Thinking of ditching the D700

wibbly said:
James, my Brother has the very same issue with you and has gone with a Panasonic GF3 et al. Still kept the Nikon stuff for the time being but as he says, and I quote

"GF3 and 2 lenses and flash goes in waistpack. Nikon macro 775gm - GF3 225gm!"

Food for thought! :)
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Absolutely - I've no intention of ditching my DSLR stuff but the attraction of this camera when you don't want to be burdened with a lot of gear is obvious. I was fortunate in already having a Contax G2 and 4 lenses which are much lighter and more compact than the Sony offerings for the Nex-7 so it's heaven- sent for me.
 
Well Sony are saying the release is postponed indefinitely as they're having to move most of the NEX-7 production abroad so it's going to be a while - certainly doesn't look like being this year and probably well into next year.

In the meantime I've picked up a NEX-5N with the intention of moving it on when the 7 is finally released but the missus has taken a real shine to it - cant prise it away from her, so that might thwart that idea!

I have to say I'm really impressed with it - my Contax Zeiss lenses work really well with the Metabones converter and manual focusing is a doddle with the focus peaking.
 
Couple of comparison test shots with the Zeiss 21mm Biogon and the Sony 16mm 2.8 'pancake' lens. Both shots taken under identical light, wide open at 2.8 and 800 ISO. The Biogon was manually focused - the Sony was auto-focused - both hand held. These are jpegs straight from the camera with no processing or sharpening at all/


Zeiss Biogon 21mm 2.8 by tonky8203, on Flickr


Sony 18mm 2.8 by tonky8203, on Flickr

The difference in edge and corner sharpness between the two images is startling and the contrast is better from the Zeiss too as you'd expect from a 'T' coated lens, Having said that, there's less distortion than I expected with the Sony lens and edge and corner sharpness improves when stopping down, so I don 't think it's too bad for what is after all a relatively inexpensive lens, but being able to use other lens marques on this camera is a huge plus.

You can compare the two full sized images from these links. Big files!


http://www.flickr.com/photos/tonky8203/6276214940/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tonky8203/6275692123/

EDIT PLEASE NOTE - the Sony is a 16mm lens - NOT 18mm.
 
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All I have heard is people whinging about the sony lenses for the NEX but that 18mm doesn't look bad at all. I am still considering getting a 5N to stick my M fit lenses on and an 18, 35 and 50 might make a nice set.
 
Sounds like a plan to me Jim. (y)

This is a pretty extreme test - for most practical uses the 18mm will be just fine.
 
The pancake is a 16mm f/2.8 isn't it? I found it OK but nothing special (except for the size!).

Zeiss lenses, however... :) :)

P.s. Did you get the EVF for the Nex-5N? I found focus peaking very difficult when the sun was shining...viewing the screen to manual focus in bright light is not easy!
 
manualfocus-g said:
The pancake is a 16mm f/2.8 isn't it? I found it OK but nothing special (except for the size!).

Zeiss lenses, however... :) :)

P.s. Did you get the EVF for the Nex-5N? I found focus peaking very difficult when the sun was shining...viewing the screen to manual focus in bright light is not easy!
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LOL. I'll have to edit the post anyway - the Sony is of course a 16mm :wacky:

I didn't get the EVF for it - it's somewhat expensive considering I've ordered the Nex-7 anyway, but I must admit I'm missing a viewfinder.So far I've only used the focus peaking in subdued light indoors and to take these test shots this morning when it was dull, so I dunno as yet - but i'll be trying it out in better light just now. I can't see the EVF as anything other than an improvement though to be honest- I hate holding the camera out in front of me,
 
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menthel said:
All I have heard is people whinging about the sony lenses for the NEX but that 18mm doesn't look bad at all. I am still considering getting a 5N to stick my M fit lenses on and an 18, 35 and 50 might make a nice set.
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The NEX lenses are decent, but they won't blow you away. What M lenses have you got?
 
At Minute 14:33 in his video....Quote ' People say the images from this camera look digital ' His Reply....Quote ' they will, Its a digital camera. wtf !! lol
 
I've got the 50 Summilux ASPH and the NEX does do a nice job with it. If you have M lenses the Ricoh GXR could be worth a look too.
 
A couple more shots - this time with the Zeiss 45mm f/2 Planar which has to be the sharpest lens I've ever used. Both hand held at 800 ISO


Keyhole by tonky8203, on Flickr



Old Clock. by tonky8203, on Flickr

I'm developing some unhealthy man love for this little camera. :love:
 
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Well - as you'll probably know, the launch of the NEX -7 is postponed indefinitely due to two of the Sony Thailand factories being under water as a result of the flooding.

