Private note: Lot’s of stress and unexpected things…expect some pauses on SAR

Dear SAR readers,

First the important things: health is fine and that is the only thing that matters.

But in the last 10 days many “bad” things have happened in my personal life and I am forced to work a lot on these issues. It is normal to have these contingencies, I have had them in the past and more will happen in the future. But I am writing this on SAR because I feel that this time may affect my writing on SAR. It might happen that I cannot update SAR for 1-2 days.

In Italian there is a saying, “Piove sul bagnato,” which I think can be translated to something like “when it rains, it pours” It means that bad news often happens all at once. This is the case now and I can only share one of them publicly:

For 15 years I worked on building the CUBE camera and realizing unique 1×1 meter big photos on Ilfochrome (direct positive images without negative and therefore one of a kind). We created 300 such images but now 38 of those photos got destroyed by a flooding. So I have to work to save all other photos and this is one of the issues keeping me super busy.

Here is the damage one of the Ilfochrome images (the violet part shows the layers blowing up and destroying the color info):

Sony will have some announcement soon, so I will try to still work at last to get the rumors. You can help me out on this and share the rumors you find or hear by using this contact box or by contacting me at sonyalpharumors@gmail.com. Thanks!

New update on the Alpha Focus Bracketing APP

You can find the APP on Google Play. This is what it does:

Connect your camera* over Bluetooth with this app and focus bracketing won’t be a problem anymore. Fast and reliable. Focus Bracketing can be completely customized: pick the focus step, the number of pictures you want and the app will do the rest.
Advanced options: Focus Rewind, Focus Test Mode and Pre Bracketing Steps make this app the most advanced companion for professionals. Compatible with external and internal Flash.

New Low Price on the Lexar 320GB

New low price on the Lexar 320GB Type A card sold by Amazon (Click here).

Those are all new generation CFexpress Type A cards available since May:

4.0 generation VPG400 cards:

4.0 generation VPG200 cards:

2.0 generation VPG 400 cards:

  • Nextorage 640GB for $749 at Amazon
  • Nextorage 320GB for $439 at Amazon
  • Nextorage 160GB for $229 at Amazon
  • Nextorage 80GB for $164 at Amazon
  • Nextorage 40GB for $89 Amazon (this one has max 550MB/s write and 600MB/s read)

2.0 generation VPG 200 cards:

  • Nextorage 1920GB for $899 at Amazon (lowest price of any 2TB Type A card)
  • Nextorage 960GB for $499 at Amazon
  • Nextorage 480GB for $199 at Amazon

4.0 generation Type A card reader:

A crazy thought: Film is back! Should Sony also produce film cameras?

Dpreview interviewed a store manager that claimed:

The younger crowd – under thirty – are really, really being driven in by film. We’re selling every film camera we can get our hands on. People are coming in with film cameras and wanting advice on how to use ’em, and they’re buying film, filters and stuff to create a film kit.

Fujifilm CEO Teiichi Goto recently said, “We have found a new gold mine in the photography industry.” As Fujirumors reports, he is talking about the Instax business. The sales numbers reported in Fuji’s financial reports are staggering. Although the store manager interviewed by Dpreview does not specify whether he is talking about film cameras or Instax cameras, I suspect he is referring to the latter. Instax cameras offer an inherent practical value, that of printing direct images.

Now that artificial intelligence is also capable of creating superb images, the need and value of “authentic” photography will only grow. Sony has no history of chemical film production, so I doubt it will jump on this bandwagon … but I actually would have an idea to get a Sony version of the InstantKon RF70 instant camera.