Flint-Hill
NEX-5N Cavils and Caveats
Sony NEX-5N with legacy Nikon telephoto, Nikon 2X teleconverter and NIkon-to-NEX adapter.
I really do like Sony's little NEX-5N camera, and I've spoken well of it here in the past. I certainly plan on keeping it. Having said that, I do have reservations about it that I ought to share.
I think the problem is that Sony got a little confused about the camera's intended user base. It's designed half as a step-up camera for point-and-shoot photographers and half as a smaller, lighter alternative to a DSLR.
The camera is difficult enough to use that it would be -- and has been -- a big shock to P&S upgraders, many of whom can't make heads nor tails of it. Typical P&S users get a lower percentage of acceptable shots with this camera than with the P&S that they had before. From a P&S engineering standpoint, a more expensive camera should be easier to use than a cheaper one, and the opposite is true of the NEX-5N.
The camera is sufficiently encumbered with hard-to-circumvent P&S features that habitual DSLR users don't find it easy to use, either, though most of them wend their way through in the end. The crux of the confusion lies in a menu system which is wildly inconsistent and nonintuitive if you're used to "prosumer" menu layouts like those from Canon and Nikon. The camera's menus and physical controls are the limiting factors on ease of use in DSLR-level photography.
The little camera's APS-C sensor is wonderful, easily its best feature. Its low-light performance is the equal of any APS DSLR and better than 90% of them. Sony's AF lenses are acceptable to very good, though there aren't many of them, and they're not up to the image quality standards of the rest of the system. Except for the expensive and largely unobtainable 24mm Sony-Zeiss, and the recently released 50mm f/1.8, Sony's NEX lenses are of average kit-lens quality. This isn't intended as a criticism of Sony's reasonably good, reasonably priced NEX lenses. You have to get up into the Zeiss, Leica, pro Nikkor, or Canon L levels to get a lens that's up to the quality of the NEX sensor.
Because few Sony AF lenses are available at present, most DSLR users buy an adaptor for their legacy lens collection. Image quality from legacy lenses can be quite good, or at least I've had excellent results with my old Nikon lenses. However, except for Sony Alpha lenses, you lose AF and auto aperture when you mount legacy lenses via an adapter. You're plunged back into the manual-focus and stop-down metering world of the early 1960s. This doesn't bother those of us who grew up in that era (and who secretly sort of like doing things the old way) but it's not something that most modern DSLR photographers would want to endure.
[ Update 15 April 2012: Sigma has released 19mm and 30mm f/2.8 AF/AE lenses for the NEX series. They are of outstanding quality -- as good as my old pro Nikons -- and are $200 each stateside. ]
To make things even more difficult, Sony lost their entire NEX factory in the Thailand floods, leading to delayed deliveries of cameras, lenses and accessories. If you buy one, be sure to get it from someone who is honest about what they actually have in stock.
Sony just released the NEX-7, which is a 24 Mpix "pro" edition of the basic NEX system. They're almost impossible to get owing to Sony's disrupted supply chain.. The waiting period to get one is about three months. The NEX-7 menu system is still a mess, though DSLR users would find the physical controls more familiar than those on the NEX-5N.
[ Update 15 April 2012: NEX cameras are becoming easier to obtain, though people are still placing orders and waiting some time until their number comes up. ]
In short, I think that January 2012 is an iffy time to buy one of these little Sony cameras, though I have shot over 2700 images with mine in three months, and I intend to keep it. Its image quality -- particularly with legacy lenses -- is genuinely astonishing to find in a tiny $600 camera body.
If you're looking for a better P&S or downsized SLR substitute, you should also check out the more mature micro-four-thirds products from Panasonic and Olympus. Their sensors are not up to those of the NEX line -- either in size or quality -- but there are plenty of lenses as well as specialized models for P&S upgraders and DSLR downsizers.
Canon and Fuji and Olympus have announced new entries into the small-camera-with-big sensor market, though they are not as small as the NEX and micro-four-thirds cameras.