I have the camera on pre-order with Jessops but it's unlikely to be available for at least 6 months from what I can gather of the situation in Thailand.

Despite this Argos are showing the NEX-7 as in stock and £100 cheaper than anywhere else - available for home delivery only within 14 days. I thought that this just has to be a cock-up so rang customer services. The guy who I spoke to is adamant that the camera is in stock and available for home delivery - in fact he says he's checked.

I suppose it's possible Argos could have got early deliveries as the camera was initially due for launch this month, but I still can't help thinking it's a cock-up.

Thoughts? :thinking:
 
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It is possible some slipped through the net, pay your money and take a chance, if it isn't there Argos are usually good on quick refunds.
 
Laudrup said:
It is possible some slipped through the net, pay your money and take a chance, if it isn't there Argos are usually good on quick refunds.
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I am very tempted tbh. I'm just going to ring Argos again and see if I can get put in touch with someone who can actually look at a box and confirm they have it. Fat chance I'd guess. :D
 
If you have the money, order from Argos as well. If it turns up - yay. If not, get your refund and you won't have compromised your Jessops "queue position".
 
LOL. Well I started to go through the order process with Argos on the phone having been assured again that it was in stock "I'm really sorry - it just popped up on my screen -we don't actually have this in stock it will be coming from the supplier."

Bugger! Oh well - jessops it is. :D
 
Don't want to belittle the situation in Thailand - waiting for a camera is bugger all in comparison to having your life crapped on by a massive flood - but that's a shame the release date has been moved back.
Kinda makes me glad I went for the x100 though.
 
fixedimage said:
Don't want to belittle the situation in Thailand - waiting for a camera is bugger all in comparison to having your life crapped on by a massive flood - but that's a shame the release date has been moved back.
Kinda makes me glad I went for the x100 though.
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Well that's absolutely right - it's a terrible disaster for the people out there. At least we have the NEX 5n pending the release of the NEX 7 and the 5n is pretty damned impressive, but I think the NEX 7 is going to be worth the wait.
 
It seems now that Sony have moved the NEX and DSLR production South in Thailand away from the floods and have a partial production line going so they've wasted no time in view of what must have been huge logistical problems.

I guess it could still be several months before we see any NEX cameras in the UK but it's good news at least that the production line is rolling.
 
Cant wait to try one of these out... Im consider swapping the PEN, D3, D40x for the NEX7 and maybe a D700. Tell me I am not mad!!! Most of my future photos are going to be up on mountains and climbing up rock faces so overall weight will be very important.

Im just wondering what this camera will be like for landscape, macro (plant and flower), static cars and rigged cars :)
 
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grahamc said:
Cant wait to try one of these out... Im consider swapping the PEN, D3, D40x for the NEX7 and maybe a D700. Tell me I am not mad!!! Most of my future photos are going to be up on mountains and climbing up rock faces so overall weight will be very important.

Im just wondering what this camera will be like for landscape, macro (plant and flower), static cars and rigged cars :)
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Whether you're mad or not depends on your own usage. :D

All I can tell you is that I pre-ordered the NEX7 so I could use my Contax G2 Zeiss lenses more than anything else, and eagerly anticipating the release I got the converter to fit the Zeiss lenses, a card reader and a couple of cards only to be faced with this indeterminate delay, so I went and got the 5n intending to pass it on when the NEX7 finally comes, but the missus has taken a real shine to it so I'll have to see how that one pans out. :cautious:

All I can tell you so far is I'm completely blown away by the 5n in pretty much every respect, image quality, noise performance in such a small package is just not heard of previously. It's easily the equal and probably better than a lot of current DSLRs . I'd unhesitatingly recommend it.

The only thing I'd say is that the NEX lenses are OK but not brilliant, and while there are a couple of Zeiss options available for it the range of Sony lenses so far isn't great, although there'll no doubt be more to come.

I won't be dropping my DSLRs for bird photography with long lenses, but for general purpose, walk around, street and landscape stuff- even portraits I can see it getting a lot of use.
 
CT said:
Whether you're mad or not depends on your own usage. :D

All I can tell you is that I pre-ordered the NEX7 so I could use my Contax G2 Zeiss lenses more than anything else, and eagerly anticipating the release I got the converter to fit the Zeiss lenses, a card reader and a couple of cards only to be faced with this indeterminate delay, so I went and got the 5n intending to pass it on when the NEX7 finally comes, but the missus has taken a real shine to it so I'll have to see how that one pans out. :cautious:

All I can tell you so far is I'm completely blown away by the 5n in pretty much every respect, image quality, noise performance in such a small package is just not heard of previously. It's easily the equal and probably better than a lot of current DSLRs . I'd unhesitatingly recommend it.

