Chairman of the SD Association believes the new SD Express standard will be adopted by camera makers in 2021

Lensvid interviewed the Chairman of the SD Association Mr. Yosi Pinto. Here is the interestin part regardin the new SD Express standard

-We were told that the development of the SD Express was actually not driven (for the most part) by the photo industry. It was pushed forward by other industries that are part of the SD Association (including mobile-computing, games, IoT, automotive and others) who were interested in the more modern and well-established PCIe interface and NVMe protocols. These changes make the upcoming SD Express cards very SSD-like in nature.

-It is important to note that despite the lack of push from the photo industry for the new SD Express, the upcoming new cards will be backwards compatible with SD UHS-I devices so you will be able to use them in any camera or device that work with existing cards. This will be done in a way similar to what has been done in the past with UHS-II (and UHS-III) where one row of connectors on the back of the card is dedicated to UHS-I and the other to the SD Express PCI-E. This also means that in backwards compatibility mode, the card will only support UHS-I speeds and not UHS-II/III.

– For the first time in memory card history we are now in a place where both major players base their upcoming cards on the same interface and protocol – the new CF Express which will replace XQD (and has the same form factor as XQD) is also based on the same basic PCIe and NVMe.

– In the past, SD was typically considered to be a consumer/prosumer oriented format while CF (and later XQD) were more of a pro level memory formats. At the moment it isn’t clear if this division will continue between SD Express and CF Express, however, we believe that the fact that both are now based on the same basic PCIe/NVMe protocols might have interesting consequences in the future.

– As we have noted above, SD Express was not developed primarily for the camera industry but was pushed forward by other markets. This means that camera manufacturers may not be the first to implement it. However, jumping on the SD Express train for all type of products should be easier than it was for previous SD iterations since the PCIe interface and NVMe protocols are well established in the industry with all the supporting software and hardware required for implementing them.

– As for when the first SD Express supported cameras will be available on the market, Mr. Pinto did not wish to speculate, but based on our understanding this will not happen during 2019 (and possibly not even during the first half of 2020).

Adobe just decided you have to pay $20 instead of $10 per month for the Basic Plan

This is the price you pay for a subscription based service : Adobe just doubled the basic plan monthly fee! (see Adobe’s new pricing here). Now, there are some alternatives if you want to avoid to be a subscription slave.

The professional alternative is Capture One (Click here). It costs $109 only if you buy the Fuji or Sony version and $299 for the full version. It’s also the best RAW editor on the market.

A much cheaper alternative is Luminar 3.1 (Click here) with new generation 2.0 Artificial Intelligence tool. Save $10 with the coupon code “AMB43R” at checkout!

UPDATE: Adobe just said that their $10 plan is still available (Click here):

Sigma Q&A at Imaging Resource: “the market is changing from DSLR to mirrorless much quicker than I thought.”

Sigma spilled out some info in a new interview with Imaging Resource:

APS-C L-mount lenses:
Yamaki said “we will release APS-C sized lenses for L-mount in 2020“. These will be L-mount adapted lenses of their current APS-C lenses for MFT and Sony E-mount

New natively designed lenses for mirrorless:
Yamaki: “brand-new lens designed for the short flange-back system should be available some time this year.”

Sigma’s most selling lenses are…
….”I can’t tell you the exact numbers, but the most popular right now is Canon, and next is Nikon. Sony E-mount is growing”

About the possibility to make Canon RF and Nikon Z lenses:
…”We are still checking their systems, and it’s a bit too early to make comment. But right now, we’re checking the compatibility between our lenses and their mount adapter. We already know that it works almost perfectly, but in some specific settings and [for some] operations, our lens does not work perfectly [with their adapter yet], like continuous burst mode...”

About the Sigma FE lens sales:
…”Surprisingly good. They like the optical performance of those lenses. It’s better than I expected. But there also are some people waiting for the lens design for the short flange-back, so we are also working on it”

Market is shrinking.
Yamaki believes the market will shrink further: “Maybe [down] 20 to 25% from now, that’s my guess.”

DSLR vs Mirrorless:
…”the market is changing from DSLR to mirrorless much quicker than I thought.“…..”Eventually, I think the majority of interchangeable-lens cameras will be mirrorless.“

Tamron interview at Dpreview: Confirmes new FE tele zoom is coming and Canon RF and Nikon Z lenses too

Dpreview had a chat with Tamron managers and here are some of the info they shared:

Next FE lens:

People really want a telephoto zoom to cover focal lengths longer than 75mm. We’re looking [into] that.

About future Canon RF and Nikon Z lenses:

Yes, we’re also looking at that area. We have to do a lot of research and development into the reverse engineering, because they don’t disclose the details of their systems, so it’s a really hard job for us.

APS-C vs Full Frame:

APS-C is still important to us, but when we think about the [industry], the full-frame market is expanding, so we’re looking at that market first – that’s the first priority. So gradually we’ll create a [full-frame] line and then at another time we can launch more APS-C lenses. The APS-C market is shrinking quite fast.

Dpreview writes:

The APS-C market is shrinking, and Tamron would be irresponsible to pour significant resources into developing lenses for a contracting market. The audience for lenses designed for full-frame mirrorless, on the other hand, is guaranteed to grow over the coming years. With two FE lenses for Sony already on the market, it was reassuring to hear from Tamron’s executives that longer focal lengths are being planned, to round out the lineup.

Next, of course, will be reverse-engineering lenses for the Canon RF and Nikon Z mounts (it seems unlikely that Tamron will bother with L-mount given Sigma’s head start as a member of the alliance). In our conversation, Tamron’s executives reinforced what we’ve been told by other optical engineers (including Sigma’s Kazuto Yamaki) that designing for a longer flange back distance and adapting that design to shorter mounts is the only practical way to create one optical formula for several mounts. As such, it seems possible that before too long, the popular Sony FE-mount 28-75mm F2.8 might form the basis of new standard zooms for Canon and Nikon mirrorless.