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NEX E-mount adaptor with built in translucent mirror and EVF!

Bugleone

Well-known member
Frankly, and without wishing to be unkind to anybody, this is a really stupid idea!

The really great thing about my new NEX 3 is the excellent screen and that I dont 'have' to put it across my face to make a shot. Having used the visoflex, albeit a long time ago, I do remember it as a relatively crude device to use compared with a reflex camera. Why one would see any benefit in taking an elegant photo tool like a NEX and putting a visoflex in front of it for no useable benefit is beyond me......

.........We have just got rid of the mirror and dim screen, so why put it back?
 

Lonnie Utah

New member
Frankly, and without wishing to be unkind to anybody, this is a really stupid idea!
Maybe if it was a REAL mirror like the visoflex. This will be an SLT, and you'll still use the rear screen to focus and compose. But you'd also have the ability to use an EVF if you wanted to. I think that this is a BRILLIANT idea. I'm sure the mirror is just there to operate the phase detect AF, and the viewfinder is a secondary plus.

It opens up so many possibilities for this series of cameras. Mirrorless e-mount, mirrorless A-mount, Phase detect AF A-mount with and without and EVF, legacy glass manual focus thru adapters and on a tiny compact body.

Exciting times.
 

jonoslack

Active member
Frankly, and without wishing to be unkind to anybody, this is a really stupid idea!

The really great thing about my new NEX 3 is the excellent screen and that I dont 'have' to put it across my face to make a shot. Having used the visoflex, albeit a long time ago, I do remember it as a relatively crude device to use compared with a reflex camera. Why one would see any benefit in taking an elegant photo tool like a NEX and putting a visoflex in front of it for no useable benefit is beyond me......

.........We have just got rid of the mirror and dim screen, so why put it back?
Maybe you missed the point ?- the picture of the visoflex was a kind of metaphor/joke - nobody is suggesting putting a visoflex on a NEX - the idea is that you can put Emount lenses on - use the much faster phase detect AF, and use an EVF at the same time.
 

hot

Active member
I think such a box with mirror for NEX comes out of brain of a joker
or a moronic - SONY has other things to do than such nonsense.
 

douglasf13

New member
I think such a box with mirror for NEX comes out of brain of a joker
or a moronic - SONY has other things to do than such nonsense.
I'm not sure that you're grasping the big picture. This will allow Sony to affectively get rid of the separate SLT line sooner than expected. Most of us assumed that SLT cameras would stick around until, either A) CDAF some how catches up with PDAF, or B) PDAF goes on-sensor. Enabling the option of PDAF with NEX cameras essentially eliminates the need for two separate camera lines, and Sony can continue to develop both PDAF and CDAF lens lines.

Sony can now just focus on NEX and make highly modular systems with NEX bodies of various size and features. Who knows? Maybe Sony will starting making A900 sized/featured NEX cameras? Or maybe they'll come out with a modular system that allows one to strip off various grips, EVFs, etc. to leave a small camera when one wants to go small? The sky is the limit. :thumbup:
 

Lonnie Utah

New member
I'm not sure that you're grasping the big picture.
Exactly. While none of us know the final form of this adapter, it truly has the potential to turn the NEX into a true up-gradable "digital back", that's slightly larger than a pack of playing cards. Again, I think the idea is genus.
 

Quentin_Bargate

Well-known member
The appeal to me of the NEX cameras is the small size + dslr quality. Feature creep is fine provided the size remains essentially pocketable. Modular sounds interesting. But Sony please avoid scaling the damn things up! Keep 'em small, small, small.... A DSLR sized NEX camera is just another DSLR in which I have zero interest.
 

peterv

New member
I agree with Douglas and Lonnie, this a big step forward. It'll make the NEX modular and even more versatile.
 

douglasf13

New member
The appeal to me of the NEX cameras is the small size + dslr quality. Feature creep is fine provided the size remains essentially pocketable. Modular sounds interesting. But Sony please avoid scaling the damn things up! Keep 'em small, small, small.... A DSLR sized NEX camera is just another DSLR in which I have zero interest.
Quentin, I agree for my own sake, but I think, in the future, we'll see a line of NEX cameras that range in size across the board. If this adapter allows Sony to put all of their resources into one camera line, there's no telling what kind of cool stuff we'll see.

On a side note, I wonder if combining NEX and SLT will give Sony the resources to still make an OVF camera or two on the high end, and if it that would be worth their while?
 

