Sony can do some great cameras but their firmware updates are somewhat disappointing. A77, A99 camera owners are still waiting for major improvements. I just read an article at MirrorlessRumors with an interview with Fuji manager Mr.Kawahara. He mentioned as one of the companies main goals is to support and improve its cameras via firmware update. He literally said: “We want you to use our camera longer and longer in your life.”

It’s high on my 2014 wishlist that Sony not only will keep making good new cameras but also to keep releasing good firmwares. I think this would help to create confidence around Sony and motivate more people to join in Sony’s A and E-mount system. I know that developing new firmwares is costly, but it’s also a good long-term investment!

So please Sony, in 2014 try to make current Sony camera owners happy too!

Sony Japan confirms that the Zeiss FE zoom will ship from January 24 while the Sony 28-70mm FE will ship from February 7.

Zeiss 24-70mm preorders:
EUROPE at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, SE, PT
USA at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.

Sony G 28-70mm lens preorders:
EUROPE at Sony DE, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO.
USA at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto.

Today is Christmas and I wish you and your family all the best for these days of rest and for the coming year. I Thank You all for the company on this site. It’s a real fun (and sometime it’s a terrific busy fun) to be here with you every day!

And as promised, it’s going to be again a very busy A and E-mount rumors time on SAR. So try to recover soon from the party to be ready for some exciting time ;)

Unboxing Sony SAL70-200 G F2,8 SSM 2

16-70mm F/4 ZA OSS reviewed by Kurt Munger.
Sigma 24-105mm review at Imaging Resource.
Sony RX100 Mark II Portable Macro Setup (Cheesycam).
A Nex 5R and a Drone to promote a little city in Sardinia, Italy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgNVe4JoDR8
A7r video quality test at Focus Numerique.
Sony NEX-3n test at Quesabesde.
iOS App texBlend and it’s is available in the App Store (Click here). More info about it at Outbackphoto (Click here)

Brad: “This is actually important. I stumbled onto something you might want to publish. You should provide some kind of coverage of the SAL70200G2. I posted a user review of it that seems to have come under heavy fire just for the price alone. It seems to becoming an very controversial lens of 2013 due to the outrageous $3000.00USD pricing. Read the comments people are providing. People are very upset by the price and are strongly voicing their opinion.
Hopefully Sony gets the message from Alpha users and lowers the price by at least $500.00 and issues all of the registered early adopters a $500.00 credit. Attached below is a link to the web page.
http://www.dpreview.com/products/sony/lenses/sony_70-200_2p8_ssm_ii/user-reviews”

Camera360 for iPhone v4.8 has updated with EasyCam, which provides you the ability to capture the most beautiful moments even without professional photography skills. All you need to do is to click the camera button, EasyCam lets your mobile camera recognize the shooting condition automatically and shot your biggest moments.
Check Camera360 for iPhone v4.8 here.
Check Camera360 for Android v4.8 here.
With EasyCam, Camera360 will help you get the best photos for particular circumstances, including backlight, low light and selfie. In backlight or low light environment, EasyCam will improve the picture brightness automatically to remedy the darkness caused by insufficient light. In addition, EasyCam will auto repair skin tone and blemishes in a fast way.

Danielle: I manage the photography business for one of your (sonyalpharumors) biggest fans……Dave Melges…in fact, he’s the one that took the pic of the hummingbird you have on the Facebook page. :)) He’s a long time Sony shooter, actually, he was predicting where Sony would be today, way back in 2002, so he’s kind of like the grandfather of Sony shooters, lol. Anyway, he’s got a new book, it’s on the PHILOSOPHY of creative photography:
http://www.amazon.com/Mountain-Pebble-philosophy-art-photography/dp/1493759523/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1387480469&sr=1-2&keywords=melges

Brian:  The company Acratech produces a nice set of ball heads as well as a series of Arca-Swiss plates for mounting on their heads. They sell, for $25, a particularly well designed plate for the Sony NEX-6, Sony NEX-7. It has the lip to prevent the camera from rotating on the plate and the plate is slightly raised so as to allow the rear LCD to tilt down or up. In my hands, the plate allows enough clearance so as to mount the LA-LE4 A-mount lends adapter. Their site is: www.acratech.net

Sony released a new QX camera firmware update. And a couple of nice things have been added. Just read the official press text:

New PlayMemories Mobile™ App Version 4.0 Adds Photo Browsing, Faster Connection Speeds; New Firmware Adds Full HD video shooting, Expanded ISO Range and more

SAN DIEGO, Dec. 18, 2013 – Sony Electronics has announced plans for a software and firmware update designed to improve the overall usability, speed and functionality of the Cyber-shot QX100 and QX10 “Lens-style” Cameras.

SOFTWARE UPDATE

The software update for the PlayMemories Mobile™ application – Version 4.0 – will work with all Sony Wi-Fi enabled cameras in addition to the Cyber-shot QX series, and will be available immediately in both Google Play™ and App Store™. The updated application will feature:

• Embedded Photo Browser – A “Quick Viewer” photo browser has been added to the PlayMemories Mobile application, which will allow for seamless navigation between shooting images and viewing images in playback mode.
• Improved Speed and Functionality – The newest version of the application will have improved connectivity speed when linking to devices running the Apple iOS™ platform. More specifically, connection start up time will be approximately twice as fast compared to previous versions of the PlayMemories Mobile application.

Sony will be releasing another software update in Spring 2014 to improve connectivity speed with Android devices.

CAMERA FIRMWARE UPDATE

Additionally, there will be a firmware update for QX cameras in January which will add a variety of exciting capabilities including:

• Full HD Movie Recording (QX100 and QX10): Both of the Cyber-shot QX Series cameras will have the ability to shoot Full HD 1080p video (1920×1080@30p in MP4) after the firmware update.
• Shutter Priority (“S”) Mode (QX100 only): The Shutter Priority (“S”) mode will be added to the QX100 camera to allow direct access control to shutter speed.
• Expanded ISO Shooting Range (QX100 and QX10): Each of the cameras will be able to shoot at higher ISO settings for greater versatility in low-light conditions. The QX10 camera will be expanded from max ISO 1600 to max ISO 3200. The QX100 camera will be expanded from max ISO 3200 to max ISO 12800.

via Dpreview.

Phil Molyneux

BGR reports that Sony kicked top executive Phil Molyneux to the curb after terrible U.S. sales. This isn’t directly related to the digital camera business. But it’s one more sign of the difficult time almost all electronic giants are facing. Let’s hope Sony CEO Hirai will find the way out of this crisis. At least on the digital camera front Sony did quite many things right with in 2013. Let’s hope 2014 will be even better!

Samyang Europe officially announced the release of five Full Frame E-mount lenses for your A7-A7r camera. These are great lenses but you have to know that these have been designed for DSRL cameras. It means they are bigger than they could be of Samyang would have designed them specifically for the FF E-mount. So nothing has changed between that E-mount version and the other Canon/Nikon Sony A-mount versions. They only made it fit to E-mount by making a longer tube :)

These are the lenses (no preorder links available yet):

• Samyang 14mm f/2.8 ED AS IF UMC
• Samyang 24mm f/1.4 ED AS IF UMC
• Samyang T-S 24mm f/3.5 ED AS UMC
• Samyang 35mm f/1.4 AS UMC
• Samyang 85mm f/1.4 AS IF UMC