Sigma 35mm f/1.4 tested at dpreview.

Share

The Big guys over at Dpreview posted the full Sigma 35mm f/1.4 lens test. And the lens got a “Gold Award” with a very high score of 89%: “The Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM is a truly excellent lens, that performs as well in the field as its superb lab test results suggest. With fast silent focusing and solid build, its lower price makes it a compelling alternative to the camera manufacturers’ equivalents if you don’t need weather-sealing.

The A-mount lens is availble for preorder at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here) and BHphoto (click here). To get notified when this lens is on eBay login and save this search at Slidoo.

Share

NEX-7 with kit lens for $998 at Newegg.

Share

You can grab the NEX-7 with 18-55mm kit lens for $998 at Newegg (Click here). You have to add the item to cart and add “BTEJHHH22” as coupon code. The same “Trick” should work for these other cameras too (Click here).

More new deals:
Zeiss for NEX for $1019 only at [shoplink 16171 ebay]Cameraland (Click here)[/shoplink]. And save that Slidoo eBay search to get further notifications on the Zeiss lens deals.
A99 for $2600 only at [shoplink 16172 ebay]BigValue (Click here)[/shoplink]. (Slidoo search here).
NEX-6 for $740 only again at [shoplink 16173 ebay]BigValue (Click here)[/shoplink]. (Slidoo search here).

Share

The A and E mount future…

Share

Yesterdays rumor about the Full Frame NEX created some buzz about the A-mount future. Some do believe that this may be the end of the A-mount. So let’s get through that:

1) First, this is a rumor site, so never I repeat NEVER(!) accept my info as 100% sure facts.
2) I never wrote A-mount is dead. The only thing I wrote is that Sony is speeding up the NEX FF project and that there will be no SLT FF in 2013. Again, this is a rumor. It may be that Sony will release an SLT FF in 2014. But I have no info about the 2014 strategy.
3) Focus on my A-mount rumors: As I told you there will be at least four new A-mount lenses within the next 6 months, there will be 2 or even three new A-mount ASP-C SLT cameras. That sounds damn good to me! :)
4) The NEX FF I heard about has 100% support for all A-mount lenses. Which means that AF speed will be as fast as it gets, like on current A-mount cameras. I would have no doubt buying A-mount lenses. Especially an upcoming lens like the superb 50mm f/1.4 Zeiss!

So again, we are a rumor site and it’s obvious that people discusses what could happen in one year from now. But keep your feet on ground. Don’t go too far with extreme speculations :)

P.S.: I would buy the A99 right now if I would need a FF hybrid stills and video camera.

P.S.: I still don’t know the price of the lens but we have many Zeiss 50mm lenses for different mounts and I thought it would be nice to give you an overview:
[shoplink 14186 ebay]Zeiss Normal 50mm f/1.4 ZE Planar T* for Canon (see auctions on eBay)[/shoplink]
[shoplink 14187 ebay]Zeiss Normal 50mm f/1.4 ZE Planar T* for Nikon (see auctions on eBay)[/shoplink]
[shoplink 14188 ebay]Carl Zeiss Jena Biotar 50mm f/1.4 50/1.4 LTM (see auctions on eBay)[/shoplink]
[shoplink 14190 ebay]Zeiss Normal 50mm f/1.4 for Contax (see auctions on eBay)[/shoplink]
[shoplink 14189 ebay]Carl Zeiss Planar T* 1.4/50 ZF 50mm F1.4 Nikon Ai-S (see auctions on eBay)[/shoplink]

Share

DxOmark says: A99 new full-frame sensor is Sony’s best yet.

Share

DxOmark (Click here) just published their full Sony A99 sensor test. And it scores right in the middle between the Canon and Nikon Full Frame. The only real downside is the Low Light performance which is less good compared to Canon and Nikons score. But if you shoot at Low ISO than the A99 is on par with the best Nikon FF and far better than the Canon. DxO writes: “The use of Sony’s SLT technology in its top-of-the-line full-frame shooter delivers both pros and cons. The obvious downside is low-light performance compared to its closest competitors. The upside to the technology, of course is fast performance with full-time live view and continuous autofocus, which makes the A99 one of the best choices among semi-pro cameras for shooting video.

