Mirrorless Camera News

Sony just introduced two new full-frame lenses for their E-mount mirrorless camera system: the FE 70-300mm F4.5-5.6 G OSS telephoto zoom and 50mm F1.8 prime lens.

For my photography I prefer small, lightweight, responsive cameras to big, heavy, bulky DSLRs. While small cameras once lagged behind DSLRs in image quality and performance, today’s compact cameras are challenging their dominance with great cameras like the Sony A7S II, Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX100, Nikon P900 and the new, elegant retro Olympus Pen-F. These compact, bridge and hybrid cameras can even do things some big, bulky DSLRs can’t.

The Sony A7S II has a 12MP full-frame sensor. This mirrorless camera could be dubbed an “available light specialist” that offers extremely high sensitivity settings of up to ISO 409,600. According to Sony, the BIONZ X processor in the A7S II features an upgraded image processing algorithm that boosts the sensor’s capabilities overall, particularly at the mid-high end of the ISO scale. This is designed to produce more detailed still images and movies with low noise at high ISOs. Let’s take a closer look at this high sensitivity camera, which has also been called a “low-light monster” and a “master of the dark arts.”

Along with this morning’s lens announcement, Sigma just introduced the new compact Sigma sd Quattro and Sigma sd Quattro H mirrorless camera systems with Foveon Quattro sensors. The Sigma sd Quattro features an APS-C sized sensor and the Sigma sd Quattro H has a slightly larger APS-H sized sensor.

We’ve just come back from a press event today to launch the new Sony A6300. This compact mirrorless camera has a lot going for it, including a new 4D Focus system that can lock focus on a subject in as little as 0.05 seconds, which Sony claims is the world’s fastest autofocus (AF) acquisition time.

Without telling us why, Olympus ferried a number of the photo press to Austin, Texas last week, myself included. As it turned out, the purpose was to debut the new Olympus Pen-F Micro Four Thirds digital mirrorless camera ($1199.99, body only). We got to test out the new Olympus Pen-F for several days in Austin, and all I can say is, Wow! 

Olympus just took the wraps off its newest digital camera and it owes a lot to an analog predecessor. Called the Olympus PEN-F the 20-mepapixel mirrorless camera is the digital update to the original PEN-F “half frame” film camera from the 1960s.