Panasonic G9 gets a January 15 estimate (YMMV)

I just added the upcoming Panasonic G9 to the Stock Status Tracker, and surprise-surprise, both the Amazon itself listing and the B&H Photo listing have a January 15 estimate! The original Panasonic estimate was for late February. So if two major retailers have the same estimate, that’s a good sign!

Obligatory screenshots to make sure I did not post this while sleep-walking/sleep-blogging, first B&H and then Amazonia 🙂

Pre-Order Canon PIXMA G4210 Wireless MegaTank All-in-One Inkjet Printer for $400

If you are a fan of MegaTank printers, Canon has revealed the brand new PIXMA G4210 Wireless MegaTank All-in-One Inkjet Printer at CES 2018, available for pre-ordering for $400 at B&H Photo and Adorama

Pre-order various new Items from CES 2018: Rokinon 14mm f2.8 Auto Focus (Canon), Godox, Insta360, Etc

CES 2018 is here and a number of new photography accessories and related products have been announced! You can find all 50+ options at the B&H CES 2018 pre-ordering page. Among them:

+ Rokinon AF 14mm f/2.8 Lens for Canon EF for $799 (early February 2018 estimate)

+ Godox AD600Pro Witstro All-In-One Outdoor Flash for $899

+ Insta360 Nano S 360 degree camera for $239

+ various Small HD monitors, High Point and QNAP storage, Panasonic camcorders and more. See them all at the B&H CES 2018 pre-ordering page

Pre-order new Panasonic GH5S mirrorless for $2500

CES 2018 is here and with it we have our first major interchangeable lens camera announcement, it is the brand new Panasonic GH5S, yes, the S is part of the name, it is not plural, SAD that so many companies fail at such a simple thing in product naming 🙂 The new GH5S is a video-priority variant of the GH5, and it is available for pre-ordering for $2500 at B&H Photo and Adorama

Having won 2017 with a 13 vs 8 score, Mirrorless scores the first “goal” of 2018 against DSLRs. That D-Rebel T6 is a leaky goalie 🙂

Pre-order on Wednesday: new Sony 18-135 OIS and silver a6300

Sony is striking first in CES 2018 in this small “pre CES 2018” window [see Trade Show Calendar] with a couple of new products that will be available for pre-ordering on Wednesday January 10 at 11am eastern:

+ Sony E 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 OSS for $598 at B&H Photo and Adorama

+ silver Sony a6300: body for $898, with 16-50mm for $998 at B&H Photo and Adorama

Pre-order new Small HD 703 Bolt Wireless Monitors

The CES 2018 is beginning to build momentum, we have a trio of new Small HD 703 Bolt Wireless Monitors now available for pre-ordering at B&H Photo as follows:

+ SmallHD 703 Bolt 7″ Wireless Monitor for $3500

+ SmallHD 703 Bolt 7″ Wireless Director’s Monitor Bundle (Gold Mount) for $3700

+ SmallHD 703 Bolt 7″ Wireless Director’s Monitor Bundle (V-Mount) for $3700

Pre-order Flashpoint XPLOR 600PRO TTL Battery-Powered Monolight with Built-in R2 2.4GHz Radio Remote System (Bowens Mount) – Godox AD600 Pro for $899

CES 2018 is happening at a more reasonable date this year (official start January 9th; see Trade Show Calendar) and this gives more time for the various new product announcements to have more breathing room. Which brings us to a brand new product from Adorama…

… the brand new Flashpoint XPLOR 600PRO TTL Battery-Powered Monolight with Built-in R2 2.4GHz Radio Remote System (Bowens Mount) – Godox AD600 Pro is available for pre-ordering for $899 without transmitter. They also offer four system bundles with transmitters for either Canon, Nikon, Fuji, or Sony for $968. Free shipping…

Pre-order new 27-inch iMac PRO Retina 5K (41 options, prices $4999+)

Can’t wait for CES 2018 for new products? Apple has you covered! A brand new series of pro tier 27-inch iMac PRO Retina 5K is coming out soon and they are available for pre-ordering at B&H Photo. There are 41 options (yes, forty one) with prices ranging from $4999 to $13,199! Too many to list here individually, check the aforelinked B&H pages for details!

