Mathieu

The Sony A7r II Review, Chapter I: The autofocus test

29/09/2015 By Mathieu 19 Comments

Cover photo shot with the A7r II and Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 C

More than a month has gone by since I started using the A7r II intensively. My review is still a “work in progress” because there is a lot to say about this camera. Given the interest in and enthusiasm for Sony’s new flagship model, I decided to take my time to gather as much information as possible. I also decided to split my findings into several articles rather than publishing only one so as to avoid making the article too long.

Voigtländer VM lenses on the Sony A7r II, Chapter I: 12mm f/5.6 Ultra Wide Heliar and 21mm f/1.8 Ultron

22/09/2015 By Mathieu 23 Comments

When the original A7 and A7r were released in December 2013, one of the most popular topics was the use of adapted lenses including old SLR, Leica and third party M glass. Adapting M glass to Sony’s full-frame sensor, especially the shorter focal lengths, proved quite challenging. Since Sony’s sensors have a thicker cover glass, the light rays that come from the lens and pass through the cover can produce astigmatism (details on the edges of your image appearing blurred), colour shift and chromatic aberration. The severity of the results depends on the specific lens.

A day at Hatfield House – Hands-On with the Sigma DP0 Quattro

18/09/2015 By Mathieu Leave a Comment

Sigma UK invited us to try the the latest addition to the Quattro series at Hatfield House, a very nice location north of London where the Cecil family has resided since the structure was built in 1611. The Dp0 is the fourth camera from Sigma to feature the 4th generation Foveon sensor (named Quattro) but is the first in the DP line-up to sport a 14mm wide-angle lens (21mm equivalent in full-frame format).

Focus Stacking, Focus Bracketing and more on Olympus OM-Ds / 8 new lenses and 14bit uncompressed Raw on Sony A7 cameras

15/09/2015 By Mathieu 18 Comments

Cover photo: taken with the E-M10 II and Focus Bracketing mode (full review here)

Today seems to be a great day for firmware announcements. Olympus just released a list of new features that the flagship OM-D E-M1 and E-M5 II will receive in November, while the new official SonyAlphaUniverse site along with Neil Manovitz (Deputy Vice President for Digital Imaging at Sony Electronics) announced that the long-awaited 14bit uncompressed Raw option will finally be available on A7 cameras.

Zeiss Milvus on the Sony A7r II – An image gallery through Zeiss history with some fun facts

11/09/2015 By Mathieu 12 Comments

I was invited, along with many other journalists and bloggers, to visit Zeiss’ headquarters in Oberkochen, Germany. The event was organised to launch a new series of products and to celebrate the 125th anniversary of Zeiss camera lenses. Before attending, I wasn’t exactly sure which products Zeiss would announce and it turned out they are not directly mirrorless related. Instead, the German brand presented a new series of DSLR lenses called Milvus.