Kenko announces new E-mount extension tubes with electronic support.

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On April fools day Kenko decided to make a serious and non-joke announcement :)

They just released the new E-mount extension tubes with full autofocus and electronic aperture control. That’s the official press release:

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Kenko Tokina USA, Inc. is proud to announce the availability of the new Kenko AF Extension Tube Set for Micro 4/3rds and Sony E mount. The tube set consists of a 10mm and 16mm extension tubes that can be used individually or together4.
The Kenko extension tubes have all the contacts and circuitry to maintain communication between the camera body and the lens. AF (within the limited macro range) and auto exposure are maintained with these extension tubes1.
Extension tubes are designed to enable a lens to focus closer than its normal set minimum focusing distance. Getting closer has the effect of magnifying your subject (making it appear larger in the viewfinder and in your pictures). They are exceptionally useful for macro photography, enabling you to convert almost any lens into a macro lens at a fraction of the cost while maintaining its original optical quality.
The DG extension tubes have no optics. They are mounted in between the camera body and lens to create more distance between the lens and film plane. By moving the lens father away from the sensor in the camera, the lens is forced to focus much closer than normal. The greater the length of the extension tube, the closer the lens can focus.

Specifications:
Aperture Coupling: Electronic
Included Sizes: 10MM and 16MM
Mount Availability: Micro 4/3rds mount for Olympus and Panasonic Sony E mount for NEX system
Warranty: 1 year limited warranty

Notes:
1. Depending on available light and due to a very shallow depth of field manual focusing may be required if the lens AF will not lock focus.
2. Focal length of the lens should be longer than the focal length of the tube for proper operation.
3. Also, Kenko recommends using a tripod for sharper results during macro photography.
4. Stacking is not possible with the Panasonic 45MM Macro and PZ 45-175MM lenses. However all Panasonic and Olympus lenses work with either the 10mm or 16mm separately. If an error message is displayed when trying to use the tubes together on one of these lenses or any other please use one or the other extension tube separately.

Kenko Tokina USA, Inc. is the exclusive U. S. distributor for Tokina lenses, Hoya filters, Kenko photo accessories and SLIK camera support systems. Kenko Tokina USA provides marketing, sales, distribution, and technical/consumer service and support. Kenko Tokina is located in the original Surf City USA, Huntington Beach, CA and on the Web at www.Kenkotokinausa.com.

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Here is the Sony A99 deal: Free vertical grip and free flash on all A99 cameras!

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Sony US officially launched a new A99 super deal. But instead of lowering the price of the A99 body they simply give you the vertical grip and the external flash for free! That’s a total instant rebate of $930. I checked around and you can find the deal available at Samys (Click here). Still not listed at Amazon US (Click here to see all A99 bundles). Don’t forget you can have a 6% back in rewards at Amazon and Bhphoto.

Like you I would have preferred to see a price drop on the body only but that deal is a first step into the right direction…

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(SR5) Sony US to launch a new A99 superkit deal tomorrow (March 30)!

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According to multiple sources from different US stores Sony will launch a new A99 superkit deal with a very(!) considerable saving. This will be the first time Sony answers the aggressive price reduction from Canon and Nikon DSLR. Currently we have plenty of “cheap” FF:
– The Canon 6D sells for $1,770 on Amazon (Click here).
– The Nikon D600 sells for $1,996 on Amazon (Click here).
– The Nikon D800 sells for $2,796 on Amazon (Click here).
– The Canon 5D MarkIII sells for $2,996 on Amazon (Click here).

Something had to be done to make the A99 more competitive. Of course the A99 is radically different camera. But this isn’t simply enough to make it a hotseller. I never saw the A99 within the top 100 of the most sold DSLR camera rankings at Amazon (Click here to see the list). So let’s see tomorrow if Sony US new offer will be good enough! As longs as I know there is no plan yet to lower the price in other countries too. But there have been some smaller price drops in EU stores during the last week and that may be the reason why they will not offer a bigger deal in Europe (see price at Amazon DE).

P.S.: Don’t forget that Gary Friedmann released his new A99 book: http://friedmanarchives.com/alpha99/

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New Sony NEX-6 review. New APPs for the NEX-5r and NEX-6

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There is a new Sony NEX-6 tests at DigitalCameraReview (Click here). And like Dpreview also the DCR conclusions mentions as only drawback the “sometimes confusing menu system“. Otherwise the reviewer likes the camera: “The Sony NEX-6 is a great little camera and, one of my personal favorites“.

And if you are a lucky owner of the NEX-6 or NEX-5r you can download two new APPS for your camera at Playmemoriescameraapps.com.

NEX deals:
Three Open Box NEX-6 kits with $130 discount at [shoplink 17622 ebay]Samys (Click here)[/shoplink].
NEX-5r body for $486 at [shoplink 17623 ebay]6ave (Click here)[/shoplink].
Three Open Box NEX-7 kits with $100 discount at [shoplink 17626 ebay]Samys (Click here)[/shoplink].
Last two days of the NEX deals on Amazon Deals Page (Click here).

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Don’t get crazy. A-mount will remain alive!

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It’s three months now that I am waiting and working to get news about the new Sony roadmap. I told you that the SLT-FF cameras planed for 2013 have been taken off the map. Now, I am administrator of a rumor site and I have to remind you that we are not talking about official news.

That said… trust my words, the A-mount system is well alive and it will be so in future. Sony didn’t take off the SLT-FF cameras from the roadmap because they don’t believe in the A-mount system. The reason is another one. And that reason will be explained soon on SAR (as soon as I get an SR5 confirmation).

One more thing: When I write the A-mount is alive..I also mean that it will not rely on A to E mount adapters1 There will be 100% pure A-mount cameras in future. APS-C and Full Frame.

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Luminous Landscape still doesn’t really like the Electronic Viewfinders…

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There will be always discussions between people about the advantages or disadvantages of Electronic Viewfinder against Optical Viewfinders. In a recent short article Luminous Landscape admin describes “Why I Hate Electronic Viewfinders“. He says: “The reason why is that they are at best tiny TV sets, and as such have very low contrast ratios compared to the ability of the naked eye or a good optical or large DSLR viewfinder. In bright situations, where there is also deep shade, it can make visibility into the shadows when shooting highly compromised.”

It’s ture that current Sony EVF can’t give you the clarity of an Optical Viewfinder but I think that in time EVF will get very close to OVF. Plus you don’t have to forget that EVF gives you some inherent features that are simply non available on OVF. So let’s wait and see what the new generation EVF from Sony will be. 3+ Million dots for the NEX-7n sounds like a good improvement!

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