PS: a number of new offers came in from B&H Photo, unfortunately I can’t post them right now, I have to deal with car problems! One drama per day but at least I survived the dentist yesterday 🙂

Pre-order new M-mount lenses: Voigt 40/1.2, Leica 75/1.2

Two new Leica M-mount lenses are coming up in the next few weeks and they are available for pre-ordering at B&H Photo. They have been added to the New Lenses of 2017 page as well…

+ Voigtlander Nokton 40mm f/1.2 Aspherical for $899

+ Leica Noctilux-M 75mm f/1.25 ASPH for $12,795

Pre-order new Leica CL mirrorless and 18mm f2.8 lens

It’s the November surprise! Leica has a new APS-C mirrorless camera out, it is the brand new CL, and Leica is boldly going with this one, it’s USB-C time! It has a 24mp APS-C (rhymes with USB-C) CMOS sensor and has the Leica L-mount, so you can use TL and SL lenses with it. And that’s before you start using adapters.

It is available for pre-order in these configurations:

+ CL body for $2800 at B&H Photo

+ CL with 18mm f2.8 for $3800 at B&H Photo

+ CL with Vario-Elmar-T 18-56mm f3.5-5.6 ASPH Lens at B&H Photo

Wait, what’s that 18mm f2.8 lens? That’s a brand new lens that came out at the same time, it is the Leica Elmarit-TL 18 mm f/2.8 ASPH L-mount APS-C format lens, and it is available for pre-order for $1300 in black or silver at B&H Photo.

These have been added to the New Cameras and Lenses of 2017. This new announcement furthered the Mirrorless lead over DSLRs in 2017 to an insurmountable 13-8.

PS: the Leica zoom lens (!?!@?#!@#?!@!) is not a brand new one. It’s been around for a a while

Reminder: Sony a7r III expected November 30 for $3200

Reminder, lost in the Black Friday madness: the new deputy of the Sony E-system, coming in at $3200 [see Mirrorless Price Charts], the Sony a7r III is scheduled to be released on Thursday November 30 in 2017 with pre-orders accepted at Amazon by Amazon actual and Adorama and B&H Photo.

I will integrate it in the Stock Status Tracker after Cyber Monday madness cools off.

If you are not mesmerized by the a7r III or its starting price, there are sales on the a7S II, for $2500 you can get it with the Rokinon 35/2.8 FE or for $2400 you can get the a7S II body only.

Panasonic G9 returns to Amazon

A few days ago the option to pre-order the Panasonic G9 at Amazon disappeared, but as of the time of writing, the option to pre-order this for $1700 has returned at Amazon. I have no clue why it disappeared. AI Bots Gone Wild? 🙂

You can see how it stacks up price-wise with other mirrorless camera in last week’s Mirrorless Price Chart. Its announcement came just as I was preparing the charts. If I was a day early, it wouldn’t have made it. So sometimes being late pays off 🙂

Speaking of Panasonic, a number of their M43rds cameras, lenses and fixed lens cameras are on sale. You can find them all under the Panasonic category, or under the Mirrorless section of the Black Friday 2017 Situation Room. It looks like mayhaps they are trying to steal a march on the other camera manufacturers by rolling out their sales earlier.

Pre-order new Surface Book 2 in 13.5″ and 15″ screen sizes

Microsoft has unveiled their brand new “Surface Book 2″ 2-in-1 laptops with screens of 13.5″ and 15”. Prices start at $1500 for the 13.5″ and $2500 for the 15″ and top at $3000 and $3300 respectively. Pre-orders are accepted as follows with a November 16 release estimate (next Thursday):

+ 13.5″ Surface 2 Book at Microsoft Store and Amazon itself and Adorama and B&H Photo

+ 15″ Surface 2 Book at Microsoft Store and Amazon itself and B&H Photo and Adorama

There are three product lines now. The Surface tablets, the Surface Books (2-in-1s) and the Surface Laptops. Surface Phone where are you? 🙂

Pre-order new Panasonic 128GB SDZA Professional SDXC card for … [OMG!]

Panasonic is getting serious about the professional memory card game too. Announced together with their new Panasonic G9 photographic flagship is a “professionally priced” SDXC memory card too. The new Panasonic RP-SDZA128AK, part of their SDZA series, is a 128GB UHS II SDXC, V90 90MB/sec., 280MB/Sec. Read, 250 MB/Sec. Write, Class 3 (U3) & Class 10 memory card with a pre-order price of $500.

