Sony Sony NEX user experience

Well at least it tries to be an 'in depth' review!.....unfortunately I don't have several hours to read it all.....

However, as a NEX 3 user I found some statements hard to recognise;

".......Putting the majority of the functions into a menu slows down the camera for me. I change a lot from programme mode to aperture priority to shutter priority and change shutter speeds and apertures manually constantly. Having to do this within a menu system slows me down. On top of this the NEX-C3 menu system is not the most well thought out and I found it slow. I was getting pretty frustrated with it towards the end of the day..."

Obviously you are not aware that the buttons can be customised so that use can be largely independant of the menus. As regards making changes of mode such as aperture priority etc., this only requires one instictive button activation to reach 'shutter dial' type arrangement, albeit electronic. This uses the rear wheel control and is effectivley no different to using the actual dial on a conventional camera.....

The NEX 3 can certainly be used normally without ANY searchig thru menus,...if it did I would have thrown it against the wall by now!

On the non existant viewfinder, it might have been good to mention the several workarounds that exist......

Lastly there appears to not be any criticism of the glaring shortcomings in the NEX range,...that it's not only a 'system' which lacks many of the vital components (such as attachable EVF and flash synch adaptor etc) but there is every indication that they will NEVER appear now. Also, am I the onloy user to see a glaring ommision in the lack of any depth of field guidance in any of the NEX lenses....?
 
look forward

I look forward to going through your postings as an Avid NEX user. :)

Two things I will say now prior to reading it.

1- A camera system is a personal thing. Some people will love certain features, others will hate them. IE the lack of a viewfinder or the on-screen menu. That is why there are so many different cameras. Many people dislike a lot of features on the NEX, but these are simply personal preferences.

2- David Taylor-Hughes is a great name. This coming from a person with the same name, minus the Hughes. :)
 
David, thanks so much for posting the links to your series of reviews! I always enjoy seeing what you're up to with different combinations of cameras and lenses. It's a good thing that I don't have too much disposable income as a non professional photographer, or I'd be in big trouble! I enjoy both your photographs, as well as your narrative style.:drinks:
 
David,

Thanks for the review. I think that with the exception of focus peaking (a big exception, I know), the Nex menus and interface have been basically the same since late last year or very early this year, whenever version 3 of the firmware came out. So those of us who were singing the praises (relatively) of the Nex 5 were dealing with largely the same interface as you're dealing with now - hence our enthusiasm. I have to say that I tend to stay in Aperture priority about 90% of the time, so having to push a button to access the mode dial was never an issue for me, and if you changes modes a lot, I can see that it would be.

One question - you still seem to be burdened by the menus to some degree - have you customized the buttons as the firmware allows you to do? I found that once I'd done that, I VERY rarely needed to go into the menu at all while shooting. One button push would get me to the feature I wanted to adjust and the control ring/wheel would then make the changes I wanted.

I only used one manual lens with the Nex (a Voigtlander 50 f1.5) and that was before focus peaking was added to the firmware, so I never experienced that, but I was still able to focus manually pretty well using the rear screen.

I'm glad you like the 3C and hope the Nex 7 answers the rest of your hopes and wants. Once Olympus raised its game with its new bodies and lenses, I sold my Nex (and my GH2) and have largely re-committed to m43 with an EP3 (and will be checking out an EPL3 as well). I'll definitely keep and will keep shooting with my X100 and GRD3 for something completely different, but for a system, m43 has won me back from Nex, largely due to lens size questions. The 24 f1.8 looks like its going to be pretty large and I don't see any real quality lenses for that system being smaller. Hence, m43 is just more in line with my wants and needs. And, as we've discussed, that last percent or so of IQ excellence just isn't very far up my list of priorities (and the X100 will meet it when I want it).

Thanks for posting this - I found it interesting, almost as much for your changed attitude toward the Nex as for the camera itself, which I don't believe is different from the Nex 5 except for the sensor....

-Ray
 
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