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DP review of Sony Nex5

RichA

New member
Just returned from B&H. The Sony rep was there, and he had an NEX5.

Nice package. Great LCD.

Small body with large lens. GUI was as described previously.

Now, we need real reviews to see about IQ. (Maybe better lenses,Zeiss??).

Still unavailable here, probably deliveries early July. Sales person said they have many pre-orders.

Martin
The 16mm is a write-off. The kit lens reminds me roughly of the quality of Canon's old 18-55mm, so it's middle-road. What they need are new, more expensive primes (expensive because you cannot build a good 16mm "DX" lens and sell it for $250) and some adapters to use existing manual lenses.
 

Terry

New member
Rayqual announced adapters but at stupid initial prices ($200 plus). We do know how that movie ends. A little patience will needed.
 
H

hsertic

Guest
The 16mm is a write-off. The kit lens reminds me roughly of the quality of Canon's old 18-55mm, so it's middle-road. What they need are new, more expensive primes (expensive because you cannot build a good 16mm "DX" lens and sell it for $250) and some adapters to use existing manual lenses.
I've handled Nex5 with 16mm yesterday. It is pretty nice in manual mode, with known limitation regarding ISO settings. It fits in hand very good, and 16mm is, physically, nice match. I also like 24mm FOV on the camera, but I've taken few snaps (on my card), and although I can not open RAW, only JPG, quality of 16mm is not even near close to pana 20/1.7 (yes, I know it is actually 40 vs 24, but pictures from pana 20 look much much better).

I'm only interested in image quality with legacy glass, since 1,5x is much better than 2x for some of my lenses - for example, leica 35 in M mount becomes normal lens from short telepohoto. If the quality turns good, i can live with all limitations.

Hrvoje
 

Martin S

New member
hsertic:

The high ISO issues with the 16mm - are they the same issues that barjohn posted, or are there additional issues with that lens??

Agree that Sony needs some higher quality lenses. I hope that the Sony marketing plan, of P+S shooters conversion to a more advanced camera, doesn't conflict with better (more $$) lenses.

Martin
 
V

Vivek

Guest
Martin, I would not think so.

Here is why-

1. The adapter is more expensive than the lens.

2. Not that fast and possibly will not AF (even if it would it would be slow because of CDAF).

3. Many 30-40mm (manual focus) fast lenses that can be adapted for the NEXs are there.
 

Riley

New member
HI Diane
Exactly, and with today's sensor developments. Truth is there is a huge difference between the 4/3 sensor and the next smaller one (look at the pixel density stats on dpreview). I reckon a 12mp 2.3 sensor would be an excellent compromise (and let's face it, everything is some sort of a compromise).

Mind you, the 'feel' of that sensor translated to the E1 . . and then to the M8 and M9 which still use Kodak CCD sensors.
I had an idea of making my own with an F30 and a pentax 110 SLR, the sensor size is quite close to 2/3" and outruns it for noise control. The F30 chassis wouldnt quite fit so I downgraded to an F20, the whole shebang can fit within an extended Pentax body utilising what used to be the motor drive.

the project fell over when I couldnt engineer a way to lift the mirror when firing the shutter. Its possible that an EVF type 2/3" camera might be easier to convert in that way

nevertheless, this is a representation of how the IC lens SLR would look


and the F30 chassis next to the 110 mirrorbox/OVF
 

Martin S

New member
Thanks Vivek for the comments.

The price for an adapter will go down.

I don't know if the NEX 5 has any easily accessed viewfinder magnification control that would assist MF??

Martin
 
H

hsertic

Guest
hsertic:

The high ISO issues with the 16mm - are they the same issues that barjohn posted, or are there additional issues with that lens??

Agree that Sony needs some higher quality lenses. I hope that the Sony marketing plan, of P+S shooters conversion to a more advanced camera, doesn't conflict with better (more $$) lenses.

Martin
I've taken a few snaps with 16mm at ISO 800 and F2.8 with both RAW and JPEG files - Although I can not opet RAW's, JPEG's look much worse than images taken with G1 and 20/1.7. There is much less contrast, borders of the frame look blurred (known issues, but I thought they were resolved), and per pixel sharpness is also worse than images from G1.

To me, NEX looks like a great concept, and I would buy immediately if the quality of 16mm lens is close to Pana20. I do not see user interface as extremely bad, since I'm almost always using A or M mode, and it is not a problem to adjust shutter and aperture. For ISO change menu must be used, but with rotary controler it can be done pretty fast. Compared to G1, camera is significantly smaller, but it fits in hand very good.

Hope this helps,

Hrvoje
 

barjohn

New member
I just received my NEX 5 with 18-55 lens and the LCD goes into magnifier 7x mode if you select the option for auto with MF and turn the focus ring on the lens and can be further magnified to 14x. I haven't yet tried full manual mode so I can't comment on that. The LCD is the best I have seen so far. When set to daylight mode you can clearly see it and compose including MF even in bright Southern California sunlight. No other LCD I have tried comes close.