Pre-orders of this are accepted at Amazon by Amazon itself (February 2018 release estimate) and at B&H Photo whose release estimate is mid-November 2017 (may be a typo, I don’t know?).

Pre-order new Panasonic 200mm f2.8 OIS lens [m43]

Telebrights are coming to Micro Four Thirds Landia! Coming along with the G9 flagship camera is a brand new bright telephoto prime, the new H-ES200 lens. Or as most people like to call it, a Panasonic 200mm f2.8 OIS with an includes 1.4X teleconverter (DMW-TC14) for the pre-order price of $3000.

Pre-orders for this lovely are accepted at Amazon by Amazon itself and B&H Photo and Adorama.

If the included 1.4X teleconverter is not enough, Panasonic will also be releasing at about the same time the brand new Panasonic LUMIX 2.0X Teleconverter Lens, Black (DMW-TC20) for this lens, available for pre-ordering for $600 at Amazon by Amazon itself and Adorama and B&H Photo.

This too has been added to the New Lenses of 2017 tracking page.

Pre-order new Panasonic G9 camera with Dual IS, 80mp high-res mode for $1700

Patience is a virtue for this new camera as the estimates point to mid January to mid February 2018. It is the brand new Panasonic G9 non-video flagship, with a dual IS system [about time this became popular], dual SD slots, and an “80 megapixel high-res mode” among other things. The pre-order price is $1700 with pre-orders accepted by Amazon itself and Adorama and B&H Photo.

It will be added to the Stock Status Tracker as we get closer to release date (it’s 2-3 months away).

Also coming along for the ride is the Panasonic DMW-BGG9 Battery Grip available for pre-ordering for $350 at B&H Photo and Adorama and Amazon itself.

The timing of this camera is perfect because our Mirrorless segment of the Camera Price Charts is coming out tomorrow, so it will be included 🙂

This too has been added to the New Cameras of 2017 tracking page. This furthers the Mirrorless cameras lead over DSLRs to 12-8. It is not unreasonable to assume that DSLRs probably don’t have a chance to catch up to them in 2017 but you never know, we’ve had November and December surprised in previous years after all!

Does this sound like a dream M43rds camera or hype? Details at 11!

Breakthrough Photography Dark CPL (pre-orders) and X4 GND (now shipping) Filters

Adorama has an exclusive on a number of Breakthrough Photography Filters. The X4 ND square filters and the X4 GND Filters (the first two horizontal slide show stripes on the page) are already in-stock and shipping. Meanwhile the Dark CPL (circular polarizer) models are available for pre-order. There are ten of each of the X4 filters, and 22 of the Dark CPL, along with three accessories. That’s a total of 45 options, too many to list individually here.

Pre-order new Manfrotto Nitrotech N12 [also: new arrivals from Flashpoint, Glow, 3Pod, Orlit]

Nitro is not just the trending cold brew coffee at Starbucks. It’s also trending at Manfrotto, their new line-up of Manfrotto Nitrotech tripod-alia is now available for pre-ordering at Adorama. The N12 head goes for $600, while the three tripod bundles range from $1100 to $1480.

These are not the only new arrivals at Adorama, they also have new lightning products from Flashpoint, Glow and 3Pod. The 3Pod ball heads range from $20 to $50, the Glow reflectors range from $40 to $80, while the Flashpoint Rapid Monolights range from $550 to $800, while the Orlit Roverlights range from $560 to $620.

Pre-order new Tamron 100-400mm f4.5-6.3 Di VC USD [C/N]

Photo Plus Expo is in progress and that means new camera gear is raining left and right. Zooming in for the party is Tamron with their new 100-400mm F/4.5-6.3 Di VC USD lens available for pre-order for $799 in Canon or Nikon at B&H Photo and Adorama.

This too has been added to the list of New Lenses of 2017.

Pre-order new Sony a7r III Camera and FE 24-105 f4G OSS lens

Mirrorless temptations of the full frame kind here we come! The new Sony a7r III (third generation) 35mm full frame mirrorless camera, along with the 24105mm f4G OSS FE lens are now available for pre-ordering at various authorized dealers:

+ Sony a7r III body for $3200 at Adorama and B&H Photo
+ B&H has a couple of lens bundles as well, with 24-105 for $4500, and with 24-70 for $5400
+ release estimate is late November 2017

+ Sony FE 24-105mm f4G OSS for $1300 at Adorama and B&H Photo

+ the FE 400mm f2.8 GM OSS has a product page created at B&H Photo but there is no price, so there can be no pre-orders

These three have been added to the New Cameras and Lenses of 2017 tracking page. Thanks to the a7r, “Team Mirrorless” has scored another goal, giving them an 11-8 lead over “Team DSLR”!

