Tag: offer

WEX add 10% off all Sony E-mount lenses

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With large UK cashback offers running at the moment – example, if you buy separate A6500 and 16-70mm lenses you get £150 off the body, £80 off the lens – UK retailer WEX, one of our affiliate partners for Photoclubalpha, has added 10% off all E-mount lenses up to August 10th.

We know the UK cashbacks work as we had our cashback paid into our account just three days after buying the A6500 and 16-70mm this month. The cashbacks are selective and for example you won’t find one on the new 12-24mm f/4 FE or 16-35mm f/2.8 FE, but they still cover many choices of lenses and bodies. The 10% offer covers all Sony E-mount lenses.

For the WEX 10% discount, which they claim is exclusive to them, enter the code EMOUNT10 on any lens purchases from this Photoclubalpha affiliate URL – http://tidd.ly/7ab0de0d

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Lenses - E mount, NEX System, Offers

Amazon UK price drop on 16-35m f/4 FE

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Of interest to UK full frame owners – Amazon EU (and also at least one other vendor) has the 16-35mm f/4 FE on sale with a 37% discount at £799.99, on top of which Sony has a £100 cashback on this lens – and I can confirm that these cashbacks work 100% reliably. This makes the lens £699.99 including VAT which in my case is recoverable, which may also apply to others outside the EU or in specific zones.

Update 12 noon July 21st: all were sold within 12 hours of the this story going live. Sorry, they are now at least £190 more from authorised sources eligible for the cashback, still a substantial reduction but not this exceptional deal.

Sony Vario T* FE 16 – 35 mm F4 ZA OSS Lens

I’ve been using a loaner review sample of this lens for three weeks and conclude from tests that (performance being equal) it will be up to the A7R II – and Sony would not sell me the lens directly even with a press/trade discount for any less than this. Even secondhand ones fetch £695. 

It may seem odd when I’ve got various other ways to cover this range, but it’s simply a lens I have grown to like a lot in use. The 72mm filter thread and its overall size and weight seem just right. Some other lenses may be sold to cover the cost and all, in their own ways, are better in some aspect – my 20mm VSL II is very versatile on a tilt-shift adaptor, my Samyang 24mm TS is equally so, and I’ve been making good use of a trio of Canon fit lenses adapted including the Sigma 12-24mm. It’s always difficult to decide which to use, how big a kit to assemble for a job, and the 16-35mm kind of solves this for me. OK, no 12mm, no TS but 42 megapixels will give me the ability to crop a 16mm shot instead of shooting a shifted 20mm or 24mm.

– David

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Lenses - E mount

A77 B&H price goes through the floor

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Just got this link from B&H, ideal for our US readers – http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/817858-REG/Sony_SLT_A77V_SLT_A77_Digital_Camera_Body.html

It’s for the original A77, body only, at $549.

This is a ridiculously low price for a body with GPS which, bar a small improvement in high ISO performance stated to be 20% (I think it’s a bit more) is not far from the A77 MkII and if you have older flashguns or triggers like the Pixel King set I’ve bought recently remains ideal for flash work.

owl-sequence-web

That is a single shot at ISO 100 using an iLux Summit 600C flash head set on 10fps strobe, with the 16-80mm CZ lens at f/20 (it’s a powerful flash) and wireless triggering. Owl in our studio, working in complete darkness. The A77 didn’t suddenly stop being a great camera because the A77 MkII arrived! At $549 with (apparently) $77.38 of free accessories this ‘holiday special’ looks like a steal.

– David Kilpatrick

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Cameras (DSLR), Offers

B&H double Zeiss Touit lens deal for NEX

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I guess that Zeiss must be working right now on full frame Touit lenses, because this is unprecedented value for those able to buy in dollars without steep shipping charges, duties or taxes – however, the links they emailed out today led to a wrong page on their USED section, and after a lot of digging to get the right URL, the offer is needless to say on back order – and B&H are taking a Jewish holiday from June 3rd to 5th so you’d better jump in quickly before close of biz on June 2nd.

touit2lenses

BOTH the Carl Zeoss Touit 12mm f/2.8 and 32mm f/1.8 lenses for the E-mount for only $919 from B&H with free US expedited shipping (they do not cover full frame and I’ve tested them and found a fairly tight image circle). They are stunningly good for NEX-7, NEX-6, A6000, A3000,  A5000.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/buy/0/Ntt/Zeiss+Touit+Lens

Here are the actual image circles of the three Touit lenses (12mm, 32mm and 50mm f/2.8 macro which is not in this deal) on A7R, without applying any distortion or vignetting correction. All the lenses have an Adobe profile and in the case of the 12mm this enlarges the image circle substantially. Normally, this means the lens is a true 12mm equivalent with the profile applied and the actual focal lenth could be closer to 10.5mm.

