[shoplink 48252][/shoplink]
Dpreview compared the new [shoplink 48252]Sony RX10III[/shoplink] against the Panasonic FZ1000 and the Canon G3X. The Panasonic is as good as the Sony but does only go as far as 400mm. So the real contender seems to be the Canon:

The real reason people consider bridge cameras is for the reach, and Sony extended the RX10 III’s reach by a full 400mm over the RX10 II. That means it now offers the same amount of reach as the G3 X’s 600mm equivalent maximum focal length. The RX10 III’s lens is clearly sharper, but it has another thing going for it: its faster maximum aperture helps it combat diffraction. Remember that F4 and F5.6 on 1″-type cameras are equivalent to F11 and F15, respectively. Both cameras are limited by atmospheric distortion at these focal lengths (hence the drop to ‘print’ resolution in the previous comparison link), but it’s clear that the RX10 III exceeds the G3 X’s performance, while offering just as much zoom versatility. The Canon PowerShot G3 X’s trump card has been trumped.

RX10m3 store links to [shopcountry 48252].

[shoplink 47915][/shoplink]

This is a guest post from Enrico Heller (eh-photo.de). He reviewed the new 24-70mm GM lens ([shopcountry 47915]).

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Introduction
Sony finally released the long awaited, brand new [shoplink 47915]Sony FE 24-70 GM F2.8 lens[/shoplink]. I placed my preorder in Februar this year, but the demand is so high, that I needed to wait until last week to get my lens. I spend the last days with this lens and collected a lot of sample images. In my full review I want to share my impressions and results with you.
I have tested the lens with my Sony A7RM2 and as usually I started to analyse and compare the lens in my little studio. As competitor I have used the
Sony Vario-Tessar® T* FE 24–70 mm F4 ZA OSS.

Build Quality and Handling

As it can be expected from such a high price tag lens the build quality is very well. The case is made of metal and feels good. The lens hood has a button to release the hood. I don’t like it much, because I hadn’t need it before and would not need this in future. But I have to learn to handle this. The lens is very heavy and bulky. The weight is 886g. In comparison the Sony FE24-70 F4 (426g) feels like a tiny toy. But before we complain about this, the
Nikon AF-S 24-70mm 1:2,8G ED is 900g and the Canon EF24-70 f/2.8L II USM is 805g. So the Sony is equal to the others.
The focus and focal length ring works very well with a nice resistance. Manual focusing works, but not far as good like on a Zeiss manual focus lens.
You get a focus lock button which is really great and a focal lenght lock button, which locks the focal lenght at 24mm.
You also get the new lens case like all new G-Master lenses have.

Autofocus
The autofocus is very fast and accurate and in contrast to the Sony FE 85 GM F1.4 (see my test HERE) nearly noiceless. I havn’t messured it but I’m sure it’s my fastest Sony lens I have ever had and I have had most of them. I don’t now how fast a adaptered Nikon or Canon lens works but I can’t imagine that they are faster. The focus nailes even in low light condition.
The Eye AF works also very well. You can nail the focus on moving people exactly in the eye.
In terms of autofocus you can use the lens for sports and event photography without hesitiation.

Sharpness
As usually I test new lenses on my testing wall. It is very helpful to find quality issues like with my Sony Distagon T* FE 35 mm F1,4 ZA (check out my test HERE). It also helps me to find strength and weak points of my lenses. I have tested three zones with 24mm and 70mm:
A – Center
B – Edge
C – Corner
To get a feeling for the results I compared this with the Sony Vario-Tessar® T* FE 24–70 mm F4 ZA OSS

Zone A – the Center
The results are really great. The G-Master is sharp like a prime in the center at 24mm even wide open. The Sony-Zeiss is not as sharp as the GM and has less contrast but the results aren’t that bad.

With 70mm the results are on the same level like with 24mm. The GM has also more contrast and it is sharper. At F2.8 the sharpness is a bit weaker than with 24mm at the same aperture.

Zone B – the Edge
In the edge the results are on another level. The GM is sharp over the full F-Stop range an just a bit softer at F2.8. The Sony FE24-70 F4 is very weak even with F8 it doesn’t reach the sharpness of the GM @F2.8

At 70mm the Sony-Zeiss is much better than with 24mm but still not as good as the GM. The GM is @F2.8 a bit softer in the edge. All in all the results from the Sony FE24-70GM F2.8 are better at 24mm but still nice at 70mm.

Zone C – the Corner
The last zone shows similar results like the edge. On GM side at 24mm it is better than with 70mm but really good. The Sony-Zeiss is weak at 24mm and at 70m better than I have expected it and equal to the GM.