The only thing I'd say is that the NEX lenses are OK but not brilliant, and while there are a couple of Zeiss options available for it the range of Sony lenses so far isn't great, although there'll no doubt be more to come.

I won't be dropping my DSLRs for bird photography with long lenses, but for general purpose, walk around, street and landscape stuff- even portraits I can see it getting a lot of use.
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Sounds good...

For this camera Im only really interested in a 18-55 type lens (general walk about stuff) and then a wide-angle lens, which is what I usually prefer.
 
grahamc said:
Sounds good...

For this camera Im only really interested in a 18-55 type lens (general walk about stuff) and then a wide-angle lens, which is what I usually prefer.
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The usual 2 lens kit is an 18-55 and 16mm. I am also considering one as well...
 
I'd say get the fastest cards you can - if you want snappy performance from it - these are big files! Battery life is OK - I'd say you should easily gat a full days shooting out of a charge and probably around 400 shots or so, but nothing like you'd expect from a larger DSLR battery

I'm using a 16 gig card which takes well over 2000 fine jpegs or over 800 raw images.
 
menthel said:
The usual 2 lens kit is an 18-55 and 16mm. I am also considering one as well...
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Thats the pack I was looking at, although I would prefer a little wider than 16mm.

CT said:
I'd say get the fastest cards you can - if you want snappy performance from it - these are big files! Battery life is OK - I'd say you should easily gat a full days shooting out of a charge and probably around 400 shots or so, but nothing like you'd expect from a larger DSLR battery

I'm using a 16 gig card which takes well over 2000 fine jpegs or over 800 raw images.
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All sounds more than good enough. SD cards??
 
grahamc said:
All sounds more than good enough. SD cards??
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I went for the Sony Memory Stick PRO- HG Duo which are currently the fastest available and it does make using it very snappy. I think it does take SD cards too - but something you need to check on to be sure.
 
CT said:
I went for the Sony Memory Stick PRO- HG Duo which are currently the fastest available and it does make using it very snappy. I think it does take SD cards too - but something you need to check on to be sure.
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I have such a mix of memory sticks a few more wont make a difference, why cant they come up with one single as a standard :bang:
 
Sorry fellas I just checked the manual...

It takes the Sony memory Stick cards PRO- Duo or PRO- HG- Duo.

OR

SD
SDHC
SDXC - all Class 4 or above.
 
grahamc said:
Thats the pack I was looking at, although I would prefer a little wider than 16mm.



All sounds more than good enough. SD cards??
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That is as wide as NEX lenses go and to get anything legacy wider will be painful/expensive. Looks like fisheye or voigtlander lenses with an adaptor.
 
It's also worth mentioning that I thought I'd hate the touch screen on the 5n but I've got used it - it's bloody great - particularly for scrolling though images and you can just touch the screen to select a focus point. The Nex-7 doesn't get the touch screen! :D
 
I wonder if they have improved the antiglare coating on the 5n, the touch screen would make it impossible to use the likes of the GGS hard protector that I put on mine after it lost the anti glare coating.
 
fixedimage said:
I wonder if they have improved the antiglare coating on the 5n, the touch screen would make it impossible to use the likes of the GGS hard protector that I put on mine after it lost the anti glare coating.
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No idea I'm afraid - I don't use screen protectors anyway.
 
Neither did I, until the antiglare coating fell off the screen of my NEX3. It seems to be a widespread problem with the 3 and the 5 though so Sony are no doubt aware and may well have changed things.
 
Finally some news on the NEX-7!

Had an e-mail from Jessops apologising for the delay with the order which of course is outside their control, being down to the floods in Thailand. They've been informed by Sony that it's likely to be late February before they fulfill Jessops order for the NEX-7s.

In view of this they're inviting me to change my order if I so wish to a Nex-5N or Panasonic DMC-GH2. I won't be changing the order and I'm quite prepared to wait, but it's a little galling that they say they have limited stocks within their store network which are currently on display! :cautious:

Hmmm.. I wonder when they got these ones for display?
 
razor777 said:
Well after reading the review on DPREVIEW

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/sonynex7

I'm going to plunge and get one too, the idea of portability but with brilliant image quality and noise control appeals to me.
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Don't blame you - awesome camera. It does look like Nikon will definitely be shipping some UK cameras in late February, so there should be some available at long last.

Bodies have been in production for a while apparently, but it's the black lens production for the kit package which has been holding things up.
 
CT said:
Don't blame you - awesome camera. It does look like Nikon will definitely be shipping some UK cameras in late February, so there should be some available at long last.

Bodies have been in production for a while apparently, but it's the black lens production for the kit package which has been holding things up.
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I'll pretend what you really meant is that Sony will be shipping them out end of Feb ;)
 
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