Just Posted: an extensive update to our Sony NEX-6 preview. The NEX-6 is an enthusiast level mirrorless camera that features the high-resolution OLED viewfinder we first saw on the NEX-7 and builds on the capabilities that appeared on the recent NEX-5R. Click through for a link to the expanded preview, including six new pages of test data. We’ll be adding more pages as we work towards the publication of our full review.
News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
Sony has announced it plans to release several firmware updates for A-mount and E-mount systems on February 4, 2013. Updates to Alpha and NEX bodies relate mostly to lenses, including the addition of Dual-AF support for 11 lenses on the A99, and Fast Hybrid AF support for six E-mount lenses on the NEX-5R and NEX-6, among others. Three E-mount lenses also get updates to enable Fast Hybrid AF support. See table below for more detail on which bodies and lenses will get updates.
News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
A Vietnamese site is sharing what it claims are sample images from Sony’s new Xperia Z smartphone, compared with shots from both the Apple iPhone 5 and the Oppo Find 5, both of which will feature Sony’s new 13-megapixel Exmor RS stacked CMOS sensor. Although we can’t vouch for the integrity of the sample shots, if they’re genuine, the comparison provides an interesting look at what the Xperia and Oppo Find 5’s cameras may be capable of. Click through for the full story, and images, on connect.dpreview.com.
News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
Sony has announced the E 20mm F2.8 – a moderately wide-angle pancake prime lens for its NEX cameras. The moderately-fast E-mount pancake will offer a 30mm equivalent field of view and adds another compact lens option for NEX shooters. It will be available in April for around $ 350. Sony has also said it will offer its video-targeted 18-200mm OSS F3.5-6.3 power zoom lens as a standalone product. Previously only available bundled with the NEX-VG30 camcorder, it becomes the company’s third E-mount 18-200mm superzoom and will cost around $ 1200.
News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
Got this today and saved the unboxing for you!
Video Rating: 4 / 5
On this episode we review the Nikon P500 and why it just may be the perfect sub-DSLR camera! Equipment used in this video: Nikon P500 – amzn.to
Video Rating: 4 / 5
Hi everyone! The Sony DSLT-A99 is Sony’s replacement for the A900. Despite me being a bit sick (bear with me in this video), that’s not going to stop me from unboxing Sony’s flagship camera, the A99. I find out what you can expect when you purchase the A99. You can follow me on: Facebook – on.fb.me Twitter – bit.ly Blog – bit.ly
Video Rating: 4 / 5
After a run of compact digicams it sure was a change of scenery to grasp this major one for review.
However, I was surprised at how easily I fell into its working modes. Am I getting more camera-wise or is the Alpha SLT-A99 more user-friendly?
I suspect the latter because, when you run your eyes over the exterior control points everything seems to be where you would expect it, clearly labelled and easy to use.
At left on top is the mode dial with selection points for auto exposure, PASM, memory recall, scene selection (portrait, sports, sunset etc), sweep panorama, continuous shooting and movie recording options.
To the right of the top deck is the power lever, shutter button, exposure compensation, front control dial, exposure compensation, ISO setting, white balance and an LCD display.
Rear: the familiar red movie record button, exposure lock, multi selector lever, Function button, display selector, focus magnifier, menu etc.
All of this means, once you’re familiar with the camera’s control layout, you need rarely delve in to the LCD finder menu.
Sure, the camera’s heavy and bulky. It does have, after all, a full frame sensor. With the Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar f2.8/24-70mm lens the kit weighed in at 1.8kg. Not your average snapshot camera!
This is of course Sony’s first translucent mirror camera to have a full-frame 35mm CMOS sensor, measuring 35.8×23.8mm.
If you came in late, here’s a quick rundown of the SLT (Single Lens Translucent) feature: SLT stands for “Single Lens Translucent”, using a translucent mirror that allows roughly two thirds of the incoming light (the photo) to pass directly through it and onto the sensor; at the same time a smaller amount, approximately a third is reflected up to the camera’s phase detection autofocus (AF) sensor.
The mirror does not flip up as in an SLR, but stays in place; this reduces the time to take a photo, and provides fast, full-time phase detection AF.
The benefits include no mirror blackout, so no blackout when the shot is taken and faster shooting speeds … in this case up to 10 fps, depending on frame size (half or full frame).
The negatives include the fact that the finder view is electronic and while, of excellent quality, is comparatively dim and the view quality does not compare with an optical prism finder. Also, there is a light loss to the CMOS, about a third of an f stop.
The body is made from high rigidity magnesium alloy panels. The SLT-A99 is also described as ‘the world’s first DSLR with professional movie recording capabilities’, which neatly puts it up against Canon’s much-acclaimed (by video shooters) EOS 5D Mark III.
The maximum image size is 6000×4000 pixels, or as a 46x34cm print. Movies can be recored as Full HD 1920×1080 pixels in either AVCHD or MPEG 4.
Movie makers will appreciate a new feature that allows silent adjustment of exposure compensation, ISO sensitivity and metering methods, shutter speed, aperture and audio record levels during Full HD video capture.
