Some NEX-5 Pictures - Feedback appreciated!

For discussion of the E and FE mount mirrorless system
--Laxe--
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Some NEX-5 Pictures - Feedback appreciated!

Unread post by --Laxe-- »

Right!! Got my shiney new NEX-5 yesterday and have been taking lots of pictures during the two days I've owned it so I thought I'd share my results. Bare in mind I am a newbie when it comes to 'composing' shots other than the normal p&s I'm used to doing. I mainly used S priority as I understand it more than I do A priority and had it mostly locked to iso 200 as it was a really sunny day!

Let me know what you guys think plus any tips to getting sharper pictures. These are all straight jpeg just fyi. Don't think I'm ready to do RAW converting just yet. ;)

http://img713.imageshack.us/img713/3023/dsc00166r.jpg
http://img696.imageshack.us/img696/7334/dsc00174b.jpg
http://img294.imageshack.us/img294/8830/dsc00177oh.jpg - Wish I had set the seagull as the focal point rather than 'multi'
http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/5773/dsc00190z.jpg
http://img514.imageshack.us/img514/4066/dsc00214nq.jpg
http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/4953/dsc00230lv.jpg
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mayro 123
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Re: Some NEX-5 Pictures - Feedback appreciated!

Unread post by mayro 123 »

NEX camera look like it can deliver really nice pictures.. If you put sharpening up in camera you will get sharper pictures... But you also ned to do little work in program to get it even more better...
Vidgamer
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Re: Some NEX-5 Pictures - Feedback appreciated!

Unread post by Vidgamer »

A lot of these seem to have a bit of a blur that I can't put my finger on. Motion blur? Lack of depth-of-field? Was stabilization on? Was it the kit lens or the pancake?
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KevinBarrett
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Re: Some NEX-5 Pictures - Feedback appreciated!

Unread post by KevinBarrett »

Welcome to the forums, Laxe and Mayro 123!

Thanks for posting links to the original picture files, Laxe. I was able to take a look at you exposure data and tell a bit about your pictures and why Vidgamer sees some softness. When using S priority rather than A, you were getting some seriously fast exposures, ensuring frozen action, but the aperture was consistently at its largest (and softest) setting. Many of these scenes would have done well shot at one tenth the speed you used, but most of them are at 1/1600. Your sharpest image there was shot at 1/160 second with an aperture (That's the "A" of "A Priority") of f/18; this is appropriate for a landscape shot. Shooting in the city with a kit lens, you might ought to stay somewhere in the middle and find the right balance that suits the situation.

Sony's user interface tells you about blurring backgrounds and freezing action, but what it doesn't tell you is that image sharpness generally peaks at an aperture of around f/6.3 to f/8. Going to smaller apertures (larger "A" numbers) like f/11 and f/16 will get you sharpness in more places, but it's the kind of sharpness that diminishes as you get greedy.

Also, if you still want to freeze the action at 1/1600 but get sharper shots, go on up to a higher ISO sensitivity so that the aperture can close down. The NEX-5 can handle it. Or try going out on a sunny day and shoot at f/5.6 in A Priority for a while, then shoot at f/11 and see which pictures you like more.
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Greg Beetham
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Re: Some NEX-5 Pictures - Feedback appreciated!

Unread post by Greg Beetham »

I took the liberty of getting the metadata from one of the images just to see what shutter speed and f-stop was used and I agree with Kevin, the high shutter speed will freeze any movement, but you could have the best of both worlds in scenic A-mode rather than sports and action S-mode. Like Kevin said an ISO of 400 possibly would be better and an f-stop of f8 or f11 even f16 is ok on a decent lens, usually f-11 setting in A-mode is great for scenes and the shutter can take care of itself, the camera will sort out the shutter speed for you for a matching exposure, just keep an eye on it though in case it drops too low. There seems to be a bit of overexposure here and there so I'd be inclined too set a minus 1/3rd exposure as well, you can brighten up the shadows a tad later in PP without causing too much noise I'd think.
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--Laxe--
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Re: Some NEX-5 Pictures - Feedback appreciated!

Unread post by --Laxe-- »

Wow thanks for the feedback guys! I always assumed that aperture at it's highest would always lead to the best pictures since the iris of the lens would let the most amount of light in.

I'll try shooting in A mode next time and see what happens. I agree though, the shots aren't as sharps as I was expecting and these were my sharpest out of the lot too! I may even set the ISO to 'auto' next time just so I can focus on the aperture setting - I'm sure the NEX-5 won't go crazy in bright sunlight lol! And yes, these were all taken with the 18-55mm kit lens. I did also have the 16mm lens also with me but never felt the need to swap to it.

Thanks again for the tips! :D
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KevinBarrett
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Re: Some NEX-5 Pictures - Feedback appreciated!

Unread post by KevinBarrett »

--Laxe-- wrote:Wow thanks for the feedback guys! I always assumed that aperture at it's highest would always lead to the best pictures since the iris of the lens would let the most amount of light in.
You're welcome! Aperture can be confusing at first, though I can understand your reasoning. Generally, a lens with a larger maximum aperture (smaller f/number) will be sharper than a lens with a smaller maximum aperture (larger f/number), at the same settings. This is not a rule because lenses are all different; built to different needs (cost, speed, range, etc...), with different compromises to meet those needs.

My 50mm f/1.7 is softer than my 17-50mm f/2.8 when both lenses are at their maximum aperture, but stop them both down to f/4, that's one stop down from maximum aperture for the 17-50mm zoom, but two and a half stops down for the 50mm prime. The faster prime lens leap-frogs the slower zoom lens' performance in that short space.
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Re: Some NEX-5 Pictures - Feedback appreciated!

Unread post by Danjojo_Resurrected1 »

Definitely do as mayro 123 suggests, if you want to only shoot jpegs and no post processing, turn up the sharpness a few notches.
--Laxe--
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Re: Some NEX-5 Pictures - Feedback appreciated!

Unread post by --Laxe-- »

Right. I've been playing around some more with aperture and I think I understand how it affects the sharpness of my shots (kinda).

Here's a link to my Flickr account for those who want to see some novice shots lol! Of course feedback is always welcome. I'll update it when I have more to show.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/25011281@N07/
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