Engadget (Click here) posted the full Sony NEX-5R review and I agree with their conclusions when they write: “Picture and video quality, even at higher ISO settings, was stellar. The camera’s exposure was typically spot-on, and we never found a need to venture beyond the automatic white balance setting, with each shoot yielding accurate results. We’ve had some issues with past NEX models when shooting in tungsten or vapor light, but we were quite pleased with the images here. ”
Like any other company sometimes Sony makes bad products and sometimes Sony makes very good products. And few of you will disagree when I say that the NEX-5R falls in the latter category. When it comes down to analyze the features you get for the price you can hardly find any other mirrorless camera that can match it!
Along the RX100 this is my favorite camera of the year. And for you?
Sony NEX-5R in Stock status and price check at: [shopcountry 14168]
Slide through the NEX-5R auctions on Slidoo.com.
Egami (translation here) spotted the next Sony sensor patent describing a Foveon alike sensor. With Foveon alike I mean a RGB 3-layer image sensor that in case of the Sony patent also includes tilted(!) pixels. As you know the advantage of such a 3 layer sensor is the color accuracy, sharpness and larger pixels (or possibility to have more pixels on the same sensor size). Now, it’s hard to understand from the google translation why these pixels have been titled. But if you saw some test of the latest generation Sigma Foveon sensor cameras than you will easily notice that at Low ISO the sensor really rocks! (while there are still massive noise problems on High ISO images).
Here are some test to check out: DP2 ISO test at Focus Numerique. A full camera review has been posted at Photographyblog, Luminous Landscape and ePhotozine.
I hope Sony will be able to overcome some of the Sigma Foveon technology limits and release a camera with a 3 layer sensor. Would push the image quality to a new level!
P.S.: There are two 46 Megapixel Merrill compact cameras from Sigma:
DP1 with 28mm lens at Amazon, BHphoto and of course on [shoplink 15083 ebay]eBay[/shoplink].
DP2 with 45mm lens at BHphoto and on [shoplink 15084 ebay]eBay[/shoplink].
I guess you all remember photographer Michael Yamashita. He is the one that leaked the A99 in first place :) Sony Japan (Click here) now shows a dedicated online page where you can see his work with the A99 and NEX-6 cameras. It’s in Japanese only but pictures to tell more than thousand words…so they say. (Thanks Vadim for the link!).
The new NEX-6 is shipping in many paces in Europe: Jessops UK, Redcoon Germany, Amazon Germany, [shoplink 15075 ebay]Fotoversand Germany (ships to EU)[/shoplink], [shoplink 15076 ebay]Allmedia Germany (ships to EU)[/shoplink], [shoplink 15077 ebay]Asdiscount France[/shoplink].
If you click on the image on top you will see the full ISO comparison between the A99 and 5DmarkIII posted by DSLRmagazine (translation here). But before to go into the details of this comparison I want to go back to the ISO test made by Focus Numerique (translation here) where they compared the results with the Nikon D600. First, my french is very bad and google translation doesn’t really help you that much. I made mistake and said these were RAW converted files while they were not. These are original JPG images (but you can download the RAW files too). One of our readers noticed that the Sony JPG files are actually having a size of 8MB only compared to the 15-16MB of the Nikon D800 (Example: ISO 1600 -> A99 vs D600).
This means that Sony JPEG Fine setting compresses twice more than the Nikon! Of course a Nikon or Canon will always look better when you compare apple with oranges :) We really have to see a real RAW comparison to get a more accurate idea about the A99 performance!
Back to the comparison made by DSLRmagazine. These are once again JPEG comparisons and as we now know Sony applies a stronger compression for their JPEG files. In short…dear reviewers…show us some real RAW comparison! :)
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UPDATE: Sonystore US has the A99 in Stock right now. Check out Alphacameradeals to see the full link list!
Sony Tokyo event:
Sony had a big event in Tokyo and you can read the article on DC.watch (translation here). They showed some graph that demonstrates how Sony is recovering after the Thai Flood disaster from last year. Sony is ruling the worldwide mirrorless market and that market is strongly gaining shares at cost of the classic DSLR market. They also announced the definitive shipping info for the new lenses. The pancake zoom will ship in January, the 10-18mm zoom on November 16th and the 35mm lens in December.
NEX-6 shipping!
But today we also have good news for all future NEX-6 owners. The cameras is finally shipping today. Here is the list: USA/Canada: BigValue has the [shoplink 15056 ebay]Body only (Click here)[/shoplink] and the [shoplink 15055 ebay]pancake kit (Click here)[/shoplink] in Stock via eBay. Until few hours ago Amazon (Click here) had the info that the camera was set to ship from today. In Canada the camera is in Stock at Sonystore. Europe: The German stores Fotomunds and Amazon have them in Stock. French and Italian shops are selling the first cameras on eBay (found via Slidoo).
Full NEX-6 and other new Sony camera and lens preorder list can be found at AlphaCameraDeals.
And here are some new NEX-6 videos:
AF test by SLRclub on youtube. Uboxing video on youtube. MXcamera EOS adapter on the NEX-6 on youtube.
Here are the key features:
1) These are modular cameras
2) The F55 has a Global shutter
3) Super wide color gamut that surpass printed film(!)
4) Super long choice of recording formats
5) Long-life Olivine Battery
6) 16 bit 4K RAW recording and 180 fps in 2K without line skipping or sensor windowing
7) 14 stop dynamic range (film has 16)
Imagine if some of these features would be implemented in future High End A or E mount cameras! For example global shutter on an photo camera would allow to take instant pictures with no lag (there is no mechanical shutter) and with no “click clack” noise. Modularity is also an aspect Sony could bring in a sort of hybrid A and E-mount cameras. And of course having a super wide color gamut and 14 stop dynamic range would be appreciated too! Today’s announcement shows us how far Sony sensor and camera technology can go today. And what we more “mass-camera” oriented camera can expect from the near future.
As we learned from other tests take those comparisons with a grain of salt. But there looks to be a different noise handling between the two cameras. The A99 is a bit more aggressive while the Nikon seems to retain a tiny bit more of detail. What are your thoughts?
More reviews:
RX1 hands.on pics by Photographybay.
First day with sony alpha slt-a99v at RodKar.
16-50mm pancake test by John on Flickr.
Rokinon 8mm for NEX review at SonyAlphaLab.
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