First hands-on with the new 18-135mm E-mount lens by CameraLabs


18-135mm lens at BHphoto, Adorama, Amazon, FocusCamera and BestBuy.

At last we got someone who had the chance to play a bit with the new 18-135mm lens. Gordon Laing from CameraLabs writes:

The zoom and focusing rings are fairly smooth and avoid the scratchy or loose feel of some lower priced lenses; it’s certainly a big step-up from the E 16-50mm collapsing kit zoom bundled with many of Sony’s APSC bodies. 
The overall sharpness of the image is very good for a kit zoom with the aperture open. Sure it’s not pin-sharp in the extreme corners at f3.5, but it’s a considerable improvement over the earlier Sony general-purpose zooms for APSC bodies, and additional gains can be enjoyed by stopping it down a little, with the sweet-spot around f5.6.
For the money the E 18-135mm is a no-brainer for all A6000, A5000 and NEX owners looking for a general-purpose zoom or an upgrade from the 16-50mm.

Gordon alos posted a coold image showing how much smaller this lens is compared to the competition:

Sony A7RIII pixel shift with a vintage lens and a Sony A7rII star eater workaround


Image from the Star Eater Petition which asks Sony to fix the issue

David Kilpatrick from Photoclubalpha tested the Sony A7RIII pixel shift with a vintage Takumar lens. The conclusion:

Multi-shot pixel shift images, though only 120MB uncompressed, are so detailed that some won’t compress much at all. I have only ever seen this before from medium format, and that includes the Extra Fine single shot regular files.

And Jim Kasson found a Sony a7RII star-eater workaround:

The good news: The a7RII star-eating spatial filtering that takes place at 4 seconds and longer exposures does not occur in continuous low or continuous high shutter modes.
The bad news is that you have to put up with a little more noise and 12-bit precision. As bad news goes, that’s pretty good. The increase in noise is small, and the read noise at ISO 640 provides sufficient dither that you won’t miss those missing bits (at higher ISOs there will be even more read noise, and the increaded noise from the 12-bit conversions will be less significant). There is some question about what that horizontal periodicity means for astrophotography, and I would be interested in hearing from people who use this workaround on real stars.

Sony A7rIII at Amazon, Bhphoto, Adorama, BuyDig, FocusCamera, Calumet DE, Wex UK. Photo Porst Neuwied. Sony Netherland. Sony Australia. Sony Japan.

Join the A7rIII facebook group to discuss the camera features and tests.

Sony A7rIII is camera of the year at RonMartBlog. And new test by Jim Kasson, Lok and Cinema5D.

RonMartBlog did select the A7rIII as camera of the year:

I wish you’d buy my Canon gear so I could buy this camera – it really is that good. This is why I’m proud to give the Sony a7R III my highest recommendation by naming it my 2017 Camera of the Year!

Also Jim Kasson prefers it over the Nikon D850:

The D850 can do most of what the D5 can, and some stuff the D5 never thought about doing. But for available-light, no-modifier event shooting, I think there’s a new sheriff in town: the a7RIII with an a9 backup.

Cinema5D did shoot a mini documentary with the A7rIII:

So, if this camera is so nice to work with, is there any obstacle in getting it? Well, the answer might be its’ biggest “enemy”, Sony’s own non (yet) existing camera, namely, the a7S III.

New video test by Lok:

Sony A7rIII at Amazon, Bhphoto, Adorama, BuyDig, FocusCamera, Calumet DE, Wex UK. Photo Porst Neuwied. Sony Netherland. Sony Australia. Sony Japan.

Join the A7rIII facebook group to discuss the camera features and tests.

Panasonic announces the new GH5s. Sony, now it’s your call to answer with the A7sIII.


via Camerasize

Panasonic just announced their new GH5s. This camera is made to challenge the Sony A7sII. It has some terrific specs (like dual native ISO and Cinema4K) and first tests show this is indeed a serious competitor. Imaging Resource writes:

“At both 12,800 and 25,600, the GH5S looks slightly better than the A7S II at the same ISOs, which is both unexpected and subjectively highly impressive for a camera featuring a sensor that is a fraction the size of the other.
A sensor significantly smaller than the full-frame A7S II is beating that camera in low-light performance. I never thought I would see the day. With these test results, it’s hard to argue that the GH5S is not the new king of low light.”

Overall this is good news. Sony can’t hold back on the A7sIII launch and has to pack it with some necessary features like 4k60p and 10bit internal recording at 24-30p. The NAB show in April would be a logic place for the A7sIII announcement.

Big Weather Sealing Test shows the A7rIII has flaws :(

Imaging Resource tested the weather sealing of multiple cameras including the new Sony A7rIII:

Given that the A7R III has a significant number of environmental seals (see the screen capture to the right, taken from the Sony website), we were surprised that it had as hard a time with our test as it did – particularly given that all of the other cameras passed it easily.

While the A7rIII sealing seems to be improved over the predecessor it’s disappointing to see water going inside the battery compartment. This is really something that should disqualify the camera as “weather sealed”.

I would say the A7rIII is sealed if you keep it for a short time under light rain. I would not risk to keep the camera in much harsher conditions for a long time.

Laowa 15mm FE review by ePhotozine and interview with the lens designer at Phillip Reeve

ePhotozine tested the Laowa 15mm FE lens:

A solid manual focus lens, perhaps without the refinement in operation of the top marques, the Laowa 15mm f/2 brings to the table close focusing, quality of results and a unique f/2 aperture. There is huge potential in all of that, plus a price tag that, whilst not insubstantial, bears up well when compared to other available lenses. And that sharpness is exceptional, so Highly Recommended.

And over at Phillip Reeve you can read the interview with the Lens designer. It’s always nice to hear the voice of the man behind the lens.

In the meantime I am trying to use my new Laowa 15mm FE as much as I can. I like the have zero distortion feature because it allows me to frame the image perfectly and to see the results straight in camera without having to correct distortion on my laptop. This is one of my latest shots: