If you own the very laud Sony A7r than you may be really interested how much more silent the new A7rII shutter is. Check out the video above!

And two readers from UK confirmed that they will get their A7rII preorder from Wex UK on July 30 already! Damn lucky guys those brits! But hey, there is no sun there so let them enjoy the camera as first :)

A7rII preorder list:
In USA: at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, SonyStore US, FocusCamera, Uniquephoto.
In Europe at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT. Wex UK.
In Asia at Digitalrev, CameraPro.

Image courtesy: 3D-Kraft.

There are still no reviews of the new Sony A7rII. Bit strange if you consider the camera is set to ship in a few days on August 5 according to Amazon US (Click here). Sony still doesn’t allow to shoot pictures with legacy lenses but 3D-Kraft (Click here) tested the [shoplink 38771 ebay]Zeiss Hologon T* 8/16 lens[/shoplink] on the A7rII and analyzed the results from the LCD screen. Of course this is not a very scientific way but 3D-Kraft has a good eye when it comes to legacy lens test. So these are his first impressions:

What you see on the display looks very promising for legacy lens collectors! It gives strong indication that the sensor of the new Sony A7RII has no problem with magenta color shift at the borders anymore. It also looked like the borders were less blurred compared to the sample from the A7S.

Well, let’s hope his “Impressions” will be confirmed by future more advanced tests!

A7rII preorder list:
In USA: at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, SonyStore US, FocusCamera, Uniquephoto.
In Europe at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT. Wex UK.
In Asia at Digitalrev, CameraPro.

The very first user review at BHphoto (Click here) is negative because the user didn’t get it how to use the manual :). He writes:

“I just received Zeiss Batis 85mm. Well, the OLED just stopped working. I am returning it. So so disappointed.”

But as our reader Aldro noticed this is not a fault on the Zeiss lens:

Something tells me that guy didn’t read the manual. I had mine ‘die’ on my first day of my hands on review too. It didn’t die. I just turned the focus ring too far and somehow the setting switched it off. You can configure the display by turning the focus ring very far. It’s described in the manual.

ThePhoBlographer posted a first impression review:

“So far, we’re really liking the image quality that this lens can deliver. But we have a lot more testing to do. Autofocusing with this lens seems to be the way to go over manual focusing in the current weather conditions as we stated earlier.”

Zeiss Batis 25mm semi Review with alot of photos by Albert Dros. Discussion on SonyAlphaForum.

A beautiful lens that without a doubt will sell very well. It’s beautifully designed both inside and outside. It’s tack sharp wide open from corner to corner, suffers from little distortion (without lens profiles for LR) and little CA.

Batis store links:
Zeiss Batis 85mm f/1.8 lens in US at Adorama, Bhphoto. In Eu at Amazon DE, WexUK. In Asia at Digitalrev.
Zeiss Batis 25mm f/2.0 lens at Adorama, Bhphoto. In EU at Amazon DE, WexUK. In Asia at Digitalrev.

SAR reader Phil Rudin posted the First Underwater Shots with Sony FE 90mm F/2.8 macro on SonyAlphaForum (Click here).
And SAR reader Michael shot some beautiful Sony A7 nude pictures with the [shoplink 38735 ebay]$10,000 Leica Noctilux-M 50mm f/0.95 ASPH (here on eBay)[/shoplink]. You can see one (no nude) picture on SonyAlphaForum (Click here). On the site you will find the link to the complete picture collection (warning the collection contains nude images).

90mm links:
In USA at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, [shoplink 37938 ebay]eBay US (Click here)[/shoplink].
In Europe at [shoplink 37991 ebay]Fotomundus[/shoplink], Amazon Germany, Sony Germany, Sony UK, Sony FR, Sony IT, Sony ES, Sony NL, Sony BE, Sony AT, Sony CH, Sony SE, Sony FI, Sony NO, Sony PT.
In Asia at Digitalrev, Sony Australia.

