Today is a Sony announcement day that sees the unveiling of the Sony a7R III and 24-105mm f4 zoom, and the announcement of an upcoming 400m f2.8 G Master lens. Sony a7R III The wait is over: Sony has finally unveiled the first in the new generation of the A7 series. As always, the Sony a7R III comes at the vanguard of the new announcements – ahead of the A7 and S models – and this time brings a host of improvements to existing features and a few new surprises. As expected, the new Sony a7R III brings a high pixel-count sensor, with its 42.4MP of resolution once again making this the model aimed primarily at professional stills photographers. The camera’s back-illuminated Exmor R and BIONZ X processor make this model capable of capturing 10 still frames per second, for a buffer of 76 continuous compressed RAW or JPEG images. ISO is available from 100-32000, and Sony claims that noise has been reduced by up to a full stop. All of this with the advanced autofocus capabilities we have come to expect from this line’s R model, thanks to its 399 phase-detection AF points across 68% of the image, in addition to 425 contrast-detection points. Sony also claims that the camera’s Eye AF performance has been improved when the subject is moving, backlit or looking down. What about video? Just like with the II, the new Sony a7R III is capable of recording internal 4K in both full-frame and Super 35mm modes. As you may remember from some of our camera tests of the previous generation, the A7R II offered a better 4K image in crop mode, so it remains to be seen whether this will still be the case with the a7R III (take a look at some comparisons here, and our review here). It’s worth mentioning that the camera also supports proxy recording for easier editing of high-resolution videos, particularly useful when dealing with the relatively processor-intensive XAVC codec. Additionally, one of the biggest improvements to the video capabilities of the camera is the ability to achieve an increased resolution of 5K in Super 35mm mode thanks to an oversampling of a 15MP section of the sensor. The new a7R also now offers Slog3, a feature only found in the previous generation’s S model and that promises up to 14 stops of dynamic range. This picture profile, along with that camera’s low-light capabilities, made the S the favourite among filmmakers, but now that the R also offers Slog3, it becomes much more of a crossover camera. This of course can make the decision for potential buyers that much more difficult, so let’s just see what unique features the a7S III has to offer when it’s eventually announced! Another important video aspect of the camera is that it will offer Sony’s Instant HDR workflow thanks to its support of the Hybrid Log Gamma picture profile, allowing for HDR capture and reproduction with compatible displays and requiring no colour correction. This is a feature recently available in other Sony cameras such as the FS5 (read our article about it here). Hardware a7R III – New dual SD slots Although the camera body itself doesn’t seem to offer much of physical overhaul, there are a couple of enhancements. The most significant is the addition of a second SD card slot, allowing for simultaneous or relay recording, separating saved media by kind (for example between RAW and JPEGs, or between stills and video), and copying data between cards. Dual card slots can turn a camera into much more of a professional tool, and is one of the features that made some people consider moving over to the Panasonic GH5 camp. The Sony a7R III will take the new NP-FZ100 batteries introduced with the Sony A9, meaning an improvement over the battery life that you may be used to with earlier A7 models. Another improvement is an enhanced 5-axis in-body image stabilisation system, which allows for a shake compensation of up to 5.5 stops. The camera also features a USB 3.1 Gen 1 connection via a USB Type-C connector, allowing for high-speed data transfer, particularly useful for high-resolution tethered stills shooting. Another nice improvement: the addition of My Menu, a customisable menu folder where you can store your favourite settings for easy access, saving you from navigating through those endless Sony menus. The new Sony a7R III seems like a real step up from its predecessor, offering some solid improvements for stills and video shooters alike – and can perhaps prove to be a competitor to Sony’s own flagship A9. The Sony a7R III will be available by the end of November for just over the $3,000 mark. For more information, head over to the Sony product page. New Sony Lenses In addition to the a7R III, Sony also announced a couple of new additions to its lens line-up. FE 24-105mm F4 G OSS Most notably, Sony now joins the 24-105mm club, offering this popular zoom now natively. The FE 24-105mm F4 G OSS offers a small and compact design which will undoubtedly seem even more so for those used to shooting with similar lenses on Sony cameras via an adapter. This very useful focal length range offers flexibility from wides to telephoto, and the optical image stabiliser makes it also a good option for video. This zoom will be available for $1,300 and will start shipping next month. FE 400mm F2.8 GM OSS In addition, Sony also announced that a new G Master lens is currently under development. The FE 400mm F2.8 GM OSS Super-Telephoto will be joining Sony’s top range of professional lenses, and will be an ideal addition for sports and wildlife shooters. It is expected to hit the market in Summer 2018. So there you have it – a day of important Sony announcements that will no doubt have shooters considering what they will be adding to their wishlist this holiday season. What do you think? Let us know in the comments.

