Sony shaves, tapers and swings for the fences. A jumbled, mixed sports metaphor when I really just meant to say that Sony has introduced an interesting, new camera.

Fuji X100V. In Johnson City.

If you haven't been over on YouTube today you might have missed the newest blast of information from Sony this morning. They've just introduced a brand new camera called an Alpha One. The body looks similar (maybe a little beefier? I can't tell from the screen images...) to the recently introduced, A7SIII but the specs are actually pretty amazing. The camera uses a new, stacked BSI 50 megapixel sensor and can shoot full res raw, 50 megapixel images at 30 frames per second. To gild the lilly, it's able to do this with NO viewfinder blackout. 

Here's the product announcement video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0lLCqmHSSg&feature=youtu.be

The camera is also capable of shooting 8K video at 10 bit, 4:2:2 for up to 30 full minutes without overheating and shutting down. For video shooters Sony has finally included a full sized HDMI port along with a USB 3.2 port and an Ethernet port. 

The Alpha One has two CF Express card slots which will also allow one to use SD cards instead. 

The camera is, without a doubt, a technical tour de force. From a 9 megapixel EVF to a 1/400th flash sync (1/400 with mechanical shutter but a full 1/200th per second flash sync with the fully electronic shutter) nearly every spec is better than anything else on the market. 

Sony even went into full competition with Leica...on price. While a brand new SL2 from Leica retails for $5999, Sony upped the ante by pricing the new Alpha One at an eye-watering $6500.

The new Sony will offer two amazing performance advantages. One is the state of the art AF for fast moving subjects and the other is pure speed and responsiveness (data throughput) when shooting continuously with Raw files.

So, who is this camera for? I'd say it's aimed squarely at sports shooters and it's almost certainly scheduled to come out, at least in limited supplies, in time for the Tokyo Olympic games scheduled for late Summer this year. I think it will also be a popular camera with movie making professionals who will enjoy using this camera on a gimbal for high impact, fast moving shots with perfect focus lock on. 

Is it a camera for the fine art photographer who shoots found objects at a leisurely pace? Probably not. 

But it's a fun bit of catharsis for a market that's been battered over the last year(s). 

Will I buy one? Who knows. I seem to be working my way through most of the interesting camera models but the time frame is vague. The future is hard to see. I may just buy an 8 x 10 view camera and start doing platinum prints instead. But probably not. 

Anyway, Sony produced a very nice intro video for their new system camera system so head over to YouTube and take a look. Or grab an older Olympus EP-2 and go have a nice, colorful walk instead. 

 Here's the Sony Alpha YouTube Channel link: https://www.youtube.com/c/SonyAlphaUniverse/videos

Lots and lots at which to look...

A quick but happy assessment of an old lens that rivals any of the new zooms covering this focal length. If you want to use one of these you'll have to learn to manually focus.

You'll have to take my word for it but at 100% on a 5K Retina monitor 

you can see, clearly, the rivets on the metal bridge. It's actually stunning. 

Very much equal, at this focal length to the same focal 

length on both Nikon and Canon 70-200mm f2.8 lenses I've shot with. 

There is a classic focal length that I've liked since my early days in photography. It's the 135mm lens. While we've more or less bought into the idea that our 70-200mm f2.8 zoom lenses are worlds better now than the older, prime lenses of the film days my latest foray tells me that we been sold a bill of goods. The single focal length lenses from the 1980's and 1990's can be every bit as good as our $2,000 wonder lenses it's just that you'll have to put a bit of initiative into their use. You'll have to become proficient and quick with your manual focusing skills. 

In a moment of weakness I watched a video from DPR, hosted by Chris Nichols and featuring Canadian YouTube star, Irene Rudnyck. Irene is a portrait/glamor/fashion photographer whose images of young, attractive women have earned her a huge following. She was helping prop up Digital Photo Review by working with Mr. Nichols to provide a review on an older (but still auto focusing) 200mm f1.8 Canon lens. 

After working with the Canon lens and plumbing the depths of zero depth of field she made the comment that after a long spell of using mostly 50 and 85mm lenses she is now motivated to try working more often with longer focal length lenses. She mentioned that she thought the 135mm focal length might just be the optimum type of lens for her portrait work. See more here: Irene shoots long and fast

Her suggestion reminded me that the second lens I ever owned for an SLR was, in fact, a 135mm lens. It was a Vivitar Series One f2.8 lens and I used it for anything I couldn't cover with my first lens; a 50mm. I took the 135 on backpacking trips to Europe and also took it up to the summit of Long's Peak in Southern Colorado. It never failed me and it was so addictive to isolate subjects and see the background fall away like magic. 

So when Irene mentioned the 135mm in an appreciative way it jogged my memory and reminded me that one of my friends mentioned an older Carl Zeiss lens, made for the Contax Y/C systems was sitting on the used shelf at Precision Camera. It's the same model of lens I took with me to the Paris fashion shows back in 1994, along with a Contax camera. 

I drove up, haggled on prices, and returned home with both a 28mm and the 135mm Carl Zeiss Y/C lenses. My previous blog post was a pictorial review of the 28mm. Today, with a bit of late afternoon time on my hands I thought I'd give the 135mm Sonnar a spin around the downtown area and see if my memories of its performance match current reality. 

I used it on the front of a Lumix S1H camera, facilitated by a Fotasy lens adapter. I shot everything today at either f2.8 or f4.0. Might as well push the lens a bit since those are the f-stops I'd want to use in real life practice. 

I'll let the images speak for themselves but I am blown away by the performance of a lens one can buy for under $200 in 2021. It's very sharp and very even across the frame; even wide open. 

Flowers on the pedestrian bridge.

A crop into the center of the image just above. 

At 100% you can see the individual pollen granules on the flower's stamens.

combine this lens with the highly accurate focus peaking of the Lumix S1H

and toss in the IBIS and you have a killer walking around lens that can 

be focused quickly. 

This is a full frame shot at the closest focusing distance. 

this is a crop on the needle the lens was focused on in the images just above. 

No problems with flare. And this is wide open.

This is my "Alfred Hitchcock" frame at ISO 12800. 

this shot, and all that follow were done handheld at f2.8 with the camera 

at ISO 12800. Jpegs from the Lumix S1H. 

I'll happily settle for this kind of performance any day.

end of day. Too dark to see the buttons on the camera. 

an hour and a half spent looking and shooting.

3.5 miles of shoe leather left behind. 

Heading home for dinner with my family.

A nice end to the day.