NEX purchase - a difficult decision

[David Kilpatrick]

I will be getting a NEX on loan for test, but for obvious reasons, I plan to order one for earliest delivery (probably from Warehouse Express as Jacobs are stating in-store collection only no web sales!). NEX5 naturally, and I think silver, as during my recently trip to Turkey I know my A900 got too hot to hold one sunny day. Also, the lenses are silver and look much better on a matching body.

Dilemma: 16mm lens is a must-have. 95% of the point of this camera is extreme pocketability and stealth shooting. Whatever the blurb on the sales sites say, the 18-55mm is not pocketable and the 18-200mm when it arrives is a monster, 67mm filter thread included. But 16mm is so limiting for HD video, and although it does the widest (220°) sweep pans, I was not able to get the sea horizon to stitch on any 16mm sweep.

Right, I'm thinking NEX5 plus 16mm only plus free accessory kit (contains vital spare battery!), plus E to A mount converter, plus ECM microphone. Since the moment you remove the 16mm from the body, you are no longer dealing with a pocketable camera or even a very ergonomically balanced one, I am thinking of 30mm f2.8 SAM, 50mm f/1.4 Minolta, 60mm f/2 Tamron, and all my other lenses - where longer focal lengths are needed.

After all, if I was to get the 18-200mm, it would not even match the Sigma 18-250mm OS and for all I know the E to A adaptor might actually provide power for the Sigma OS lens. I took a 70-300mm Sigma OS to Croatia, but they would not allow anyone to handle the E to A adaptor. And for most still shooting, the A550 is definitely preferable - just a bit bulky.

So I think I am not going to buy the 18-55mm, just the 16mm and the adaptor.

David

[pakodominguez]

I think I'm getting the NEX5 on black... I'm planning to use it with the SEL 16mm f2.8 and the E to A mount adapter. Probably the fisheye too, but not from the beginning.

Suddenly, lenses as the 30mm SAM or the 50 SAM make way more sense withing the system (remember that the NEX are Alpha cameras)

I bought the 24-70 f2.8 because the SSM and the rumored AF compatibility with NEX cameras, but I haven't sell the Sigma 24mm f2.8 that I bought during the winter, thinking that I'll use it on the NEX. My planned 3 primes kit will be the 16mm + 24mm + the 50 macro or the 100 SF (depending on the mood of the day)

Unless video became a big thing on my revenues, I'm not planning to buy any of the SEL zooms -not yet.

The only thing I'm really missing is wireless flash. I hope they will redress this issue ASAP.

Regards

[Greg Beetham]

David, I know you are in a different position to me, but I wouldn't consider buying, ie. pay good money for one of these NEX's unless and until there is a functional E to A adapter. One that can provide aperture control and focus confirmation at the very least, AF it seems is something we won't see with screw drive A-mount lenses, so far AF isn't possible even with A-mount SAM lenses. Actually I don't think the camera qualifies to be called an Alpha if it can't use A-mount lenses at full functionality.
Greg

[bakubo]

Just wondering. Is it conceivably possible to put an SSM ring motor in the E to A adapter and have that drive a screwdriver interface to a screw focus lens?

[bakubo]

I just saw this interesting post by Andy Westlake (dpreview camera reviewer):

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read. ... e=35346582

Ironically ring-type ultrasonic motors, which are the best for PDAF, turn out to be terrible at CDAF, as they just can't manage the smooth, continuous motions required.

If you get the chance, you can appreciate the problems Sony faces by playing with a Canon/Nikon/Olympus/Pentax DSLR that can CDAF in live view with an ultrasonic lens. Focusing is jerky and painfully slow, taking several seconds, and not necessarily even critically accurate. Manual focus ends up being faster and more accurate, especially with well-implemented live view magnification (which Sony has got right on the NEX interface).

[Greg Beetham]

Engineering wise I would say easily Henry, all it would need is a planetary reduction set between the SSM ring rack gear and the screw drive axle pinion, the big problem is AF detection-confirmation to the internal system and the user interface, both non operational at the moment with A-mount lenses, it seems.
Greg

[bakubo]

Engineering wise I would say easily Henry, all it would need is a planetary reduction set between the SSM ring rack gear and the screw drive axle pinion, the big problem is AF detection-confirmation to the internal system and the user interface, both non operational at the moment with A-mount lenses, it seems.

