Sony US keeps launching great new deals! You now get a free Metabones adapter of your choice ($399 value) on every NEX-FS100/700 purchase! More info at Sony PRO.
Meantime the great A77 up to $600 in Instant Savings at Amazon, Samys, Adorama and BHphoto are psuhing the A77 sales. I think I never saw the A77 sales going that well after their launch in August 2011. it’s now on position 23 of the most sold DSLR cameras at Amazon (see the ranking here). And keep in mind that Canon and Nikon launched also some great deals too!
As usual such deals do not happen in Europe 🙁
A full overview on all photography deals can be found at DealsRunner. Full roundup of the hot deals of the moment:
60mm Sigma for NEX in Stock at BHphoto (Click here).
60% off SanDisk cards at Amazon (Click here) and BHphoto (Click here).
$100 off on the Sony NEX-F3 kit at BHphoto (Click here).
65% off on the Sony 64GB SDHC/SDXC Class 10 UHS-1 R40 Memory Card on [shoplink 18793 ebay]eBay US[/shoplink].
Full A77, A65 and A58 deal page at Amazon (Click here).
New 20mm pancake NEX deal(Click here).
Canon PIXMA PRO-10 Professional Photo Inkjet Printer at Adorama (Click here).
SLTA77 Body $300 Instant Savings + Free vertical grip $300= $600 in Instant Savings at Amazon (Click here), Samys (Click here), Adorama (Click here) and BHphoto (Click here).
SLTA77 with 18mm-135mm $300 Instant Savings + Free vertical grip $300= $600 in Instant Savings at Amazon (Click here), Samys (Click here), Adorama (Click here) and BHphoto (Click here).
SLTA77 with 16mm-50mm $300 Instant Savings + Free vertical grip $300= $600 in Instant Savings at Amazon (Click here), Samys (Click here), Adorama (Click here) and BHphoto (Click here).
30 Responses
That (promotion) is a Sony endorsement of the Speed Booster (the real one)! Good choice! 🙂
This is actually quite surprising but it’s a nice development. It’d be great if this relationship extended to Sony’s consumer offerings some day…
Agreed.
Yep, very cool. I am very intrigued by Sony’s decision! It can only be a good thing!
Bravo!
with the upcoming a mount bodies, they should license the speedbooster tech and put a speedbooster where the mirror box was
In an APS camera I don’t really see the point because they could just release a low cost FF camera (which will probably be easier to manufacture anyways). However, it’d be interesting if there was a focal reducer module for FF A mount cameras which allows the use of MF lenses.
Actually… wouldn’t it be even possible to use the greater FFD of the NEX9 to stick a focal reducer for LF lenses in between?
To me I don’t care as much about the FF field of view and depth of field as I do the extra stop of light you get with the speedbooster. You can’t get that just by building a cheap FF
Of course you do. The speed booster doesn’t increase the amount of light (that would actually be a miracle). It just focuses down the FF circle onto the APS circle.
For instance, if you’ve got an FF and a speedboosted APS camera with the same pixel count, the theoretical amount of light received per pixel will be the same in both cameras. Practically, the FF will receive more light as there is no loss induced by the extra optics.
No. A stop is a stop, whatever the sensor size your using. An F1.4 on an apsc lets in as much light as a F1.4 on FF. The only difference if DOF. So An apsc cam with a speed booster at F2.8 will be brighter than an FF cam at F2.8. A stop increase..is a stop increase no matter the sensor size.
“An F1.4 on an apsc lets in as much light as a F1.4 on FF”
So you just said it yourself. The only thing that increases with the SB is light per mm^2. Since the illuminated mm^2 decreases as well, the difference between the total amounts of light gathered is zero (or a little less). Added to that, smaller sensors usually have worse SNRs so there really is nothing you gain from going APS+SB instead of FF in terms of IQ.
@Tony
Well the whole point (and it’s in the name) is that you can double the shutter speed due to the increased concentration of light. Higher shutter-speed = sharper pics – that’s your IQ increase!
There is only a shutter speed increase if you use the same ISO.
Using the same ISO in a comparison of the two solutions would not be fair since two cameras with different sensor size will have different noise at the same ISO.