The sharpness results are all in all very impressive. But this I have expected. LensRentals.com tested also this lens and draw MTF charts of the lens. The results are very similar to mine.

Vignetting
The Vignetting of the lens is very moderate. You can see below, that there is a sightly vignetting at 24mm over the full F-Stop range. The vignetting at 70mm is less and almost gone at F5.6. With applyed correction profile in the camera you won’t see any vignetting in the final image.

Distortion
There is a sightly barrel distortion visible at 24mm

At 70mm you will get a minor pincushion distortion.

It’s almost the same like the vignetting. If you enable the camera inbuild correction profile which is also applyed to the RAW file you will get a clean Image without any distortion.

Chromatic Aberrations
Longitudinal Chormatic Aberrations (LoCA | Bokeh Fringing) sadly are hart to correct, the most efficent way to avoid them is to stop down. But let’s take a look into the chart. The shots are taken at F2.8. At 24mm you can see very minor Longitudinal Chormatic Aberrations. It will be hart to find them in a real live picture.

(Sony FE24-70 GM F2.8 @F2.8 24mm)

The same shot at 70mm you can see a noticeable amount of Longitudinal Chromatic Aberrations.

(Sony FE24-70 GM F2.8 @F2.8 70mm)

Lateral Chromatic Aberrations are visible in the edge and corner, but I don’t care about them, because they can be easily correced in post-processing.

(Sony FE24-70 GM F2.8 @F2.8 24mm)

With active inbuild lens correction profile you will get a clean RAW|JPG out of the camera.

(Sony FE24-70 GM F2.8 @F2.8 24mm)

At 70mm there are no lateral chromatic aberrations even without lens correction profile

(Sony FE24-70 GM F2.8 @F2.8 70mm)

Flares
In extreme situations it is possible to create some lens flares, in normal conditions I had no problems.

Rendering and Bokeh
If you remember right the Sony marketing says that the lens strengths should be sharpness and bokeh. So lets see what the lens can deliver.
At first I have tested the Bokeh Balls. They should be round and without of onion rings. The results below are very, very good. The bokeh balls are round even at F8 and I also can’t find any problems with onion rings. On focusing the lights I can produce nice sunstars. That looks really good.

The rendering of the out of focus areas is very smooth and soft and nothing is getting nervous. The colors are rich and punchy.

Conclusions
Till now I really like the lens and I’m happy to own it. It’s crisp sharp over the full range and produce nice and wonderful images. The build quality is very well and the AF is really fast. The weight and size is huge, but not more than other F2.8 zoom lenses. The price tag is very high, but I think you get the best standard zoom lens on market. The existing lens errors are almost not relevant, the only downside is the amount of LoCa at 70mm.
I could help you? Thats great! You want to help me? Please check the link below the blow. *cheers*

Check out the example images at eh-photo.de.

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Get the the 24-70mm GM lens at [shopcountry 47915].

The following review is a guest post from Shawn Reynold (tlpserendipity.wordpress.com). To write a guest post follow the instructions on that page. Thanks!

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Finally, the warm weather is here.
The Sun is shining, the birds are singing, and The Hills are alive with the sound of lawn mowers! I really should get out and enjoy the nice weather. But what to do??  Hmmm….
I know! How about hanging out at ‘Times Square North’

in Toronto) with some friends and playing around with the new [shoplink 47395]Sony FE 85mm f1.4 GM lens[/shoplink]? That could be fun.

A word of disclaimer – I am not a street photographer.  And I do not… usually… take street portraits (that was the point of the outing that day – to “work on a weakness”)

DxOmark posted the full Zeiss Batis 85mm lens results:

While not cheap, the [shoplink 45791 ebay]$1,199 Zeiss Batis 85mm f/1.8[/shoplink] offers good value for money, considering the solid Zeiss construction, features, and performance. On the A7R, it’s not quite as sharp as the similarly-priced [shoplink 48071 ebay]Sony FE 90mm f/2.8[/shoplink], but sharpness is still very good. What’s more, with improved light transmission thanks to that faster f/1.8 maximum aperture, the Zeiss lens is better suited for low-light event photography, as well as creative portraiture, over the Sony. We can’t wait to pit the Zeiss Batis 85mm and the Sony FE 90mm against the new [shoplink 48072 ebay]Sony 85mm f/1.4GM[/shoplink] just as soon as we get one in the lab.

Batis 85mm at [shopcountry 45791].

[shoplink 48054 ebay][/shoplink]

The following review is a guest post from Dean Vuksanovic. To write a guest post follow the instructions on that page. Thanks!

