The new 50mm f/1.4 FE autofocus lens from Samyang is set to start shipping in July in Korea. It will ship to the rest of the world in August for a price less than $600. Photographyblog posted the first review of the lens and writes:

“Sharpness is a little disappointing when shooting wide-open at f/1.4, though, only becoming acceptable at f/2 and very good from f/2.8 onwards, while the edges aren’t quite as sharp as the centre, with f/5.6-f/11 producing the sharpest results. There’s also lots of evidence of chromatic aberrations, plus vignetting at wide-open apertures, admittedly something that other fast lenses also suffer from.”

It certainly isn’t as good as the new Sony Zeiss 50mm f/1.4 FE lens but the Samyang costs more than $900 less. Note: It’s priced 449 pounds in the UK.

Unboxing video:

MTF graph:

Size comparison:

The best news from Sony’s recent announcement is that Sony didn’t go way to crazy with the 70-200mm GM FE lens pricing. At $2,599 the lens is $400 “cheaper” than the A-mount version. Now let’s focus on the first 70-200mm tests. Here are the first impressions from four different reviewers:

Fstoppers:

The overall sharpness from this lens is probably the best I’ve seen from any Sony FE lens placed on an Alpha mirrorless camera. There are 11 circular aperture blades that produce some wonderful out of focus areas as you can see in the images. The image quality from this lens is simply remarkable and fully deserving of the G Master moniker.

ThePhoBlographer:

The lens can still track moving subjects very well through a scene and maintain focus. The best results came at f4.
The sharpness from this lens is impeccable when the subject is nailed perfectly in focus.

Resourcemag:

I did notice that the lens is much better at tracking motion left to right than motion moving backwards to forwards, which makes sense. Backwards to forwards or vice versa is incredibly challenging.
Photos are tack sharp, beautifully rendered, and colors pop. I adore the photos taken from this camera and it is the first E-Mount lens I have truly fallen in love with.

Sounds like the “weakest” spot of the lens is the autofocus performance. But that’s an issue related more to the current A7 camera autofocus system. The future A7 and A9 camera will likely have a much improved AF performance.

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USA:
Sony Planar T* FE 50mm f/1.4 ZA Lens at BHphoto, Amazon, Focuscamera.
Sony FE 70-200mm f/2.8 GM OSS Lens at BHphoto, Amazon, Adorama, Focuscamera.
Sony FE 1.4x Teleconverter at BHphoto, Amazon, Adorama, Focuscamera.
Sony FE 2.0x Teleconverter at BHphoto, Amazon, Adorama, Focuscamera.
Sony FA-WRC1M Wireless Radio Commander at BHphoto, Focuscamera.
Sony FA-WRR1 Wireless Radio Receiver at BHphoto, Focuscamera.
Sony VMC-MM1 Multi Terminal Cable at BHphoto, Focuscamera.
Europe:
Sony Planar T* FE 50mm f/1.4 ZA Lens at Calumet.de. Cyberport.de. PhotoPorst. Jessops. WexUK.
Sony FE 70-200mm f/2.8 GM OSS Lens at Calumet.de. Amazon Germany. Cyberport.de. PhotoPorst. Jessops. WexUK.
Sony FE 1.4x Teleconverter at PhotoPorst. Jessops.
Sony FE 2.0x Teleconverter at PhotoPorst. Jessops.

I uploaded all Planar T* FE 50mm F/1.4 ZA  full size image samples on Wetransfer (Click here to download). 100MB file!

