Sony OLED Electronic Viewfinder for NEX-5N Camera

[Eric Webb]

Not yet available seemingly and at a stonking price when it is. What's the betting £ = $ . And will it be retro-fittable to existing NEXs. If not, boo shame, because we were more or less promised it would be! The screen-only technique has proved easier than expected but this summer I have had real trouble working in bright sunlight. Alternatively I have seriously considered purchasing a screen loupe. That's going to be a bit of a kludge with rubber bands everywhere - but if it works who cares!

Does the NEX have live-view? If I connected it through to a TV or a PC in use, would I see my subject on-screen? That could be seriously useful for studio and copy work. Might offer an interesting option for remote picture making too - camera trained on the bird-table, me comfortably watching the monitor, trigger in hand, G&T in t'other . . .

Eric

[David Kilpatrick]

The NEX does have HDMI live view and can be used with TVs or monitors. I believe the viewfinder will not fit (or will not work with) the 5 and 3 or C3 - only the 5n.

But since the connector is similar, perhaps firmware will be released to enable this after they have sold plenty of 5ns to 5 owners...

David

[KevinBarrett]

The accessory terminal for the 5N has a hole to accommodate a corresponding peg in the EVF's mount, thereby physically limiting it to use on the 5N (and any other future NEX camera with a similar terminal).

[artington]

Does anyone know whether the accessory EVF for the Nex-5N has an electronic level bar? I knowthe a77 has one as does the Nex-7 but when i had a quick look at the 5N in a local shop there did not appear to be one when scrolling the DISP button. Of course this feature could be hidden in the (still labyrinthine) menu structure but i couldnt find it. If the 5N EVF does have such a levelling assist feature I would find it a compelling alternative to the NEX-7, as and when that might show up.

[artington]

I've just found a download manual for the Nex-5N and tbere's no mention of an electronic level, so clearly this is not there. Pity but probably not critical as the NEX5N has the dual virtues of being considerably cheaper than the NEX7, even including the price of the EVF, and also being able to take the Sony stereo mic, which I bought for my NEX-5. And i prefer the less congested sensor of the 5N. While the NEX-7 looks marvellous I'm not that fussed about the Tri-Navi control facility because i will mainly use this with Leica-M mount or Minolta MD lenses with aperture priority controlled using the lens ring. Still to decide on this.

[agorabasta]

No level bar. The EVF is simply showing the same LCD image data.

If you don't have that EVF, you may just hook your HDMI TV up the output of the cam, and there you go - that's the image you get in the EVF.
It's the same as you get on the cam's LCD, but the HDMI video signal is encoded so that screen pixels are grouped in 2x2 in LV. So the res is actually pretty low in LV/EVF and turns to full HD/EVF-res only at stills playback.

[pakodominguez]

The NEX does have HDMI live view and can be used with TVs or monitors. I believe the viewfinder will not fit (or will not work with) the 5 and 3 or C3 - only the 5n.

But since the connector is similar, perhaps firmware will be released to enable this after they have sold plenty of 5ns to 5 owners...

David

FYI, apparently, the accessory EVF is not compatible with the early NEX models because hardware compatibility.
http://store.sony.com/webapp/wcs/stores ... b#features

[douglasf13]

No level bar. The EVF is simply showing the same LCD image data.

If you don't have that EVF, you may just hook your HDMI TV up the output of the cam, and there you go - that's the image you get in the EVF.
It's the same as you get on the cam's LCD, but the HDMI video signal is encoded so that screen pixels are grouped in 2x2 in LV. So the res is actually pretty low in LV/EVF and turns to full HD/EVF-res only at stills playback.

FWIW, the actual layout of the image data in the 5N EVF is different from the LCD screen. It looks more like the A77/NEX-7 view inside the EVF, with black bars on the top and bottom that contain info like ISO, an exposure comp. scale, etc. AFAIK, the only difference between the view of the A77/NEX-7 and 5N EVF is the lack of the digital level option, and the A77/NEX-7 have an exposure comp scale that goes to -5/+5, rather than -3/+3.

[agorabasta]

The image data is the same, be it in the VF, LCD or the HDMI output. The info overlay in the VF is different, just as it is different in the a55 VF. Sending that data in a video format is unnecessary, as painting those symbols locally from some kind of 'font' format conserves bandwidth.