Images have leaked of the upcoming Sony A7cr mirrorless camera and the Sony FE 16-35mm f/2.8 GM II lens. The press release for the 16-53mm lens has also been posted online.
Both items are expected to be announced later today. As well as the Sony A7cr and 16-35mm GM II, we’re also expecting to hear about the successor to the popular Sony A7c (buy here) vlogging camera, the Sony A7c II.
Sony A7cr & A7c II mirrorless cameras
The Sony A7cr appears to follow the same general appearance as the Sony A7c. There’s no EVF on top, and it presumably sits on the side, as with the A7c. An EVF in this position generally makes it an afterthought. Users of this camera will likely be composing with the flippy out LCD instead of the EVF, targeting it towards vloggers and travel shooters who want to work quickly.
While there have been rumours and speculation floating around, it remains to be seen exactly what features and specifications this camera will offer. I would expect that given the “R” moniker, it’s a higher resolution system, like the A7R (buy here) series over the standard A7 (buy here).
Exactly how it’ll compare to the original A7c and the A7c II – which is also expected to be in today’s announcement – is unclear, but we don’t have long to wait to find out.
Sony FE 16-35mm f/2.8 GM II
The Sony 16-35mm f/2.8 GM II is also expected to appear in today’s announcements. The successor to the popular Sony FE 16-35mm f/2.8 GM (buy here) brings some distinct advantages over its predecessor, particularly for vloggers.
For a start, it’s 133g lighter than the 16-35mm f/2.8 GM, weighing in at 547g. This is still pretty heavy for a vlogging lens, but given the compact size and weight of the A7c series bodies, it’s not too terrible.
It also has a new floating optics design which keeps a consistent centre of gravity when zooming or focusing. This makes it ideal for use on gimbals, whether handheld or flying from a drone. As focus and zoom shift, it’s not going to be stressing the gimbal motors to keep it level.
The press release announcement for the new lens has leaked early:
The Sony FE 16-35mm f/2.8 GM II ( SEL1635GM2) is 133 grams lighter than its predecessor the FE 16-35mm f/2.8 GM . Together with the new FE 24-70mm f/2.8 GM II (-191g) and FE 70-200mm f/2.8 GM OSS II (-435g) the weight saving is 759g.
The grams saved are basically due to Sony’s optical engineer making a so-called floating optical construction that makes the lens 10 mm shorter and thus lighter. The length is 112 mm and the weight 547 g.
The new construction also means that the center of gravity does not change so much when zooming and focusing (good for filming with a gimbal) and minimizes the occurrence of focus breathing , that is to say that the image section (e.g. focal length) does not change when focusing.
Similar to the other two lenses, Sony has also improved the sharpness and close range. Sony promises that the FE 16-35 mm f/2.8 GM II provides good sharpness right out to the edges already at the maximum aperture of f/2.8. The proximity limit has been improved from 0.28 to 0.22 meters (0.32x magnification).
Another important point with all the upgrades (including the FE 70-200mm f/4 G Macro OSS II ) is that the new lenses have apertures and autofocus motors that can handle bursts at 30 frames per second. The click modes of the aperture ring can be switched off.
The lens hood has been made as compact as possible.
Another improvement is the new anti-reflective treatment Nano AR Coating II which produces smaller and shadowy images. The front lens is of course fluorine-treated to protect against grease, dirt and moisture. The entire construction is weather sealed.
The Sony FE 16-35mm f/2.8 GM II will begin shipping in October.
The weather-sealed lens also receives the new Nano AR Coating II, and contains aperture and focus motors capable of keeping up with shooting at 30 frames per second.
The Sony 16-35mm f/2.8 GM II is expected to start shipping in October. I think when the official announcement comes, we can probably expect the same for the Sony A7cr and Sony A7c II bodies, too.
[via Sony Alpha Rumors]
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