New CIPA report shows a surprising glimpse of hope of recovery of the system camera business!

CIPA

There is a small glimpse of hope that the 6-7 year-long shrinking of the system camera market may be stopping. CIPA reports that in march 2016 Japanese companies shipped more system cameras than in 2015 and 2014!

But it’s highly unlikely this trend will continue. The Sony sensor plant in Kumamoto had to stop the production and many companies reported that they will delay the shipment of new cameras. I guess the next 2-3 months the sales will be below the 2015 level.

The new Samyang 50mm f/1.4 FE will be priced below(!) $600!

Bildschirmfoto 2016-05-04 um 08.33.49

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!

First leaked images of the X-T2 grip shows a curious “BOOST” button!

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.