting form my sources. It’s really an exciting time ;)

One more thing: New lenses will be released along the new Full Frame camera!

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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