A great Sony PDNshow report by SAR reader Tex (a must read!).

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PhotoPlus Expo 2013: News Shooter looks at the full-frame Sony Alpha 7 camera from Chuck Fadely on Vimeo.

The following text has been written by SAR reader William (from www.lightzoneproject.org) who attended the PDNshow in New York. I think it’s the best descripttion I read about the new Sony “product confidence”. It’s a must read!

by Tex:

“My impressions: The A7 and A7r are really fine looking cameras, overcoming my initial problems with the pentaprism (I was hoping for more of an NEX 7 look/rangefinder look). Very solid in the hand, and also “right-sized” for everyone but those with really large hands. Very solid feel, and basically very good ergonomics. Yes, someone commented somewhere that the shutter release button is a bit awkward being right on top of the camera—but we should remember that this is how slr’s and rangefinders were (and still are) for decades. All the wheels worked great and the special function buttons are also very good. Of course the lens selection at the show was very limited—as was the battery power! Everyone was checking these cameras out. While I was at the booth several times I let people try my Voigtlander 35 f2.5 from my NEX 7 on the cameras (which looked great BTW through the viewfinder), and the Sony people to my surprise were actively talking about 3rd party lens options, adapters, legacy glass from other makes, etc. By actively I mean encouraging it—and not just at the booths one-on-one, but in their mini-theater presentations, too. More on this “attitude” in a moment. There were quite a few people invested in other makes coming into the Sony booth and looking very admiringly at the A7 and A7r. And as far as I’m concerned that viewfinder is a winner—very clear and the magnification worked well. The menu system looked great to me—much more like my beloved A850 (but of course more in it). I wish they had had the battery grip, too bad. Of course the camera has wifi and will be able to be controlled by phone/tablet app, but I asked about the lack of a port for a cabled release. I was told there is a release coming, and that it will use the multi-port.

I also looked at the RX10. Very, very nice camera. Great finish, solid and tight. Neither compact nor big. I am amazed that someone has come out with as fine a superzoom as this—to me it has always been a junk category. Definitely a winner travel camera.

Some general things about Sony’s show presence: Canon had the largest booth by far, but there were a lot of printers in there and video, and a fancy stage. After that Sony’s booth looked like the next biggest, with 2 smaller stages. Not many people were looking at the video stuff. Nikon’s booth seemed smaller than Sony’s, and although closer to the entrance, seemed less central to the show. It was also not very crowded when I was there. Oly and Fuji had nice booths, and both had decent traffic. Panny and Samsung had decent booths and decent traffic, and Leica had its typically elegant booth—NYC is a good market for them I bet. No Ricoh-Pentax that I saw. Lot’s of people at the Zeiss booth asking about E-mounts.