Preorder links:
Zeiss Batis 85mm f/1.8 lens in US at Adorama, Bhphoto. In Eu at Amazon DE, WexUK. In Asia at Digitalrev.
Zeiss Batis 25mm f/2.0 lens at Adorama, Bhphoto. In EU at Amazon DE, WexUK. In Asia at Digitalrev.
In Europe and Asia the Loxias can be found in Stock via [shoplink 36456 ebay]eBay sellers (Click here)[/shoplink] and Digitalrev (Click here).

BHphoto posted that Zeiss Batis 25mm & 85mm Lenses First Look video. The store also shipped out the first preorders to SAR readers but they are now all sold out. The next Stock is supposed to arrive sometimes in mid August. I guess we will have to be very patient just like it happened with the still not in Stock Loxia lenses.

Mirrorlessons posted the full Batis 25mm FE lens review and writes:

The Zeiss Batis 25mm is yet another great lens for the Sony FE system. It isn’t perfect and vignetting can be the most annoying thing to deal with especially on the A7r. There is also some perspective and barrel distortion that can be easily fixed in post-production. Otherwise, it provides great sharpness, is perfectly usable at f/2 and has an excellent bokeh rendering when you focus close. It has a fast autofocus mechanism and the OLED screen can be useful for astrophotographers.

Alexander Voss: “Real raw’s from the 7r and the brand new batis. Feel free to share. Best greetings. Alexander https://www.dropbox.com/sh/k3ius8dvwvpd1ca/AAALi78kenwjVcAK1141spuRa?dl=0”

Batis store links:
Zeiss Batis 85mm f/1.8 lens in US at Adorama, Bhphoto. In Eu at Amazon DE, WexUK. In Asia at Digitalrev.
Zeiss Batis 25mm f/2.0 lens at Adorama, Bhphoto. In EU at Amazon DE, WexUK. In Asia at Digitalrev.

Loxia in Stock:
Kenmore camera has the [shoplink 38519 ebay]50mm Loxia (Click here)[/shoplink] and the [shoplink 38518 ebay]35mm Loxia (Click here)[/shoplink] in Stock.

New Zealand photographer Carl posted new A7rII full size image samples on Flickr (Click here). There is also one single RAW file you can download at Proimagenz. He writes about the A7rII:

I had the chance to spend about an hour with the camera today so thought I would blog some very brief thoughts as my time is limited tonight.
• Viewfinder – Terrfic, much bigger then the previous versions and really enjoyable in use.
• Shutter –  MUCH better, really well dampened and silent shutter is precisely that, no sound at all, nada. Yay!
• Feel – as you would expect if your a A7II user. Although this camera does feel a little more nuggety due to its more metal construction. I like it.
• Focus – is everything its previewed it would be. With native lenses it is swift, broad and (as far as I can tell initially) accurate.
• Adapted lenses – Wow! Incredible! Using Canon EF lenses with the Metabones III the focus was just like a native Canon camera. Very fast and torquey. No backwards and forwards like previous models. I also used the Commlite adaptor which wasnt nearly as quick sadly. Still fairly good and highly usable but not in the same league as the Metabones thusfar.

via Dpreview.

A7rII preorder list:
In USA: at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, SonyStore US, FocusCamera, Uniquephoto.
In Europe at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT. Wex UK.
In Asia at Digitalrev, CameraPro.

DxOmark (Click here) posted the full test results of the new 24-70mm F2.8 ZA SSM II lens:

As with its sibling, the new lens coatings have had a somewhat mixed effect on the sharpness levels across the field. While it has improved uniformity at 70mm, there are several instances where sharpness levels have dropped. It’s particularly noticeable at 50mm in the mid and outer field position. Overall, though, the lens is good performer. The addition of AF compatibility with the contrast detection AF capabilities of the E-mount cameras (using an optional adapter) and the weather sealing are significant benefits over its predecessor.

The new Zeiss A-mount lenses are in Stock in USA:
Zeiss 24-70mm f/2.8 ZA SSM II in USA at Amazon, BHphoto and at Adorama.
Zeiss 16-35mm f/2.8 ZA SSM II at Amazon, BHphoto and at Adorama.