touit12mmf2p8-imagecircleonFF

First, the Touit 12mm without lens profile

touit12mmf2p8-imagecircleLensProfiled

Now, the Touit same shot but converted from raw applying the built-in lens profile (conclusion – the profile applies to an APS-C frame and does little good to the outer field on full frame – you are better off using the lens without the profile, including on APS-C, if you want maximum wide-angle coverage)

touit32mmf1p8-imagecircleonFF

Then the 32mm f/1.8 on the A7R (like the shot above, at full aperture – image circles generally do not get larger when you stop down, if the edge is as well-defined as these Zeiss lenses)

touit50mmf2p8-imagecircleonFF

Finally, the 50mm f/2.8 macro to complete the reference. All pictures taken from behind the counter of the Carl Zeiss stand at The Photography Show – hence the great lighting and subject-matter…

– DK

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Accessories - 3rd party, Lenses - Alpha Mount, NEX System, Offers

Free software and a cut-price lens

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You have until November 3rd to grab a free download of a truly excellent utility for Mac OSX, created by DxO Optics Pro software team – DxO Perspective. It normally costs $19.95 (or local equivalent) as an Apple App store download, but they have made it free for a few days. It’s a fully working, standard version with no time limit.

Download link for DxO Perspective from Apple iTunes, free until November 3rd

Here’s what they say:

“DxO Perspective corrects all kinds of perspective problems, even the most complex. Using its Rectangle tool, when a photo contains two perspective flaws, DxO Perspective’s Rectangle tool immediately reestablishes a full-frontal view of the object — essential when shooting a photo of a poster or painting! In 8-point correction mode, DxO Perspective handles even more complex perspectives: the independent placing of horizontal and vertical guidelines provides highly precise corrections on multiple planes.”

We can vouch for that. Here’s the software window with a straight shot, uncorrected, Sigma 12-24mm zoom on Alpha 99 at 12mm.

perspective-addpoints

Now on this example, you have a choice of adding points to correct both vertical and horizontal perspective (four indexes clicked/moved) which I have done if you examine the faint blue lines, and this will produce an extreme result:

perspective-extreme

However, for this example, you would normally onle correct the verticals and omit the four-square connections. This produces a natural result relative to any other correction method:

perspective-final

This is a 100% correction. DxO Perspective lets you reduce the degree of correction. Here is what they describe as a ‘natural’ look, 75% strength:

perspective-natural75percent

I preferred the result between 90 and 95% correction.

Midi-Pyrenees

You may ask how this differs from Adobe Camera Raw lens correction perspective control, or similar functions within Photoshop (without using special plug-ins). First, DxO Perspective is a stand alone program and does not need Photoshop, it only requires a JPEG to select and work on. Secondly, here’s the result from ACR/LR type correction, kept slightly on the ‘natural’ side of :

Midi-Pyrenees

The greatest difference is that DxO Perspective makes automatic corrections to the vertical aspect and retains the sense of height, at the same time ensuring that the sky is not compressed.

So, enjoy this free download until November 3rd 2013.

At the same time, from 12.00 midnight Eastern Standard Time on October 31st, B&H in New York announced a drop in the price of the Bower (aka Samyang) 8mm f/3.5 fisheye lens for NEX, MicroFourThirds, Samsung NX, Nikon, Canon EOS, Pentax and Alpha mounts – down to as little as $209 for Alpha or NEX:

Bower 8mm fisheye for NEX – but see below!

Bower 8mm f/3.5 lenses from $209

Buy through this link and you support Photoclubalpha in a small way without paying anything extra yourself (indeed, buy any other B&H item after following this link and it will help us).

Here is some advice. The NEX model is basically an Alpha mount optical assembly with a permanently built in extension tube. We advise you to buy the Alpha version, as this is a manual focus manual aperture unchipped lens – use a NEX to Alpha adaptor, doesn’t have to be the expensive official LA-EA1 as this lens uses none of the connections. Then you have a lens which can be used on two systems.

DxO Perspective does not offer a de-fishing function but we’d make a guess that this would be a likely upgrade to the program in the near future and that’s why they are giving it away. DxO Optics Pro software itself is, after all, famous for the inclusion of lens profiles before any of the other programs (or cameras) got this facility.

– David Kilpatrick

 

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Lenses - Alpha Mount, NEX System, Offers, Software Reviews

Canon USA – extreme price competition

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You may well ask how any other maker can compete when Canon USA is offering – througn a reputable dealer like B&H – a bargain like this. Photoclubalpha has not covered other camera brands much in the past, but this is such an extreme price deal we feel obliged to let readers know, and also to speculate on exactly what Canon is up to.

First, it’s photokina next week (from the 18th for the public). The big Cologne biennial show is always a time when the old makes way for the new. And we know that just as Sony is about to be forced to revise many lenses to handle on-sensor PDAF, Canon is about to convert most of its basic lens range to ‘STM’ – a stepper motor silent focusing mechanism which is compatible with contrast-detect, PDAF-on-sensor, and live AF during video. The present micromotor and original USM lenses won’t cut it with the EOS-M and adaptor even if they ‘work’ just as Minolta and early Sony lenses will with tomorrow’s bodies. Both companies now need to update the focus mechanism, exit pupil geometry, and protocols of their lens ranges.