So, about that “attitude” I spoke of earlier. 2 years ago at the show I remember handling the NEX 7 with the reps at the booth, and while enthusiastic, they didn’t seem all that well prepared for the enthusiasm and close questioning by us, the public. At times they seemed a little befuddled and surprised. That was less true last year, but still a little true. But last year it was clear to me that there was growing pride in what they were doing, and the guys working the RX1 counter were clearly very proud—all smiles all day long. If you have never worked a trade show(I have), you should know that they are exhausting affairs. It’s hard to fake your enthusiasm after the first day. For many reps they are just a PITA. So the internal “Sony pride” was very obvious to me last year and even a bit the year before. This year? These guys know they’re hot. They are like a winning sports team, full of confidence. Loads of enthusiasm, engagement, and this year they were far better prepared for the press of interested people and could answer questions better. I had quick discussions with 2 Sony people who are farther up the food chain: Drew Temple, Product Information, Digital Imaging (out of San Diego), and John Bruehl, Vice President, Specialty Retailers, Digital Imaging division. I specifically button-holed them about Sony’s minimum purchase requirements, which I have been told by 2 different pro shops I do business with prevent these businesses from getting involved with Sony. They are just too high—smaller stores cannot carry that much inventory speculatively. One of these shops is my local pro shop, and the owner whom I’ve known since the ’80’s has told me he’d love to have a few of these more specialized Sony products—the RX100, RX100II, RX1, RX10 ,NEX 6 & 7, and now the A7 and A7r, but he has no demand as of yet for the rest of the Sony line (he’s a Nikon-Canon-Leica camera specialist, with the Fuji line thrown in for good measure). This is a store that also supplies a full range of film supplies plus the entire Epson Pro line, as well as most of the major accessory lines and several of the pro lighting lines. The other store is a niche retailer that is a Leica, Zeiss, and Voigtlander dealer—clearly a place that would be interested in the top of Sony’s mirrorless lineup. So I specifically pressed these 2 Sony guys about this, and to please consider making some changes, even temporary ones to let these smaller shops get some traction in order to build up demand. Drew was very forthright, and suggested I go ahead and email him after the show and that he would bring it to the the meeting table, although he promised no changes and said this gets into strategic territory. Yet he spoke to me, not a brush off at all. John was even more willing to speak to me, even though he was clearly very busy—he took more than 10 minutes of his time to talk to me. While he initially disagreed with what I was trying to get across, and explained that SONY has very good MSRP, MAP, and RPM policies (Nikon and Canon do not, according to my sources, favoring B&H, Adorama, but especially Amazon), plus a way for retailers to get smaller quantities through a distributor, on the other hand he was listening, and asked me to email him and triangulate with my friend here in my home town with the pro shop–whom he knew. He seemed open to thinking about this and bringing it up in meetings with “the guys from Japan”. But here is what is most interesting for us who read SAR: He said he has been in sales a long time, and what he always asks is “what are we doing wrong?” He said this startled the Japanese, who asked him why he would do such a thing. Because, he replied, you cannot assume you are doing everything right. Now those “guys from Japan” have heard this, and are beginning to take it to heart—they now want to know, actively, “what can we do better?”. They are listening harder now. I think it shows.

tex andrews
co-founder and webmaster(or minor) for the open-source LightZone Project
www.lightzoneproject.org”

Specs and Preorders in US and Canada:
Dedicated Sony announcement page at Amazon US (Click here).
Sony A7r body at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS. TheCameraStore Canada.
Sony A7 body at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS. TheCameraStore Canada.
Sony A7 with 28-70mm kit lens at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS. TheCameraStore Canada.
Sony RX10 at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
Zeiss 24-70mm at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
Zeiss 35mm at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
Zeiss 55mm at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
70-200mm A-mount at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
Sony A-Mount to E-Mount Lens Adapter at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto.
Sony A to E adapter with mirror at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto.
A7/A7r leather case at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
A7/A7r vertical grip at Amazon, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
Sony W Series Battery Charger at Amazon, BHphoto.
Sony FA-CS1M Off-Camera Shoe at BHphoto.
Semi-Hard LCD Screen Protector for A7-A7r at Amazon, BHphoto.

Specs and Preorders in Europe:
Sony A7r body at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PTWexUK, WexDE.
Sony A7 body at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT, WexUK, WexDE, Amazon UK, Amazon DE, Amazon FR.
Sony A7 with 28-70mm kit Sony  DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT, WexUK, WexDE, Amazon UK, Amazon DE, Amazon FR.
Sony RX10 at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT, WexUK, WexDE.
Zeiss 35mm at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT,
Zeiss 55mm at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT
Zeiss 24-70mm at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, SE, PT

Asia:
A7r at Digitalrev.
A7 at Digitalrev, Amazon Cina.
A7 with 28-70mm lens at Digitalrev.

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Swiss stores lists the new 70-200mm E-mount lens price.

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Three Swiss stores (Topd, Buchmann and Internet.ch) do now list the price of the 70-200mm G E-mount zoom. The lens will ship in April 2014 (says SonyCenter Luxemburg) and cost around 1450 CHF. That’s 1200 Euro or $1600. But I bet Dollar price will be much lower and around $1300 (just like the Canon 70-200mm f/4.0 for example).

The full lens specs and MTF graph can be seen here at Sony.net.