I think Sony said that there will be a firmware update to fix that, right?

[David Kilpatrick]

Sony expects to release a firmware update in August which will add 3D panorama mode and the final algorithm for AF with SAM/SSM.

The reason they have held back is not because Alpha lenses won't focus, it is because they intended them to AF during video. They may eventually release firmware to enable contrast detect S-AF for stills, but disable C-AF in video mode, if they can't get it to work.

David

[Greg Beetham]

Thing is, the vast bulk of A-mount lenses are screw drive, despite the recent upsurge of SAM and SSM lenses, it's not much use to a great many people that their lenses can't AF focus either with stills or video on a NEX camera, and besides that there is still no aperture control with any A-mount lens, SAM, SSM or Screw drive.
Greg

[David Kilpatrick]

Wrong - there is full aperture control from the camera body. The adaptor includes an aperture motor.

I've ordered, anyway, one NEX-5 silver with 16mm, one microphone, and one Alpha mount adaptor.

I will miss stabilisation, but if I really get on with the NEX for video, I'll fork out the money for the 18-200mm as this promises to be a professional grade lens and has a new type of stabilisation to counteract freehand video problems.

David

[Greg Beetham]

Getting accurate information is like getting blood out of a stone, that's the first time I've seen it confirmed that full aperture control is available for A-mount lenses in the E to A-mount adapter for the NEX cameras.
Greg

[pakodominguez]

I've ordered, anyway, one NEX-5 silver with 16mm, one microphone, and one Alpha mount adaptor.

Will you get the fisheye lens too?
I'm thinking about it...

[David Kilpatrick]

I will borrow the add-on lenses and the 18-200mm if possible, before jumping that way. Based on the edge/corner resolution of the 16mm I tested, I would not hold out big hopes for the adaptors.

I will say that this is as really difficult buying process, I realise that without getting the 18-55mm I have zero stabilisation - and that the 18-55mm at 18mm is actually much better than the 16mm - this picture shows what it can do wide open:



http://www.pbase.com/davidkilpatrick/image/124535955

But I just don't want to duplicate what I get from my A550 with 16-80mm or A900 with 24-85mm. Actually, I would like them to make a 20mm f/1.4 SEL - that would be something very different.

David

[Mark K]

Can't be too difficult for me that I will most likely end up with the two lens kit plus an adapter to A mount lenses. Batteries, microphones and more high speed SD cards

[edrice]

...the 18-55mm is not pocketable and the 18-200mm when it arrives is
a monster...

It's all perspective.

You are so correct. This is a very difficult situation. Here all along I have been happy with my A350 and CZ16-80, not a care in the world, new cameras coming and going and I am off in my own little world. Then comes the Nex and I find myself fuming over what to do.

The problem is my addictions. First I am addicted to the CZ16-80, but there is no stabilzation on the Nex. Next I am addicted to stabilzation but you only get that with the 18-55 or 18-200, Which begs the question - can a 16-80 addict ever find happiness with either of the 18s?

My addiction to stabilization is based on a lifelong habit of going up high mountains on foot where the weight of a tripod is not an option. That same weight restriction has always required me to keep camera gear light and compact, so I am also addicted to light weight and compactness. I have absolutely no use for large cameras. For this reason, for a couple of decades I carried the X-700 and a zoom or two even into the AF age. (Who needs AF for landscapes anyway?) Fast forward to today and my A350 is not that compact but the zooms have improved enough that I can carry a greater FL range.

So the Nex is like a godsend, especially as a I get older. Even if the 18-200 is a "monster" relatively speaking, it would still make one of the most compact and capable systems I have ever carried long distances.

What I want to know, is there life after 16-80? I can get by without AF, but the stabilization is what bothers me? Another question, would an A mount lens, being manually focused get any kind of focus confirmation on the LCD screen, just as the A350 does in Live View with the little green dot in the lower left corner. That would be a major concern. I never use Live View anyway and would miss having a viewfinder, even the tiny one on the A350, but the compactness is a real offset to that and I would adapt.

Ed