Sony launch UK PRO support
Sony today announced the expansion of its Imaging PRO Support programme to include the UK. The programme is scheduled to start in the UK in September 2016 and continues to gain momentum as an increasing amount of professional photographers are switching to Sony cameras.
Imaging PRO Support offers advice and help to members including a dedicated telephone help desk offering professional photographers support in using their α camera equipment. There’s a free collection and return service for units requiring repairs, plus a free back-up loan unit to keep professional photographers up and running. In addition, members can benefit from a free twice-yearly image sensor cleaning service with filter glass replacement if necessary and firmware check-up to keep their cameras in top condition.
There’s no membership fee for the service that’s offered to professional photographers who own at least two Sony α camera bodies and three Sony α lenses from the qualifying list detailed beneath.
The Sony Imaging PRO support programme is now live in Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and the United States. Rollout in other European countries is currently under consideration.
Qualifying Cameras and Lenses
Your editor notes with pleasure that he’s not apparently a pro despite several qualifications and a working lifetime in the business covering 40 years, since he doesn’t own the right lenses, having sold several on the list as inappropriate or superceded, and preferring others for practical reasons (for example, using the 50mm SAL macro not the 100mm, and having found the 70-400mm SAL G and 70-300mm SAL G inferior to alternatives, selling the 24mm f/2 CZ SSM because the 28mm f/2 SEL proved far better). I appear to prefer third party glass, or lenses Sony doesn’t class as pro, like the excellent 24-240mm SEL, the little 28mm f/2, the SAL 28-75mm f/2.8 SAM, the SAL 85mm f/2.8 SAM, the 10-18mm SEL, 35mm f/1.8 and 50mm f/1.8 OSS primes for A6000 stabilised video (not listed, and nor is the A6300 which is remarkable when the old NEX-7 is included). Also, exactly why the original A77 – again not easy to use for pro work because of the noise levels, relative to newer ‘amateur’ offerings – is in Group A when the excellent A7 MkII is listed in Group B with the NEX-7 and original A7, who knows? Indeed, why have Group A or Group B?
However, the deal looks pretty good but it’s not for me despite my Sony system including two A7 series bodies one of them the top A7RII, two LA adaptors, two flashguns, one A6000, two A580 bodies, one A700, RX10, RX100MkIII and fourteen Sony lenses (not counting any Minolta A-mount lenses, and of course not counting Tamron, Sigma, Samyang, Canon, Voigtlander or others). I’d have to buy two more expensive heavy lenses, non-OSS lenses, or bulky lenses since Sony’s criterion seems to be the cost of the lenses and not their usefulness to the photographer.
Camera Bodies Group ‘A’
- SLT-A99(V)
- SLT-A77(V)
- ILCA-77M2
- ILCE-7R
- ILCE-7RM2
- ILCE-7S
- ILCE-7SM2
- DSC-RX1
- DSC-RX1R
- DSC-RX1RM2
Camera Bodies Group ‘B’
- ILCE-7
- ILCE-7M2
- NEX-7
α A-mount lenses
- SAL100M28
- SAL135F18Z
- SAL135F28
- SAL1635Z
- SAL1635Z2
- SAL1680Z
- SAL16F28
- SAL2470Z
- SAL2470Z2
- SAL24F20Z
- SAL300F28G
- SAL300F28G2
- SAL35F14G
- SAL500F40G
- SAL50F14Z
- SAL70200G
- SAL70200G2
- SAL70300G
- SAL70300G2
- SAL70400G
- SAL70400G2
- SAL85F14Z
α E-mount
- SEL1670Z
- SEL2470Z
- SEL24F18Z
- SEL35F28Z
- SEL55F18Z
- SEL70200G
- SELP18105G
- SEL1635Z
- SELP28135G
- SEL35F14Z
- SEL90F28G
- SEL85F14GM
- SEL2470GM
- SEL70200GM
- SEL70300G
[i] The programme is designed for professional photographers and as such, applicants will need to provide proof of their revenue stream generated from their photography work. Sony reserves the right to judge individual cases on their merits.