Good news: Samsung says rumors are not true. They will stay in the camera business.

Samsung gave an official answer to Imaging Resource about the rumor posted by Korean Journal “NewsTomato” saying Samsung is quitting out of the camera business. Samsung said:

“Withdrawing from the camera business is not true and there is no official plan to stop production of cameras and lenses. Samsung continuously analyzes the varying needs and requirements of consumers in each market and region very carefully. However, we do not officially comment on rumors or speculation.“

Good! Now let’s hope we will see some new NX cameras and lenses soon that can make the NX system even more attractive :)

Sony news: A6xxx launch delayed, A7rII firmware update, phase detection patent.

I have three short Sony news to report today:

1) One source reports the Sony A6xxx launch got again(!) delayed til early 2016. The reason seems to be the unexpected huge amount of A7rII preorders that Sony has to fulfill. Capacity has to be used to produce more units. Also because Sony has a higher win margin on those kind of cameras. Plus sensor production is already at 100% so even there they have to limit the production of new camera sensors.

2) The A7rII firmware got updated. But still no 14Bit RAW yet. More at SonyAlphaRumors.

3) Sony is working to improve their phase detection autofocus. A new patent has been spotted by Egami that can double the current autofocus speed! More at Imaging Rsource.

Can the A7s be hacked to unlock full 4K internal and 4:2:2 recording?

Nabil Fatih says he is working on new Sony A7s hack which unlocks the full camera potential. This means internal 4K, 10 Bit 4:2:2 recording and a lot of other goodies. On the comments of the vimeo video he posted:

Sony Statements are often BS. So it doesn’t matter what Sony say or not.
The 8bit 420 lock was made in purpose to push you buying pro cameras like the FS7 for example, same goes to the micro transaction with 4K upgrade and co on different camera, for example the future update for FS5, Sony will ask you to pay to add DCI 4K, they call their camera 4K when they are not, 3840 = 3K Horizontal line and 2160p still remains 2K Vertical lines, DCI 4K is what supposed to be 4K, real 4K = Square 4096×4096, so when Sony or other brand said 4K camera, do you think is a correct information ?.
A7S is totally capable of offering 10bit 422 without any problem.

 

Mirrorless Tidbits…


Samsung NX1 Used To Capture Madagascar In Detail

27 Impressive Numbers You Need to Know About The World’s Largest Digital Camera (Explora).
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX10 II added to studio test scene comparison (Dpreview).
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX10 Mark II Review : Introduction (ePhotozine).
Proper Photographic Technique (Explora).
Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark II Review (Dygadget)
Nauticam Housing for Canon EOS M3
new 15mmf4 Venus macro 1:1 review (SonyAlphaForum).
Stabilize and smoothen your videos with this magical tool! (TheNakedCameraso).
Sony A7R II vs Olympus E-M10 II: 5-Axis Stabilization Head-to-head (SonyAlphaCameras).

(PRESS TEXT) Metabones adds phase-detect autofocus (PDAF) support for Olympus OM-D E-M1 and Sony Alpha 7R2.

MetabonesMFT

Vancouver, Canada, September 18, 2015: Metabones® adds phase-detect autofocus (PDAF) support for Olympus OM-D E-M1 and Sony Alpha 7R2 to its EF-mount Speed Boosters and Smart Adapters through firmware update version 1.8, available from Metabones’ web site for download.

Free of any potential misalignment issues, on-sensor phase-detect autofocus is capable of attaining excellent accuracy. Overall, phase-detect autofocus offers a significant performance improvement over contrast-detect autofocus, and for shorter focal length lenses the autofocus speed approaches that found in digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) cameras. Performance, features and limitations of our solution are comparable to other on-sensor PDAF systems involving adapted DSLR lenses on mirrorless cameras, such as A-mount lenses on Sony Alpha 7R2 with LA-EA3 adapter, Four Thirds System DSLR lens on Olympus OM-D E-M1 with MMF-3 adapter or Canon SLR lens on EOS M3 with Mount Adapter EF-EOS M.

Limitations include:

  1. During video recording there is no AF (Olympus) or only slow contrast-detect AF (Sony).
  2. Continuous AF may have unsatisfactory performance (phase-detect AF) or not supported (contrast-detect AF).

Also added to Metabones firmware update version 1.8 is fast contrast detect AF for other Olympus cameras including E-M5II, E-M5, E-M10 and E-P5. Contrast-detect AF accuracy on Olympus is lens-dependent with most Canon-brand lenses introduced over the last 10 years working satisfactorily. However, some older Canon lenses and some third party EF-mount lenses may not be able to achieve pinpoint-accurate focus on Olympus cameras with contrast-detect AF. These lenses should be used on OM-D E-M1 instead.

In addition, AF support for JVC GY-LS300 is added to this new firmware version. Existing Panasonic contrast-detect AF support is enhanced with 24p added as a supported frame rate for single-autofocus (AFS) during video recording.

By simply downloading and running Metabones App Version 1.8, new autofocus support is added to the following Metabones products:

  • EF-E Smart Adapter Mark IV (model number MB_EF-E-BM4)
  • EF-E Speed Booster ULTRA (model number MB MB_SPEF-E-BM2)
  • EF-E T Smart Adapter Mark IV (model number MB_EF-E-BT4)
  • EF-E T Speed Booster ULTRA (model number MB_SPEF-E-BT2)
  • EF-Micro Four Thirds Smart Adapter (model number MB_EF-M43-BM1)
  • EF-Micro Four Thirds Speed Booster (model number MB_SPEF-M43-BM1)
  • EF-Micro Four Thirds Speed Booster S (model number MB_SPEF-M43-BM2)
  • EF-Micro Four Thirds T Smart Adapter (model number MB_EF-M43-BT2)
  • EF-Micro Four Thirds T Speed Booster ULTRA 0.71x (model number MB_SPEF-M43-BT4)
  • EF-Micro Four Thirds T Speed Booster XL 0.64x (model number MB_SPEF-M43-BT3)

The following discontinued products must be updated by factory service. Please contact Metabones customer service for details.

  • The original EF-E Smart Adapter
  • EF-E Smart Adapter Mark II
  • EF-E Smart Adapter Mark III
  • The original EF-E Speed Booster