A New Camera - Sony Alpha?

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PS-RagE

Supreme [H]ardness
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There is a thread title I never thought I'd type!

Surely enough though, I have purchased a Sony Alpha camera.

It was on August 13th at about 7:30am that a moment's hesitation was decided by my motorcycle when it opted to lie down while I figured out what I wanted to do:

AM-wipe-sm.jpg


The bike literally landed on its head with the wheels in the air and I decided at this point that perhaps packing a $10,000 camera while riding off-road was not the most wise activity.
So, I started doing some research on what might be a good quality "point and shoot" that I could carry easily on the bike.

After looking at many offerings from Canon to Panasonic to Pentax, in the end the winner was Sony's little NEX-5. It is a nice little fellow:

nex5-1.jpg


nex5-2.jpg


nex5-3.jpg


So, why a Sony you ask?

Well, mostly because of this:

nex5-4.jpg


That is a full-sized APS-C sensor! The same size as in any crop-style SLR.

And, as you can see, the lens is detachable. This one is a 16mm f2.8

So, a "real" camera in a tiny package that I can carry full time on the bike. :)

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Iiiiinteresting... Well, hurry up and post pics from it! :D

That does look like a fairly impressive sensor and lens-mount setup for a P&S. What other lenses are available for it?

Hope none of your main SLR gear was damaged in the bike-crash - that is a really scary thought! :eek:
 
That looks pretty slick. Is it small enough to fit in a pocket with the 16mm?
 
That looks like some rough terrain to crash on. Hope you and your gear are alright!
Did you get any good bug pics while you were down there? ;)
 
madFive said:
Iiiiinteresting... Well, hurry up and post pics from it! :D

That does look like a fairly impressive sensor and lens-mount setup for a P&S.
Click to expand...

Its ISO performance is actually pretty impressive.

This is at ISO3200

NX5-T1(3200).jpg



100% crop
NX5-T1(3200)CROP.jpg


madFive said:
What other lenses are available for it?
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There is also an 18-45mm available but I am not interested. I always go wide angle when getting pics from adventure riding. There is an 18-200mm to be available soon that I may consider for a little more versatility.

madFive said:
Hope none of your main SLR gear was damaged in the bike-crash - that is a really scary thought! :eek:
Click to expand...

I wasn't carrying any camera gear that morning. This was on my way to work - it is a bit more fun than the highway. However, when we ride out on tours I normally will pack the D3 and the 28-70 in the tank bag.

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SilverMK3 said:
That looks like some rough terrain to crash on. Hope you and your gear are alright!
Did you get any good bug pics while you were down there? ;)
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Yeah, I scratched the shit outta my windscreen and broke my clutch lever. I always wear full gear so I wasn't damaged. No bugs :p
 
Nice. Congrats on a fun little toy camera. Are you going to pick up some Leica glass for it? ;)
 
Why have a d3 if you arent going to bother taking properly white balanced pics with it? or even worse pics at shutter speeds too low for your focal length so you get severe motion blur? talk about wasted potential.

Also with the nex-5 the only way to use it is with the choose your own focus mode, where you use the joystick to place the square. Otherwise you will get pics like the one above where the monster can is not in focus, and it instead tries to focus on some random thing behind it.
 
My apologies! In the future I will be sure to strive for your required level of perfection demanded of snapshots from my desk
 
Welcome to the dark side of Sony cameras, everyone assumes since it's not a Canon or Nikon that it is a toy or otherwise piece of crap. You can get the alpha lens adapter for the NEX and use all of the old minolta glass and new Sony and Zeiss glass. I think you will be suprised how well it performs. Please keep us updated, and I am glad there is another Sony user in this forum, :)
 
till you have to mount a 300mm to that ill still take a slr over a tiny as camera with a big lens.

rather have big camera and big lens.
 
this guy at my office just bought one of these..he's pretty pumped for it. He does a lot of overnight hikes, so he wanted a slr type camera, but in a small package where weight is an issue.(since he is carrying his backpack)

he got a few lenses for it and a pouch or whatever. I think he got the remote thing too.

good work
 
P
Filter said:
till you have to mount a 300mm to that ill still take a slr over a tiny as camera with a big lens.

rather have big camera and big lens.
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The whole point of the NEX is its compactness. I would seriously doubt any nex owner would ever use a huge prime like a 300mm. If they wanted that range they would have bought an slr or a p&s. They are primarily going to be used for the 10 -100 mm range for a great travel camera that is really small but takes much better pictures than a point and shoot
 
Kaolinchemist said:
Welcome to the dark side of Sony cameras, everyone assumes since it's not a Canon or Nikon that it is a toy or otherwise piece of crap. You can get the alpha lens adapter for the NEX and use all of the old minolta glass and new Sony and Zeiss glass. I think you will be suprised how well it performs. Please keep us updated, and I am glad there is another Sony user in this forum, :)
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Actually, I am a Nikon shooter with a trio of pro-sized bodies. I bought this little guy specifically for its size to carry on a motorcycle. Honestly, I am not surprised how well it works. I chose it based on its sensor size.
 
those are quality shots. seems like it was a perfect weather, too.

was it shot with a kit lens?
 