Pre-order new Olympus 17mm f1.2 and 45mm f1.2 PRO Lenses for $1200 each

Micro Four Thirds bright prime time! Olympus has revealed two brand new f1.2 PRO micro four thirds lenses, for $1200 each, with a mid-November release estimate for the 45mm and mid-January release estimate for the 17mm.

+ pre-order Olympus 45mm f1.2 PRO for $1200 at Amazon by Amazon itself and Adorama and B&H Photo

+ pre-order Olympus 17mm f1.2 PRO for $1200 at Amazon by Amazon itself and Adorama and B&H Photo

+ these two have been added to the New Lenses of 2017 tracking page

Pre-order new Canon G1 X III APS-C RAWsumer for $1300

The sensors are increasing in RAWsumers, and so are the prices! Canon finally decided to go APS-C with their storied G-series. The brand new Canon G1 X III (aka third generation) has an APS-C sensor, and a pre-order price of $1300, both on the uptick. The lens glued to the body is a 24-72mm (eq) f2.8-5.6 with OIS.

Pre-orders are accepted at Adorama and B&H Photo and Amazon by Amazon itself where they have a late November 2017 release estimate.

This has been added to the New Cameras of 2017 were RAWsumers are making a late run in the year, seven new ones in 2017, versus eight new DSLRs and ten new mirrorless cameras.

Pre-order new Nikon Official Two DX Lens Kit (40/2.8 MAC; 10-20/4.5-5.6 VR) for $547

Manufacturer-created Lens bundles are all the rage these days. Nikon has a Landscape and Macro DX bundle with the 40mm f/2.8 MACRO and 10-20mm f/4.5-5.6G VR lenses, both DX (APS-C), on sale for $547 with free expedited shipping at B&H Photo.

This is a “Coming Soon” item, it is not in-stock yet! The 40/2.8 goes for $277 on its own, while the 10-20/4.5-5.6 goes for $307 on its own, for a total of $584 if purchased separately.

Pre-order 15.6″ Diet Bezel ASUS VivoBook F510UA for $499

This is a new “diet bezel” pre-order laptop that is generating a lot of traction at Amazon, it is currently the #1 among New Releases. It is the 15.6″ ASUS VivoBook F510UA Windows 10 laptop with a pre-order price of $499. No shipping estimate yet. Its full name is F510UA-AH51.

Its claim to fame is the “diet bezel” (not a professional term). Per the product description, this has a 0.3″ NanoEdge bezel and a 80% screen-to-body ratio. It is 0.8″ thick, it is physically 14.2″ wide but with a 15.6″ diagonal full HD display.

Other specs include 8GB DDR4 RAM, Intel Core i5-8250U 1.6GHz (8th generation; ranks a very respectable #373 at cpubenchmark.net for a $500 laptop), 1TB HDD (5400rpm), Intel UHD 620 graphics, SD card reader, HDMI, USB 3.0, USB 2.0, USB 3.1 Type-C (Gen1) ports, 802.11ac, 3.7 lbs weight, fingerprint sensor, etc.

No optical drive, no touchscreen. There is no mention of Bluetooth in the product description. This is brand new, there are no reviews yet.

Pre-order new iPX8 waterproof 7-inch Kindle Oasis e-reader with Audible for $250+

If you like to read everywhere you go, or you spend a lot of time in various shooting locations waiting and you want to make the most of the downtime, you may be interested in a brand new waterproof Kindle Oasis e-book reader with Audible (audiobook) support!

The new waterproof Oasis is available for pre-ordering starting at $250 from Amazon directly. This is a 7-inch 300 ppi screen, iPX8 waterproofness (2 meters, 60 minutes), with physical page turn buttons, bluetooth support, etc.

UPDATE: you can see the various options in the search results if you don’t want to play with the “Customize” button.

