Author: batteryforpc

Last year Sony sold the most full-frame mirrorless cameras in Japan, and while Canon and Nikon attempt to play catch up, today Sony is announcing its latest high-end mirrorless cam – the A7SIII – which looks like it’s about to crush the competition.

Now I fully admit that using “crush” this way is a bit hyperbolic, and because the camera won’t be available in stores until sometime in September, things could change between now and then. But if you look at the A7SIII’s specs and new features, Sony’s latest full-frame mirrorless feels like a shot across the bow of every other high-end camera maker.

The A7SIII starts with a 12-MP backside-illuminated sensor that Sony says was designed to maximise low-light performance and deliver super-fast sensor readout times, which helps reduce the effect of things like rolling shutter. Then Sony paired that 12-MP sensor with its new Bionz XR image processor which the company claims is eight times more powerful than its previous Bionz chip while offering even faster face and eye detection, better colour reproduction, and support for significantly higher data speeds, both when writing to internal memory cards or when sent out over HDMI (via a full-size HDMI Type-A port) or wifi.

The good stuff doesn’t stop there though because the A7SIII has a new 9.44 million-dot OLED electronic viewfinder that boasts almost twice the resolution of its closest competitors like the 5.76 million dot OLED EVF used in the Panasonic S1. Alternatively, for those who prefer framing up shots using a camera’s rear display, the A7SIII also comes with a fully articulating rear touchscreen (another first for any of Sony’s full-frame A-series cams) that can be flipped around a full 180 degrees so you can easily compose shots from in front of the cam. That said, because of the position of the A7SIII’s HDMI port, if you do have an external monitor or recorder attached, you might have to deal with cables partially getting in the way of that display.

As for storage, Sony is even including two new CF Express card readers that support both standard SD cards and new CF Express Type-A cards, with the A7SIII being the first camera designed to take advantage of the new cards. One immediate advantage of the new card reader is that when combined with its speedier image processor, Sony says the A7SIII now features an image buffer of up to 1,000 shots, even when the camera is shooting full out at 10 FPS in RAW + JPEG mode.

This means users coming from older cameras won’t need to buy a new set of cards for storage right away, though if you do want to take advantage of the A7SIII’s advanced video recording formats, you will need to upgrade at some point. Though with CFexpress Type A cards slated to cost $200 (£154) for an 80GB card or $400 (£309) for a 160GB card (UK pricing is TBA), you might need to save up a bit before switching.

And with the A7S line historically being a major go to camera for video, Sony also included support for 4K video recording using the camera’s full pixel readout at up to 120 fps, or up to 240 fps at 1080p. The A7SIII also supports 10-bit 4:2:2 colour, four-channel audio recording, and thanks to improvements in recording speeds and heat dissipation, the A7SIII no longer has a max 30-minute recording time either.

Sony even addressed one of the longest-running gripes about Sony cameras in general by completely redesigning the A7SIII’s menu system so that it’s better organised, works with touch input, and easier to see multiple layers of settings without needing to constantly dig three or four levels deep. And like other A-series cameras, the A7SIII also features in-body image stabilisation (up to 5.5 stops) and compatibility with Sony’s huge lineup of E-mount lenses.

However, unlike the new Canon EOS R5, the A7SIII does not come with support for 8K video recording, which was an intentional choice made by Sony as the company wanted to focus strictly on making the best possible 4K video camera it could. It’s an interesting move by Sony, because while 8K video is sure to become a more important feature in the future, considering the workflows of most filmmakers today, I think Sony made a prudent decision to really concentrate its efforts on 4K.

The Sony A7SIII is expected to go on sale sometime in September for £3,800 (body only). Compared to other full-frame mirrorless competitors, the A7SIII costs £400 less than Canon’s EOS R5 and £200 more than Panasonic’s S1H, but about £1,100 more than a Nikon Z7.

The division responsible for Konami’s famed pachinko machines is diving into a new market: PC gaming. Japanese outlet PC Watch (via Tom’s Hardware) reports that the company has three desktop models currently available to preorder, with shipping due to commence this September.

The Arespear product line is handled by Konami Amusements, which also handles arcade systems and the company’s esports interests. The models range from 184,000 yen (roughly $1,750 in the US) through to 338,800 yen ($3,205) depending on the specs.

And what are they? The Arespear C300 is the low cost model, with an i5-9400F processor, a GTX 1650, 8GB of DDR4-2666 memory and a 512GB SSD. The Arespear C700 and C700+ have much better specs: a watercooled i7-9700, an RTX 2070 Super and 16GB DDR4-2666 memory. These models house the same 512GB M.2 PCIe SSD as the C300, but also come with a 1TB hard drive.

The difference between the C700 and C700+ is mostly cosmetic: you’re getting RGB lighting and a windowed case for the extra 22,000 yen (around $210). All models have a discrete sound card in the form of the Asus Xonar AE.

It’s an interesting and unexpected move for Konami, for not an illogical one: as Wes reported back in 2017, PC gaming is on the up in Japan. Pre-orders are open, but it’s unclear whether they’ll ship outside of Japan.

Following the launch of the new Z5, Nikon has released a wave of firmware updates for its existing family of three Z-mount mirrorless cameras. 

The Nikon Z50 can now detect dogs’ and cats’ eyes and faces, in addition to those of humans, thanks to firmware version 2.00, and also receives improvements in subject tracking. Nikon Z7 and Nikon Z6 users already have these features, of course, so updating to firmware version 3.10 treats them to the ability to use the newly announced Z teleconverters (which is also included in the Z50 update). 

The Nikon Z5 will come preloaded with the latest firmware, and so will possess all these functions straight out of the box.

Animal AF

If anything, animal detection is even more useful for our four-legged friends than humans, as the deeper distance between noses and eyes will typically have regular AF producing a sharp snout with soft eyes. 

The system automatically switches between faces and eyes, depending on subject distance, while using the left and right indicators allows you to switch between pets, or their individual eyes (when shooting video, only animal faces are recognized). The feature enables photographers to concentrate more on interacting with the animal and on framing the shot, instead of finding the focus. 

Subject tracking improvements

Subject tracking with still-image shooting in AF-A, AF-C and auto-area AF in AF-area mode has been modified for a greater and more flexible operational feel. The camera now tracks the subject while the shutter-release button is pressed halfway, ending when the user takes their finger off the button, where the focus point returns to the original position before subject tracking. 

A custom control can also be configured for switching between the auto-area AF screen and the subject tracking screen, allowing for easier transition to subject tracking, or to change the target subject, while looking through the viewfinder.

Teleconverter compatibility

All three cameras can now use the new Z Teleconverter TC-1.4x and Z Teleconverter TC-2.0x, which extend the focal length of compatible lenses – namely the yet-to-be-released Nikkor Z 70-200mm f/2.8 VR S, although future Z lenses will also be added to the list.

The teleconverters extend lenses’ telephoto capabilities by increasing the focal length by 1.4× or 2.0×, with the loss of one or two stops of maximum aperture respectively. The teleconverters don’t change the minimum focus distance, so they bring their subjects even closer when shooting.

How to update

The firmware updates can be downloaded from the Nikon website’s Download Center. Click through the options to select your camera model whether you need the PC or macOS versions. 

After first announcing it last year, Microsoft has started rolling out the Surface Pro X’s highly-anticipated Eye Contact feature as part of its latest Windows 10 Insider Preview. The AI-powered software uses the tablet’s custom SQ1 ARM processor to make it look like your eyes are always directly looking at the camera while video chatting.

The feature is available with any app that works with the Surface Pro X’s front-facing camera, so you can use it with non-Microsoft apps like Zoom and Google Meet. However, you can’t take advantage of the feature while the tablet is oriented vertically. 

Because the software depends on Microsoft’s custom silicon, it’s unclear if the company will make the feature available on x86-based PCs. That said, Microsoft is not the only company working on this type of functionality. With the iOS 13 betas, Apple started testing a similar FaceTime Attention Correction feature. The company ultimately shelved the feature before releasing the operating system to the public. However, as The Verge notes, Attention Correction is one of the enhancements Apple says iOS 14 will include when it comes out later this year. 

If you don’t own a Surface Pro X, there’s still a good reason to check out the latest Windows 10 preview build. The update includes a nifty tweak to how the Alt + Tab shortcut works. By default, pressing the two keys will let you see all of your browser tabs alongside open app windows. If having the option to switch between all your tabs at once is jarring, you can tweak the feature to show only your most recent three or five tabs instead, or none at all.