Sony decided to close their online store on August 28. Full info can be read here: store.sony.com. All preorders will be fulfilled but from August 28 they will no more sell Sony products on their online site. I am yet not 100% sure but I also heard the same thing could happen in Sony European Stores soon too.
The reason for that is that Sony changed their sales strategy. They made big partnerships with major retailers and they feel it’s best for them to sell the products through them. I am not sure if that is a wise decision. But I certainly am not a marketing guy.
Sony is boldly black to black and booked the highest Q1 profit since 2007! You can read the full new financial report here: sony.net/SonyInfo/IR/library/er.html. And there is also very good news on the digital camera business front: Sony revised the forecast and expects an “increase in unit sales of digital cameras”. It’s the first time since many years that I read that Sony expects to sell more “units”! The merit likely goes to the new RX, HX and E-mount cameras.
Jamie Unwin just sent me the video to his latest project:
Hi Andrea,
Thanks for sharing my film about wildlife crime and the Ivory trade a couple of months ago. Sony UK have again supported another environmental film I have produced, this time I followed Steve Backshall and his kayak partner as they paddled 125 miles from Devizes to Westminster down the river Thames finishing outside the houses of parliament. It took them 23hours and 30minutes of solid kayaking, they were raising money to buy a chunk of Colombian rainforest. So far they have raised enough money to buy a chunk bigger than a small country! I followed them the entire way filming them through the night, Sony UK provided the A7s, Handycam AXP33 and action cam to film their endeavour.
Hope you enjoy the short film!
Danas Danulis: “I’ve got RX100 IV for couple of days. Tomorrow I’m doing a bit more serious test, but today I filmed coulpe of wakeboarders. If you are interested… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaoXSPE7zyA“
SAR reader John Wilhelm sent me this picture he posted on facebook happily sleeping with his new Sony A7rII toy! While the picture is certainly nicely photoshopped I am pretty sure some of the new A7rII owners will keep the camera close to their bed the first night :)
If I sound critical is this brief description it’s because $3k cameras are not allowed to make excuses :-)
-It’s massive, I really don’t like how big these cameras have become. I knew the weight had gone up hugely too and expected that to make it feel like a dense, top quality item. It doesn’t – it merely feels just like any other good DSLR.
-Packaging/presentation is standard fare, no more premium than any of their other cameras.
-Included: 2 batteries, USB cable, strap, nicely compact 11W USB charger.
-It accepted my non-Sony battery and happily charged from all my USB battery packs as well as an iPhone wall charger while in use.
-Viewfinder: nicer than I expected though flicker is very noticable, resolution adequate but pixels visible
-Speed of operation: Responsive, some extra (but still not all) functions can be used while it’s still writing to card
-Software: Many small improvements, eg more customisation, can add copyright, zooms into AF area chosen instead of the centre every time, AutoISO limits
-Shutter: I’m going to love silent shutter and might leave it that way perminantly: I couldn’t make any rolling shutter-like artefacts appear when I tried
-Buffer: A sometimes-limiting 21 shots (RAW+JPG), and only 44 shots/min thereafter using a 280MB/sec card. RAWs are 43.5MB each.
Overall – When you say “Oh my God” loudly after viewing the very first shot, you know you have something special…makes me want to go reshoot everything I’ve had success with before and more :-D
SAR reader Jonathan wanted to buy the A77II at Sony Australia. But he got the following answer: “this model is already discontinued and is no longer in production”
UPDATE: I got an official correct answer from Sony Australia saying: “The A77 II is still in production globally, however, it is no longer ranged locally in Australia.”
And here is a roundup of images and info I got from our readers:
1)Davide Roveri: “Yesterday, like some other of your readers, I’ve been lucky enough it pickup my α7R II here in London! I’m going to do a evolving hands-on/review of the camera in the next few days and i thought you may be interested! If you want to have a look, here’s the link to the blog page on my website: http://www.drlapse.com/sony-α7r-ii-review/“. Here is Davides unboxing video:
4)Ed Cheong also got that special A7rII cleaning kit. It has been given as a present by Sony Singapore on a special A7rII launch event. Sadly you cannot buy that :(
