New Sony reviews (A580, A55, NEX-5, 85mm f/2.8 lens)


SAMSUNG NX100 vs SONY NEX5 from hyunmi kang on Vimeo. (UPDATE: The video is made by a Samsung fan! Keep that in mind when you view it.)

PhotoclubAlpha wrote a 7 page long, very detailed and honest new [shoplink 3617]Sony A55[/shoplink] review (Compliments!): “The Alpha 55 actually replaces something which overlapped with my film cameras – the Dimage 7/A series – and also the various video cameras I owned five, ten or more years ago. The video function is also there in the NEX and the 580, but the A55 would be my first choice. It genuinely can track focus during video even with fast-moving subjects or changes of distance, and do so with all the lenses I can fit to it. It removes any need to own a further compact digital.

Sony A55 vs Nikon D90 in RAW (Fotoactualidad)
PCworld tested the [shoplink 4617]Sony A580 eBay[/shoplink]: “The Alpha 580 is a very impressive camera that’s comfortable to shoot with, and well-designed. Supported by a robust collection of high-quality lenses, the camera is capable of delivering excellent image quality. What’s more, Sony is doing a good job of automating post-production processes like HDR and panoramic stitching directly in camera, turning these “high-end” features into usable, everyday consumer techniques.

The bulgarian website photo-forum.net tested the new Sony 85mm f/2.8 lens.

External mirrorless poll


Our friends from 43rumros and mirrorlessrumros asked us if we can promote their nre mirrorless poll:
43rumors and Mirrorlessforum launched a new poll which is available at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ml_survey. We are curious to see the average profile of our readers. It’s an anonymous poll, and there is no commercial use for it. The results will be published here on 43rumros after closing the poll and you will finally learn how many of us are using mirrorless cameras and what kind of use they do with it!

New Adobe Camera RAW adds A560/580 support (+ new A55 review by Tony Bridge)

Adobe updated their Camera Raw plug-in and added support for the new Sony A560 and A580 cameras.

The Photographer Tony Bridge reviewed the [shoplink 3617]Sony A55[/shoplink]: “They are certainly not the first to use one in a  DSLR (Panasonic did it with the G1/GH1) but this viewfinder is so close to an optical one that I would have no hesitation in going electronic with all my cameras from here on. Combine that with the pellicle mirror and all the advantages that accrue from that decision and a sensor which is clearly at the top of its class and you have a picture making machine which represents astonishing value. At that price it has to be the weapon of choice. For a long time I’ve been looking for a camera which was small, light, intuitive and offered me a quality level suitable for exhibition work, which offered no compromise results at a highly compromised price point (so call me le miserable!). Not all of us are in a position to afford a Leica.Click here to read the full review. Thanks Tony for sending me the link!

New EOS to NEX adapter with aperture ring!

[shoplink 4840][/shoplink]

One of our readers (Mistral) just found that new adapter on eBay: “Just to let you know that Kipon, the Chinese manufacturer of adapters, just launched a Canon EF –> Sony E adapter with built-in aperture (since there is no mechanical coupling in the EF mount, you can only use the EF lenses wide open with conventional adapters). Their website is http://www.dl-kipon.com but it is down more than often.
The adapter for sale on eBay:
[shoplink 4840]http://cgi.ebay.com/Canon-EOS-EF-Sony-nex-3-5-adapter-w-build-in-aperture-/250739038323
[/shoplink]”

Popphoto voted the Sony A55 as camera of the year!

[shoplink 3617][/shoplink]

Popphoto choosed the new [shoplink 3617]Sony A55[/shoplink] as camera of the year: “A really good measure of the strength of a technology company is how well it does things that can’t be done.Sony, confronted with a vexing glitch of DSLR video, dipped into a bag of old and new tricks to come up with a remarkably simple solution. Along the way, it invented essentially a new type of camera, one for which we don’t quite have a name yet. What we can call it is the Alpha 55, and the Camera of the Year for 2010.