A FF camera has a 2.25x larger sensor than an APS-C camera. That means that you can take a photo at 2.25x higher ISO and get the same noise.
An APS-C camera with a theoretically perfect speedbooster will increase the density of light on the sensor by 2.25x. So you can use a 2.25x lower ISO on the APS-C.
So the end result is the same. And the reason should be obvious to anyone:
Because it is the same total amount of light we are just spreading over a large or a small sensor surface.
I’m with you tony.
I’d LOVE to see whoever owns the patents to the Contax 645AF Medium Format lens mount make an autofocusing speedbooster to be created which would allow the use of the Zeiss 80mm f/2 for Contax to be used on a FF SONY alpha.
That would be the ultimate standard focal length lens. It’d be f/1.4 with the speedbooster, and it’d give you the shallow depth of field of that amazing lens, on the much larger than FF 6×4.5cm format, without meaning that you’d have to be shooting 120 roll film, or investing tens of thousands into a Phase One digital back, in addition to paying the exorbitant jacked up prices that fully functional Contax 645AF bodies and prisms are selling for these days.
This would be a huge deal for portrait photographers. And a win for SONY. Especially if Zeiss themselves produced the speedbooster, and only produced it for A-Mount, with top-notch Zeiss optics to match the optical quality of the Contax 80mm f/2!!!
For it to make sense they’d have to release dedicated SBs for different lenses, as otherwise it won’t have any place for a serious photography – would do for video though where you have a very limited resolution.
Hi,
in Europe there might be no such deals as on amazon.com, but we also have quiet a price drop:
– A77 Body: from ~1000€ to ~900€ (http://geizhals.de/?phist=675394&age=14)
– A65 Body: from ~700€ to ~600€ (http://geizhals.de/?phist=675387&age=14)
No. A stop is a stop, whatever the sensor size your using. An F1.4 on an apsc lets in as much light as a F1.4 on FF. The only difference if DOF. So An apsc cam with a speed booster at F2.8 will be brighter than an FF cam at F2.8. A stop increase..is a stop increase no matter the sensor size.
Sigma 60 2.8 is NOT Macro. It has nearly 20″ MDF
Tamron makes a 60mm f2.0 macro lens specifically for apsc.
It is one of the best macros available, at any price, and it’s not expensive.
The 60mm Tamron’s ok, but it’s definitely not in the same league as their 90mm or Sigma’s 70mm (which is the sharpest macro I’ve ever seen).
Sigma 70? lol. Wait till you see 105.
These are all very good macro lenses.
Longer focal lengths are very good for macro work allowing more working distance to subject.
60mm on c is equivalent to 90 on full frame and is a good length. I do not like shorter focal lengths.
The other focal lengths mentioned are good for both ff and c and I like them.
I also use a 180macro.
Sigma makes a 70-300apo180mm macro that focoses to 1/2 mgnification. While not the same quality as a prime it is surprisingly good used as a 300macro and inexpensive.
This is a good “carry in the car ready to go lens”.
Admin, do you know if Sony is going to be offering this deal directly via the sony store?
Compact systems cameras on Amazon, Sony is 1,2,3.
We realllllly don’t do Sony any favors by tracking Amazon rankings. We’re talking about comparing them to two brands that have 85% of the market. And we’re talking about INTERCHANGEABLE lens cameras, so many of the DSLR sales go to people who already have lenses. Sony doesn’t even market the SLTs…..the last time I saw a Sony TV commercial for an SLT was…………..ummmm………never.
Please stop directly comparing sales of Sony vs. Canikon, you create a false impression Sony is not doing well…they’re making the best cameras in the world, with a little marketing we’ll get where we’re going.
Wouldn’t it be magical if Sony killed their slts lines just replace the obsolete mirror tech with the metabones speed booster tech? That would be a game changing camera…. Image stabilized AND improve lens dynamics for EVERY a mount lens???
This will happen in about one year. Today the only missing component is on-sensor phase detection AF.
Makes me think the development of the speedbooster was sponsored by Sony…
If they did, we would have seen it >1 year ago!!
Update need, today position 21 🙂
Any odds on an a99 body only discount? Sony is REALLY holding firm on this one…