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NEX - Firmware and Lenses

Terry

New member
Perhaps we really owe a big thank you to DPReview. I am sure that such a high profile thrashing of the user interface was a key driver of getting Sony to work hard on this firmware update.
 
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Vivek

Guest
I do not think I would share that view. Personally, I could not care less if a "review" outfit thrashes or praises anything.

IIRC, they were pissed that they were not given access to production samples before others.

Perhaps we really owe a big thank you to DPReview. I am sure that such a high profile thrashing of the user interface was a key driver of getting Sony to work hard on this firmware update.
 

Terry

New member
I do not think I would share that view. Personally, I could not care less if a "review" outfit thrashes or praises anything.

IIRC, they were pissed that they were not given access to production samples before others.
You might not care at all. My opinion was that Sony does care.
 
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Vivek

Guest
Of course, you are entitled to your opinions, Terry.

"We" if it does not refer to you alone is a bit of a stretch imagining dprevs made Sony change things.

Dpreviews also said things about the flash. Did Sony change the mount?
 

Terry

New member
Of course, you are entitled to your opinions, Terry.

"We" if it does not refer to you alone is a bit of a stretch imagining dprevs made Sony change things.

Dpreviews also said things about the flash. Did Sony change the mount?
Fair enough with my use of we.
 
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Vivek

Guest
Terry, You are classy lady.

Lots of people (outfits/reviews) made noise about the interface and the many clicks to get to an ISO change, even a NY times (IIRC) reviewer did that. It is possible that you take part in dpreview fora actively and I rarely look at their site.

Good for the potential users (me being one of the "potential" user :eek:), the buttons can be assigned different functions
 

douglasf13

New member
For better or worse, dpreview probably has as much or more influence on camera makers as any other review site/publication. I too suspect that their criticism influenced Sony on such an easy fix.
 

kitsVA

New member
Yeah, I hope we can reassign the 4 way controller buttons, as well as the big center button, but, either way it's a big improvement.
I think that will be something we will see in future as Sony Ericsson feature phones have that function and is one of the reason I liked their feature phones more than the touch screen phones. Since it's believed the SE developers are the one's who did the UI for NEX, it's just a matter of time, I believe.:)

The round steel circle can be assigned 4 functions (by pressing in different directions) and the middle one the 5th one on almost all SE phones in last 3-4 years.

 

Terry

New member
Great find Doug. Imaging Resource is really good at getting and then giving out excellent detailed information from shows. Looking forward to the update and fingers crossed us Mac users won't have to go to extraordinary measures to do the updates.

This last bit is also quite interesting:
"Finally, Sony representatives said they will proactively support the development of third-party lenses and adaptors for the E-mount. Because the E-mount has the shortest flange-sensor distance in the industry, there's more room to fit in an adapter and still have foreign lenses focus properly. Mr. Katsumoto made a point of saying that Sony was very much in favor of this, and was interested in proactively working with various companies to make more adapters. In a private conversation with Imaging-Resource.com Publisher Dave Etchells after the formal presentation, Mr. Katsumoto underscored that Sony would release full engineering specifications for the E-mount to third party adapter makers; a pretty unusual stance in an industry where manufacturers tend to jealously guard such information."
 
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tigertimb

Guest
I agree Terry; it seems significant to me that Sony recognise this portion of its user base and are readily supporting it.

Hopefully this will mean that in the future we could see adaptors supporting better exif information, focus assist when turning the focus ring, support for lenses without manual apertures and focus for lenses with built in motors.

In short; all the extras that Sony has been able to put into its own adaptor for the A-mount lenses
 

Paratom

Well-known member
IMO we must not forget that main design challenge to make a camera smaller is not to fit a large sensor in a small camera but to build lenses which do not get too big.
So the dream and wish of many to have a small camera with small but still fast lenses.
For this reason I also do not see so much sense to build a tiny camera with a large sensor for interchangable lenses. The x1 is a good compromise IMO and M4/3s as well. In case of the NEX I dont know- but I have to admit that I havent used one. But why have a tiny body if the lenses are big anyways?

I think some physical facts can not be overcome- as much as we would like to.





I'm disappointed, so far, by no EVF info and what looks to be rather large lenses. I guess the good news is that the lenses may be fast, but none are of the pancake variety. Just one tiny 35-50mm equivalent pancake prime would be nice, and both Panny and Samsung seem to have no problem doing it. At that size, the Zeiss lens had better be an f1.4. Here is a pic of the 2011 release lenses from Masterbrew on dpr (I didn't label them, so I can't vouch for the accuracy of the labels.) If I could dream, I would hope the Zeiss is a 35 f1.4 (equivalent) and the macro is a 50mm f2 or 2.8 (equivalent.)

 

Terry

New member
IMO we must not forget that main design challenge to make a camera smaller is not to fit a large sensor in a small camera but to build lenses which do not get too big.
So the dream and wish of many to have a small camera with small but still fast lenses.
For this reason I also do not see so much sense to build a tiny camera with a large sensor for interchangable lenses. The x1 is a good compromise IMO and M4/3s as well. In case of the NEX I dont know- but I have to admit that I havent used one. But why have a tiny body if the lenses are big anyways?

I think some physical facts can not be overcome- as much as we would like to.
IMHO I think it is one of those cameras you have to hold for it to make some sense. For instance the kit zoom looked so big and out of proportion when it was launched but in hand it feels extremely comfortable. I haven't put the big 18-200mm zoom lens on the NEX5 yet so no comment there. If you look at the primes in this picture, while they may look big I think all three are smaller than the kit zoom and in reality would then handle very well on the NEX body size. Hard to explain until you really have it in your hands.
 

douglasf13

New member
Samsung has managed to make some small pancake's for the aps-c sensored NX cameras, so it's not necessarily the size of the sensor that is the issue. Maybe a third party will make more pancakes?
 

monza

Active member
I think you are right Terry, there is nothing in the photo to give a sense of proportion to those lenses. They aren't pancakes, but maybe a short stack. :)

For me, it's time to acquire the alpha adapter...
 

sebboh

New member
Samsung has managed to make some small pancake's for the aps-c sensored NX cameras, so it's not necessarily the size of the sensor that is the issue. Maybe a third party will make more pancakes?
lets not forget how small many FF m-mount lenses are. it is certainly possible to make very small (and fast lenses) that cover a larger sensor. it's not clear whether sony plans on going that route though. all the lenses except for the zoom look reasonable to me - using the diameter of the mount to judge i would say that the macro is a fair bit smaller than the pana/leica macro and that the zeiss 24mm? is about the same size as the pana/leica macro.
 
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