BREAKING NEWS.web

Furthermore, the move – announced by the Sony Team at alphauniverse.com – means that ‘user-selectable compressed or uncompressed 14-bit raw still image capture’ will also be available to users of other cameras via a firmware update, starting with the Alpha 7R II.

Neal Manowitz, deputy vice-president for Digital Imaging at Sony Electronics said: ‘The voice of our Alpha community remains the most important guiding force of our product development plans.

‘The addition of uncompressed 14-bit raw processing is a direct result of customer feedback.

‘Widely requested by photo and video enthusiasts, we believe the choice of raw-processing types will further elevate the performance of these extraordinary cameras.’

Giving his initial reaction, Amateur Photographer technical editor Andy Westlake said: ‘Sony has, until now, used a compressed raw format, which can be prone to giving image artefacts such as posterisation around high-contrast edges.

‘Sony’s addition of uncompressed raw should fix this problem, although at the expense of huge files; on the Alpha 7R II, at least 74 MB per image.’

He added: ‘We’re pleased to see Sony responding to user concerns on this issue, and hopefully we’ll eventually see visually lossless compression, as used by Canon and Nikon.’

Sony has also confirmed it will launch eight more FE full-frame lenses by early 2016, bringing the FE total to 21.

Last week, in an interview with Amateur Photographer, Sony said it planned to focus on expansion of its lens range for Alpha 7-series models.