I found that the video system works quite well with AF and auto exposure, monitoring the scene continuously; but you will notice it sometimes fail to track AF correctly. You can’t shoot stills while capturing video.
The auto focus system relies on a 19-point AF system with 11 cross sensors, complemented by a multi-point focal plane phase-detection AF sensor. Helping with moving subjects, this is complemented by a 102-point multi-point focal plane phase-detection AF sensor that senses subjects crossing the focal plane.
This new AF control helps by allowing users to set the distance range recognised by the AF system and is explained by Sony as the situation where you can focus on distant sports action, even if you shoot through a nearby wire mesh fence.
One feature that caught my eye is the manual focus mode, switchable on the left side (viewable from behind) of the lens barrel. If focus is out, the screen view is of course, out of focus; if in focus the sharp areas of the subject are outlined in a bright colour: the default hue is red. No excuses any more!
Appreciated by stills and video shooters, the LCD screen tilts 140 degrees upward and 180 degrees downward, then rotates 180 degrees clockwise and 90 degrees counter-clockwise. It is the only full frame DSLR with a vari-angle screen.
There are two card slots for either the SD series or the Memory Stick Pro Duo range. You can record the same image on one only or both cards simultaneously. Other options include writing JPEGs to one and RAW images to the other; another is to record stills to one card and movies to the other.
There is no onboard flash but there are still concessions to the less-skilled photographers who may embrace the SLT-A99: picture effect has an arsenal of renderings (toy camera look, pop colour, retro etc); smile shutter; auto portrait framing that crops face shots, saves the latter and the uncropped version.
All the way up to ISO 12800, the images appeared to be very useable with only a slight increase in noise at the latter level. By ISO 25600 you would expect the house to fall down but, while the presence noise is obviously higher the only objectionable factor to me is a slight loss of sharpness.
Quality: razor sharp, fully saturated colour. Exceptional.
Why you’d buy the Sony Alpha SLT-A99: excellent control layout; full frame quality; high speed continuous shooting; excellent video quality; rugged build; vari-angle LCD; GPS feature; in body stabiliser widens range of lenses.useable
Why you wouldn’t: too heavy.
A top performer from Sony.
Image Sensor: 24.3 million effective pixels.
Metering: Multi segment, centre-weighted, spot.
Lens Mount: Sony A-mount, Konica-Minolta AF mount.
Exposure Modes: iAuto, Superior Auto, Program AE, shutter and aperture priority, manual.
Effective Sensor Size: 35.8×23.8mm CMOS.
35 SLR Lens Factor: 1x.
Shutter Speed (stills): 30 to 1/8000 second and Bulb. Flash sync: 1/250 sec.
Continuous Shooting: 8 or 10 fps.
Memory: SD/SDHC/SDXC, Memory Stick Pro Duo/Pro-HG Duo cards.
Image Sizes (pixels): Stills: 6000×4000 to 2640×1488.
Movies: 1920×1080 (60, 24fps), 1440×1080 (30 fps), 640×424 (29.97fps).
Viewfinder: Turret electronic plus 7.6cm LCD screen (1,229,000 pixels).
File Formats: JPEG, RAW (Sony ARW), JPEG+RAW, MPEG4, AVCHD.
Colour Space: sRGB, Adobe RGB.
ISO Sensitivity: Auto, 100 to 25,600.
Interface: USB 2.0, HDMI mini, remote.
Power: Rechargeable lithium ion battery, DC input.
Dimensions: 147x111x78 WHDmm.
Weight: 812 g (inc battery).
Price: Get a price on the Sony SLTA99V Alpha SLT-A99 Body Only.
Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.
Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.
Sony Alpha SLT-A99 REVIEW
DxO Labs has released the latest version of its DxO Optics Pro software, with more than 10,000 camera and lens correction combinations now supported. The latest version, v8.1.2 or the more expensive Elite edition adds support for the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX1 full-frame, fixed-lens camera as well as Canon’s EOS 6D. Meanwhile both the Elite and Standard versions gain support for the Nikon 1 V2. With this release DxO has achieved its stated target of offering 10,000 optics modules. Both editions are available with a 33% discount until the end of January 2013.
News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
A variant of the original 18-200mm for the E-mount, I take a quick look at the differences of both 18-200mm lenses as well as its performance You can follow me on: Facebook – on.fb.me Twitter – bit.ly Blog – bit.ly
Video Rating: 4 / 5
Light – is one of the most impotent aspects of photography. Every photographer should know how to see light and how to use it. In this lesson we will be talking about light and its characteristics. A lot of examples for better visualization and understanding. Music: Kevin MacLeod. (Licensed under Creative Commons “Attribution 3.0”)
Video Rating: 4 / 5
CES provided a chance for us to get our hands on to of the latest smartphones. Interestingly, Sony’s Xperia Z, ZTE’s Grand S and the Huawei Ascend D2 are all built around 5″, 1920 x 1080 pixel screens and feature 13MP cameras. All run Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) and yet, despite the spec similarities, there are still differences – in the user experience as well as the processors used. We had the opportunity to use both phones, to see how they behave – find out what we thought.
News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)