I have been shooting a few side by side comparison shots against the GXR-A12 and the images are even sharper when the lens is set to 33 mm to match the GXR. Considering there are no profiles yet for LR 3 it looks very good with more detail which surprised me given how good the GXR is (much better than the GF1 in my opinion). So far,I have only been testing at ISO 200. Later I will try higher ISOs and low light as time permits. I am anxious to get an M lens adapter and see what it does with Leica glass. The GXR body that was smaller than the GF1 seems gigantic when next to the Sony. It is tiny. With a nice f1.8 24mm pancake it would be semi pocketable and really awesome. So far I haven't found the menu system to be as bad as DPR made it sound but it is early in my testing. It is pretty quick and easy once you learn where things are. Most of the time is spent learning the logic and once you have it things go pretty fast. I find it an easier UI to use than the OLY EP-1 with all of its buttons. The logic is pretty easy to follow and learn.
 

Terry

New member
Mine arrived yesterday but after a 6 hour flight delay I didn't get much time to play with it at 1AM. The body is indeed shockingly small. The exterior build quality of the lens is really very beautiful. Interior o of the lens when zoomed is plastic. Johns comments on the LCD seem spot on and so far the interface doesn't seem massively annoying. In Aperture priority changing the aperture and the EV are both simple. You do need to go into the menu for ISO. Auto ISO only goes up to 1600 and I haven't tested out the files to see what happens when I go above that. Strange that I did not see a rear cap in the box (lens comes attached ) and there is no body cap. Sony is sending a rear cap but they don't seem to have a cap for the body as a part yet (strange).

More later.
 

barjohn

New member
Terry, sounds like we were both flying yesterday. I didn't get home until 3 am. I forgot to mention the AF is very quick, much quicker than the EP-1 or GXR A12. It seems to me on par with the GF1 but maybe a tad slower. It would be hard to tell without having both cameras and measuring them. Boy in fast shoot mode it really shoots fast.

Terry, I will be interested in your comparison shots against one or more of the m43s cameras. I will later provide GXR comparisons. Right now my wife wants to go shopping to help restore the economy single handed. :)
 

Terry

New member
I didn't get too much accomplished today but took a few test shots. Impressed with the IQ. Decided to try out the handheld twilight multi-shot mode. This is where the camera takes a series of shots to get the right exposure but also no camera shake from slow shutter speeds. It is quite foggy tonight.

The EXIF that shows up on LR is:
Handheld out a window.
55mm ISO 6400 f5.6 1/15
Only resized.
 

ptomsu

Workshop Member
This little thing seems to be wonderful. I will buy mine here in Austria finally, was in SFO this week but could not find one in the shelves of my usual shops.

I will get a kit - NEX5, 16 and 18-55 - they offer for a very attractive price here in Austria.

Keep posting results - really promising camera!
 

barjohn

New member
Terry, was this straight from jpg? I would say an incredible iso 6400 shot. Very clean and sharp for a multi-shot image.
 

Terry

New member
This little thing seems to be wonderful. I will buy mine here in Austria finally, was in SFO this week but could not find one in the shelves of my usual shops.

I will get a kit - NEX5, 16 and 18-55 - they offer for a very attractive price here in Austria.

Keep posting results - really promising camera!
The only US stock seems to be with the mothership at Sonystyle.com. Disregard any pre-order notices and dates as things are shipping even if they have a later date shown. For instance the Alpha adapter says it ships on July 5 but I ordered one and it is set to ship on Monday. The only caveat is the 16mm lens which seems to be not out as a standalone lens just yet.
 

Terry

New member
Terry, was this straight from jpg? I would say an incredible iso 6400 shot. Very clean and sharp for a multi-shot image.
That multishot in the above post is a straight from the camera jpeg.

Below are shots from around my desk I was trying to test the min focus distance (about 10 inches), the transition to OOF areas and ISOs. Again all untouched jpegs.

55mm ISO 1600 f7.1 1/30. This is the full image reduced.




100% crop
ISO 2000 18mm f3.5 1/250




100% crop
ISO 1000 18mm f3.5 1/30

 

barjohn

New member
One thing I have just learned this morning is that there is a significant difference in the metering modes between spot, center and multi when you have a scene with high contrast. Shooting my bookcase this morning when it was pretty dark in the room except for a light wall and a photo with a white matt in the frame, the NEX in multi mode produced an image that looked pretty close to what the human eye saw. The GXR A12 in multi mode produced an image that looked much brighter than what the eye saw, almost like the central area was being illuminated. Then when I changed the NEX to center exposure it looked more like the GXR image. I also tried changing the GXR exposure setting to centered but the difference was smaller but present. I would be interested to hear what others are finding. By the way the body gets warm from that big sensor and small body to dissipate heat.
 
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