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Hello fellow camera enthusiasts and Sonyalpharumors readers! This guest post is a tribute to my favourite lens which, when combined with the original Sony A7 camera, makes for the world’s smallest and lightest digital full frame system with a 35mm field of view. We are talking about none other than the [shoplink 48054 ebay]almighty Minotar lens[/shoplink] adapted from the Minox 35 film cameras.

Mike Ling posted the 85mm GM video test above and writes:

This is a real life lens comparison of the Sony 85 GM, Zeiss Otus 55, Zeiss 135 APO, Nikon 85 F1.8G. The Sony is very sharp wide open at F1.4, the color seems much warmer compare to the other 3 lenses in the test. All raw and jpeg images can be downloaded to pixel peep in Lightroom, link iis under the video descriptions.
85mm GM store links: [shopcountry 47395].

The 50mm FE lens got reviewed at Dsphotoblog:

This lens has excellent value for money when it comes to image quality and the warm look you get. For 248 $ or 300 euros it even beats Tamron and Sigma lenses. The image quality and the look are that good that I will keep this lens and hope that Sony will release a firmware update for it to improve the autofocus. If i would give it a rating it would be a 8+ out of 10 for image quality and the look. The FE 50 1.8 is small and lightweight and it makes total sense on an A7 series camera especially for street shooting and travelling and of course for portraits.
50mm FE store links: [shopcountry 47526].

And Ricky Ban is testing the new 70-300mm FE lens:

I’ve posted a comparison of the Sony FE 24-70 GM vs Sony FE 70-300 @ 70mm F/4.5. Not sure if your readers are interested. Just did it for some fun. And to compare the sharpness of them both.
70-300 FE store links: [shopcountry 47527].

And Digitalrev compared the Bokeh performance between the Otus 85mm and Sony 85mm GM lens

[shoplink 47935 ebay]

[/shoplink]
[shoplink 47935 ebay]Canon FD 500L[/shoplink] + [shoplink 47939 ebay]FD to M adapter[/shoplink] + Techart M to E adapter on the A6300.
Image by Dirk Westermann on Facebook.

The first batch of the new Techart PRO Leica M autofocus adapter is now shipping. SAR reader Dirk Westermann got the adapter and he is the using it to “add autofocus” on [shoplink 47938 ebay]Canon FD lenses[/shoplink]!
Above you can see his picture of his huge [shoplink 47935 ebay]Canon FD 500L (here one Bay)[/shoplink]. He used two adapters to add autofocus on the A6300: The [shoplink 47939 ebay]FD to M adapter[/shoplink] and then the Techart Leica M adapter.  It’s really amazong that your old (and still high quality) Canon FD lens can now autofocus on Sony E-mount cameras!

This is what Dirk writes:

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1. First of all I still find it amazing that I now have auto focus on my manual FD lenses. I have been using FD lenses with manual focus for some years, and the keeper rate for birds with focus peaking was like 20%, because the feather details and the harsh crops that are often necessary are very unforgiving if the focus is not exactly right. Now, with this fantastic new adapter, the keeper rate is about 80%!! as far as I can estimate this after the 5 days that I have had it.
When using my great portrait lens [shoplink 47941 ebay]Canon FD L 85mm f1.2[/shoplink], AF accuracy is crucial due to the little DOF. Also there, the adapter does a great job and even with f1.2 it is easy to get the eye EXACTLY in focus!

Here is a sample image that I took with the Sony A6300, TECHART PRO adapter and my [shoplink 47942 ebay]Canon FD 300F4L lens[/shoplink].
The AF really nails it most of the time, fantastic work, Techart people!
Image by Dirk Westermann on Facebook.

2. I prefer CAF at that time, especially with the longer lenses. This enables me to change the manual focus when I have half pressed the shutter, and the adapter then constantly adapts the AF. With my big lenses (CANON FD 500mm and FD 300mm) the range where the adapter can auto focus is quite small and the accuracy of the manual pre focus is more important, so with this method I can manually narrow the focus to the area where the AF then works.

3. I would prefer an adapter position somewhere in the middle when I turn on the camera. Now the adapter is at the far end and can only adapt to one direction. I prefer to do a quick and rough pre focus, and then half press the shutter and the adapter does the AF fine tuning from that position, into one or the other direction, thus a middle position would be more helpful. But it also works as it is now.

4. It is tricky to find the right [shoplink 47939 ebay]Leica M to FD adapter[/shoplink], because the available models are too large in their diameter. I modified a cheap M to FD adapter DIY and now it fits perfectly.

Hope this helps!

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Thanks Dirk!