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Sony Announces 28-75mm f2.8 and 30mm f2.8 Macro

alpha-30mm-macroKicking off a veritable slew of Sony announcements today we have two new lenses. The first is their consumer-grade, and it specs out as a 30mm macro with a maximum aperture of f2.8. It’s “SAM”, which means it has the ‘smooth action motor’. In real-people terms, it means it uses a built-in ring-type motor for faster and quiet auto-focus over the older SAL designated lenses. I’m pretty sure the “DT” designation on this means that it’s for crop-frame sensors (A100, A200, A230, A300, A330, A350, A380, A500, A550, A700).

alpha-28-75

The other, and arguably more exciting, lens is the new 28-75mm f2.8 constant full-frame lens, adding to their full-frame line-up (as well as the other item announced today that I’ll be covering). This lens is also a SAM, so there we go. Things are indicating it will be available in November, should you desire to pre-order one just give us a call at 1-800-726-5544 and you can be right up there on our waitlist.



Sony Announces New DSLRS, Tries to Find Bottom of Market

Sony, Sony, Sony. I gotta say, whatever animosity I hold against Sony after their RIAA-inspired DRM nonsense and their dissolution of Aiwa right before the sexiest executive bookshelf stereo ever was going to come out, well, it’s mostly all forgiven with their DSLR line.

A330

A330

While I was lounging around my apartment this weekend with the girlfriend they were busy announcing three new consumer DSLRs, doing an across-the-board upgrade to their consumer line (kinda the opposite of the ‘last-years-top-is-this-year’s-bottom approach Canon has traditionally taken in this segment). So, out go the A200, A300, and A350. In come the A230, A330, and A380. All three seem to slot in the same way as their predecessors” The A230 is lower rez and lacks live view, the A330 is similar but adds live view, and the A380 takes all that and jacks the rez up to boot. The upgrades are pretty benign, almost painfully incremental, and you can read about them best over at DCResource, so I’ll skip them for now and talk about the truly exciting bits.

One: Sony’s recent announcement about regretting a closed system in their music market seems to be splashing over to other divisions as well, as these new Sony’s embrace the increasingly ubiquitous SD format. OK, they still take their proprietary MemoryStick format, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. But, SD is a good move. Good for them! Hey Oly, I love you, but nudge nudge already.

Two: Sony appears to be on a mission to find the bottom of the market. The new A230? Reportedly MSRP will be about $550 with a lens. Now that’s cheap. Real cheap. Like the budgie cheap. And, all three are available with a second lens for a clean 200 buck upgrade. Not bad.

Three: In a refreshing move, Sony hasn’t complied with the “Black! Make it black! It must be black all other colors are cheap!” chant you hear on the forums, and these cameras have a nice, techy two-tone look, like that gunmetal and carbon-fiber look of the A330 there. And I’ve seen pictures of it in eye-rending bronze, too. But, they aren’t your norm, and I applaud that. Go on, buck the system, Sony. And keep doing it, I’m behind you if nothing else.

Oh yeah, there some lenses and a flashannounced to. One of them is a 50mm f1.8 prime, for you prime fanatics out there (and there do seem to be more and more of you these days). More on those as I get it myself, but they look to be all in the lower-end of the line-up.



Sony A350 Bundle. Incredible value.

Sony has lost their mind.  The Sony digital camera SLR A350 is at an amazing price, bundled with the vertical grip, 18-70 lens, and 55-200 lens all for only $799.99!  This same kit would have been well beyond the $1000 price tag just a month ago.  Great value.  12 MP, live view mode that actually works with you and not against you!  Add a Kingston 32GB compact flash card into the mix for $63 and you can shoot raw data files for days without running out of room.  Come on in!  They won’t last long!



Spring Expo

It’s that time of year again!  Today is the big start to the week of the Spring Expo here at Roberts Imaging, culminating in the big Manufacture Representative demo on Friday, April 24 and Saturday April 25.

Got an old camera you want to sell?  Bring it in on Friday and we will buy it from you.  This is at our downtown store only.  We will have folks on hand in the store to buy your gear.

We have several deals going on this week from all the brands, but there are a few standouts.  How about a Nikon Coolpix camera S520 for only $89.97?  It wasn’t too long ago it was selling for $200.  Hurry.  We have a limited stock of them.  A Sony A350 SLR with two Sony lenses and the vertical grip for the camera, all for $799.99!!  And many, many more deals!

There was a misprint in the Indianapolis Star ad that I should mention too.  It shows a Canon G10 for $129.97.  Obviously, to those that know the camera, that was a big mistake.  It should read $449.97.  Sorry about the mistake.  Sometimes that happens.



Sony Alpha 350 – The Whole Shebang

A350 Bundle

A350 Bundle

So, here’s a great idea. Take a solid offering, such as, oh, the A350 from Sony, and then make it a whole, complete, no headches package for the beginner by throwing in the two standard zooms, and to finish the deal, they throw in the vertical grip (harken back to here).

I want more gestures like this. I liked Olympus’ E-3 bundle with the 12-60mm and the essentially free flash. I like this. Barring a bag and a spare battery, this is the quintessential jump-start kit for someone looking to gear up in nothing flat. And, while the A350′s control scheme isn’t my favorite (am I the only one who was sad wehn Sony dropped the dual command dial approach they used on the A100?), it’s definitely hard to argue with the picture quality it spits out. And, if you’re coming from a point-and-shoot, the A350 will have the most satisfying live view for you (although for you studio pros you might find it a little defecient, tricky thing that line companies are walking on how liveview should work.)

Anyway, you get the idea. Convenient bundles = good, gimme more, help us out and buy some of this one. I think that covers it all.



Sony Alpha A300

Sometimes cameras come out that suprise you.  Canon and Nikon make amazing cameras and will probably always be “The Big 2″; but there is definitely some competition brewing in the SLR market these days.  Olympus has some fine cameras out there, especially their new E-520.  A great camera for not a lot of bank.  But a big name in the consumer electronics business is trying to make a name for itself in the consumer SLR market.  Here comes Sony.

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