NAB 2014: NewsShooter – Panel: To 4k, or not to 4k from Teradek on Vimeo.

If you watch the video on top you will hear Garrett Brown’s excitement about tha A/s (although he didn’t see it). But he loves the fact you can shoot 4K on a compact Full Frame camera. Quite a statement from the inventor of Steadicam and cameraman of Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining” movie! If you don’t know Garret he is the guy on the extreme right of the guest plot. And here is his Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garrett_Brown.

And Shawn had the pleasure to interview Sony manager Juan Martinez and writes:

I wanted to share with you an interview I conducted at NAB that will be of interest to SAR: streamingmedia.com. In it, I discuss the upcoming firmware update for the Sony FS700 and 700R video larger sensor video cameras.  Specifically support for shading and geometric distortion.  We also talk about the new zoome lenses – the 28-135mm f/4 FE concept lens and 18-105mm f/4 E-mount lens. The support for geometric distortion is huge because the otherwise great 18-105mm powerzoom f/4 lens can’t be used for video as it has way too much pin-cushion distortion.

A7s sites in different languages at Sony US, DE, UK, ES, FR, IT, NL, SE, FI, PL.

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Cool! Making Sony a7 / GX680 technical camera

Sony A6000 review at LesNumeriques.
Sony A7 review: Is the best full-frame mirrorless camera also the most affordable? (Imaging Resource).
Sony A5000 review at SonyAlphaLab.
24-70mm FE lens test at Pchome.
Alexander Heinrichs about the new 50mm ARt lens on the A7r (Youtube /German).
How to do Car Photography – Shooting Guide by ItsDanKReviews on Youtube (he used the A7 for that video).
a7 with optical viewing lens on Flickr. Image samples can be seen here on Flickr.
orean A6000 Af test at SLRclub.
German 24-70mm FE lens review At Cetus-a.
A7R not weatherproof. £175 repair confirms (Tobinators).

Jacek: “It seems that the recent Sony Image Data Converted is unable to process properly raw files from A6000. I have the camera from yesterday and I was in shock how bad IQ it has. Finally I found a reason – take a look at: http://www.dane.pixel-tech.pl/jpytportfolio/A6000/idc_raw.jpg”

Jeff: “A5000/A7/A6000 lowlight af test http://youtu.be/G4gfAZgH0yM. Continuous focus test http://youtu.be/DELBkI6kyeM. AF-S focus test http://youtu.be/Lra77vXaxXs”

Jimmy: “I upload a review of the A6000 for Sony Singapore a week ago; especially on the AF system against the NEX 5R and the viewfinder. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KM1JF4yUZig”

Craig: “I’ve come from the Minolta ages and moved into Sony, finally buying an A99 when it was first released. I had to drop it off for a warranty repair that turned into me getting it replaced under warranty as that was their quickest solution. The whole process has taken 2 months though as Sony Australia didn’t have any A99’s in stock – I couldn’t believe it, they replaced the camera because parts were going to mean waiting 3 months instead! I would have happily paid the freight from Japan if they’d given me the option!
I wrote about the whole process in detail here à http://www.dyxum.com/dforum/a99-replaced-under-warranty_topic105572.html”

Edward: “Last week I converted a Sony A7 into Full-Spectrum. So far I’ve concentrated on the infra-red abilities, but I hope to do more soon. With it’s EVF and great lens compatability the A7 makes a great camera to convert, so I thought some of your readers might appreciate my first impressions review here: http://infraedd.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/cameras-sony-a7-converted-to-full.html“

Jordy van Solm, Netherlands
www.jordyvansolm.com
Model: Melissa Howey, Los Angeles
Sony Alpha 850, Carl Zeiss 85mm f1.4

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These are some of the weekly SAR readers pictures. You can see all of them at facebook.com/sonyalpharumors?filter=2. As usual share your best pis and like the onese you like from the other members!

Egami spotted a new Sony patent describing the 28-100mm f/1.8-2.8 lens design for the RX100 series. The good news is that the lens is a lot brighter at the tele end compared to the current 28-100mm f/1.8-4.9 lens used by the RX100/RX100II.

