Sony A1 at BHphoto. Adorama. Amazon. Focuscamera. FotoErhardt DE. Calumet DE. Fotokoch DE. Park UK. WexUK.

Here they explain why the Sony A1 is the camera of the year:

Samyang  24-70mm f/2.8 FE: In USA  at BHphoto. In Europe at WexUK. FotoKoch DE. FotoErhardt DE.

SonyAlphaBlog tested the new Samyang/Rokinon zoom lens and concluded:

The Samyang 24-70mm F2.8 (900 euros) is globally a very good lens at a reasonable price but the competition is very tough and offer excellent options that are all better in one or several areas compared to the Samyang 24-70 F2.8

Area where the Samyang is below its peer are sharpness , build quality/ergonomics , size and weight, AF , bokeh balls shapes,
Areas where it is similar or among the best are : color rendition , background blur
Area where it is above the others : Distortion , Vignetting , ergonomics for video, focus breathing , par focal (when starting at 70mm)

If you need a 24-70 my recommendation stay the Sigma 24-70mm F2.8 DG DN Art (1200 euros) better in all areas (except video) for a price tag +33%
if you want the best option at similar price and are ready to sacrifice the 24mm , then the Sigma 28-70 F2.8 DG DN Contemporary is the best option at 50% of the weight
For pure video work and for 24/33Mpix where you really need the 24mm, the Samyang is a recommended choice

Recommended for video work

If you have no money for a new lens follow this tutorial to build a telephoto pinhole lens with a pringles can :)

Sony A7IV:
In the USA at BHphoto. Amazon. Adorama. FocusCamera. BuyDig.
In Europe at Fotokoch DE. Calumet DE. Foto Erhardt DE. Park UK. Wex UK. Amazon DE. Amazon UK. Amazon IT. Amazon ES. Amazon NL.

Dpreview added the Sony A7IV studio files and writes:

The first thing that should be apparent is that the a7 IV’s 33MP sensor can capture a lot of detail and, as we saw in our real-world samples, JPEG color that’s directly comparable with the best of its peers. The higher pixel count, combined with Sony’s JPEG sharpening makes more of the fine detail than its rivals. Moiré makes an appearance, but it’s not overwhelming, which suggests there is an anti-aliasing filter, but perhaps not an especially aggressive one.

As we’d expect, the smaller pixels mean more noise if you view the images at full pixel resolution, but this difference is all but eliminated if you look at the images scaled to the same size. Push on to the higher ISO and the noise levels start to creep up, beyond the levels of its immediate rivals, though.

This additional noise can’t solely be blamed on the pixel count, though, since it’s a fraction noisier than some of its higher resolution peers. Overall this iss a good, but not ground-breaking, performance with detail capture appearing to be the a7 IV’s strong suit.

Thew new improved version is now available for preorder at Adorama (Click here).

SonyAlphaBlog tested the brand new Samyang 50mm F1.4 AF II and concluded:

The Samyang 50mm F1.4 AF II is a huge upgrade compared to the Samyang 50 mm F1.4 AF. It offers overall very good to excellent performances at a fraction of the price of Sony Planar T* 50mm F1.4 Zeiss or Sony 50mm F1.2 GM. Its main weaknesses compared to the Sony are : the AF that is a little bit less efficient and the bokeh balls that are not circular when aperture is closed down + a higher level of CA

Sony 70-200mm GM II Lens at BHphoto, Amazon, Adorama. BuyDig. FocusCamera. FotoKoch DE, Calumet DE, WexUK, ParkUK.

Marc from SonyAlphaBlog tested the new 70-200mm GMII lens and concluded:

The Sony 70-200mm F2.8 GM II (3000 Our) is establishing new standards for Sony zoom. It is largely better in almost all aspects compared to the Sony 70-200mm F2.8 GM (2800 euros), the Tamron 35-150mm F2-F2.8 Di III VXD (1800 euros) and the Tamron 70-180mm F2.8 Di III VXD (1200 euros)

In Summary

• Excellent to Outstanding sharpness
• Super light and extremely well balanced on Sony bodies (centre of gravity near the body)
• Constant length design
• Extremely complete ergonomics : Aperture ring (click or clickless) , Full time DMF, focus limiter, panning mode….
• Super fast , precise and silent AF with a hitrate close to 100% and unleashing the full 30fps of the Sony A1
• Super smooth background blur and very good bokeh balls
• Excellent color rendition
• Excellent behavior in video
• Very good behavior with TC : minor loss of sharpness on TC1.4 and moderate on TC2.0, same AF

Three Sony cameras made it into the top 10 in the yearly Explora ranking.

The Sony ZVE-10 on 8th place:;

In 2020, Sony released the ZV-1 and made it clear that they saw potential for the vlogging-specific camera. One year later, they’ve upgraded this idea with the ZV-E10, a camera for content creators featuring the versatility of a mirrorless, interchangeable lens body. The ZV-1 was essentially a take on an RX-series camera, but purpose-designed for vlogging. The ZV-E10 does the same for mirrorless shooters, by essentially adding a vari-angle screen, 3-capsule directional mic, improved audio interface, live streaming support, and a product showcase mode to an a6000-series body. It’s a standout camera of the year because it’s at the forefront of a new and growing genre of cameras that’s likely to continue expanding over the next several years.

The Sony A7IV on 5th place:

One of the later releases of 2021, Sony released the Alpha a7 IV in the Fall and it’s almost instantly become one of the hottest cameras of 2021. Sony’s a7-line—not the R, not the S, just the plain a7—has been a true sweet spot camera for years and this fourth iteration continues this concept with the tagline of “beyond basic.” It features a new higher resolution 33MP sensor (finally graduating from the 24MP level), 4K 60p 10-bit internal recording, and Real-time Eye AF and Tracking. It uses much of the processing power of the flagship-tier a1 but manages to remain the approachable camera that’s appealing to all sorts of shooters.

The Sony A1 on 2nd place:

Sony’s Alpha 1 was one of the first mirrorless cameras to show exactly what’s truly possible in mirrorless camera development right now, when everything is turned up to 11 to create one of the most well-rounded, well-spec’d cameras to come around in some time. usually, cameras excel at speed but lack in resolution, prioritize video over stills, or make some other kind of concession to prioritize a certain kind of shooter—not with the a1. Sony tricked this camera out with a high res 50MP stacked sensor that’s capable of outputting 8K 30p video, 4K 120p video at 10-bit, or full-resolution stills with a 30-fps continuous shooting rate. Besides having chart-topping specs in both photo and video realms, its mundane specs are even hugely impressive… things like a 1/400-second flash sync speed, 1/200-second sync with an electronic shutter, 9.44m-dot OLED EVF, and blackout-free viewing due to the fast readout speeds from the stacked sensor design. The Alpha 1 is a lot of camera; it’s almost like having an a7S, a7R, and a9 all wrapped up together, but somehow it still manages to have the same svelte form factor and familiar appearance.

On first place you have the new Nikon Z9.