Specs and Preorders in US and Canada:
Dedicated Sony announcement page at Amazon US (Click here).
Sony A7r body at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS. TheCameraStore Canada.
Sony A7 body at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS. TheCameraStore Canada.
Sony A7 with 28-70mm kit lens at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS. TheCameraStore Canada.
Sony RX10 at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
Zeiss 24-70mm at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
Zeiss 35mm at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
Zeiss 55mm at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
70-200mm A-mount at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
Sony A-Mount to E-Mount Lens Adapter at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto.
Sony A to E adapter with mirror at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto.
A7/A7r leather case at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
A7/A7r vertical grip at Amazon, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
Sony W Series Battery Charger at Amazon, BHphoto.
Sony FA-CS1M Off-Camera Shoe at BHphoto.
Semi-Hard LCD Screen Protector for A7-A7r at Amazon, BHphoto.

Specs and Preorders in Europe:
Sony A7r body at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PTWexUK, WexDE.
Sony A7 body at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT, WexUK, WexDE, Amazon UK, Amazon DE, Amazon FR.
Sony A7 with 28-70mm kit Sony  DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT, WexUK, WexDE, Amazon UK, Amazon DE, Amazon FR.
Sony RX10 at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT, WexUK, WexDE.
Zeiss 35mm at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT,
Zeiss 55mm at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT
Zeiss 24-70mm at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, SE, PT

Asia:
A7r at Digitalrev.
A7 at Digitalrev, Amazon Cina.
A7 with 28-70mm lens at Digitalrev.

 

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First video shows A7r autofocusing with Contax G lens via Techart adapter.

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Contax G lenses are well-known high quality, well priced and autofocus capable lenses. And thanks to the new soon to be released Techart adapter you will be able to use them with full AF and Aperture control on your A7-A7r. Just check the video on top to see how it works! That’s really good news considered we only can buy two native FE primes with AF.

Here is the list of great G lenses with links to eBay price:
Hologon 16mm; 1:8 on [shoplink 16235 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
Biogon T* 21 mm; 1:2,8 on [shoplink 16236 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
Biogon T* 28 mm; 1:2,8 on [shoplink 16237 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
Planar T* 35 mm; 1:2,0 on [shoplink 16238 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
Planar T* 45 mm; 1:2,0 on [shoplink 16239 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
Sonnar T* 90 mm; 1:2,8 on [shoplink 16240 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
Vario-Sonnar T* 35 – 70 mm; 1:3,5-5,6 on [shoplink 16241 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].

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$50 off on the new A3000 (and a new review).

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The Sony A3000 just got it’s first $50 discount and you can grab it with lens for $348 at Amazon US (Click here), Adorama (Click here) or BHphoto (Click here). A new review about that camera has been posted by Digital-photography-school.

I am pretty sure more of this kind of DSLR shaped E-mount cameras will come in 2014. But buyers may get confused because of the new “everything is Alpha” marketing strategy. I bet it will be hard for non expert buyers to understand the difference between A and E-mount cameras.

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New Sony A7-A7r and RX10 test roundup. Free metabones adapter with A7r in Australia.

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Sony A7 Eye AF Test

A7r images samples in New York by Marc Morris.
A couple of new legacy lens tests at Siammirrorless. Go one page further to see more test images.
RX10 hands-on and samples (on second page) at Fotopolis.
Sony RX10 images at Digitalcamerareview and CameraLabs.
RX10 english manual download at Sony Asia.
SLRclub RX10 videos on Youtube.
Sony Cyber-shot RX10 Real-world Samples (Dpreview).

Anonymous:Photovision (like BH in NYC) announces the presentation of the Sony A7, 7r in the following citys and dates: http://photovision.ch/neu/index.php?menu=Aktuell&teaser=ja&lan=d&aktuellid=3

Anonymous:Apparently in Australia you can order the a7r & a7 with a bundled metabones adapter: http://www.digidirect.com.au/slr_cameras/sony/sony_alpha_a7r_full-frame_mirrorless_camera_body has that made it to the US yet?”

