If you follow SAR closely you will remember I posted two great Sony patents: One about a Curved Sony sensor tech and one about a 35mm f/1.8 Full Frame lens designed for curved sensor. Now, usually it takes years before a patented idea will be materialized in a real product. But you know, Sony cannot afford to avoid to sit down and stay still. They have to make real inovative products in order to catch up with the big two Canon and Nikon.

And the good news is that this is no more a dream! Image sensor World reports a great news. Sony will officially present their curved sensor technology at the Technology Symposium! This is what Sony writes about the presentation they are going to make:

We realized an ultimately advanced imaging system that comprises a curved, back-illuminated CMOS image sensor (BIS) and integrated lens which doubles the sensitivity at the edge of the image circle and increases the sensitivity at the center of the image circle by a factor of 1.4 with one-fifth lower dark current than that of a planar BIS. Because the lens field curvature aberration was overcome in principle by the curved sensor itself, the curved BIS enables higher system sensitivity through design of a brighter lens with a smaller F number than is possible with a planar BIS. At the same time, we controlled the tensile stress of the BIS chip to produce a curved shape that widens the energy band-gap to obtain a lower dark current. The curved CIS can be applied to an ultimately advanced imaging system that is validated by the evolution of the animal eye in Nature.

Now combine that sensor tech with a small and fast 35mm f/1.8 lens and you will get a superb new RX2 camera! More compact, faster and of much higher image quality than the current RX1-RX1R. And we also can hope to see an interchangeable mount camera with such a sensor in near future too!

I cannot wait to get some rumors about the RX2. If it has that kind of curved sensor tech I am sure SAR readers will be exctided about this. Or not?

NEX-6 Firmware with Sigma 19mm 1.02 vs. 1.03

Sony RX10 review at ThePhoBlographer.
Touit and ZM lenses on the Sony Alpha 7R – a good connection (Zeiss Blog).
A7 and A7r review at Photographybay.
Sony A7 test at Polish site Optyczne.
Some overarching thoughts on Sony’s strategic position with the rumored medium format camera (Diglloyd).
Phase One iXU 150 aerial photography cam with Sony sensor announced (Photographyblog).
Not even the newest Canon entry level DSLR can come close to Sony sensor performance (DxOmark).
Organic sensor patent (Freepatentsonline)
Drei Tage mit dem Sony FE 4/70-200mm G OSS unterwegs (Berlin Backstage).
Sony A7R Wedding Camera Review at Studiorlphotography.

Jean-Luc: “I just uploaded a few photos form the Sony A7 + Kit Lens on Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/phychi/sets/72157641996184584/) It maybe useful for futur buyers to see how it performs in “real life”. The photos are from an “out of the box” camera I bought just an hour before (I already had a charged battery from my NEX-5N) and are taken in Strasbourg, France, at the end of the afternoon.”

Alex: “I thought I show you my first Video on the „Hohe Wand/ High Wall“ Mountain in Austria: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1adw0qAK44. Since I do photography for almost a decade I could use a lot of my knowledge in composing the scenes in video. I made it with the Sony A7R and the 35 and 50 Summilux 1,4 ASPH FLE The Scene where you see me is shot with the 50 in APSC Mode and I used the „almost selfmade“ Igus Slider which comes cheaper than ready made sliders. for the Voice I used the Rode NT1A and I edited all in FCP X. I used to be a canon shooter an skeptical about the EVF but for the A7R I sold all of my Stuff.”
Gavin: I finally published my detailed A7R review and setup guide and would be delighted
if you’d share it on SAR.

Gavin: “Rather than rush a review after a few days of use, I thought I’d get three solid months of usage under my belt before publishing the review: http://www.fototripper.com/sony-a7r-review-setup-guide/”

Dierk: “Seit Kurzem nutze ich die NEX-6 an 4×5″ Großbild und bin ganz begeistert. Hier sind erste Bilder dazu:
Sinar P: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dierktopp/sets/72157641670093123/
Gandolfi: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dierktopp/sets/72157641081324295/”

Henri: “I want to share my website with you which I just launched. I am an enthousiast photographer, and I use my Sony Nex 5R to for travel photography. Lenses I mostly use are the 35mm 1.8 and the Sigma 19mm 2.8. I hope you like my work! henrivanbavel.com”

Massimo: “http://portfolio.massimocristaldi.com/-/galleries/photo/documentary/scicli-2014 all taken with the subject settings, autofocus, low lights, PP with Silver EXF (A7R, 35FE, ISO6400, 1/80, f2.8)”

Alexandre: “I shot some beautiful thai models with my Sony A7R and the Zeiss FE35mmF2.8: http://thailandfacts.com/models-bangkok-motor-show-2014-impact-thailand/“

UPDATE: It’s now April 2. Time to say you have been fooled :)

This is the Fool news:

After many weeks of work I can finally unveil that Sony is about to launch two new Full Frame cameras based on the same brand new Sony 3 layer sensor (Similar to Foveon tech). On May 1 Sony will unveil the A91 A-mount and the A9 E-mount cameras featuring the 54 Megapixel 3 layer sensor.