The current RX100II sells a s low as $632 at [shoplink 25977 ebay]6ave eBay (Click here)[/shoplink]. A successor is likely to come the next couple of months!

Sony AX100 Hands-On Field Test by TheCameraStoreTV.

Great Sony Easter specials running at Sony Australia.
American photographer Mary Ellen Mark is announced as the recipient of the 2014 Sony World Photography Awards’ Outstanding Contribution to Photography award (Worldphoto)
A6000 image samples by Pantip.
Test du Sony 18-105 mm f/4 G OSS E PZ (Digitbox FR).
Russar+ lens releases (Shop Lomo).
Sigma 18-35mm lens tested at Photoreview.

Richard: “I wondered if your readers would be interested in what I have put together for product photography..http://www.flickr.com/photos/melting_bloke/sets/72157641407451984/“. The system is a rollei x-act2 technical camera with very large tilt/shift capability. Originally designed around medium format, the use of the sony A7R instead of 6×4.5 film or medium format digital backs delivers very high res product photography with the capability to get very large tilt/swing and shift movements due to the sensor being a 1.5x crop of medium format. The system uses medium format lenses from Schneider, which in my opinion are the next step up from Zeiss in terms of medium format glass and deliver enough resolution to cater for the badboy A7R sensor.
I use the A7R for photographing and testing Dog Schidt Optiks lenses since the 36mpx sensor is about the most demanding full frame sensor there is.
Here is a shot of a DSO lens taken using the system:- http://www.flickr.com/photos/melting_bloke/12450571104/in/set-72157641404155735”

Anonymous: “Lauren Fiasconaro ( http://laurenfiasconaro.com/ ) a fine art photography student at Pratt University in New York City has just completed her thesis series ‘Terra Mortalis’. This project explores the fragile threads of life which our earth has and the effects that mankind has done to directly affect its mortality. The digital photography in Lauren’s project were all captured using Sony gear ( Sony A580, Sony NEX7, and Sony A7R). Lauren will be graduating this May with a BFA in Photography and a double minor in Art History and Sustainability.”

Edward: “Last week I converted a Sony A7 into Full-Spectrum. So far I’ve concentrated on the infra-red abilities, but I hope to do more soon. With it’s EVF and great lens compatability the A7 makes a great camera to convert, so I thought some of your readers might appreciate my first impressions review here: http://infraedd.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/cameras-sony-a7-converted-to-full.html“

I just got this picture and the full specs of the soon to be announced Mitakon 50mm f/0.95 Full Frame E-mount lens!  Like I already told you before the lens will be unveiled on April 20th and costs $799 only. It’s Mitakon second E-mount lens after the [shoplink 14656 ebay]35mm f/0.95 lens for ASP-C E-mount cameras (they are on auction here on eBay)[/shoplink] which unlike the new 50mm lens doesn’t cover the FF sensor area. Image samples of the soon to come 50mm lens can be seen on that SAR post (Click here).

The lens will ship in May and these are the specs:
Lens mount: Sony FE
Focal length: 50mm
Optics: 10 Elements (7 groups)
Image cover: 35mm full frame
Max. Aperture: f/0.95
Min. Aperture: f/16
Filter size: 58mm
Lens size: 87mm (L) x 68.5mm (diameter)
Weight: 720g.

Preorders will be taken from April 20th at eBay MXcamera. WIll link to the exact page as soon as it’s online!

Here is the lens design:

Ricoh announced the new Pentax 645Z medium format camera. It becomes the cheapest digital medium format camera ever released and it can be preordered at BHphoto (Click here) and Adorama (Click here).

There are a couple of interesting Sony related news:
– First, Sony is literally conquering the full medium format digital camera market in one single strike! Hasselblad, Phase One and now Pentax use the newly developed and first ever CMOS sensor with 50Mp. Sony just had to make one sensor to wipe out the sensor competition from that market!
– The Sony sensor is the first CMOS sensor in the MF market, it’s the first sensor that allows useable High ISO with the new Pentax going up to 204,800 ISO!
– If the rumor is correct than the Sony [shoplink 25383 ebay]Mamiya 7 alike (here on eBay)[/shoplink] digital mirrorless medium format camera will cost less than the Pentax (less than $8,500).

Full press release of the new 645Z: