Helena, Sony has pushed back the release of the new 'NEX 7', for 'further development', including better noise control at mid ISOs. Due October this year; no AA filter; new name: and 'new features'. Should be Touit-friendly..
Carl Zeiss Touit Distagon T* 12mm f/2.8 Pros
Excellent sharpness
Solid build
Low distortion (2.53% barrel distortion), falloff and CA
Very resistant to flare
Carl Zeiss Touit Distagon T* 12mm f/2.8 Cons
Slow AF
Philippe, I keep a close watch on the sony alpha rumours website, most days in fact, and often relay some back to readers here. Andrea the guy who runs the site, posts official Sony material as well, such as corporate presentations and lens design seminars, often interesting to me, so you can cross-check to some degree. Here is an entry on the rumour site:
'I am getting more and more feedback about the NEX-7 successor.
1) First of all many sources confirmed that this is the only interchangeable camera to come this year! As you know the new Sony CEO imposed a radical change in the roadmap...But it seems that also the NEX-7 successor went through some changes. First of all the small NEX-7n udpate expected to come in Spring had been delayed.
2) A trusted source told me that Sony decided to go change some more “things” on the next NEX-7 successor. First of all it will not be named “NEX-7n” anymore. It will have a new name...A new source told me that this will be Sony’s first camera not having the Anti Aliasing filter.'
So, better performance, more features, new name, perhaps no AA - generally indicates more than a mere warm over, in Sony land. Makes sense with the new emphasis on higher end cameras for them.
Thanks, Philip! I, too follow SAR. But obviously not as carefully as you do, because the "mid-ISO performance increase" had escaped me. All I had in mind was the third-stop DR increase and other goodies promised previously. As for the lack of AA, I'll believe it when I see it. I am also not as sure as some others on this site that it is the magic wand that they think. But we shall see. In any case, I would trade all of this for good corner performance with RF wides. Because I am going to get a Touit 12, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't enjoy using my Leica Elmar 24 without CornerFix.
Been shooting with the 32mm on NEX-7 quite a bit. I love the lens stopped down to f/3.5 or f/4 particularly. I really like the close focusing distance with all the flowers blooming.
philber wrote:
Lovely stuff, Roger! Can you tell me if your last pic is a crop, or simply a reflection of how close the Touit can get?
The lower image is a 100% crop from the center of the upper - but I could have framed in about 1/3 closer than what I did. I was a little over 2 feet away, MFD is about 15".
So far, I see very good sharpness and 3D, but not a lot of very fine detail. Sort of like a CZ 35-70. I hope that it is not the case, though I may well be in the minority in thinking that.
ken.vs.ryu wrote:
Roger how does the Sony E 35/1.8 do against the touit?
I really liked the Zeiss better at f/2.5 and smaller apertures, but wide open I thought they were pretty close. I tend to grab a full-frame SLR when I'm wanting to shoot at wide apertures, so on the NEX I preferred the Touit.
But that's a pretty big price difference - if I was going to shoot it mostly at f/1.8 I think I'd save the money and grab the Sony.
RCicala wrote:
I really liked the Zeiss better at f/2.5 and smaller apertures, but wide open I thought they were pretty close.
That's surprising, because Lloyd did extensive testing of both Touits and then compared the 32 to the Sony 35/1.8 and said that the Touit 32 showed significantly more contrast than the Sony 35/1.8 wide open. So much more so that he said it was noticeable just looking through the EVF.
Edit: Just took another look at Lloyd's post comparing these two lenses. His posted images clearly show that the Touit has a strong advantage in the center 1/3 of the image wide open through at least F4. He said differences in field curvature make it difficult to compare the two lenses in the corners at large apertures.
Lloyd has certainly done a lot more testing and shooting with the Touits than I have. I definitely defer to him here.
I've only got one copy of the Touit, too, and I'm definitely seeing mine pop quite a bit more once I've stopped it down a bit. Might be mine is not quite as good as his wide open.
One thing I would add since reading Lloyd's article: it seems all his direct comparisons are on indoor test targets at a given range while I shot it almost exclusively outdoors and either very close up or near infinity. Behavior of the lens may well vary at different distances, especially since the Touit has floating elements and I don't think the Sony does.