3 layer sensor: Every layer captures 18 megapixel. The resolution and color richness is said to be world-class leading. No other camera of the world can nearly match the IQ from those cameras!

AF: The sensor contains 345 phase detection AF points covering 97% of the imaging area.

A and E-mount: The cameras are very similar but the A91 will have on sensor stabilization. The A91 will also be the first A-mount camera that is completely mirrorless and without the SLT mirror!

I have no other specs nor price info yet. But stay tuned!

Sony organized a couple of live stream event from the NAB show in Las Vegas. As I told you before don’t expect a 4K E or A-mount camera to be announced yet. Although I hope some kind of mockup will be shown to give us some idea of how this could look!

The list of streamed events can be found here: http://videochatonair.com/sonynab/

Well, if you want a top quality zoom for your Video work with E-Mount cameras you can buy the new Zeiss CZ.2 15-30mm T/2.9 lens. It’s not thaaaat expensive…you get it for € 17,900 or US$ 23,900….excl. VAT! You can already preorder it at BHphoto (Click here).

To read the full details about the lens click over to the press text at Zeiss.com.

Sony Europe stores (Click here) are offline. And the site mentions a cool rebate that will go live as soon as the site is back online. Just use the voucher code “SORRY225” to get a 5% discount!

I don’t think the site is off because of a product announcement. Usually they don’t go offline for that. Although they could take the chance to add the A3500 which has been already released at Sony Australia.

UPDATE: 10% off on the A6000 at Sony Australia (Click here) with code “A6000PC10”. Runs for 48 hours from now!

Sony A7R Review with Canon EF lenses – First Impressions

Sony 20mm f2.8 review at ThePhoBlographer.
Zeiss 18-105mm review at Thephoblographer.
A3000 review at ThePhoBlographer.
A5000 test at Trustedreviews and ePhotozine.
That could be the Zeiss 50mm f/1.4 A-mount lens patent (http://www.freepatentsonline.com/y2014/0071331.html)
New phase detection patent (http://www.freepatentsonline.com/y2014/0071318.html).
A7 preview at Bestmirrorlesscamerareviews.
Second season starts at the ‘Year of the Alpha – 52 weeks of Sony Alpha Photography. Follow 10 weeks of Sony photography with Lensbaby products (and don’t forget to check earlier pictures of season one as well). http://www.yearofthealpha.com
Sony E 55-210mm F4.5-6.3 OSS lens review at DxOmark.
RX10 is the digital camera of the year for Engadget.
Sony RX10 review by Focus Numerique.
Sony A5000: First batch of gallery images posted (Imaging Resource).
Zeiss 55mm f/1.8 lens review at Focus Numerique.

Iliah: “The current version of RawDigger includes the tool that help to visualize any areas where artifacts may result from lossy compression used in ARW2 files.
From the changelog,
Preferences – Data Processing – Sony ARW2 processing options
Applies only to processing of Sony cRAW format Settings:
• None (standard processing) – standard processing
• Only base pixels – In each 16-byte block, only pixels that have exact values are unpacked. The values of other pixels are set to zero.
• Only delta pixels – In each 16-byte block, only the pixels that are coded as deltas from the minimum value in the block are unpacked. The base value (minimum in the block) is added to the result.
• Delta pixels relative to zero – same as above but the base value is not added. This mode helps to locate compression artifacts.”

Joe: “I’ve finished my second (well, third actually) article on the A7R shutter shake issue, which details the new things I’ve learned, with help from several friends and other investigators, and is quite explicit in explaining it. Some important illustrations too.
It looks, though I don’t have in hand yet (it will take two more months to get) the finished deadweight (nor the two new Sony zooms, one coming in two days, according to the latest statements by Sony’s warehouse in Carson, CA, the 24-70 will ship tomorrow, it’s just the new orders that are stated as late February), that… my setup will do all that I would hope, out to 200 mm.
We’ll see, but it’s looking good. The results are thrilling when everything comes together.
http://www.josephholmes.com/news-sonya7rshuttershake_followup1.html”

Massimo: “Using the A7R with the 17TSE and a proper RAW developer – ACR vs Iridient Developer. http://www.massimocristaldi.com/blog/sony-a7r-perche-tutto-e-cambiato/”

Anonymous: “Good morning from spain Andrea, a little piece 1’ with Sony RX10, retrozoom included: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvqNRQexSLQ”

Brandon: “I made this artistic short film about the Dubai shipyard workers, shot on Rx100mkII. Heavy utilization of slow motion, plus the articulated screen for low angles.
http://vimeo.com/88224399”

Phil: “I bought the Sony alpha 7 full frame camera with the purpose of shooting real time video of low light things like aurora borealis, fireflies etc
My first trip to shoot the northern lights in Iceland returned some very spectacular footage which has been blogged about on numerous sites. A lot of people have said it’s the best they have ever seen. A lot of northern lights footage is filmed with time lapse stills, but now with large sensors it possible to film real time video which is what you see in my footage Here Phil Plaiit, “the Bad astronomer” describes the footage (video is embedded)
http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2014/02/20/aurora_video_real_time_footage_of_the_northern_lights_moving.html
Hope you like, feel free to mention on you sight. If you do let me know by hitting reply to all.“