Photokina reports and tests roundup

Sigma 28mm, 40mm, 56mm, 70-200mm and 60-600mm Hands-on Photos (Photographyblog).
Sony Cyber-shot HX99 Hands-on Photos (Photographyblog).
Photokina marks a massive upheaval in the camera landscape (Engadget).

Image of the new Laowa 100mm f/2.8 2x macro FE lens at Photokina

Optyczne shared this image of the new Laowa 100mm f/2.8 2x macro lens. This lens will be available as native Full Frame E-mount lens too. There are some image samples shot with the Canon version on Optyczne. Some more hands-on images are also available at Photographyblog.

Here is the press text I shared a while ago:

Laowa 100mm f/2.8 2X Ultra Macro APO
Followed by the success of the Laowa 60mm f/2.8 2:1 Macro, the 100mm f/2.8 2:1 Macro is the 2nd member of Laowa 2:1 macro line-up. This new 100mm lens can cover full frame sensor size and focus from 2:1 magnification to infinity. The wide magnification range allows macro photographers to capture subject at any sizes. This 100mm portrait lens also features an apochromatic (APO) characteristic that no chromatic aberration can be found. The 12 elements in 10 groups optics design delivers a crystal sharpness image in both macro and tele distances. Canon EF / Nikon AI / Pentax K / Sony FE mounts are available.

New Batis 40mm f/2.0 FE lens test by Allan Weitz and Lisa Beaney

Zeiss 40mm f/2.0 CF lens preorder at Adorama and BHphoto.

Allan Weitz (test here) conclusion is:

Though my personal lens preferences lean toward wide-angle lenses, the slightly wide-angle PoV, combined with the 40mm Batis’s ability to focus closer than your typical normal lens, made my time with the Batis 40mm f/2 CF a creatively enjoyable experience.

Lisa Beaney (test here) conclusion is:

From the testing I’ve done this lens is very sharp (not a scientific measurement, just from using it and looking at the images !)

Preorder status check:
The new Zeiss Batis lens is available for preorder at Adorama and BHphoto.
The Sony A7III will be in Stock within days according to BHphoto and Adorama.
The Tamron 28-75mm FE will be in Stock tomorrow according to BHphoto.
The Sony 400mm GM FE will be in Stock on October 11 according to BHphoto.
The Sigma 105mm f/1.4 FE will be in Stock on October 18 according to BHphoto.

Sony 24mm f/1.4 GM review at Photographyblog: “outstanding wide-angle prime lens “

Photographyblog posted the full review of the new Sony 24mm f/1.4 GM lens (preorder at Bhphoto. Adorama. Amazon. Calumet Germany. WexUK.):

The Sony FE 24mm f/1.4 GM is an outstanding wide-angle prime lens with a very fast maximum aperture, although the high asking price is certainly reflective of the performance and image quality on offer.
This relatively compact, lightweight optic delivers excellent sharpness in both the centre and edges of the frame almost throughout its aperture range, even performing well wide-open.
The near-circular 11-blade aperture creates some lovely bokeh effects, despite the wide-angle nature of the lens, making it suitable for everything from landscapes to portraits, as shown in our Sample Image gallery.
Coupled with a high-resolution camera like the A7R III that we tested it with, it’s capable of producing incredibly detailed, very sharp images, with Sony’s excellent Eye AF function seamlessly tracking the subject.
The Sony FE 24mm f/1.4 GM delivered fast, near-silent and reliable auto-focusing on the A7R III camera, intuitive manual focusing and a high level of build quality, plus it’s usefully weather-tight too.
If you really love the 24mm focal length, we’d heartily recommend the Sony FE 24mm f/1.4 GM – you certainly won’t be disappointed by the image quality that it can deliver.

And here is the hands-on by Photogearnews:

NIkon Z7 has stripe issues and lower Dynamic Range than the Sony A7rIII

Photonstophotos published the Nikon Z7 Dynamic Range tests results and I am surprised to see how much better than Sony A7rIII performances against the Nikon. And Dpreview just found what’s causing this “Gap” with the Sony:

  • In principle, dynamic range is comparable to that of the D850: one of the best performances we’ve seen.
  • However, striping and banding (caused by the addition of on-sensor PDAF) means the usable dynamic range is reduced.

Here is the banding compared to the Sony:

Dpreview writes:

As you’ll see in some of the images above, a banding pattern can appear if you try to pull darker tones into the image. The frequency of these stripes leads us to believe it’s a result of the way the phase-detection rows of pixels are incorporated into the image (something supported by our collaboration with Bill Claff).
In addition to the banding in shadows, we’ve also occasionally seen the same pattern in images with flare caused by a bright light source

I don’t think this is something Nikon can fix via firmware update.

If the Z7 would be a Sony camera I would imaging the usual troll saying that Sony has never been a serious camera company and they can only do Playstations :)