It’s a good result for the A99 and at leats for me color depth and dynamic range are far more important than the image quality at 6400 ISO :)

I suspect that the Sony RX1 will score an even better results because of the lack of the transparent mirror. And this may another a good reason why a NEX FF makes sense…don’t you think?

 

A99 and RX1 links:
A99 Best price in US is at [shoplink 16154 ebay]Bigvalue ($2,600 on eBay here)[/shoplink].
A99 body Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, Jessops, Wex UK, Wex Germany, Sonystore DEUKFRITESNLSEFICH and more links at Alphacameradeals.
A99 with kit lens links Alphacameradeals.
RX1 Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, Wex UK ,Wex Germany and more links at Alphacameradeals.

Share

Deal roundup: First silver 16-50mm lens in US. Lightning deal on A35. 35mm OSS in Stock in US and EU.

Share

[shoplink 16147 ebay]

[/shoplink]
NEX-RX deals:
Many SAR readers own Silver NEX cameras. So they might be interested to know that the first Silver 16-50mm pancake zoom lenses are now in Stock in Europe and in USA on [shoplink 16147 ebay]eBay (Click here to check the auctions)[/shoplink]. Found via Slidoo.
The 35mm f/1.8 OSS lens is also finally in Stock at Amazon and BHphoto. In Europe the camera is in Stock at Wex UK, Wex DE and of course on eBay (via Slidoo).
RX1 cameras you can find in Stock right now at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here) and BHphoto (Click here).
Free 16 GB SD card with the RX100 at BHphoto (Click here).

SLT deals:
There is a LIghtning deal on the SLT A35 at Amazon (Click here).
$275 off on the A57 bundle at Amazon (Click here).

Share

(SR5) Full Frame mirrorless from Sony coming in almost exactly one year! 24 or 30-32 Megapixel!

Share

It’s Christmas time and what bad administrator would I be if I wouldn’t give you an SR5 rumor :)

1) These last two weeks I contacted all my best sources and they now all(!) confirmed that the next Sony Full Frame camera will not be a new SLT camera. It will be a Full Frame mirrorless camera!
2) Plan of a FF SLT release in 2013 have been dropped to fully focus the development resources on that FF mirrorless camera. Sony’s main priority is to create a real High End camera. A camera that can have all the functions and capabilities of a DSLR (that means for example fast AF). Sony sees that camera as the one that should bring back some significant interests on Sony FF system.
3) The camera is still in the final stage of development. We can expect the release of the cameras by end 2013 at earliest but early 2014 sounds more likely for now.
4) The camera has some key tech not seen on any Sony camera yet. I am still working on this rumor to get some detailed info. So stay tuned!
5) The camera is a bit bigger than the current [shoplink 8454]Sony NEX-7[/shoplink] and not that much different in terms of the design.
6) The camera has a native E-mount and both E-mount and A-mount lenses will be fully supported.
7) One of the trusted sources said that Sony is right now testing two different prototypes. One features a 24 megapixel and the other camera features a new 30-32 Megapixel sensor.

 

In summary, in about one year the NEX world will expand into the High End Pro market. And this may be a bad news for the [shoplink 16137 ebay]Leica M system[/shoplink]! I know you have many questions about lenses, specs and so on. I am working on that and as you imagine it’s not easy to get specs about a camera which features are being tested and changed every couple of weeks. So what can we expect in 2013? we will have plenty of new NEX and SLT (APS-C) cameras and lenses. And I hope Sony engeneers will manage it to announce that NEX FF by Christmas 2013! But as I said, it all depends from the development speed. As Sony stated a couple of times, E-mount FF is a “challenge”. A challenge that Sony has no worry to take!

Now a short question:

What would you like to get?

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...

Don’t miss any rumor about the Sony NEX and SLT world. Subscribe the RSS feed (Click here) and Twitter (Click here) stream and the Facebook fan page (Click here)!

—-

Reminder (SR = Sonyrumor):
SR1=probably fake rumor
SR2=rumor from unknown sources
SR3=50% chance it is correct
SR4=rumor from known sources
SR5=almost certainly correct!

Share