Sony a7 Owners Are Getting New Lenses

March 30, 2016

By Laura Brauer

Sony is adding a pair of new FE mount lenses for owners of its a7 series of mirrorless cameras.

FE70300G A

The new FE 70-300mm F4.5-F5.6 G OSS zoom lens represents the first Sony E-mount lens to reach a 300mm focal length. It has a minimum focusing distance of 3 feet (0.9m) and a maximum magnification of 0.31x.

The lens has image stabilization and is dust and moisture resistant. It will ship in May for $1,200.

FE50F18 A

The FE 50mm f/1.8 prime lens is also due in May and is aimed at the budget consciousness with a sticker price of $250. This lightweight prime (7 oz) is built with an aspherical element to combat optical aberrations.

sonyextended

Sony also rolled out a new advanced compact camera with a super zoom.

The RX10 III boasts a 1-inch, 20-megapixel CMOS sensor and a newly-developed 25x zoom lens with a 35mm equivalent focal range of 24-600mm. Thanks to a dedicated DRAM chip, advanced signal processing and the BIONZ X image processor, the RX10 III can shoot video at 40x slow motion (960 fps) and offers electronic shutter speeds up to  1/32,000 sec. Slightly slower (but still blazing) frame rates of 480 fps and 240 fps (1920 x 1080) are also available.

The lens offers an aperture of f/2.4-4, depending on focal length, a minimum focusing distance of 2.4 feet and T* optical coatings. It’s built using eight ED glass elements including one super ED glass element, five ED glass elements and two ED aspherical lenses. Thanks to built-in image stabilization, the camera delivers up to 4.5 stops of shake correction, per CIPA standards.

Additional features include:

* ISO range of 100-12,800

* 14 fps continuous shooting

* 4K (3840×2160) recording with full pixel readout without pixel binning with bit rates up to 100Mbps

* S-Log2/S-Gamut color profiles, Gamma Display Assist, Time Code video features

* mic input and headphone jack

* AF speeds as quick as 0.09 seconds

* 2.35 million dot OLED viewfinder

* Wi-Fi and NFC

Sony tweaked the camera’s design from the previous model, adding a triple lens ring for focus, zoom and aperture control. The hand grip has been redesigned and there’s a new focus hold button on the lens barrel. The camera is weather sealed.

The RX10 III ships May for about $1,500.