That was with the 16mm f2.8

The clouds rolled in at the perfect time. The first pic was at noon and the second around 1:30
 
My RRS camera plate came in today:

nex5-5.jpg


So now I can use the little NEX with my tripod systems. Although severe overkill, the little groundpod is small enough to pack along:

nex5-6.jpg



.

I didn't want 0055 to be disappointed again so please note the custom white balance

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here are some experimental test shots with this camera using various settings. this is the nex-3, the little brother other nex-5. overall it's been ok and portable. would have like to have seen less barrel distortion. most of these were taken on a rainy day.



dsc00497a.jpg




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Although I intend to use this camera mostly with the wide angle prime, I decided that a little more versitility is also required (impossible to isolate anything at 16mm)

This is the 18-200 OSS. I'm not normally a fan of super zooms but I think I can make an exception for this particular camera:

nex5-7.jpg


Is that 200mm or is it just happy to see me?

nex5-8.jpg


You would think that considering the difference in weight between the camera and this lens that they would have put a collar on this thing!

.
 
Heh, and I thought the 70-200 f/2.8L IS looked funny on my little Rebel!

How are the manual controls on it? One of my coworkers has a Sony A200 and it feels a little too dumbed down for my liking.

I kinda wish Canon would take the big chunky G11 body with all the oldschool manual dials and add an APS-C sensor and EF-S mount to it. That would be the ultimate answer to the micro 4/3 format.
 
All controls are accessed through menus so its pretty clunky in that regard. Mostly though I am just adjusting the aperture and that is through the little spinner.
 
defeats the purpose to have camera that small with a lens that big. ill just keep my DSLR.
 
:rolleyes: Me too: three of them with fast glass ranging from 10.5mm to 800mm but on the bike I will have an unusually capable P&S
 
Since we had some dramatic cloud cover this morning, I decided to stop at a couple of points along my route and get a few pictures:

This is turning up past the old Ankerite headframe:

AM_Ride_1.jpg


Looking down the mine rock path. My buddy Jim figures this is what is chewing up my Mefos:

AM_Ride_2.jpg


Bottom of the wastepile. The bike is pointed at the path up the side ahead:

AM_Ride_3.jpg


Top of the wastepile:

AM_Ride_5.jpg


AM_Ride_4.jpg


AM_Ride_6.jpg


At this point I checked the time on my GPS and - DOH! - I'm 30 minutes late! I'll get some more another day.
 
Nice pictures, I don't see why you just wouldn't use your dslr j/k. Seems like a great camera for when you don't want to drag a full camera body around.
 
I like your pictures PS-Rag3. Nice lighting, processing, and compositions. Sony released new firmware for this camera just recently if you haven't noticed. Dpreview's first impressions of the new firmware are really positive.
 
Looks awesome. Have you played with video quality at all?

I'm looking for an entry level DSLR that can take good 1080 video. I'm a noob, and my wife is an even bigger noob. I basically know enough to take macro shots with my current S5 IS and that's about it. So I need a camera that'll do well snapping pics on auto mode and take good video of the kids.

I've been debating between one of these new Sonys or Canon T2i

The portability of the Sony is really appealing from a P&S standpoint.
 
I have never used the little NEX for video - probably never will. I mostly use it like a medium format, shooting from waist level looking down at the LCD. I keep it in "nearest subject" AF mode in aperture priority. So far, I have only used the 16mm f2.8. It is certainly not the best quality lens I own
 
Let me know if you go that route, want to see how stable the heavier lenses are on one of them,,,
 
Well, the lenses are all collar mounted so I don't think stability is going to be much of an issue.
 
sprtnbsblplya said:
Where do you work and are you hiring?
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I run a Motorola Two Way Radio shop in Northern Ontario. I'm afraid I only hire locally.

Speaking of Northern Ontario, we had a rather unusual January 1st this year that saw the majority of our snow melt off. So, my buddy Jim and I decided to take the oppertunity to go for the first ride of the year (image captured with the little Sony):

Jan%201%202011.jpg
 
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