My guess is that to bring some real major image quality jump you have to abandon the classic Bayer sensor design. Fuji has shown us what’s possible by a “simple” re-arrangement of the pixel array. And today Sony (Click here) announced a new sensor technology for small sensors that improves the dynamic range. The past months I posted some Sony patents disclosing a sensor with RGB and White pixels. That new pixel allows to capture images with a much greater dynamic range for both images and videos. Sony plans the mass production of these sensors for compact and phone cameras within summer 2012. And maybe one day the new technology will be used on APS-C and FF sensors too!
As you know Olympus made a big mess trying to hide big losses made over twenty years ago. They lied to shareholders for all those years until the ex British CEO Woodford unveiled the scandal. No Olympus has to find a partner that is willing to invest into the company.
With a huge surprise Reuters (Click here) reports that Sony is the company that will very likely look for an agreement with Olympus. I don’t know for what reason Sony is doing that. probably the medical part from Oly is where Sony wants to get in. It’s hard for me to believe that Sony wants to move into the m43 system and it’s also impossible to think that Olympus will join the NEX system. The only realistic option is that like Nikon, Pentax and Ricoh also Olympus will use Sony sensors inside their cameras. Let’s see what will happen soon…
Samyang/Rokinon announced via facebook that they new 8mm f/2.8 for NEX will arrive in March. It should be about as small as the [shoplink 11233 ebay]7.5mm f/2.8 Micro Four Thirds[/shoplink] version (that I heard from my sources). As you already I am not a big fisheye fan but I like Samyang lenses that usually deliver a pretty decent quality considering the low price of their lenses.
Be aware that if you live in USA than you will find their lenses under the Rokinon brand (here on Amazon), in Europe they are branded as Samyang ([shoplink 11234 ebay]here on eBay[/shoplink]), in UK you can find them with the name Wallimex (here on Amazon UK). Quite confusing :)
Anyway, Sigma and Samyang really shoudl make some fast primes. We need them!
Finally the A77 with 16-50mm kit lens is in Stock at Sonystore USA (Click here). The A77 is probably the most discussed camera of the moment. Many like it a lot, some do not like it at all. I guess this happens because it’s a real game changer and changes need time to be accepted by most. I own the NEX-7 and I have to say I love the OLED viewfinder but I miss the fast phase detection AF (while recording video) from the A77. I will definitely save my money for the A99. But that camera will arrive in stores late 2012 only. So grab the A77 if you need it!
My colleague Mike Kobal (Click here) is using the A77 for his professional work and made the video on top to compare the 5dMarkII and A77 quality. Also Philip Nash (Click here) made such a comparison on vimeo.
Before to talk about the new NEX-7 reviews I have two things to say: 1) This weekend, I was very busy, but I can say with confidence that in short order, I will finally be able to organise third party NEX lens reviews. 2) As you may know, there are a load of new rumours thanks to Sony shifting their product release schedule forward. Get ready for a new wave of tempting morsels stating next week!
NEX-7 gets tons of appraisal. Luminous Landscape (Click here) first posted a review about the NEX-7 video capabilities: “The scaling that Sony uses to go from 24MP down to about 2MP for video does produce some artifacts, but in many ways is better than the line skipping that Canon uses. There is definitely visible rolling shutter (you can see some examples in the above video), but it’s no worse really than some other video DSLRs.” And again LL (Click here) finalized their long rolling review with that simple sentence: “The NEX-7 is the most exciting camera that I’ve had the pleasure of using in the past five years.”
As SAR editor I wanna thank our LL friends for their well done NEX-7 review!
Also Imaging Resource (Click here) conclusion has the same tone from LL: “The bottom line: Sony NEX-7 is one of the most exciting cameras of 2011, and a real breakthrough product in a number of key areas.”
One more thing: First picture of the NEX-7 Nauticam housing (Click here).
Tamron 18-200mm
As you know Tamron released the first lens for the NEX system and Mike Kobal (Click here) tested the 18-200mm lens. Not that such a lens was really neede as we already have the Sony 18-200mm lens :(
Anyway, Mike also had that Sony lens but the Tamron is “a little smaller, lighter and has two additional lens elements. The built quality of both lenses is excellent“. Soem more image samples have been posted here on Flickr (Click here).
30mm macro
And the 30mm macro lens for NEX has been reviewed at SLRgear (Click here): “With good results for sharpness, corner shading and distortion, the only hesitation might be higher-than-desired results for chromatic aberration, but even that is treatable with post-processing.“. SonyAlphaLab (Click here) tested the lens on the NEX-7:”The contrast and color are also decent from what I’ve taken so far. The lens Bokeh is not the prettiest I’ve seen, but it is nice and smooth which is still very pleasing to the eye. Based on these initial test shots only, I would have to highly recommend this lens.”
Click those links to check if the lens is in Stock: [shopcountry 10041].
