Sony World Photography Awards 2014 Exhibition Overview
First A7r case made of italian leather on [shoplink 26392 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
A6000 review at PCmag.
review of the wood hand grip for the RX1 at Rohuphoto.
Sony A5000 low light video test on Vimeo.
Some cool imaging sensor supplier statistics at Image Sensor World.
Sony 70-200 F4 FE Lens thoughts at Proimagenz.
Sony patent for a translucent mirror that reflects more light to the AF sensor in the center (Egami).
How a Lens Hood Restored My Faith in Mankind (Photo.net).
Hier ein Video-Test von der A6000 mit dem 50mm 1.8 (umgekehrt „montiert“): http://youtu.be/m1j_yTbJdc8
Sony won 4 Tipa awards (Sony Press).
Zeiss 16-70mm lens review at SonyAlphaLab.
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Tried comparing the FE 70-200/4 OSS at 70 and f/4 to the FE 55/1.8 at f/4 to see how good the correction is… the prime still edges the zoom out… now where have a I heard that before! 🙂
The biggest difference, which is inconsequential to 99.9% or more users, is the difference in the light transmission in the wavelengths above red… the 55/1.8 has about 2 stops more than the 70-200 when both are at f/4. I imagine this is because of the number of glass (more specifically their coatings) involved in the latter but was surprised to see this big a gap. The 55/1.8 itself isn’t that great in this specialised aspect because it’s a modern lens. Definitely wouldn’t recommend the FE 70-200/4 for casual IR shooters… again I doubt 99.9% buyers would think twice about that but you heard it here first 😀
Oh and the 70-200’s focus is fast on the a7r… but when was a native lens slow to focus? Didn’t try tracking, which is the more challenging thing for most mirrorless cameras. If that matters I honestly think the SLT adapter + DSLR lenses is the way to go.
Great points about the wavelength spectrum capturing differences. It has to be all the extra glass!
My suspicion is the coatings more than the number of elements. I have a lens with 19 elements (the FE 70-200 has 23) but I haven’t noticed a proportional drop in IR compared to simpler lenses. It could be that the FE 70-200 doesn’t perform well in VIS+IR so the coatings are designed to reduce the issue before it happens.
The number of elements does seriously affect UV transmission more than IR.
Thanks for the additional information 😉 clearly don’t know much about the transmission effects on UV and IR, so it’s interesting to learn something new!
Thanks again,
Jay
Any time 😀
rumors please!
So… he cries over the 70-200 f/4 then posts a RAW image at 200 f/4 that looks perfectly fine for such a lens at such a setting. It actually looks better than the last sample I saw at that setting, but, that sample was at a greater distance. Perhaps this lens is like the Nikkor 200-400 f/4G which is awful at long distances but really really good at the moderate distances it’s clearly intended for.
Either way, that 70-200/4 is overall really good, with a weakness wide open at 200mm that goes away instantly stopped down only one stop. And you know what? It’s the only telephoto zoom for the full frame E-mount system. So it is the best 🙂
I typically use a 70-200 f/4 for landscape work which means I will be stopped down almost universally. But it also means I could reasonably use a third party lens as well. I haven’t quite decided if that’s what I would prefer to do. I am attracted to the native lens option, though. I really prefer a contrast detect AF option for landscape shooting. So I think if I was going to look at alternatives, I’d probably consider a Canon 70-200/4. Neither the one with IS or without is particularly great in the corners but should be good enough. The one without IS goes for pretty cheap these days… hm…
Still can’t decide. I just wish Sony would have made a high quality 70-300 4.5-5.6 instead of this 70-200 for the first zoom. Such is life.
First time hearing someone saying the Canon 70-200/4L IS has issues. The lens is still one of the best zooms out there. It’s better corrected than Canon’s 85/1.2L II at f/5.6. In the several years I owned that zoom I never came across a real situation where it wasn’t sharp. Of course, if you try to do macro-ish close-ups with it then it’s not as good as a lens made for that purpose.
And remember that the 70-200/4L IS is very different to the 70-200/4L. It’s not just a matter of IS.
Also why on earth do you need AF for landscapes? With focus peaking you can even do birds in flight in manual with a good hit rate. .. trust me I’ve tried, with much longer lenses too.
Yes, well, you stare at comparisons all day and you start to see every tiny defect. They are both perfectly suitable lenses and the IS version is certainly an improvement.
As far as autofocus, I am rarely successful at manually focusing accurately, regardless of the tools available. Maybe it’s vision, maybe it’s patience, technique, I dunno, and I do not care. I get better results with autofocus, so I prefer to have autofocus, especially with the longer lenses.
I see. What were you comparing the 70-200/4L IS against to say it has corner issues? Would be good to see the comparison.
Also if you can show some of your shots that went off because of focusing peaking, we can find out the cause.
As soon as I got mine I set up a lens test chart to check sharpness (and make sure everything was sweet) at various focal lengths and apertures….Don’t know what he is complaining about?!? Very sharp at F4 on all focal lengths. At F4 the sharps start to drop off 2/3 to edge of frame. But not noticeable on anything other than a lens chart….A little bit softer than the 55 1.8. But man not by much…!! Getting about a stop to stop and a half on the hand held from OSS (about the same as the nikon 70-200mm VRII). So overall certainly on par with either the Canon or Nikon 70-200mm.
I’ve seen samples posted elsewhere with sharpness problems at 200mm. They were infinite or nearly infinitely focused scenes, though. It’s entirely possible that it’s only problematic at longer focus distances and even in those cases, the problem goes away just one stop down from wide open.
Not my experience at all…Sharps are totally fine.
The new slt mirror patent will provide more uniform light aross the sensor.
It also indicates that slt and A mount are not going away soon.
Possibly we will see the debut of this center weighted mirror along with the stacked sensor.
Great to see the Sony AS100V won the Tipa best action cam award. Certainly deserves to win market share off GoPro
If you buy an Italian leather case or wooden grip do you have to quit making fun of the Hasselblad Lunar?
Another leather case that does not allow battery replacements. 🙂
How idiotic the lost opportunity of having the resource to have what appears to be a metal bottom and not allow battery access? If they did know how Gariz shaped their bottom plates to do this, did they think that people would still go for their case in a power hungry camera? If they didn’t know, I may forgive their lack of knowledge of the usage of digital cameras today in general. Leica and Luigi are not THE example to follow for accessories.
Thanks for the share 😉
Jay
I have the 70-200mm and love it. Its small and light,much smaller than the a mount version. I also tested a7s and was really impressed with af performance in dim lighting.