The default $250 model comes with 8GB of on-board storage (an increase from the previous models), Wifi-only, with Special Offers. Options that cost extra:

  • You can instead get 32GB of on-board storage (if you want to load it up with audiobooks) for +$30
  • you can remove the Special Offers for +$20 [you can remove these later as well for a one-time fee; they are not that bad unless you hate ads]
  • get the Wifi + Cellular for +$50; free cellular data for e-book purposes
  • you can select the various options using the Customize button on the product page

This is so tempting 🙂 Please feel free to send me one as part of our just-launched Secret Santa 🙂

Pre-order new Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL phones

The new Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL smartphones crash-landed at the very top of the Dxomark Mobile Rankings with a score of 98, topping the camera modules of the latest iPhones and Galaxies [iPhone X not measured yet since it’s not released yet]. Check further down the DxoMark page if you want to see the bar-chart and pros/cons summary.

These new phones are now available for pre-ordering at the official Google Store and also at Project Fi and also at Verizon Wireless with an optional trade-in promotion up to $300.

Prices are $649 (64GB) and $749 (128GB) for the Pixel 2, and $850 (64GB) and $950 (128GB) for the Pixel 2 XL.

All of these early pre-orders qualify for a free “Google Home Mini” (the new donut shaped one, priced $49 brand new).

PS: speaking of smartphones, the previous generation Sony XZ (unlocked, USA warranty, 32GB) is on sale for $350 in two different colors by Amazon herself.

Google Pixel Book invades Amazon

One of the brand new Google products announced yesterday [you can re-live our live-tweeting of the event if you have already finished reading the Yellow Pages] is now available for purchase at one of Google’s current bitter frenemy rivals, Amazon! The two i5 versions of the Google Pixel Book (2017) are available for pre-ordering for $999 (i5, 8GB RAM, 128GB) or for $1199 for the 256GB storage version. Amazon’s release date estimate for these is October 31st.

The third model is not available for pre-order yet, not even at the Google Store where it reveals the price of the i7 model (16GB RAM, 512GB storage), it is $1649. That’s $650 more than the base model.

Note that the PixelBook Pen is NOT included with the devices. You have to purchase it separately for $99.

Needless to say, you can get a better value with other ChromeOS devices [eg Samsung Chromebook PRO for $500] or Windows laptops, this is more of a prestige flagship in the world of Chrome OS and ChromeDroid. During the keynote they showed someone using the Adobe Lightroom Android app on this to do their lightrooming.

CRACKPOT THEORY

Another interesting thing that could potentially have Google go head to head with Samsung in 2018 or beyond: the development of the stylus pen for the PixelBook could also make its way into the Pixel smartphone line.

So perhaps the Pixel Ultra “meeting” that was teased by Google employees during the Keynote is actually this: a Pixel phone with a PixelBook Pen, a direct competitor to the Galaxy Note 8 line! Or that “Ultra” could have been a sly shot at the “iPhone X”.

Pre-order new Google Pixel Book starting at $999

If you missed our live-tweeting of the Google Pixel 2017 event, you can relive it with a Twitter thread. Some of the products revealed are already available for pre-ordering at B&H Photo as follows:

+ Google PixelBook for $999 (i5, 8GB, 128GB) or $1200 (256GB)
+ the i7 is not priced yet, so it cannot be pre-ordered

+ Google Home Mini for $49

+ the Google Home MAX is not available for pre-ordering yet

Pre-order new Adobe Elements 2018 software

It’s that time of the year again. Fall means many things, among them, a new version of the Elements software falls down from the Adobe tree! As usual, the initial prices are for early adopters, and they drip-drop down as times go by.

The individual Photoshop Elements 2018 and Photoshop Premiere 2018 go for $100 each, while the bundle goes for $150.

Pre-orders are accepted at B&H Photo and Amazon itself and such.

Now Shipping: New GoPRO HERO6 for $500 [with Karma for $1200]

GoPRO is taking pre-ordering to the next level! They have officially revealed their brand new GoPRO HERO6 today and not only it is available for pre-ordering, it is also already in-stock and shipping. That’s the shortest time between pre-orders and shipping that I can recall 🙂

The GoPRO HERO6 goes for $500 with free shipping at B&H Photo and Adorama and Amazon by Amazon itself.

But that’s not all. GoPRO is also bundling the HERO6 with the GoPRO KARMA, together going for $1200 at Amazon by Amazon itself (in-stock already) and B&H Photo (coming soon).