Anyone here tempted by the NEX?

[photoSmart42]

But what I really would like to have is, still, a Live FF camera. I wonder if Sony, Nikon or Canon will be first.

/Jonas

Isn't the 5D2 a Live View FF camera? It already exists. Are you thinking something different?

 

[DHart]

Yeah, I'm really loving my expanded GH2/GF1 system. It's got just enough IQ (especially the GH2) to be great. And with a bunch of great native and legacy lenses, it's a remarkably capable and enjoyable system to use. I can resist the NEX temptation for now.

The thought of a FF, live, mirror less camera with great EVF and articulating LCD is sweet, sweet indeed! Something like a slightly larger GF1 with FF and articulating LCD would be amazing.

 

[Terry]

Isn't the 5D2 a Live View FF camera? It already exists. Are you thinking something different?

A camera built for live view with very fast CDAF, with no mirror, think Leica M9 sized with lenses to match the short flange distance.

 

[mathomas]

I actually find the A55 a more interesting camera than the NEX. I need a viewfinder and I prefer to have a grip. No legacy lenses for the A55 of course, but some beautiful Zeiss glass that I can't afford

I'm a bit on the fence right now. Will probably by a GF2, body only, since it's cheap and can use the same adapters as the GH1 that I have.

I'm also curious what Nikon will come up with next, since I have a lot of F-mount lenses. They have to do something.

I'm with you on this Jorgen, re the A55. I want to replace my big ol' Canon 30D and comically huge lenses with a smaller, but more up-to-date, kit. Am having a devil of a time deciding whether to go Panny G*2 or Sony SLT. Mostly, I dislike the slow lenses offered for both options. I guess better high-ISO performance can make up for this?

The NEX is not even in the running for me.

 

[Jonas]

Isn't the 5D2 a Live View FF camera? It already exists. Are you thinking something different?

With a 100% Live camera I'm thinking of a µ4/3, or a NEX or a Sony SLT camera, something using the sensor for light metering, DOF control and focusing. The 5D, K5, Nikon SLR, E-5 or whatever only uses Live view as an addon and in a too clumsy and slow manner. No flipping mirrors thank you, a good EVF yes please!

Something like that.

/Jonas

 

[Jonas]

At the risk of nitpicking I think you mean 0.4 stops if we are talking high ISO and DR. Crop factor difference is 2.0/1.5 so area difference is that ratio squared. SNR goes as the square root of photons collected, so we take the square root of the square and get right back to the original crop factor ratio. Converting that to stops: log(2.0/1.5)/log(2) = 0.4 stops. Pretty sure that is right, but maybe I made a mistake.

I usually think of the two stops between µ4/3 and FF shared as 0.8 stops between µ4/3 and APS-C (Sony size sensor) and then 1.2 stops from APS-C to FF. To not overload my brain I I use the same numbers for noise and DOF. DR is so troubled by definitions I don't care to discuss it. (I'm also more interested in the way highlight roll-offs look than an absolute number.)

I did the math once long ago based on my estimations of the exact sizes of APS-C sensors, if one can estimate something "exactly" that is, but don't know where the source thread is right now. Anyway, it shouldn't be hard to check for anyone more into math than I am.

Maybe we are thinking of different things, perhaps I am oversimplificating things.

Oh yes, again, a FF Live camera. As I don't have any need foe lenses longer than 85mm such a camera would be a dream to me.

regards,

Jonas

 

[Jonas]

I'm with you on this Jorgen, re the A55. (...) time deciding whether to go Panny G*2 or Sony SLT. Mostly, I dislike the slow lenses offered for both options. I guess better high-ISO performance can make up for this?

The NEX is not even in the running for me.

I'm sitting there as well. I like some of the Minolta/Sony lenses very much and have been contemplating the A55 as a stop gap while waiting for a FF Sony camera. Will such a camera ever materialize? I don't know.

Anyway, I'm a prime user and a fast and good normal lens for the A55 would be, what? Maybe the new Sony DT 35/1.8 SAM but it dosn't make me enthusiastic. And then a good wide equivalent to something around 24-25mm preferably... oh well, I should take this to the Sony forum for further contemplation.

/Jonas

 

[bcf]

I use m43 as a compact landscape kit. The NEX at present just isn't very good at that because of the very limited lens selection. Certainly both NEX and m43 have lots of legacy options, but for my landscape uses where quality but lightweight slow zooms are what is needed legacy is of no use.

So what lenses are you using for your landscape work with m43?

 

[Godfrey]

No, not at all. I played with the NEX models a few times. They are very awkward in my hands, I don't like the control paradigm, and I'd need a completely new set of lenses to make them useful.

 

[kevinparis]

I was tasked to find a good video camera for a couple of teenage nephews... a NEX 3 for 380 euros was a no brainer.


didn't really try out it out as a stills camera... but interface was better that i thought it would be


K

 

[Kamoulox]

hello, just a picture taken with Nex-5 with Summicron M 50

 

[Tesselator]

Had Sony already released the NEX models when I started shopping cash in hand, I would have likely chosen it over the GH1. The images will of course be superior in every instance and form factor is not something I can select being poor and all. Rather it selects me and I learn to deal with it and usually end up loving it - no matter what it is. That said the GH1 is probably the clumsiest camera design I've ever used - very little thought went into it's design IMO. The form factor of the NEX is kind of in the opposite direction I tend to lean in on my own tho. For example I dig the 1DMarkIV...!!! If Nex, I would need the EVF tho... LCDs are completely useless to me. 100% completely useless - well for still photography anyway. Also Sony's after purchase support and warrantee handling is normal to good whereas Panasonic's is sub-normal and even a bit on the fraudulent side...