I couldn’t agree more :)

And hee the direct preorder links if you want to check the Sony A55 price and availability:
Amazon, BHphoto, Amazon DE, Amazon FR, Pixmania DE, Pixmania BE, Pixmania AT, Pixmania UK, Pixmania NL, Pixmania PL, Pixmania IT.

Sony TidBits

Sony develops “Hybrid FPA”, a novel liquid crystal alignment technique that achieves faster response time for liquid crystal displays (Akihabaranews)

Sony CineAlta Moves Beyond Bayer (ImageSensorWorld)

Taiwan market: Sony surpasses Nikon in ILC market (Digitimes.com)

NEX Body and Rear Lens Cap Available (SonyAlphaNex)

Join the Sony World Photography Awards 2011 (worldphoto.org)

Sony NEX-VG10 with Sigma 50-500mm Bigma (SonyAlphaNex).

The Sony clock :)

Carl Zeiss announces record sales (PMAnewsline)

Debunking myths. Sony-Canon lens debate on Sonyalpha.es

David Bejarano from Sonyalpha.es compared the present Sony and Canon lenses. He wrote me the following text:

Tired of hearing the endlessly and tiresome song “The A-mount has a very limited number of lenses; I would wish to post this comparison, so everybody could speak knowingly.
Debunking myths… if only a little
It is a truth repeated and accepted by everybody that Sony lacks the breadth of catalogue of Canon or Nikon. And that is often used when evaluating the Sony products: “Yes, it could be a good camera, but when you need to make grow your gear
Not long ago, on a thread on the Sonyalpha.es forum, a user said: “And after the
[shoplink 4378]A580[/shoplink]… what?”, questioning the growth capabilities of his Sony gear
Some months ago, taking pictures with some Canon and Nikon users, where only a girl with an A300 and myself with the
[shoplink 3032]A900[/shoplink], were Sony users, were holding the jokes and ironies of one of them. I didn’t want to argue; so I just asked him for a memory card, took some pictures, and while I handed it to him, I told him “Just look at these at home, and then we can talk about Why I’m shooting with Sony”… Now this Canikon user has a problem, because his gear doesn’t give him pictures with so much dynamic range, sharpness, detail and colours. Now he doubts a lot but… “There are so few Sony lenses”!
It would be naive not accept that today Canon’s lenses list is much larger than the Sony’s one but… How far? So I decided to compare their catalogues, and now I’m presenting the result.
The only aspect I try to answer is if Sony’s lenses list is as short as it’s said. It should be necessary to analyse some other aspects which would take the study a little bit further. There are a lot of reviews
There are already many reviews that assess lens performances. I’m not talking about qualities, although I must say that G lenses can talk face to face with Canon’s L and L-II, if not overcome them, and all CZ lenses outperform their respective Canon counterparts, according to the different reviews I’ve been reading.
Talking about the sealed Canon lenses, I remember an article of an A900 and a
[shoplink 4835]24-70/2.8 Carl Zeiss[/shoplink] lens, shooting on the Paris-Dakar rally, completely full of desert sand and dust, while continued working perfectly; or the Luminous Escape experience praising the A900 reliability that outperformed some failing Canon bodies
You can find here a Canon vs Sony’s catalogue comparative, you can use it to take your own conclussions …
Firstable, is important to realize you can find a lot of similar lenses on Canon’s family; some of this “duplicate” models have been developed to achieve quality improvements (for the L and L-II series) and some others because they are stabilized lenses (LS). But, in the Sony family ALL lenses can work as stabilized lenses because all Alpha bodies (except the NEX bodies) have in body stabilization, and you don’t need to duplicate versions.
Second, there are some Canon lenses with no AF motor, but its use is limited only to Canon bodies with integrated AF motor. In the Sony system the camera bodies include an AF , which has shown their advantages; newer in-body engines now are outperforming in terms of speed and precission some SSM engine