Wednesday, August 11, 2010

New Digital Camera with Interchangeable Lens


The Sony Nex 3 and Nex 5 is hitting the market.  I checked out the reviews and actually have been to check them out.  This is the first Sony and the 3rd camera of this type to be released.  Olympus has one, as does Pentax, I am not a fan of either of those camera companies thus far and have paid little attention to them.  However Sony is one of the 3 camera companies I do track.  The pros and cons are discussed at length in a review by dp review at.   http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/SonyNex5Nex3/  It is a good read and I would suggest you do so before you purchase this camera.  So far it appears the nex 3 and nex 5 are similar.  The Nex 5 has a magnesium alloy body,  I have held the Nex 3 and it seemed plenty strong even in a plastic case.  At the photo store the guy tried to tell me the Magnesium body was water proof, when I questioned him he quickly backed down.  It is not water proof... The Nex 3 and 5 are essentially the same, the Nex 5 has a slightly smaller body and an infra red reciever, and 1080i AVCHD moving recording mode.

The review points out the manual modes are difficult to operate.  You can read more at dp.
Thinking about buying one of these cameras here is my pros and cons bullet point style.

Pro

  • Has micro 4/3rds sensor.... larger gathers more info than standard point and shoot
  • small light and easy to handle
  • few buttons to get confused with
  • interchangeable lenses with image stabilization in the lens
  • Has in camera stitching for panorama shooting 
  • Does HDR in camera
  • Image Stabilization is in the lens
Cons
  • adjusting the camera to manual is difficult and limited. 
  • The buttons on the camera are not specific (except shutter) and change depending on the mode. 
  • The camera comes with 1 lens with the option to purchase additional lenses. So far the price on the additonal lenses is from 600 dollars up.  The Kit for the camera and 1 lens is suggest retail at 699.  You could easily have 1800 in the camera before you are through
  • Sony add on flash is proprietary.  You can only add Sony Flashes.
  • The camera does not accept other Sony lens with out an adapter and then many of the functions of the lenses do not work and since the other Sony lenses do not have image stabilization the lens so the of other Alph lenses is more limited
I will write more as I have more experience with the camera.  For now I would say UNLESS you are planning on enlarging your pictures beyond 16x20 or need some specific feature of the Nex 3 or 5 you can accomplish just as much with more zoom, with a high end point and shoot.  A point and shoot with a 20x zoom is in Nikon, Sony or Canon, will give you a wider range of shooting and zoom with out removing lenses, or having to carry a large amount of equipment, for far less money.  

A good camera for a segment of the population, just not necessary for most.   

Jack 

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