Sony to launch the A6000 next week (and no real new E-mount lens).

Next week on Wednesday February 12 at 5am in the morning (London time) Sony will announce a new “NEX-6 clone”. it will be named A6000, have the same NEX-6 chassis and lot of minor improvements on speed and image/video quality. Not really something exciting but I nice upgrade (that’s what sources told me). There will be also no new E-mount lenses. One source told me Sony will only display some “converted” A to E-mount zooms (just like the 70-200mm FE).

New FE lenses are likely going to be announced in a next announcement scheduled for end of March!

Panasonic G4K to be announced on Friday (Feb 7). First specs leaked.

On Friday (Feb 7) at 5-6am London time Panasonic will announce their first Micro Four Thirds 4K camera. This is basically a GH3 with optimized sensor for 4K recording. This means it has a faster processor, better heating dispersion and same still iamge quality. Some specs already leaked ahead of the announcement:

– New 16 Megapixel sensor optimized for 4K recording
– 2,36 million dot OLED EVF
– 200Mps and ALL-I intra mode recording (4K)
– Price less than $2,000 (final price to be determined). – G4K has focus peaking
– There is an attachable XLR adapter
– H264 codec all intra that give 422 color all intra in 100 mbps. To record this you will need to buy the new P2 Micro card in SD shape made by Panasonic (see image on top)
– it will be switch-able from 4K and 1080P with various frame rates (can shoot 120fps at 1080P for example)

So after the 3D hype we will now enter the 4k hype. Will 4K succeed or fail just like 3D did?

New NEX-7 and new G1X successor to be announed next week!

Sony will announce the new NEX-6 and NEX-7 successor next week on February 12. Actually there will be one new camera that will replace both models. NO big improvement on the Image Quality front. Main improvements are on the speed side of the camera.

And Canon will announce the G1X successor. No exact date yet but I guess it will be announced right before the start of the CP+ show on February 13.

P.S.: I am still not sure about it but there are also rumors about a new entry level E-mount FF camera from Sony. Don’t know if it’s a real deal or not!

New Fuji lenses shown at a presentation

From left: Fujinon XF 18-135 mm f/3.5-5.6 OIS 16-55 mm f/2.8 XF and XF OIS 50-140 mm f/2.8 OIS

The polish site Optyczne shared these pictures of the mockup XF lenses shown at a Fuji presentation. Quite some great lenses Fuji will release here! Wish other systems would follow Fuji way of “thinking” lenses. Fuji seems to be always spot on with their few but great lenses.

From left: Fujinon XF 56 mm f/1.2, XF 10-24 mm f / 4, XF 18-135 mm f/3.5-5.6 OIS
16-55 mm f/2.8 XF and XF OIS 50-140 mm f/2.8 OIS

First (fake) images of the Leica T :)

Steve Huff posted these very likely FAKE(!) images of the Leica T APS-C mirrorless system camera. As you know the new Leica system will be launched in April and the camera and zooms are actually made by Panasonic. Only the prime lenses will be made in Germany by  Leica itself.

We will see in April how fake these images were ;)

Using Fuji X Lenses vs Canon Full Frame Lenses

A lot of people (as in photographers that I know) have been talking about replacing or augmenting their current DSLR systems with mirrorless systems. The benefits are hard to ignore (See: Comparing the Fuji X-E2 and the Canon 5D Mark III) as mirrorless systems are less expensive and lighter and smaller. There are always trade offs of course and the mirrorless systems are often more awkward to use quickly and difficult for those with larger hands. For me personally, the portability side of mirrorless systems more than makes up for the downsides. But what about lenses? How do focal lengths differ between the systems?  This isn’t so much a mirrorless vs DSLR debate as much as a cropped vs full frame sensor. While there is one full frame mirrorless system (The Sony A7 and A7R), it currently lacks options for native lenses and costs more than double than the more popular cropped mirrorless models (Olympus OM-D E-M1, and Fuji X-E2 and just announced Fuji X-T1).

Follow the link to see my findings:

http://andrewvanbeek.com/fuji-x-lenses-and-full-frame/