Jim DE

New member
Yeah the idea of a totally modular system opens up a doorway that is limitless. Component size can stay small but say if a person wants more size drop the digital component into a larger housing or one with eve or ovf. Or if you want to shoot a mount or e mount component part swaps afield. The more I think out of the box on this the more directions I can visualize this going. Now if Sony will join this party soon enough to be the lead company in component digital FF or aps digital photography they will really jump in their sales.

Imagine a system that is reasonably priced that the buyer can select the digital guts whether aps or FF, the lens mount preference or shared mounts, live view, eve, ovf, or combos, housing sizes, flash preferences, etc .... Like what is available for the component based medium format or large format film or digital cameras of past and present.

I'm liking it !!!!! ;)
 

douglasf13

New member
To add to my post above, I think the implications of 135 sensors are interesting with this new development. The current NEX system, from lenses, to the LA-EA1, to the mount electrical contacts, doesn't support the idea of a 135 sensor, and Sony seems very at home with the aps-c/Super35 sensor size, seeing that they use it all the way up to their pro HD cams in the six figure range. I wonder if this new adapter will support 135?

Maybe Sony will reserve all of their LCD/EVF-type cameras for aps-c/Super35, and still develop a single, high end DSLR with OVF and a 135 sensor to cater to some??
 

Jim DE

New member
Sony may of stumbled on their own version of the "10/22 Ruger", "1911". or "Colt M16". Mix and match components and make it how you want it :)
 

emr

Member
While I don't have any Sony camera (but have seriously considered NEX even before this), I find it an excellent idea!

How I wish my own brand Pentax would innovate like this and not some silly Q with a microscopic sensor.
 

peterb

Member
I'm not sure that you're grasping the big picture. This will allow Sony to affectively get rid of the separate SLT line sooner than expected. Most of us assumed that SLT cameras would stick around until, either A) CDAF some how catches up with PDAF, or B) PDAF goes on-sensor. Enabling the option of PDAF with NEX cameras essentially eliminates the need for two separate camera lines, and Sony can continue to develop both PDAF and CDAF lens lines.

Sony can now just focus on NEX and make highly modular systems with NEX bodies of various size and features. Who knows? Maybe Sony will starting making A900 sized/featured NEX cameras? Or maybe they'll come out with a modular system that allows one to strip off various grips, EVFs, etc. to leave a small camera when one wants to go small? The sky is the limit. :thumbup:
I agree. And think the writing is on the wall and that a 40 MP FF Nex is very much a possibility. It would be very compact (well relatively so) and hardly bulky like a Nikon D--, Canon 1D.., Pentax 645 , Phase One, Leica S2 or Sony's own A850/A900 (not that these cameras are bulky or unwieldy but I think you get the idea). They may achieve what Sinar could not.
 

douglasf13

New member
I agree. And think the writing is on the wall and that a 40 MP FF Nex is very much a possibility. It would be very compact (well relatively so) and hardly bulky like a Nikon D--, Canon 1D.., Pentax 645 , Phase One, Leica S2 or Sony's own A850/A900 (not that these cameras are bulky or unwieldy but I think you get the idea). They may achieve what Sinar could not.
I'm not so sure. The NEX electrical contacts don't allow space for a 135 sensor, currently, so they'd need to redesign the mount, and, of course, the NEX lenses don't cover 135, either.
 

m_driscoll

New member
I'll bump this up a bit! Anybody used this adapter? I have one on it's way. Unfortunately, I don't own any A-mount lenses! I've been contemplating the Zeiss 85mm f/1.4. Can't be any larger then a Nocti on the 5N.

I realize I'm missing the 'point' of the size of the camera. I don't care! It's like a digital back for a lens. Still going to be way more svelte then a D3s with a 70-200mm on it.

Any experience with an A-mount adapter on a NEX?

Cheers, Matt

http://mdriscoll.zenfolio.com
 

m_driscoll

New member
Answered my own question.

I got a Sony Zeiss 85mm f/1.4 and both the LE-EA1 and LE-EA2 Adapters today. The LE-EA1 wouldn't autofocus with this lens - said so right in the menu! The LE-EA2 was awesome!

Everybody that tried the camera today was impressed with the speed of the autofocus. The ergonomics of this combination was also quite good. Nice addition to the Leica and NEX E lenses on the 5N. :D

Cheers, Matt

http://mdriscoll.zenfolio.com
 
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