I just put the NEX-5 through some very stiff tests for exposure metering in contrasty, difficult light including pix right into the sun (included in shot once) with a polarizer. So far, I am more than impressed. I only have JPEGs to work from until a familar (Lightroom/ACR) raw conversion arrives, but pretty much every JPEG shot using normal contrast, standard settings and AdobeRGB has been very well balanced on exposure. Also, the 16mm appears to have no tendency to flare at all. It can used in situations which would have made the 24mm f/2.8 Minolta produce unusable pix.
- hermitage16mm-15th-f11-polarizer.jpg (259.02 KiB) Viewed 1169 times
This is just one shot, a rather shaky 1/15th hand held when balancing on rocks in the river. To my shame, I took some pix across the river with wild irises in the foreground, and because I was composing on the small rear screen I totally failed to spot a man crossing the stream on the stones who spoils those pix.
This is Hermitage Castle in Liddesdale, and the significance of the wide-angle view with the burn is connected to the legend of the Cout (stout young man, knight, 'couthy' man) of Kielder, who dressed in 'amour of proof' was magically protected against sword or spear, and set out to assassinate Lord Soulis, the master of Hermitage (a cruel overlord, from a cruel lineage, and a warlock by reputation). Kielder's magical protection and substantial armour were of no avail, as Soulis' men managed to topple him into the waters of this stream and hold him down until he drowned.
A slightly different version of the shot at f/8 and 1/40th, with brighter light and more water and less foreground rock, will in due course be converted to monochrome (IR effect) from raw, to illustrate the story.
David
David
