Sony Tidbits…

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Samyang 24mm, 35mm, 75mm T1.9 V-AF Cine lens

Today deals at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, Amazon DE, Amazon UK, Amazon FR, Amazon IT, FotoErhardt DE, FotoKoch DE.
Sigma 50mm F1.4 DG DN | Art sample gallery (DPReview TV)
DJI Announces Single Transmitter Version of DJI Mic (Explora).
Sony A7 iv: The best piece of gear you’ll ever buy! (Venti Views).
Best Camera Holster in 2023 (42West).
Tokina 500mm F8 reflex review by SonyAlphaBlog.

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I kindly invite you all to follow our Discord channel, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter to not miss news and rumors

We have our own Facebook camera groups you can join to discuss the upcoming new cameras in detail:
Sony Alpha group.
Sony A1 group.
Sony A9 series group.
Sony A7r series group.
Sony A7s series group.
Sony A7 series group.

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BHphoto WPPI specials

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BHphoto launched the WPPi specials (Click here to see the long list).

New Tamron savings just started this week:

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Big Tamron interview: They are developing new APS-C E lenses and new unique high quality Full Frame lenses!

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Tamron manager Kota Misawa chatted with Phototrend and shared many interesting insights:

  • We also receive many requests for prime lenses, including a 90mm macro lens, and consider them. Other competitors, however, already produce macro lenses for mirrorless systems, so we have to think about how to develop much more attractive macro lenses. I invite you to stay tuned for our next announcements.
  • Our performance shows that there is a market beyond so-called traditional focal lengths. After launching the 28-75mm, we were convinced that if we thought about customer needs and came up with a product that aligned with our philosophy, we could reduce the risk of developing unique lenses.
  • The next step will be to plan new APS-C lenses.
  • Of course, we always focus on designing compact and lightweight lenses. But now we also consider video-oriented users.
  • We are thinking of a direct connection to the lens, with an integrated wireless chip, which is very difficult.
  • Considering the geopolitical risks and supply chain aspects, we decided to build another factory in Hanoi.
  • We believe the number of avid photographers is growing as the photography market shrinks. Therefore, we believe that the demand for high-end lenses will increase, and we are happy to continue to develop new products such as the 35-150mm f/2-2.8. At the moment, we are thinking about new high-end lenses. I invite you to stay tuned for our next announcements.

Summary: Tamron made it clear that they will keep focusing on making real unique lenses. APS-C E-mount lenses and likely also high quality FF lenses are coming soon too! More talk about what I think is going to happen with Tamron in this video:

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Finally: Sony released new A7IV firmware update 2.0

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Download it here: sony.com/electronics/support/e-mount-body-ilce-7-series/ilce-7m4/software/00288929. The creator app also got an update to add A7IV support: apps.apple.com/us/app/creators-app/id1616622856

  1. Added support for Creators’ App.

    * A new mobile app Creators’ App is available to replace Imaging Edge Mobile.
    With the Creators’ App, you can transfer images from the camera to your smartphone, shoot remotely, and use a variety of other functions.

  2. A function has been added to further improve security when connecting for remote shooting or image transfer from Creators’ App or Imaging Edge Desktop.

    * Please update Imaging Edge Desktop to the latest version (Ver.3.6 or later).

NOTE: There might be some improvements that are not mentioned in the press release. Please comment this post if you find some!

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RUMOR: Sony will announce a new High End APS-C E-mount camera before Summer!

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Image on top from Dpreview

The last real “photocentric” APS-C E-mount cameras were announced back in 2019. They were the A6100 and A6600. We got two more APS-C cameras after them but they were made for Bloggers (ZV-E10) and the Filmmakers (FX30).

Now a trusted source told me there is definitely a new APS-C E-mount camera coming right before or max early Summer! He said this would be a new High End model! That’s all I got as RELIABLE info for now. I don’t know yet if this will be a new A6700 (Similar A6600 sized body with maybe the 26Mp FX30 sensor) or a A7000 (bigger A7 styled body with Sony A1 alike features).

In y video below I discuss what I think about the A6700 vs the A7000:

So now it’s time for you to let us know:

What do you hope to get?

View Results

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There will be plenty of rumors and also possibly image leaks. So be sure to follow my new Youtube channel, Discord channel, Instagram (with funny AI images to annoy people), Facebook and Twitter to not miss news and rumors.

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New Topaz Photo AI update

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I am a big user of Topaz Photo AI. I constantly use it to upscale my photos and my AI generated images I post on my Instagram account. And it now got a big update that brings the following improvements:

Basic Brush to edit subject selection

You can now access a new basic brush to manually refine auto-detected subjects:

horse-mask

basic-brush@2x

You’ll also notice that softness / feathering is applied all at once instead of per stroke. Because the brush is for subject refinement rather than precise selection, it’s intended to be fast, simple, and easy instead of a comprehensive painting tool.

Apple Photos extension

You can now select Topaz Photo AI in the Apple Photos EditExtensions (…) menu:

Edit In

Note: don’t use the right-click → Edit In menu because TPAI will open in standalone mode, which will prevent the finished image from automatically appearing in Apple Photos.

Better cropping

The Crop tool now always stays centered and works more intuitively than before:

CleanShot 2023-03-02 at 18.04.15

Enhance Resolution parameters

You can now manually adjust Enhance Resolution parameters for more control over upscaling results:

CleanShot 2023-03-02 at 08.53.18@2x

These settings describe the input image rather than the strength of the effect. In other words, for each image there’s a perfect combination of optimal values that Autopilot tries to detect. If you feel like Autopilot’s not doing a good job, you can now experiment with them yourself:

  • Suppress Noise: the level of color / luma noise in the input image
  • Remove Blur: the degree of softness or motion/lens blur in the input image
  • Fix Compression: the level of compression artifacts like jpeg blockiness and aliasing in the input image

Please let us know if you see Autopilot consistently misapplying settings for certain images.

Smaller faces are now sharper

v1.1.9 introduced a Face Recovery issue that caused unintentionally blurry output with smaller faces. This is now resolved:

Also, Face Recovery strength now defaults to 80 instead of 100, which leads to more natural results without visible compromise in recovery strength. We’ll continue investigating other known Face Recovery issues in the Roadmap.

Other improvements and fixes

  • Added support for more DNG types (HDR, Monochrome)
  • Add compression option for PNG exports
  • Support for opening jif, jfi, jfif, and jpe files
  • Lightroom Classic Plug-ins Extras integration now copies Rating and Keyword data, stacks images, and preserves metadata from sidecar files
  • Fix issues with the command-line interface (CLI) for Windows and Mac
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