Miguel:See this tool to convert Sony A7r files to Nikon raw format, NEF: http://bagnonm.blogspot.com.es/2013/11/raw2nef-converting-sony-a7r-raw-files.html. Having a workflow based on Nikon cameras, I started sometime ago using a Leica M9. The DNG files that it produces forced me in principle to add another RAW developing program, so I chose to write a tool to convert from DNG to NEF, and keep rolling without modifying my setup.

Beta with support for Sony A7/A7R (ILCE-7/ILCE-7R):
http://www.raw-photo-processor.com/RPP/Overview.html
http://www.raw-photo-processor.com/RPP/RPP64_1655Beta.zip

Specs and Preorders in US and Canada:
Dedicated Sony announcement page at Amazon US (Click here).
Sony A7r body at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS. TheCameraStore Canada.
Sony A7 body at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS. TheCameraStore Canada.
Sony A7 with 28-70mm kit lens at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS. TheCameraStore Canada.
Sony RX10 at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
Zeiss 24-70mm at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
Zeiss 35mm at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
Zeiss 55mm at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
70-200mm A-mount at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
Sony A-Mount to E-Mount Lens Adapter at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto.
Sony A to E adapter with mirror at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto.
A7/A7r leather case at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
A7/A7r vertical grip at Amazon, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
Sony W Series Battery Charger at Amazon, BHphoto.
Sony FA-CS1M Off-Camera Shoe at BHphoto.
Semi-Hard LCD Screen Protector for A7-A7r at Amazon, BHphoto.

Specs and Preorders in Europe:
Sony A7r body at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PTWexUK, WexDE.
Sony A7 body at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT, WexUK, WexDE, Amazon UK, Amazon DE, Amazon FR.
Sony A7 with 28-70mm kit Sony  DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT, WexUK, WexDE, Amazon UK, Amazon DE, Amazon FR.
Sony RX10 at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT, WexUK, WexDE.
Zeiss 35mm at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT,
Zeiss 55mm at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT
Zeiss 24-70mm at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, SE, PT

Asia:
A7r at Digitalrev.
A7 at Digitalrev, Amazon Cina.
A7 with 28-70mm lens at Digitalrev.

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The A7 effect: Plenty of refurbished or open box RX1 for sale :)

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[shoplink 22640 ebay][/shoplink]

Curiosity: After the A7-A7r launch I noticed a dramatic increase of Open Box RX1 offers. It may be a good chance to grab that camera that still has plenty of reasons to exist. It’s damn small, and has a fast compact lens (one stop faster than the Zeiss 35mm FE). Here are the auctions I found:

Open BOX sales on eBay US:
[shoplink 22643 ebay]Cameta ($2349)[/shoplink], [shoplink 22641 ebay]KenmoreCamera ($2389)[/shoplink], [shoplink 22639 ebay]SanJoseCamera ($2399)[/shoplink], [shoplink 22640 ebay]BeachCamera ($2449)[/shoplink], [shoplink 22638 ebay]NYcameravideo ($2599)[/shoplink] and [shoplink 22645 ebay]Adorama ($2599)[/shoplink],

Refurbished sales on eBay US:
[shoplink 22644 ebay]Dealsboom ($2199)[/shoplink], [shoplink 22642 ebay]Dealsboom ($2350)[/shoplink],

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New Adobe Release Candidate adds support for the A7-A7r-RX10 and 28-70mm FE lens.

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Adobe just added the support for the new A7-A7r and RX10 cameras. And there are also new lens profiles for the 20mm f/2.8 E-mount and 28-70mm FE lenses. Download them here:
Adobe Lightroom 5.3
Adobe Camera Raw 8.3 for CC
Adobe Camera Raw 8.3 for CS6

Now it will be nice to hear your comments about the A7-A7r RAW files converted in Lightroom. Let the testing begin!

UPDATE: SAR reader Nekton did run Imaging Resource RAW images thru Lightroom 5.3:
A7: ISO 6400 f/8 1/1600 https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4096871/AA7hSLI06400NR0.jpg
D600: ISO 6400 f/8 1/1250 https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4096871/D600hSLI06400NR0.jpg

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