Japanese tech company Sony, one of the most prominent names in the gadgets industry, has announced a new feature which equips its latest Alpha series. Two cameras from the series, the Sony a7R II and Sony a7S II will now allow users to capture uncompressed RAW images. The function is already in the new a7S II shooter.
According to PetaPixel, the update allows users to shoot 14-bit RAW images and lets them select between compressed and uncompressed for the photos. The new function will be coming to the a7R II model via a free firmware update. The a7S II will begin shipping this coming October. Sony indicated that other camera models from the company may have the feature as well, sometime soon.
A camera equipped with the 14-bit RAW option enables users to take better quality images and footages, as it saves so much more information compared to 12-bit RAW outputs. The 14-bit RAW files consume larger memory, of course, but it has 16,385 colors per channel or 4 billion colors. That is very attractive for videography and photography enthusiasts, who can now opt for a technology that offers much more than 68 billion and 8 billion colors from 12-bit RAW and 8-bit JPEG.
Why has this feature been added to the cameras? Deputy Vice President for Digital Imaging at Sony Electronics, Neal Manowitz, said in the company's press release, "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."
The company has also announced that it will be releasing 8 additional camera lenses for its FE line up. Twenty-one lenses will now be available for the devices by 2016. The lenses will be available for use for over seventy Sony camera models.
