The brand new Samyang 50mm f/1.4 FE autofocus (yes autofocus from Samyang!) promises to become quite a popular lens! Eggry.blog just reported that Samyang managers said the lens would cost less than $600 in USA! This is by far the cheapest f/1.4 lens in the Sony FE range. And he also added some more info:

1) AF lenses is not named yet. They’re conducting naming contest in Kora. That’s why it’s just engraved like AF 14/2.8 FE.
2) 14mm f2.8 is not ready for the exhibition so no hands-on time.
3) 560g. almost double of FE55.8ZA but it’s f1.4. Sigma 50.4 Art is 860g even without adapter.
4) closest focus distance is 45cm which is not suprising in Fifties.
5) Aluminum casing feels good, very similar to Sony lenses.
6) Unfortunately, focus ring is focus-by-wire. They confirmed it.
7) Sharpness at 1.4 is not surprising. It improves vastly at f2. There’s some amount of CA from 1.4 to 2. from 2.8, there’s nothing bothering in my eyes.
8) AF is good. not fast as 55.8ZA but I guess faster than 50.8. for sure it’s faster and reliable than Sigma 50.4 with MC-11. Wobbling is bigger than Sony lenses. Noise is not big but noticable than Sony.
9) Movie AF is not satisfying. You can check it another article here.(also sharpness and Bokeh test! sharpness at f2 is certainly wrongly focused.)
http://www.popco.net/zboard/zboard.php?id=samyang
10) Price is not finalized yet. Samyang is listening visitors’ opinion. I said 600 USD with tax and they said it won’t be that expensive. The other said 400 USD and told it will be more than it. So I guess it would be around 500 USD. I think it’s good positioning.
11) All lenses are beta version. so it can be improved when launched.

And the korean site Popco (Click here) posted some image samples too!

Fujirumors leaked the first image of the Fuji X-T2 grip. You can see a “Boost” function on the grip which raises the frame rate. And as you can see the grip takes 2 batteries. The X-T2 and the new grip will be announced in June/July. It has to be seen if the recent earthquake damage to the Sony Komamoto sensor production plant will affect the announcement and/or shipping date for the new camera.

P.S.: Yes, Sony produces the Fuji designed sensors.

SonyAlphaRumors reports that Samyang will soon announce two new FE lenses. And these will be also the first Samyang lenses with autofocus:

50mm f/1.4 FE (Full Frame E-mount).
14mm f/2.8 (Full Frame E-mount).

It’s quite a big news for the Sony folks! Finally a “cheap” alternative to the somewhat overpriced Sony-Zeiss lenses!

Zeiss just posted a tweet with the following message:

“Well, well! We have prepared something very special for you. Stay tuned! More to come next week”

UPDATE: Zeiss will not announce any new lens! But something else…

Micro Four Thirds folks will get their new High End jewels at or right before Photokina this year! And here are soem first info gathered from the rumor world:

Olympus E-M1II:
– 4First Olympus camera with K video
– Trimmed for sport which emans faster autofocus and much improved EVF.
– Same price as the current [shoplink 302173 ebay]E-M1 top model[/shoplink]

Panasonic GH4:
– 6K sensor with 4K at 60fps
– Improved autofocus
– Slighly increased Megapixel number (20MP?)

Panasonic is also rumored to launch a new 12mm prime while Olympus has a new line of f/1.2 Zuiko PRO lenses to come.

UPDATE: We just learned that the X-T2 on auction seems to have be a stolen prototype sample. We decided to remove the link to the seller.