flash on a Sony Nex 3

[postcardcv]

Well the lack of flash on the Olympus EP1 was a bit annoying so I decided to give the Sony Nex 3 a go (especially as the twin lens kit was a good price on Play). It arrived today and my inital impressions are really good, however when I put the flash on it was about as much use as a chocolate teapot. How are others getting on, is the flash just useless or have I got a dud?

 

[leeboy22001]

I looked at a Nex 3 in Jessops the other day, and the the flash in my opinion wasn't very good! it just sits right on top of the lens !

 

[postcardcv]

I looked at a Nex 3 in Jessops the other day, and the the flash in my opinion wasn't very good! it just sits right on top of the lens !

I agree the position isn't great but my issue is with the coverage, it seems incapable of lighting anything. I'm not expecting miracles but was expecting it to perform at least as well as the internal flash on my G9.

 

[postcardcv]

I've looked into this a bit more and have spoken to Sony about it and it does seem to be a faulty flash unit... so it's back off to Play for a refund (they are out of stock at the moment). I was really impressed with the feel of the camera in the hand but less so with the images it produced, I'm not surprised that it's not as good as my Canon but was disapointed that it wasn't as good as the Olympus Pen I just sold that now seems like a big mistake.

 

[Flash In The Pan]

I'd doubt it's a faulty unit, the Nex flash has a guide number of 7, which doesn't compare well with the (useless) built in flashes on the likes of Nikon and Canon dslrs which rate at around 12-13....

 

[postcardcv]

I'd doubt it's a faulty unit, the Nex flash has a guide number of 7, which doesn't compare well with the (useless) built in flashes on the likes of Nikon and Canon dslrs which rate at around 12-13....

It seems it is - the camera seems to cope with metering fine without the flash but with the flash on it massively under exposes. I tried taking a shots of my kids at a range of ~5-6 feet and it couldn't cope with that. Even with flash comp dialed in it is still badly under exposed. Speaking to the guy at Sony it seems that I am not the first to have this fault on the supplied flash unit.