NEX-5N Cavils and Caveats
Sony NEX-5N with legacy Nikon telephoto, Nikon 2X teleconverter and NIkon-to-NEX adapter.
I really do like Sony's little NEX-5N camera, and I've spoken well of it here in the past. I certainly plan on keeping it. Having said that, I do have reservations about it that I ought to share.
I think the problem is that Sony got a little confused about the camera's intended user base. It's designed half as a step-up camera for point-and-shoot photographers and half as a smaller, lighter alternative to a DSLR.
The camera is difficult enough to use that it would be -- and has been -- a big shock to P&S upgraders, many of whom can't make heads nor tails of it. Typical P&S users get a lower percentage of acceptable shots with this camera than with the P&S that they had before. From a P&S engineering standpoint, a more expensive camera should be easier to use than a cheaper one, and the opposite is true of the NEX-5N.
The camera is sufficiently encumbered with hard-to-circumvent P&S features that habitual DSLR users don't find it easy to use, either, though most of them wend their way through in the end. The crux of the confusion lies in a menu system which is wildly inconsistent and nonintuitive if you're used to "prosumer" menu layouts like those from Canon and Nikon. The camera's menus and physical controls are the limiting factors on ease of use in DSLR-level photography.
The little camera's APS-C sensor is wonderful, easily its best feature. Its low-light performance is the equal of any APS DSLR and better than 90% of them. Sony's AF lenses are acceptable to very good, though there aren't many of them, and they're not up to the image quality standards of the rest of the system. Except for the expensive and largely unobtainable 24mm Sony-Zeiss, and the recently released 50mm f/1.8, Sony's NEX lenses are of average kit-lens quality. This isn't intended as a criticism of Sony's reasonably good, reasonably priced NEX lenses. You have to get up into the Zeiss, Leica, pro Nikkor, or Canon L levels to get a lens that's up to the quality of the NEX sensor.
Because few Sony AF lenses are available at present, most DSLR users buy an adaptor for their legacy lens collection. Image quality from legacy lenses can be quite good, or at least I've had excellent results with my old Nikon lenses. However, except for Sony Alpha lenses, you lose AF and auto aperture when you mount legacy lenses via an adapter. You're plunged back into the manual-focus and stop-down metering world of the early 1960s. This doesn't bother those of us who grew up in that era (and who secretly sort of like doing things the old way) but it's not something that most modern DSLR photographers would want to endure.
[ Update 15 April 2012: Sigma has released 19mm and 30mm f/2.8 AF/AE lenses for the NEX series. They are of outstanding quality -- as good as my old pro Nikons -- and are $200 each stateside. ]
To make things even more difficult, Sony lost their entire NEX factory in the Thailand floods, leading to delayed deliveries of cameras, lenses and accessories. If you buy one, be sure to get it from someone who is honest about what they actually have in stock.
Sony just released the NEX-7, which is a 24 Mpix "pro" edition of the basic NEX system. They're almost impossible to get owing to Sony's disrupted supply chain.. The waiting period to get one is about three months. The NEX-7 menu system is still a mess, though DSLR users would find the physical controls more familiar than those on the NEX-5N.
[ Update 15 April 2012: NEX cameras are becoming easier to obtain, though people are still placing orders and waiting some time until their number comes up. ]
In short, I think that January 2012 is an iffy time to buy one of these little Sony cameras, though I have shot over 2700 images with mine in three months, and I intend to keep it. Its image quality -- particularly with legacy lenses -- is genuinely astonishing to find in a tiny $600 camera body.
If you're looking for a better P&S or downsized SLR substitute, you should also check out the more mature micro-four-thirds products from Panasonic and Olympus. Their sensors are not up to those of the NEX line -- either in size or quality -- but there are plenty of lenses as well as specialized models for P&S upgraders and DSLR downsizers.
Canon and Fuji and Olympus have announced new entries into the small-camera-with-big sensor market, though they are not as small as the NEX and micro-four-thirds cameras.