Camera Labs

Hi Everyone,

I recently purchased an NEX-5 with the 16mm 2.8 lens and overall I am extremely impressed.

I believe I will be leaving my Nikon D90 at home most of the time now unless I want to make use of my telephoto lenses.

So far, the combo of features, good to excellent photo quality and most importantly for me, small size make the NEX tough to beat.

However, I noticed an issue that I think may be defect in my particular copy. The lens aperture blades make a noticeable noise when opening or closing. This does not seem to effect the picture quality at all but the sound is greatly amplified during video shooting as the camera opens and closes the lens aperture and it therefore makes the videos unusable.

Have any of you noticed this problem at all? I just received the camera and I'm well within the return period so I'll be exchanging it in hopes this is just a problem with my copy.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Bob

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Nikon D40 / Nikon 18-200mm VRII AFS / Sigma 18-50mm F2.8 HSM lens / SLIK Pro 340 EZ

Every camera with digital lenses has that ''problem'' so far I know.
When I use DoF preview, I hear a fzzz too.
If you want to use the aperture trough video recording, you may want to buy a Nikkor lens with aperture ring and sony adapter.

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Ruben

Panasonic DMC-FZ18, Panasonic DMC-FZ28, Canon G5, Canon 350D, Canon 50D + BG-E2N
Tamron 17-50 2.8, Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L USM,
Canon 18-55 II plus lots of Minolta MD/M42 lenses and bodies

Lenses always make sound when closing the aperture, but it shouldn't be as loud as you described. You might want to go to a store and try out another copy, see how the noise levels compare.

- Bjorn -

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Street and documentary photographer | Google+ | Twitter | Blog | Tumblr

Leica M9-P (my article on Camera Labs) | Leica D-Lux 5 | 50mm Summilux

Yes, I definitely plan to try another copy at the store. I had tried one previous to my purchase (before I was ready to buy) and don't recall hearing the noise on that copy.

Like I said, the noise is not that loud but it is greatly amplified by the on-board microphones during video recording.

The noise happens during video only when the camera decides to change the aperture. If the camera decides to keep the aperture the same, it will focus without noise.

I don't have a You Tube account, but I'll see if I can somehow upload a sample video through Picasa and post the link.

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Nikon D40 / Nikon 18-200mm VRII AFS / Sigma 18-50mm F2.8 HSM lens / SLIK Pro 340 EZ

Hi,

I've uploaded a sample video. The only change to the video since it left the camera is that Picasa converts to 480p upon upload. This did not effect the sound though.

Thanks,

Bob

Link:

http://tinyurl.com/Sony-NEX-5-Test-Video

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Nikon D40 / Nikon 18-200mm VRII AFS / Sigma 18-50mm F2.8 HSM lens / SLIK Pro 340 EZ

Hi ironbob3

congratulations on your purchase!

Seeing your video, the sound is rather distracting - but it's hard to evaluate without any recognizable ambient sounds to help assess the level of noise. If there were people in the room talking at a normal level, it would be easier...or some other sounds to sort of baseline the overall amplification level of the audio.

Nevertheless, it does appear to be quite noisy when the camera adjusts the AF. None of the reviews I have read, mention this as a drawback - which could indicate that what you are experiencing is above the norm.

It can't hurt to investigate this further with your dealer and do a comparison, just to see if your sample is noisier than it should be.

Good luck!

Cheers

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Nikon stuff and other stuff, but not nearly as much stuff as I really want!

I'd say something's borked
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQ91N52zaCQ
No noise at all in that video, except the crickets :p
Kind of hard finding any videos that are similar to yours though, most are shot outside in daylight and I guess they wouldn't do a lot of aperture changes.

Found one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IzkVvjjaKw no strange noise though, but it's quite a lot of animal noise in the background, so hard to tell.

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Canon 500D, 18-55mm IS, 55-200mm IS, Nissin Di622

I agree that something is not right.

The noise is loud even with voices or other noises in the background.

I've requested an exchange so hopefully the second time will be the charm.

I'm about to begin a trip so I'll be away from the forum for a few weeks. However, when I return I'll post an update with the new camera I receive from the exchange.

Thanks everyone for your thoughts and suggestions.

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Nikon D40 / Nikon 18-200mm VRII AFS / Sigma 18-50mm F2.8 HSM lens / SLIK Pro 340 EZ

I'll be posting some videos from the NEX-5 soon, so you can compare those too...

Thanks Gordon - I really appreciated your review!

Hi everyone. Just following up as I said I would.

I'm back from my travels and have my exchange. The new camera is not making that noise during video shooting so I think it must have just been a defect with the previous camera.

Of course, I am now very happy indeed! What a great little camera!

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Nikon D40 / Nikon 18-200mm VRII AFS / Sigma 18-50mm F2.8 HSM lens / SLIK Pro 340 EZ

Glad to hear you got it sorted!