The very first Leica SL owners appears to be Formula 1 star Sebastian Vettel. Of course for him it’s no problem to buy the SL but I highly suspect he even got is a free present from Leica to promote their new camera. When you are rich you always get richer :)
Source BBC via SonyAlphaForum.
Note: A new Leica SL test has been posted by German site Photoscala.
Sony will buy the Toshiba sensor business for $165 million. They get one step closer to the total domination fo the sensor market. Toshiba also makes the sensors of some Fuji camera models and it’s pity we have one player less on the market.
Such a lens has a strong “I want it!” factor! That new Zeiss 28mmf /1.4 claims to be the best FF wide angle lens on market. Zeiss said it will ship in Spring 2016 for a price that has yet to be unveiled. But expect it to cost more than $5,000!
Here is the full press text:
With the new ZEISS Otus 1.4/28, users of shorter focal lengths can now also take advantage of the most powerful image quality of the ZEISS Otus lens family.
Where details count in wide-angle photography, the Otus 1.4/28 for DSLR cameras with F- and EF-mount is the lens of choice.
The Otus 1.4/28 shows off its strengths particularly in landscape and nature photography. Even with a maximum aperture, the corners of the image are completely usable, so there are no limits to composition. In poor light combined with fast-moving objects, the lens also doesn’t break a sweat – thanks to its high speed of f/1.4. While other lenses reveal their shortcomings in correction in night photography, especially when lots of open light sources dominate an image, the ZEISS Otus 1.4/28 boasts a stellar performance. Finally, the latest member of the ZEISS Otus family is excellent for taking pictures of image elements in the foreground, as they take on a greater feeling of depth to the scene due to the wide background and the open aperture; here, the lens’s harmonious bokeh ensures a 3D effect.
Inner focusing, a dial window and yellow labeling of the dials for easy legibility designate the Otus 1.4/28 as a lens, developed to meet the high demands of professional photographers. The mechanical quality also impresses: the soft focus operation with the large rotation angle allows for the finest variations when focusing – something that is only possible with a metal construction. In every focusing situation, the user is given freedom to compose – one of the most important creative factors in photography. An artistic tool is literally put in the photographer’s hands. With its robust all-metal barrel and easy-to-grip focus ring, the Otus 1.4/28 is also well suited for a photographer’s demanding everyday work.
With high image contrast all the way into the edges of the image – already at an open aperture of f/1.4 – the Otus 1.4/28 demonstrates its optical brilliance. At all distances it offers consistent performance (minimum working distance of 0.15 m), highly detailed images without any bothersome artifacts, and a neutral bokeh in the background.
“With these features the ZEISS Otus lenses set themselves apart from the other ZEISS SLR lenses, such as the ZEISS Milvus family, which we recently presented,” said Christophe Casenave, Product Manager with ZEISS Camera Lenses.
A view inside the lens reveals how such optical excellence is achieved: The lens consists of 16 elements in 13 groups. One of the lens elements has an aspheric optical surface and one element is aspheric on both sides. Eight other lens elements are made of special glass. The basis of the optical design is a Distagon. The special glass has anomalous partial dispersion, as is typical for an apochromatic lens. This corrects the longitudinal chromatic aberrations superbly, which therefore lie considerably below the tightly defined boundaries. Bright-dark transitions in the image, in particular highlights, are depicted almost completely free of color artifacts. The floating elements design (the change of distances between certain lens elements when focusing) allows for unrivalled imaging performance along the entire focusing range, from 0.3 m to infinity.
When ZEISS introduced the ZEISS Otus 1.4/55 in 2013, creating a new family of high-end SLR lenses, the trade press and users alike were enthusiastic. The ZEISS Otus 1.4/55 has exceeded its promises up to this day. The second member of the family, the ZEISS Otus 1.4/85, which was presented at photokina 2014, continued this success story in the short telephoto range. It enables photographers to express their creativity in a unique way – and that with the unsurpassed high imaging performance for which the lenses in the ZEISS Otus family are known.
“The ZEISS Otus 1.4/28 continues the tradition of its lens family. It is the best wide-angle that has ever existed. Now we can offer three outstanding lenses for the widest variety of applications,” added Casenave.
The Otus 1.4/28 ZF.2 and Otus 1.4/28 ZE will be available worldwide starting in the second quarter of 2016. The lens shade is included with delivery. The retail sales price is unknown to date.
Further information and technical data:
The new Zyoptics 25mm f/0.95 Micro Four Thirds lens is the world’s smallest f/0.95 lens for mirrorless system cameras. And you can now preorder it on eBay (Click here).
More images can be seen if you click on the thumbnails below:
Nice, we have a new A7sII with real 14 Bit RAW recording but …we cannot preorder it yet! You will have to wait exactly 24 hours from now (time of writing) to preorder it. The camera is now listed in many US stores like Amazon US (Click here), FocusCamera (Click here) and BHphoto (Click here). It’s also listed in Asia at Digitalrev (Click here).
P.S.: European folks should check out the Smayang 8mm E-mount Gold Box deal that starts at 18:00 at Amazon Germany (Click here).
Ah right in time! After months of pressure Sony today released an official statement that will excite all E-mount camera owners! They confirmed the new A7sII has real 14 bit uncompressed RAW! The A7rII and other E-mount cameras will get it too via future firmware upgrade! And to make that day even more perfect Sony said eight new FE lenses will be announced til early 2016. What more could you wish today from Sony? Ah yes, better battery life, better lens quality control, better support in US, better heat issue handling, better….ok you got me :)
Here is the full Sony press text via SonyAlphaRumors:
Sony Electronics, a worldwide leader in digital imaging and the world’s largest image sensor manufacturer, has today announced user selectable Compressed and Uncompressed 14-Bit RAW image capture will be featured in the new ?7S II once it arrives in stores this October.
Additionally, they have announced plans to add user selectable compressed or uncompressed 14-Bit RAW still image capture via firmware update to additional cameras beginning with the recently introduced ?7R II full-frame mirrorless model.
“The voice of our ? community remains the most important guiding force of our product development plans,” said Neal Manowitz, Deputy Vice President for Digital Imaging at Sony Electronics. “The addition of Uncompressed 14-Bit RAW processing is a direct result of customer feedback. Widely requested by photo and video enthusiasts, we believe the choice of RAW processing types will further elevate the performance of these extraordinary cameras.”
The ?7S II and ?7R II are compatible with Sony’s growing lineup of ? -mount lenses, which now totals 63 different models including 12 native ‘FE’ full frame lenses. By early 2016, Sony will add an additional 8 new lenses to its FE full frame lineup, bringing the FE total to 20 lenses and the overall ? -mount assortment to over 70 different models.
What is selling like hotcakes in the mirrorless camera world? The Fuji X-T1? The Sony A7rII? The Olympus E-M5II? Nope, it’s not a digital camera at all. The Fuji Instax cameras are the big success story of the moment! They are top sellers at Amazon US (ranking here). And the newly released Fuji financial report confirms the tremendous success. And without any real competitor Fuji can sleep nicely on their $$$ pillows…
found via Fujirumors.
