I really didn’t mean to buy a new camera. I guess I should say that I thought about it and decided not to buy a compact. I wrote about canceling my Olympus XZ-1 order because I have never been happy with a compact. I’ve been impressed with output from the current generation of 10 megapixel compacts like the Canon s95, but for the money, I reasoned that I’d always be wanting a full sized sensor. Better to use the D7000 with a prime or two than a camera that I really didn’t want to work with.
I had also looked at the micro 4/3rds cameras, but they all seemed to be too big to slip into a briefcase like the compacts or my Sigma DP1. If its too big to carry when I can’t bring the D7000 with the Tokina 17-85 mm then I wasn’t gaining anything. Thom Hogan and Derrick Story are both very enthusiastic about micro 4/3rds and similar cameras as a format that is easier to carry than a full DSLR and yet provides equivalent images.
It is Dante Stella that I’m going to have to blame for this. He wrote about the Sony NEX-5 so seductively that I had to try one. And I bought it. My local shop, Service Photo, is dropping Sony so they cut me a good deal on camera and one lens kit. I had about 15 minutes shooting with it today during a visit to Johns Hopkins and the walk yielded this image.
Why the Sony? First of all it really is small enough to drop in my briefcase during a workday like today. I would never have carried the Nikon DSLR to this meeting. The photos you see of the camera makes it look ill-proportioned, but in the hand its a nice compact package that only as large as it needs to be.
As Dante points out, the interface is atypical for a DSLR but works well enough for my style of working. While its often said to be more like a compact camera in operation than a DSLR, it seems to me more like a cell phone interface than a camera interface. As long as I can get to standard camera controls rapidly I’m fine. Aperture, Shutter speed, exposure compensation are all easily changed.
THe sensor in the camera is an APS-C, the same dimensions as the D7000. As you can see, so far the images don’t disappoint. They have the resolution and microcontrast of a DSLR.
Too things really pushed me to buy the NEX-5. First the flip up screen allows the camera to be held at waist level like a TLR. Its a stable, unobtrusive way to hold a camera. This image was taken from waist level. Holding a camera up at arms length is not a good way to get tack sharp images like this, vibration reduction or not.
The second factor is the opportunity to use my Leica lenses on the camera with an adapter. I haven’t used the Leica M6 for at least 6 months but both resist selling the Leica kit and buying an M8 or M9. The NEX requires focusing on the camera screen rather than by rangefinder, but some photographers are doing this regularly. And the Sony’s 1.5 crop keeps lenses closer to their 35mm design than the 2.0 crop of micro four thirds.
Not a typical image for me, but it wall that was on offer for the new camera in the house.