Sony TidBits

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Sony develops “Hybrid FPA”, a novel liquid crystal alignment technique that achieves faster response time for liquid crystal displays (Akihabaranews)

Sony CineAlta Moves Beyond Bayer (ImageSensorWorld)

Taiwan market: Sony surpasses Nikon in ILC market (Digitimes.com)

NEX Body and Rear Lens Cap Available (SonyAlphaNex)

Join the Sony World Photography Awards 2011 (worldphoto.org)

Sony NEX-VG10 with Sigma 50-500mm Bigma (SonyAlphaNex).

The Sony clock :)

Carl Zeiss announces record sales (PMAnewsline)

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Debunking myths. Sony-Canon lens debate on Sonyalpha.es

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David Bejarano from Sonyalpha.es compared the present Sony and Canon lenses. He wrote me the following text:

Tired of hearing the endlessly and tiresome song “The A-mount has a very limited number of lenses; I would wish to post this comparison, so everybody could speak knowingly.
Debunking myths… if only a little
It is a truth repeated and accepted by everybody that Sony lacks the breadth of catalogue of Canon or Nikon. And that is often used when evaluating the Sony products: “Yes, it could be a good camera, but when you need to make grow your gear
Not long ago, on a thread on the Sonyalpha.es forum, a user said: “And after the
[shoplink 4378]A580[/shoplink]… what?”, questioning the growth capabilities of his Sony gear
Some months ago, taking pictures with some Canon and Nikon users, where only a girl with an A300 and myself with the
[shoplink 3032]A900[/shoplink], were Sony users, were holding the jokes and ironies of one of them. I didn’t want to argue; so I just asked him for a memory card, took some pictures, and while I handed it to him, I told him “Just look at these at home, and then we can talk about Why I’m shooting with Sony”… Now this Canikon user has a problem, because his gear doesn’t give him pictures with so much dynamic range, sharpness, detail and colours. Now he doubts a lot but… “There are so few Sony lenses”!
It would be naive not accept that today Canon’s lenses list is much larger than the Sony’s one but… How far? So I decided to compare their catalogues, and now I’m presenting the result.
The only aspect I try to answer is if Sony’s lenses list is as short as it’s said. It should be necessary to analyse some other aspects which would take the study a little bit further. There are a lot of reviews
There are already many reviews that assess lens performances. I’m not talking about qualities, although I must say that G lenses can talk face to face with Canon’s L and L-II, if not overcome them, and all CZ lenses outperform their respective Canon counterparts, according to the different reviews I’ve been reading.
Talking about the sealed Canon lenses, I remember an article of an A900 and a
[shoplink 4835]24-70/2.8 Carl Zeiss[/shoplink] lens, shooting on the Paris-Dakar rally, completely full of desert sand and dust, while continued working perfectly; or the Luminous Escape experience praising the A900 reliability that outperformed some failing Canon bodies
You can find here a Canon vs Sony’s catalogue comparative, you can use it to take your own conclussions …
Firstable, is important to realize you can find a lot of similar lenses on Canon’s family; some of this “duplicate” models have been developed to achieve quality improvements (for the L and L-II series) and some others because they are stabilized lenses (LS). But, in the Sony family ALL lenses can work as stabilized lenses because all Alpha bodies (except the NEX bodies) have in body stabilization, and you don’t need to duplicate versions.
Second, there are some Canon lenses with no AF motor, but its use is limited only to Canon bodies with integrated AF motor. In the Sony system the camera bodies include an AF , which has shown their advantages; newer in-body engines now are outperforming in terms of speed and precission some SSM engine

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David Pogue includes the NEX-5 as a holiday pick (+Sony 16mm f/2.8 E-mount lens review)

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It’s Christams time and David Pogue from the New York Times gives you his picks for this years holiday season’s best tech gifts. And what kind of system camea does he reocmmend? The [shoplink 3003]Sony NEX-5[/shoplink]! Watch the video i posted on top ;)
Get the NEX-5 using this direct shop links:
US -> Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto.
Europe -> Pixmania (de, fr, it, nl, uk, be, pl) and Amazon (de, fr, uk, it).

Slrgear.com tested the [shoplink 2998]Sony E 16mm f/2.8[/shoplink] lens. Conclusion: “The size of the lens make a NEX camera system almost pocketable. If you like the idea of a wide prime for your NEX camera, right now there’s simply nothing else available. It’s an interesting little lens, but its price point and its performance are perhaps limiting it to strictly consumer application.”

P.S.: Thanks to the anonymouse people that sent me the links!

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(SR1) An impossible rumor (3 new FF lenses)

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Sometimes I do receive almost unbelieveable rumors from unkown sources. I wanted to share one of those with you :)

I got this email on Saturday from an anonymous source:

new lenses will be released in Q3-Q4 2012: 1.4/200ZA, 100-400F/2.8G SSM and 4/200G macro SSM

Can the source confirm me that he really meant 200mmm f/1.4 ZA??? The fasted 200mm lens I know is the [shoplink 4821]Canon EF 200mm f/2L IS USM[/shoplink] and the [shoplink 4822]Nikon 200mm f/2G ED AF-S VR II Nikkor[/shoplink]!!!