Secondly, if you see the number of Sony models now on sale in major stores in the UK, the displays are for the first time matching Canon. We don’t have the figures but by the end of the year Sony will be showing significant market share gains in various regional markets. Canon may still be riding way above Sony sales, but they must also be worried.

That’s why you can get – now – a Canon EOS Rebel T3i (known as the EOS 600D outside the USA) complete with an 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 EF-S IS II kit lens, a 55-250mm f/4-5.6 EF-S IS II tele (correction to original post – B&H’s email gave the impression it was not stabilised), a spare third party Pearstone battery pack, a SanDisk 30Mb/s Ultra SDHC 16GB card, and the substantial PIXMA Pro9000 Mark II A3+ printer with 50 sheets of its biggest paper size – Canon’s own 13 x 19″ Photo Paper Plus semigloss…

For $599.

That’s ridiculous to anyone in Europe. The equivalent for the UK, bar the horrible taxes we have to discourage our economy here, of £375.99. This price depends on some sharp reductions, bundling, an instant in-store saving of $250 and a write-in cashback claim of $400. It’s a bit of hassle but this is a seriously good DSLR, even if it does have the name Canon on the front, with two useful stabilised lenses covering 18 to 250mm without a gap, plus a professional quality inkjet.

We’ve been testing the PIXMA Pro1 here, and it’s hard to fault, working well with Canon’s DPP software (take notice, Sony, that Canon users often actually USE their bundled software!) or Photoshop through two different printing methods, one of which offers full job management and lots of options for batches or runs or smaller prints on large paper. The Pro9000 MkII is a product at the end of life’s retail journey so you can consider this a kind of clearance offer, and the $400 payback is dependent on buying the printer. Guess that ink will make a big profit back over the next few years…

Here is the link to B&H’s offer with the rebate details. However long this lasts, whether you are a Canon user just visiting Photoclubalpha, an Alpha user looking for a complete second outfit to give to the dog to use with that new litter of puppies, or maybe a college student on a really strapped budget looking for a kit ideal to take you through to graduation – we would say grab it now.

And Sony, please do something like this for your user community and the unconverted yet-to-buy masses!

– DK

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Cameras (DSLR), DK's ramblings, News

Cashback deal extended, prices cut

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SONY Alpha prices are now the lowest of any competing DSLR system – for current-model bodies – on the UK market. Dealers are now selling the Alpha 200 body for as little as £229.99 and even the Alpha 350 has dropped to under £400 body-only. £100 cashback on the Alpha 700 body, £150 on any Alpha 700 body+lens kit, has been extended to September 30th.

A typical specialist Sony ACE dealer advertisement from London Camera Exchange, about to be printed in Photoworld, reveals the latest price deals:

Click on the ad to view a full size copy. If you call LCE be sure to ask about their deals offering one year’s FREE membership of Photoclubalpha with four issues of our full colour quarterly Photoworld magazine.


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Cameras (DSLR), News

Kodak wedding camera for guests

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Kodak is introducing a new Single Use Camera in a distinctive design especially for the wedding market. The KODAK Wedding Single Use Camera features elegant white roses on a silver body – a subtle, sophisticated design for any wedding. Combining style and quality, this latest addition to Kodak’s single use camera portfolio includes one of the best films available, Kodak’s 800–speed film, which provides unbeatable clarity and sharpness to produce the highest quality prints.

Single use cameras adorn wedding tables across Europe but many are low-cost products which match the decor but lead to disappointing prints,” said Oreste Maspes, Director of Kodak Film Group Europe. “Brides need products they can trust on their big day and, with the introduction of the KODAK Wedding Single Use Camera, brides and wedding planners need not choose between style and substance. The new designs are elegant and will look good on any table which means the happy couple can trust that Kodak has blended looks, convenience and the unbeatable quality of KODAK Film in one package.”

The new KODAK Wedding Single Use Camera is available for purchase in 10-pack increments exclusively online at http://www.kodak.com/go/SingleUseCamera through the Kodak Store. To mark the launch, Kodak is offering customers a saving of £40 on each 10 cameras pack (instead of £80, customers will only pay £40). The offer is available from June 12 until August 31, 2008.

In addition to the sophisticated new look, the camera boasts an easy-to-use design. Placed on tables at wedding receptions, guests of all ages can easily capture wonderfully informal shots that perfectly compliment the formal photographs of the day. Once printed, the newlyweds have a record of their special day through their loved ones’ eyes. Favourite candid images can be scanned and uploaded to a PC for inclusion in thank-you cards, photobooks and even canvases.

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News, Uncategorized