Got me a Nex toy...

[alphaomega]

Thanks Vidgamer. I look forward to hearing your further views on the NEX5 capabilities v. DSLR and I feel strongly that an EVF should have been included. Your observations so far confirm that. That omission is really a put-off for me. There may be a smaller DSLR in the pipeline at some stage that can match the A550 for IQ and have enough features to attract me. Not interested in A2/300 level cameras. New line of CyberShots just released shows (as does the NEX) that Sony are stuffing more and more features and IQ into smaller and smaller spaces. Maybe time to wait a couple of months to see what more they have up their sleeve.

[Vidgamer]

I tried the sunshine mode which was bright enough for bright sun but washed away details. I went back to auto LCD brightness. At one point, I realized that when I tilted the camera down in bright sun, it got much brighter in the LCD. Weird. I found that part of my problem seeing the display was my darkened glasses. At any rate, I could almost always frame the scene ok; if you wanted to review and pixel-peep go ensure you got the shot, well, that was a problem in bright sunlight (as it would be with my dslr). Yeah, an evf or ovf would be better, but the LCD worked ok. Using it in sunlight in general is fine, really; one day with the sun beating down, I finally had to admit that the LCD was in trouble. That's when I saw it brighten when I tilted down. Doesn't help for framing but does for review.


If anything, manual focusing is easier. It has a cool dmf mode that zooms the display. I've already made effective use of this.

[bakubo]

I tried the sunshine mode which was bright enough for bright sun but washed away details. I went back to auto LCD brightness. At one point, I realized that when I tilted the camera down in bright sun, it got much brighter in the LCD. Weird. I found that part of my problem seeing the display was my darkened glasses. At any rate, I could almost always frame the scene ok; if you wanted to review and pixel-peep go ensure you got the shot, well, that was a problem in bright sunlight (as it would be with my dslr). Yeah, an evf or ovf would be better, but the LCD worked ok. Using it in sunlight in general is fine, really; one day with the sun beating down, I finally had to admit that the LCD was in trouble. That's when I saw it brighten when I tilted down. Doesn't help for framing but does for review.

The thing about having the LCD as the only vf is that although in bright sun you may be able to frame your subject (in some bright light situations even that is tough), but often in photography being able to merely, sort of frame the subject is not nearly enough. Often photographers really like to be able to see details clearly so that the precise framing can be done and so that small details that may change during this stage can be watched (things moving in the wind, people's facial expressions, shadows moving, etc.) so that the exact moment to trip the shutter can be chosen. If all you are doing is simple snapshots or the types of photos where approximate framing of static subjects in bright sunlight then the LCD works okay. Another issue is in low light. The LCD can look pretty good, but it also illuminates you and other people around you. Often that is not good. Anyway, I realize that lots of people who buy cameras do not care about these things at all so, I suppose, I am in the minority so maybe Sony and other companies will just ignore me.

Yesterday about 5:30 PM my wife and I were at the beach and a couple of young Japanese women next to us had a nice, new digicam with a big LCD. I didn't notice the brand, but it was a pretty nice one. The sun was very bright and coming from the west so that it was reflecting strongly off the ocean and it was almost blinding if you looked in that direction. They were trying to take photos of each other and were trying to shade the LCD with hats and hands. They asked me if I would take a photo of the two of them together so I took the camera and for one of the photos I could make them out enough to frame it although I couldn't really see much in the way of details or color. Then they wanted another photo in the other direction so that the sun was sort of over my shoulder. The LCD was so washed out, even though I was trying to put some shadow on it, that I could barely make out anything. These were just vacation snapshots. If was trying to take photos that were not just snapshots with this camera it would have been useless.

[agorabasta]

Vidgamer,

There's an ambient light sensor in the lower right (edit-in: that's the lower left when looking at the back) corner of the LCD frame, you may easily see it looking closer. We need make sure that the ambient light is actually reaching it to have auto brightness working properly.

They really had to put those sensors all around the LCD frame or better all around the whole body for the feature to work properly. As it is, it's simply too easy to cover that sensor with left thumb/hand or simply by shading it with your head/shoulder or whatsoever.

[Vidgamer]

Vidgamer,

There's an ambient light sensor in the lower right (edit-in: that's the lower left when looking at the back) corner of the LCD frame, ....

Ah that makes perfect sense.

As for the vf, I'd prefer a nice zoomable ovf but an evf is probably going to have to do... A d on another model. It doesn't sound like they allowed for one on these models.

[agorabasta]

An EVF, even if not made by Sony, is always possible simply since there is a live HDMI output on the Nex body... (And that 'auxiliary port' is most likely to provide some kind of power.)

[Vidgamer]

Wow, that's a great idea! Is there a way to easily dim the LCD when using the HDMI port? (I still need to track down a @$& cable.)

Even the ovf might be nice but I'm thinking of the previously-mentioned example of being in a dark theater and not wanting to be terribly distracting to others. I suppose the brightness of the LCD could always be put to low, but it's not really that dim.

But back to the big problem of bright sun. That auto sensor helped a lot, but I can see where it'd be a problem for some. For me, maybe only once did I feel limited, with direct sun high in the sky. It just didn't seem to be an issue for me the rest of the time even though I've been outside every day taking photos.

And that's the main thing to me -- can I use the camera in the real world and come away happy? For me, yes. It works. For others, the LCD is a problem, iso being buried not-really-deeply is bizarrely a problem, etc. It comes down to preferences. I found a-mode to be sufficiently dslr-like, and I really didn't miss my a100 ... Except that I sometimes needed a longer lens for wildlife. And that is not so much the camera but a different lens. Oh I'm using DMV mode -- manual focusing is easier. High iso is so much better. I'm sure that overall, this is a huge improvement over what I had.

If I have one request, it's not for an evf -- it's to auto focus old screw-drive lenses. . Probably not going to happen, by the sounds of it. Maybe MF will do.

[David Kilpatrick]

Have you tried the Sunny mode for the screen? I found it boosted brightness way beyond the maximum for the auto range, and made use in very bright conditions possible. It probably eats battery power.

David

[agorabasta]

Wow, that's a great idea! Is there a way to easily dim the LCD when using the HDMI port?

The LCD goes off automatically as soon as HDMI connection is established. The contents of LCD display are simply fed into external display. And it is so with all alphas having an HDMI out.

[Vidgamer]

Have you tried the Sunny mode for the screen? I found it boosted brightness way beyond the maximum for the auto range, and made use in very bright conditions possible. It probably eats battery power.

David

I think you're right, that Sunny Weather mode is brighter than you can otherwise get. I'm also sure it would eat power. I thought I mentioned it before, but I did try it, and decided that it washed out details, although, I could indeed see the display in bright sunlight. I couldn't afford too much battery loss as I was trying to stretch it for a full day's use, so I just went back to auto.

Unless I'm trying to manually focus, it's not like I need to see the utmost detail when framing a shot; it was sufficient almost all of the time. I'll have to play with it some more to get a more definitive opinion, but so far, it's been good enough for me.

[Vidgamer]

The LCD goes off automatically as soon as HDMI connection is established. The contents of LCD display are simply fed into external display. And it is so with all alphas having an HDMI out.

That's perfect. Now.... will someone do this? And at a reasonable price....