Camera Labs

Hi All,

I was looking at the accessories available for the NEX camera's just incase I did aquire a NEX camera. Can anyone that possibly has any of the NEX camera's give me their feedback on the camera. Pro's and Con's. Reviews are good, but I always value direct user experience as well. What about the optical viewfinder? Is it any good? The microphone? I was also looking around at the bags and cases for the NEX camera's. Any advice on particular bags to get?

I've had my NEX-5 for about 6 weeks now, and i'm extremely happy about the purchase. I guess it all depends on what your skill level and expectations of the camera are, but I fit the target demographic for this camera perfectly - a p&s user that wanted more quality and full manual controls to grow into as my skills get better. It's a perfect bridge camera for me and I would assume many others just like myself.

The new v3 firmware has definitely made the camera more friendly to use, so a firmware upgrade will likely be the first thing you do to the camera. It takes great pictures (especially considering it's size), and the full HD video quality is better than my dedicated HD camcorder (I guess due to it's much larger sensor size). Full auto is nice if you're looking for point and shoot simplicity, put it into program auto if you need a little handholding while you learn the settings, or go into any of the other manual modes as you grow into the camera. All settings changes are reflected on the screen, so you can see in realtime the effect your adjustments will have on the picture before it's snapped. Plus plus in my book.

My co-workers are a bunch of bonafide camera nuts and were naturally curious about the NEX-5 after my purchase. I directed them to the review here and they asked me to bring it to the office for them to play with. A week later, two of them purchased the NEX-3 as a starter camera for their wives to get into the hobby.

I live in a city that has breathtaking architecture that is beautifully lit at night, so this was naturally my biggest draw to the NEX cameras - the handheld low light features cannot be beat. Me and a few colleagues went roaming about the city one night with our cameras (Nikon D90, Canon 50d and 550d, and my NEX-5). They struggled with on the fly low light shots and had to revert to tripods to get decent results at slow shutter speeds. I on the other hand was able to snap nice low light shots by hand. It also seemed that the NEX had better noise performance at higher ISO's than their considerably more expensive cameras. One disadvantage I had was the lack of phase change focusing, so I had to rely on manual focus assist in the lowest of lighting conditions (not much contrast for a contrast-based focusing system in near darkness). This was not usually a problem as the autofocus would usually lock onto a light source and happily snap away.

The only regret I do have is that the camera shop was sold out of the dual lens kits when I picked mine up, so I grabbed the kit with the 18-55 zoom. Now I wish I had that 16mm pancake as well Accessories are sparse for this camera due to my location, so I can't comment on any of that. I will however be investing in more lenses as they become available, and definitely some type of case.

-Brian

_________________
In wine there is wisdom. In beer there is strength. In water there is bacteria.

Hi Brian, thanks for your comments. Did you use the Handheld Twlight mode out at night? I'd love to see some night shots around Prague with that mode...

Gordon,

Yes, the handheld twilight mode is a real lifesaver as you pointed out in your excellent review =) That combined with the optical stabilization gives me a lot of leeway and I can roam around without a tripod for everything but the absolute darkest of shots.

I'm in Warsaw right now on a business trip, I'll post some low light Prague pics when I return home next week. Poke around Google images for "Warsaw Palace of Culture and Science". I'm looking at that monstrosity from my 22nd floor hotel room window right now across the street....very impressive at nighttime. The weather here is awful, otherwise I'd be out snapping away at it...

-Brian

_________________
In wine there is wisdom. In beer there is strength. In water there is bacteria.

Thanks for the information Brian. Ithink I will be getting the dual lens kit. I was initially deciding between the hx5v and one of the NEX's but think I have decided on the NEX 5, might as well get the Nex 5. I'm not sure how much I will like the plastic build of the Nex 3. What about your memory card? What size did you get? I would assume the average picture is 3-4mb.

CameraMan121

CameraMan,

I played with both the NEX-3 and NEX-5, the 5 felt better to me. It has a noticeably deeper grip that fit my huge hands considerably better. Build quality seemed to be identical on both cameras, so if the 3 is better for your budget, you can live with 720p video, and it feels better in hand - grab it. I don't think you'll regret the purchase either way you go.

I already had a selection of SD cards from my p&s, so I only grabbed one additional 8Gb class 6 card. I shoot in 16:9 aspect ratio as all my laptop and desktop monitors are widescreen - the 8Gb card will do 1440 pics in fine jpg mode at 16:9, and just short of 500 pics in max resolution raw mode. HD video at 1080p capacity is 61 minutes on a freshly formatted 8Gb SD card.

Regards,
Brian

_________________
In wine there is wisdom. In beer there is strength. In water there is bacteria.

Great, thanks for th info again Brian. I will definately go for the NEX 5. I just have a few last questions before I take the plunge and get it. Which lenses do you have? I am considering getting both lenses together, but if you were to say the pancake lens is useless I wont bother. What do you think about it? Also, the accessories that can be attached to the NEX 5, did you get any? I am considering getting the microphone to improve the sound on any videos I do make, or is the built in mic sufficient? I am going to try make a few interviews with it as soon as I get it. Lastly, the memory cards. What is the minimum and/or recommended class of memory stick that I should get? I was looking at the Sandisk extreme SDHC or the memory stick duo hg memory stick. I think they are both class 10. Or is it too much? Class 6 or 8 good enough? I'm considering getting either a 16gb or 32gb stick, but maybe i will break them up into 3 or 4 8gb sticks. I will rely greatly on your advice. Ofcourse HD shooting takes a lot of space!

Thanks again!

CameraMan121