New NEX-FS700 video and test roundup.

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Adam Wilt (Click here) is right now testing the camera. He shot the 240 fps test video on top and writes: “you’ll see increased noise in the 480 and 960 fps clips as a result, though Sony cautions me that the multi-layer circuit boards still need to be optimized to reduce crosstalk: this camera is a “fairly good, stable, underperforming engineering sample”, and shipping versions may well yield cleaner images.”
Andy Shipsides shot this 480 fps you can see on vimeo (Click here).
Hangman shot another 200fps mode @1080p video you can see on vimeo (Click here).
First Look at the Sony NEX-FS700 by Sardo on vimeo (Click here).
EosHD (Click here) posted the content of a Q&A session with Sony.
According to BHphoto (Click here) the camera will ship on June 30th.

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New Sony patent describes the organic sensor!

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A couple of weeks ago a trusted source told me how Sony is working to bring some major evolution in the sensor technology. We are talking about a completely new generation of sensors which could hit the market as soon as late 2013- early 2014. One of these technologies is the “organic sensor”. The last few months I saw some patents from Fuji and now finally Egami (Click here) found one from Sony. Basically we are talking about a sort of Foveon technology made with organic material instead of current non organic materials. The major flaws to overcome are the slow speed and durability of the material. But Sony seems to have found some sort of hybrid material solution that could overcome the issues. While google translation doesn’t really help a lot to understand how it works I will try to give you a short summary:

1) The sensor is made by a organic and non organic material. That is necessary because organic material has less “speed” than the non organic silicon material.
2) Three layers of organic material are positioned one under the other. This means every single pixel contains all the color data!
3) The advantages are higher color fidelity, higher resolution because of the lack of the Anti Aliasing filter which usually needs to be used on RGB sensors. Currently [shoplink 12209 ebay]Medium format cameras[/shoplink] or cameras like the Fuji X PRO 1, Nikon D800 and Leica M9 do not have AA filters. Another advantage is that organic material has a higher absorption coefficient than non organic material.

As usual keep in mind that most of the patents will never be applied in a real mass production camera. Or it may will take longer than we hope. Anyway, Sony is already on a very high quality level with their current sensors and I am pretty confident that we will see great new stuff in future!

P.S.: The current Sony 36 Megapixel sensor used by the Nikon D800 is almost as good as medium format cameras according to DSRLmagazine testing.

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Links to all mentioned cameras:
Medium format cameras on [shoplink 12209 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink]. Nikon D800 at Amazon (Click here). Fuji X PRO 1 at Amazon (Click here). Leica M9 at Amazon (Click here).

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Sony NEX-7 back in Stock at Amazon (and NEX-7 versus markIII comparison)

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A couple of NEX-7 cameras are right now in Stock at Amazon (Click here). And every time it is in Stock it quickly jumps on position one of the mirrorless sales ranking.

And Cameralabs (Click here) made a short NEX-7 versus Canon markIII image comparison: “Ultimately I’d call their real-life resolving power at 100 ISO as being essentially the same, and while that may not come as a huge surprise given their similar sensor resolutions, it remains a great result for the NEX-7 considering its considerably lower price tag – not to mention its considerably smaller body too.”  Surprised?

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Sony with “worst loss ever”. 10,000 jobs cut coming.

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I guess you already read the news on your daily magazine. Sony announced the worst loss ever, ¥520 billion for the past financial year. Converted this means a 6,4 Dollar or 4,9 Euro billion loss. Sony will cut 10,000 jobs to bring Sony back to profit within March 2012. There are many reasons for the bad results listed by NYT:
1) additional (unexpected) tax expense
2) heavy losses in its television business
3) strong yen
4) natural disasters in Japan and overseas.

The digital camera market is just a small part of Sony’s business and currently doing pretty decent thanks to the A77 and NEX-7. The problem is Sony has lost many battles like the music war with Apple and the TV war with Samsung. When I talk with my sources they more or less agree that Sony is quite slow and too heavy when it comes to take action. Probably the company has a to complex structure that leads to waste time and resources. That doesn’t necessary mean that you have to cut jobs! What matters more is to have a good management and clear and easy communication-action structure within the company.

