Sony Alpha 1 review by TheVerge: “everything nice at an expensive price”

Sony A1 at BHphoto. Adorama. Amazon. Focuscamera. FotoErhardt DE. Calumet DE. Fotokoch DE. Park UK. WexUK. Join the Sony A1 Facebook group here.

TheVerge reviewed the Sony A1 and concludes:

At $6,500, the Alpha 1 is a professional tool with a professional price tag. That is certainly not cheap, especially compared to the equally professional Canon R5, which sits comfortably under $4,000.
But the A1 earns its price tag with its massive sensor, high-spec video, all of the dials and buttons one could need, an outstanding AF system, and fast burst modes. It can work across many disciplines with all of these features — from professional video work to studio, strobe work, and even action photography. It’s like Sony took all of the best features of the A9 Mark II, the A7S Mark III, the A7R Mark IV, added the ability to shoot 8K video, and then put it all into a single camera.
For pros in the Sony system looking for the ultimate single-body tool, this is it. The rest of us might choose to buy a few extra lenses and go with a more inexpensive camera in the lineup, depending on our needs.
Still, I’ll be wishing I had the Alpha 1 in my hands the next time an opportunity to shoot a professional cyclist comes around.

Sony E 16-55mm f/2.8 G – Review at Opticallimits: “best APS-C standard zoom lens there is on the market today”

E 16-55mm F2.8 G at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, FocusCamera. In EU at Calumet DE, Park UK, WexUK.

Opticallimits tested the Sony E 16-55mm f/2.8 G lens and concluded:

Let’s get the elephant in the room out of the way immediately – the Sony E 16-55m f/2.8 G is not meant to be used without image auto-correction – Sony is making this clear in the settings as well. You can’t switch off distortion correction for JPGs. While this may be disappointing at this price point, most users won’t really care about this question anyway.
With activated image auto-correction it’s probably the best APS-C standard zoom lens there is on the market today. It shows no weakness in terms of image resolution and there are no CAs to speak of. The corrected distortions are – obviously – nothing to worry about. There is still some visible vignetting at f/2.8 but it’s not excessive and stopping down helps, of course. The quality of the bokeh is on a decent level for a standard zoom lens. Out-of-focus highlights are a bit busy but mostly circular and the general rendition is impressively smooth actually.

The build quality is very high but we expected no less from a G-class lens. Sony used quality materials and implemented sealing against the elements. The lens extends during zooming. This may not be ideal but if you want to achieve a decent optical quality, it’s still the way to go for all manufacturers. The AF is pretty speedy and silent. The biggest drawback is probably the lack of an image stabilizer. If you own an A6500/A6600 you won’t care but the vast majority of Sony APS-C users can’t use in-camera stabilization. That being said … if you can afford the rather expensive Sony E 16-55mm f/2.8 G you probably tend to have the latest and greatest camera body anyway. While Sony’s APS-C lens lineup is still far from being complete, it has now assembled an interesting gang of quality zoom lenses – the Sony E 10-18mm f/4 OSS, E 16-55mm f/2.8 G, and E 70-350mm f/4.5-6.3 G OSS represent a quite compelling compact and low-weight combo.

Dpreview: Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG DN Art field review

Sigma 35mm f/1.4 FE lens at BHphoto, Adorama, FocusCamera.

Dpreview published the full Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG DN Art field review and concluded:

Both E-mount and L-mount versions of the Sigma 35mm F1.4 are very sharp lenses, and in most respects can deliver great image quality even when shooting wide-open. Although there are issues with ghosting and cat’s eye, in many situations you’ll be able to work around these.

And while it’s perhaps a tad front-heavy on smaller bodies, handling is otherwise excellent. We’re fans of the lockable aperture ring, silky-smooth focus ring and rubberized, lockable lens hood in particular.

A bigger concern is the Sigma’s modest autofocus performance, especially when compared to Sony’s very swift-focusing G Master lens if you’re an E-mount shooter. And videographers will also want to bear in mind its significant focus breathing, although that’s also an issue for the Sony lens to a somewhat lesser extent.

For E-mount shooters, we think the Sony 35mm F1.4 GM represents an even better option thanks to its smaller, lighter body, faster AF, lack of ghosting and lesser cat’s eye and fringing; if you can stomach the substantially higher price.

If it’s simply beyond your budget, though, there’s certainly plenty to like in the crisp results delivered by the Sigma, even when shooting wide-open.