With that example I wanted to show you why I usually take a lot of time before to post the rumors I do receive. I always try to double (and if possible triple) check rumors to give you reliable info about future Sony cameras and lenses. I promise you, one day I will write a long post with all the fake rumors I received :)

Just a reminder:
We know from trusted sources that at least 4-5 new Zeiss lenses will be announced during 2011. And as long as we know this should all be prime lenses (one of them is the 200m f/2.0 ZA).

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Thom Hogan about the NEX-5: best sensor but bad usability

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[shoplink 3003][/shoplink]

Thom Hogan tested the four most popular compact mirrorless cameras (The Olympus E-PL1, Panasonic GF1, Samsung NX100 and the [shoplink 3003]Sony NEX-5[/shoplink]). The Sony has the best sensor of the four but because of the lack of lenses and a bad handling he cannot recommend the camera: “I can’t really recommend the Sony NEX-5 directly. It’s actually quite good in image quality, especially if you need higher ISO values, and the 16mm f/2.8 lens makes for a very compact wide angle walkaround camera. Sony’s problem is three-fold. First, like Samsung, the lenses just aren’t there yet. Second, many of the lenses just absolutely drawf the camera body, and that starts to make the camera less desirable as a “compact.” Finally, the non-standard user interface and simplified control system is either going to get you swearing at the camera or you’re going to learn to like it. But I can’t predict that last bit, so don’t buy the Sony without actually trying it at a store first.

Read the full review at bythom.com

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New Aquatica AN-5 underwater housing for the Sony NEX-5.

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[shoplink 4815][/shoplink]

In October 2010 Aquatica announced the new [shoplink 4815]Sony-NEX-5 underwater housing[/shoplink]. The housing shell is anodized and powder coated to a smooth finish that will resist years of extensive use, all controls are double sealed in order to face the 300ft/90 meter depth rating assign to this housing, every shaft and push button is manufactured to a mirror smooth surface and is made of the finest grade stainless steel. Given the absence of a regular view finder our design staff integrated a 15 degree of angle to the rear LCD screen; this was done to give the user a much more comfortable position for viewing in diving conditions. To accommodate the Sony Nex-5 lenses a series of compact port were designed for its range of optics as well as an adapter that will allow the mounting of our current line of ports, this will be appreciated in light of the extended range lenses now available via the various camera mount adapters available for this already popular camera.

[shoplink 4815]The AN-5 underwater housing is now available on eBay (Click here)[shoplink 4815]!

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UPDATED: Sony US instante rebates still ongoing

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I wanted to remind you that the Sony US instante rebates are still ongoing! I don’t know how long it will last but the some of the price drops are very appealing. Like the -$200 on the A900 and the -$100 on the A850.

Click the direct shop links to buy the camera:

Sony NEX $50.00 Instant Savings at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto.
Sony A580 $100.00 Instant Savings at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto.
Sony A33 $100.00 Instant Savings at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto.
Sony A850 $100.00 Instant Savings at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto.
Sony A900 $200.00 Instant Savings at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto.

And here the detailed discount (Click on store name):

Sony 11-18mm f/4.5-5.6 DT Lens $50.00 Instant Savings at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto.
Sony 16-80mm f/3.5-4.5 Lens $50.00 Instant Savings at Adorama and BHphoto.
Sony 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 DT $50.00 Instant Savings at Adorama and BHphoto.
Sony 18-250mm f/3.5-6.3 $50.00 Instant Savings Adorama and BHphoto.
Sony Distagon T* 24mm f/2 SSM $100.00 Instant Savings at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto.
Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 Carl Zeiss $100.00 Instant Savings at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto.
Sony 28-75mm f/2.8 SAM Lens $100.00 Instant Savings at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto.
Sony 30mm f/2.8 DT Lens $25.00 Instant Savings at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto.
Sony 35mm f/1.4G Lens $100.00 Instant Savings at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto.
Sony 35mm f/1.8 SAM Lens $25.00 Instant Savings at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto.
Sony 50mm f/1.8 DT AF Lens $25.00 Instant Savings at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto.
Sony 70-200mm f/2.8 APO SSM $150.00 Instant Savings at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto.
Sony 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G SSM Lens $50.00 Instant Savings at Adorama and BHphoto.
Sony 85mm f/2.8 SAM Lens $25.00 Instant Savings at Adorama and BHphoto.
Sony 135mm f/2.8 Lens $100.00 Instant Savings at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto.
Sony 300mm f/2.8 SSM Lens $100.00 Instant Savings at Adorama and BHphoto.

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