Sorry if I repeat myself again but they lost so much money with their slow camera and lens release! The [shoplink 8454]NEX-7[/shoplink] and [shoplink 8450]Zeiss 24mm[/shoplink] and [shoplink 8448]50mm[/shoplink] are selling well but Sony can’t keep up with the production. Plus they are loosing money every day by not releasing new NEX lenses. Cutting jobs will not help if your product strategy…”sucks“?

I hope the latest rumors I am getting about the next FF camera are a good sign that Sony may anticipate the FF announcement. About time!

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Working on hot rumors: Something BIG…something Full Frame?

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Sometimes you would think there is nothing happening on SonyAlphaRumors but believe me, for weeks now I keep getting some very small pieces of Full Frame rumors. I am still not ready to give you new SR5 updates but I want to “warm you up” with some general impression:
1) I am getting more and more news about the Sony Full Frame camera from different sources
2) Sony is talking with many people about a new FF camera
3) There is “something” big we may see soon.

As I told you months ago the A99 was supposed to be launch in spring but Sony decided to delay the release to have enough time to evaluate the A77 success (and faults). The impression I am getting lately is that the recent Canon 5DmarkIII and Nikon D800 release forced Sony to “do something“.

I don’t want to give you too many hopes, maybe Sony is ready to show a prototype only to keep you away form the new Canon/Nikon cameras. But I highly recommend you to stay tuned on SAR as I think we don’t have to wait a long time to know what’s going on.

T0 all sources: If you can help me with the new FF rumors just send me your bits of info at sonyalpharumors@gmail.com or use the anonymous contact form on the right sidebar. Thanks!

P.S.:
The Sony sensor powered D800 rmains on top of the Amazon DSLR ranking (Click here).
Our new friend Frank posted a Canon/Nikon Sony NEX-7 review summary at CanonWatch (Click here).

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New NEX-7 reviews roundup!

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[shoplink 8454][/shoplink]

USAtoday (Click here) wrote an article about the NEX-7: “In terms of all-around performance, though, the NEX-7 is the best mirrorless camera we’ve tested. It features a combination of control, image quality, and responsiveness that most other cameras in this segment can’t match.”

Mike Kobal (Click here) is again using the NEX-7 for fashion photography: “I noticed the unintimidating effect the Nex7 had on my subjects. The photographer is just testing the light, this can’t be the session yet, the big camera is sitting over there on the tripod, those or similar thoughts where probably crossing their minds and it helped establish a relaxed atmosphere right from the beginning.”

The just redesigned blog Soundimagesplus (Click here) tried to answer the big question, is the NEX-7 or Fuji X PRO 1….which one is the best? The answer in short: “I would choose the NEX-7. Its a much better handling and performing camera with 50% more pixels, its cheaper, it has more lenses available and its definitely more “quirk-free” than the X-Pro 1. In terms of image quality the extra size has to be balanced out by the superior definition of the Fuji, its vastly superior high ISO performance and its seriously good jpgs.”

The NEX-7 keeps being a top seller at t Amazon US (place 1), Amazon Germany (place 2), Amazon France (place 3) and is doing “bad” at Amazon UK (place 34???) only.

Click those direct search links to check price and in Stock status of the NEX-7:
[shoplist 8454]

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(SR4) Sony 18-135mm lens coming in August only (still lens production issues?)

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Sony’s last lens announcement was in August 2011. But until today many of these still are not so easy to find in Stock. Particularly the much requested [shoplink 8448]50mm f/1.8[/shoplink] for Nex. I was hoping to see some new lenses in Spring but things don’t look really good now. I have been told that even the newly leaked 18-135mm SAM lens you see on top of this post will ship in August only!
I talked with my sources and it seems that the real big lens announcements will take place the second half of the year. Sony didn’t expect that huge request of [shoplink 8450]Zeiss 24mm[/shoplink] and 50mm E-mount lenses and are still facing production shortages. Hope the Sony managers got the message and may try to increase the production and new lens release! The NEX E-system and the Full Frame A-system still lack of many important lenses.

Good luck to find these lenses:
Zeiss 24mm f/1.8 shop search links [shopcountry 8450].
Sony 50mm f/1.8 shop search links [shopcountry 8448].

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