I've seen several new in box Nex deals that made me want to change up but with 18 different lens adapters already purchased for the M4/3 bodies I feel kinda stuck. I could sell them and rebuy for NEX but 18 auctions sounds like a hassle I don't wanna deal with - lazy me.

The 1DMarkIV:

​

.

 

[hot]

hot... please, tell me your impressions... how much do you like the camera? Do you plan to keep it? Compared to a GF1, for instance?

Hmmmm, I'm crazy ... I have 550D, GH1, G2, NEX5, A55, NX10, NX100, SD14, E520 ... I love them all

Each lense fit to nearly each camera (f.e. I use 25 lenses with NEX5). Adapter prices are only few buckazoids ... $15-$50. Each camera has many advantages (and few disadvantages)

If I am going out to take pictures (most 3D)/videos, I only wear one or two cameras, 1-3 lenses aaaaand my Sony TX7 Seldom a cheap lightweighted €99-carbon-tripod

PS: a little bit I hate cameras without EVF or without tilting display

 

[hot]

... and I'd need a completely new set of lenses to make them useful.

My 25 lenses (8mm-500mm), fitting NEX5 are enough

 

[hot]

Hello, ihad one and sold it. To my opinion, this is a great camera, but if you use it with other lenses than sony, it's a little bit difficult to take quickly a picture.
If the next Nex have stabilisation like the Olympus pen, it would be great !

I like handling with NEX5 and it's easy to take quickly a picture. I verrrry seldom need stabilisation (I seldom take tequila ...)

So life is ... one loves thick women, the other small cameras ...

 

[DHart]

Tess... I'm a thinkin' mebbie i might be a needin ta trade up my 5DMkII fer one a tham fancy ones lik yew got thar.... thet's purdy fancie, aw rit! Lots a kewl butons!

I'm certainly with ya on the lack of EVF. Sony needs to take care of that issue soon, in my view. Although I guess there are a lot of shooters who are apparently accustomed to and satisfied with the results of holding the camera out in space. Most beginning amateurs are used to doing that with their point n shoots. And the camera was intended for that market, after all. Interesting correlation to the old days of the TLR with waist-level finder, holding it against your body at the waist. My first decent camera was a Rolleiflex TLR that my Dad had and gave to me when I was seven. Many decades ago. I guess the NEX can be used that way with good result.

 

[monza]

I may be speaking blasphemy here, but I find composing with the LCD to be quite enjoyable and liberating. Instead of putting a camera up to my eye, I can hold the NEX where it needs to be for the shot I want, without having to contort my humanoid neck and head. I think there is also something to be said when shooting portraits, the NEX is so small that the subject is less intimidated.

The kit lens is also an excellent performer!

 

[hot]

NEX is full okay - but did you ever take pictures (with any viewerless camera) in bright sun .... or, terrible/horrible! ... in SNOW & BRIGHT SUN ?

Even AMOLED then is s.h.i.t !


PS: excellent picture!



.

 

[RichA]

The sensor sure appeals to me, but little else about the camera appeals as much to me as the m4/3 system.

If Sony had made the body slightly larger (the lenses have to be big anyway, so why such a miniature body?) then they could have incorporated a nice EVF option, which is sort of a must for me. And if they're going to make the screen articulate a little, why not make it more versatile (for portrait orientation shooting)?

I like it's ability, with adaptors, to mount a host of legacy lenses and the sensor is great for sure, but it just falls flat for me otherwise from a functional standpoint.

How do you other m4/3 fans feel about it? Is the sensor enough of a draw to put up with the minimal functional versatility and enter another system format?

No EVF, no sale. Even if the body was large enough to handle properly, without being awkward with any lens over a 50mm prime.

 

[Pat Donnelly]

I am not tempted, yet!

I agree with all the other answers except for those that propose quality differences. This debate was settled years ago, first with the dominance of 6cm cameras over all others except for the best photographers, then with 35mm over 6cm.

We are simply not good enough as photographers, to require the highest quality sensors!

Use is what we prize, as we record those things around us that matter to us and to those who matter, to us. We are selfish in that respect, whereas the greatest photographers are simply insufferable human beings, who cart 8x10 equipment at a minimum around mountains for months on end! Some of these saints are on this site and I admire them in a clinical sort of way!

Are the results from digital small form sensors perfect? Irrelevant! The manufacturers are making money hand over fist even in the depression. They are giving us what we want!

We want small, usable cameras and we are getting more and more of them! Hallelujah! 7fps?! Amazing! But next year, it will be even better! The GH2 threatens the video industry! Sony are for once, slow to the market but their offering is wonderful. I will get one once the prices have dropped, to use my lenses on.

Note the emphasis. I will use several different form bodies with MY LENSES! These will be a compromise, but the camera, the chamber of darkness, will enable significantly different results with each lens. The lack of usability of c mount lenses with the NEX is therefore not relevant. I have plenty of manual lenses from the 135 era that perform very well indeed on the m4/3, 4/3, and NEX bodies!

Lenses are what matter, after the user. Bodies come next and the plethora is wonderful! All I need now is lots of first adopters to recycle their bodies onto the market and punish prices!

Photography has never before been as exciting as it is now!