Preorders (start Juy 13):
USA:
Sony Planar T* FE 50mm f/1.4 ZA Lens at BHphoto, Amazon, Focuscamera.
Sony FE 70-200mm f/2.8 GM OSS Lens at BHphoto, Amazon, Adorama, Focuscamera.
Sony FE 1.4x Teleconverter at BHphoto, Amazon, Adorama, Focuscamera.
Sony FE 2.0x Teleconverter at BHphoto, Amazon, Adorama, Focuscamera.
Sony FA-WRC1M Wireless Radio Commander at BHphoto, Focuscamera.
Sony FA-WRR1 Wireless Radio Receiver at BHphoto, Focuscamera.
Sony VMC-MM1 Multi Terminal Cable at BHphoto, Focuscamera.
Europe:
Sony Planar T* FE 50mm f/1.4 ZA Lens at Calumet.de. Cyberport.de. PhotoPorst. Jessops. WexUK.
Sony FE 70-200mm f/2.8 GM OSS Lens at Calumet.de. Amazon Germany. Cyberport.de. PhotoPorst. Jessops. WexUK.
Sony FE 1.4x Teleconverter at PhotoPorst. Jessops.
Sony FE 2.0x Teleconverter at PhotoPorst. Jessops.

And this is the MTF graph of the new Planar T* FE 50mm F/1.4 ZA

Above you can see the MTF graph of the new Planar T* FE 50mm F/1.4 ZA lens. Note that this aren’t measured on a real lens but rather “computer estimated” results. Still, the performance seems to be very high!

Preorders (start Juy 13):
50mm f/1.4 Zeiss FE at BHphoto (Click here). European price is 1800 Euro.
70-200mm GM at BHphoto (Click here).
Sony FE 1.4x Teleconverter at BHphoto (Click here).
Sony FE 2.0x Teleconverter at BHphoto (Click here).

This is a guest post from Marolou. To write a guest post follow the instructions on that page. Thanks!

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Could this be? –  Every review a read about this famous lens was full of praise about sharpness…

End of June I happily took my first photos with this “Best Prime” – awarded lens.

First some portraits on close distance and macros: https://flic.kr/p/JLvz8C

Everything looked fine, for the first six pictures. Then a portrait at a distance of ca. 5m. I tried for several times. I could not get the eyes sharp. https://flic.kr/p/JLvA1E

Could be my fault. Then I tried some landscape and found out, that the lens suffered not only of a “trace” of corner softness. But look for yourself: https://flic.kr/p/JLvxYo

I got my Canon 70-200mm F2.8 to take a comparison shot: https://flic.kr/p/JLvxjY

Wow, this looked much better. I felt bad, so I contacted my online shop and asked for a replacement (sending in the photos). They were understanding and very cooperative. Only some days later I could test the new copy, with much better results: https://flic.kr/p/JuUehJ

Some comparison pictures:

Left upper corner:

Between center and right border of frame

Close to center = focus point (The fig tree)

Lessons learnt: Test every lens you purchased the next few days despite what you are/where reading in the different reviews.

Link to Flickr: https://flic.kr/s/aHskCWfPXi

marolou

This is a guest post from Hunter Report. To write a guest post follow the instructions on that page. Thanks!

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I just got a Sony A7Sii to use as a professional photographer and videographer. The possibility of completely silent shooting is appealing to me (weddings,comedy,music, ENG….) however, I was concerned that image quality would be compromised. Guess what….IT IS NOT. From here on out,  I will be shooting my stills in silent mode only….and if anything goes wrong, I will be the first to let you guys know!!! To living on the edge!

SONY a7sii: http://amzn.to/29vjUPy
SONY 24-70 f2.8 GM http://amzn.to/29rnneN
SONY Battery Grip: http://amzn.to/29vjSqB

I also made a funny short film about a young punk photog who finally earns the a7sii:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgVNR18sY-Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHfQY7r28Kg

If you want to see what kind of image quality you get with a Sony 50MP medium format sensor check out the full size image samples posted by Ming Thein (Click here). And a reader sent me that real size comaprison between the X1D and the Sony A7rII:

Preorders:
The Hasselblad X1D-50c at BHphoto, Adorama and Calumet.de.
Hasselblad 90mm F/3.2 XCD Lens for XD1 at BHphoto, Adorama and Calumet.de.
Hasselblad 45mm F/3.5 XCD Lens for XD1 at BHphoto, Adorama and Calumet.de.

Sigma MC11 adapter review

Drasko (video above) and Tony (video below) posted some more useful test info about the new Sigma MC-11.

Sigma MC-11 store links: [shopcountry 47259].