RED’s 8K Helium Sensor wows DxOMark with a whopping score of 108, which is the highest score the camera and lens image quality review site has ever awarded. It is quite staggering when you dig in to the details of this review and you see just how good this sensor is according to them. In particular, its score of 4210 in the low light test was so good, that the authors of the review were stumped as to how RED had achieved it. To pack so many photosites (about 3.65 microns each) onto a 29.90mm x 15.77mm sized wafer (only 2/3 the size of a full frame sensor) is amazing. To do that and still produce clean images, with a dynamic range that is “higher than the best of the full-frame sensors in our database”, is just mind-boggling. We can’t wait to put the Helium 8K sensor through our own lab test as soon as possible, and of course we will share all the results with you. Over the past few years, Sebastian Woeber’s lab tests at cinema5D HQ in Vienna have received a widespread reputation of being completely unbiased, and we do not shy away from putting ourselves in hot water when manufacturers’ claims don’t live up to our results. You may wonder why a stills camera review like DxOMark would bother to test a digital film camera at all, particularly one that costs $49,500. Indeed, a quick look at the comments section of the review itself reveals several disgruntled readers who want to know why DxOMark have found the time to review a non-stills camera like the ‘Weapon’ and yet haven’t got around to scoring the behemoth that is the Pentax 645Z, which would surely be a shoe-in for a 100+ score. Still Photography from 8K Video I know several RED owners who use their cameras to capture high resolution stills, opening up incredible flexibility and new creative options to them. The very fact that a camera designed for film capture can churn out sixty 8192×4320 16-bit raw stills every single second is frankly a massive slap in the face for Canon, Nikon and Sony. RED used to be perceived as a pixel pusher who considered image quality of lesser importance to raw power, but with the Helium sensor, even the most ardent ARRI fan must admit that RED have come a long way with their sensor technology. Read the full review by clicking here. Specifications for RED WEAPON 8K S35 35.4 Megapixel CMOS 29.90 mm x 15.77 mm (Diagonal: 33.80 mm) 60 fps at 8K Full Format (8192 x 4320), 75 fps at 8K 2.4:1 (8192 x 3456) 16-bit REDCODE RAW + Apple ProRes or Avid DNxHR/HD 16.5+ stops of dynamic range (DxOMark pegged it at 15.2 Evs in their tests) 300 MB/s data speeds

Yes, the source for the still above is a 1080p 14bit RAW shot with the 5D mark III with Magic Lantern!!! And here’s a test video showing you how that looks in motion with an article elaborating the work with the camera: LINK. The developers working on the Magic Lantern hack for the Canon 5D mark III have enabled continuous 14bit RAW recording last year. We tested it and it works great. The resulting images are totally breathtaking for a DSLR. The installation procedure has now been strongly simplified. Please follow our complete dummies guide to squeeze the RAW bits out of a Canon EOS 5D mark III. NOTE: We take no responsibility for what happens when you follow our guide. Do it at your own risk and research on your own if you want to make sure. NOTE: When installing Magic Lantern your camera will start up 2 seconds slower (this can now be undone by simply uninstalling Magic Lantern)

We’ve seen several Blackmagic Cinema Camera samples from Australian based filmmaker John Brawley who has been given the opportunity to be the first to play with the much anticipated new indie filmmaking tool, at times the BMCC is now even referred to as the “baby Alexa” (a hype can go too far at times, let’s see this camera on a set first).