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In September 2018 Nikon and Canon entered the mirrorless full frame market. Nikon with their Z7 and Z6, two identical bodies with slightly different specs, and Canon with their single EOS R camera. Both Nikon and Canon designed completely new lens mount systems for these cameras, promising faster and sharper glass in the future. While these cameras are no slouches, they are not flagships, but they certainly come with a premium price tag. Sony, the market leader in full frame mirrorless cameras is for the first time facing real competition, and is most likely preparing to counter. Rumor has it that  Panasonic is entering the full frame mirrorless market as well, so things will definitely get interesting. Then there’s also Fuji with their crop-sensor cameras popular as second bodies among enthusiasts who typically shoot with real cameras from Nikon and Canon. What do these launches tell about the companies Generally, the entrance of Nikon and Canon into a serious mirrorless game tell...

Jason Lanier is a photography gear Youtuber, who built up his career with the help of Sony and their Alpha series of mirrorless cameras. At the same time he greatly helped building up Sony's name in the online hobbyist photography community, and probably helped to sell an enormous amounts of their overly expensive Sony Alpha cameras. His click-baity videos coupled with his arrogant persona often went viral on YouTube and gave Sony immense exposure. Lanier and his antics against Canon and Nikon DSLRs became a known name in the photography gear review community, and was a few years ago one of the top channels. This all changed in 2018. Analysis of Jason Lanier's Youtube channel 8 of Lanier's most popular videos have "Sony" in the title ( source , enlarge image ), most of them have Sony mentioned in some way. If we go on Lanier's website to his "Who is Jason Lanier" page , the name Sony is mentioned 5 times. The most notable paragraph is this one (as o...

There is this divide among photography enthusiasts, where online warriors place themselves into 2 camps: The mentally unbalanced people who are ardently pro mirrorless (usually Sony fans), and everybody else (people who tend to see things as they are - complex). For the past 5-6 years there is a real mirrorless hype mainly driven by Sony fanboys and their artisans (who are some of the most annoying people on the internet, to be honest). The reality The reality is that whether it's mirrorless or DSLR, the whole camera market of interchangeable lenses is shrinking every year for several years now due to advancements and the conveniences of smartphones. The shrinking will stop eventually, that's for sure, but I think it will become a very niche market. Right now it seems that DSLRs are here to stay for many years, because Canon and Nikon haven't made any aggressive movements into replacing their current offerings with mirrorless alternatives. And why should they? Mirrorless te...

Despite Sony being praised as the greatest thing since sliced bread by some amateurs , there's still one aspect of photography where Sony falls massively short in comparison with Nikon: Weather sealing . Not only did Sony recently lose several tests related to weather sealing , there are also not many Sony lenses to choose from, if you're into extreme weather wildlife photography like Morten Hilmer , a Danish photographer and vlogger, who brought his Nikon D5 into the Danish forest in a blizzard (see photos and video below), and the camera held up very well. Sony's Alpha system is still incomplete and notorious for having bad build quality, and often fail when taken to some extreme weather conditions, either hot or cold (several photographers have shared that on Youtube). The Tamron SP 150-600mm f/5-6.3 completely covered in snow. You can't enjoy winter photography like that with a Sony. Morten Hilmer shows why Nikon is still leader in photography. Check his "Behin...

It's really interesting how vast and how complex the Youtube photography gear review community is . Every day I discover something new, and today I came across a new channel named Fenchel & Janisch , who is run by a German videographer. The quality of that channel is amazing, actually stunning. So are some of the videos they are producing with the gear they review (currently the Fuji X-H1). On the other hand there is Tony Northrup , a Youtuber who was brought to Las Vegas by Sony to "review" the new Sony A7III, an overpriced consumer camera, which he has touted as the camera that will "revolutionize wedding and portrait photography". He also claimed in a separate video, that Sony has double the image quality of the as well newly launched Fuji X-H1. Watch both "review" videos, and then judge for yourself who is a more credible source of buying decision. The difference is obvious: One is real, the other one sounds like an advertisement. Tony Northrup...

A reader forwarded me the link to Tony & Chelsea Northrup’s Youtube video titled Sony A7 III review! . It’s a 7:44 minutes long video, that talks about the newly launched full frame mirrorless camera by Sony. It struck me more as an advertisement than a review, so I decided to write this post about an issue that I'm increasingly concerned about. Now most camera gear manufacturers are working with photographers and photography gear influencers. The first are actual professional photographers that are often seen in promotional videos by various brands, while the latter are photography enthusiasts with large social media following (Tony Northrup, Jared Polin etc), or websites dedicated to photography (DP Review). While brands like Nikon, Canon and Fuji usually focus on photographers (so called brand ambassadors), Sony usually (in addition to that) creates carefully staged launch events for the top social media influencers and gear reviewers (see [the 2018 list here]) and pays all ...

Some say the Sony A7R ii is the best camera in the world. But is it really? A while ago I was almost buying a Sony mirrorless camera. The geek that I am, I was totally excited over the at that time new Sony A7Rii , a 42 megapixel full frame mirrorless camera, that offers features like internal 4k video, in-body AF, and 399 on-sensor Phase Detection points, but also comes with a staggering price tag 3200 USD (in Taiwan at that time 99,500 NTD, a tiny bit less). This was way above what I wanted to spend for a camera, and it did not even include a lens, but I was excited and would not let go of the idea. The hype online was huge, from international Youtube channels to Taiwanese tech reviews, this was the camera of the year for many people, who were at the same time proclaiming the death of DSLRs, as well as Nikon and Canon. If the A7Rii cost half of the price, I would probably buy it without putting much thought into it, but since Sony wanted me to pay over 100,000 NTD for a camera with ...