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NEX-3 with 18-55mm

s.agar

Member
I'm new to Sony cameras.
My experience is more with Nikon, Canon, M8, GF1 and MF cameras.

Recently, I was so thrilled with the specifications of NEX cameras, that I bought the NEX-3 immediately with both kit lenses. I gave away my GF1, and replaced with the NEX-3.

I would like to share a few observations that I have from my recent trip to a few antique cities in Turkey. These are photos taken under normal working conditions at site, where my main camera was a 5DII with 28-70mm lens, and a 24mm TS lens. NEX-3 was just a backup.

It may not be appropriate to compare the NEX-3 to a 5DII. Therefore rather than comparing, I will just give a few thoughts about NEX-3, and more about the kit lens.

1. At least my NEX-3 gives overexposed in camera JPG photos. Actually I've seen a lot of overexposed photos from others too using the NEX cameras.
I tried -1/3 stop compensation, but still the results were usually over exposed. But working from RAW is all right. Below you will see two photos to show the difference. My settings are default settings in both photos. First is the photo from camera JPG, the second one is processed with PSE8 with "auto" default setting.





2. The other comment is the resolution. My experience with NEX+Leica Summicron 35mm was excellent, and it was published here somewhere. But the kit lens is a different story, "in my case". The 14MP's are not utilized at all to their full potential. Here are cropped samples from the same photos given above. (In the same order):





3. CA of this kit lens and NEX sensor is too much for me. Below you may see the main photo and crops from the in camera JPG and the RAW converted JPG. I know that Panasonic GF1 and kit lenses had similar CA, but these were cleared in the camera, as well as in their RAW files. Unless you open the RAW with another raw developer, you wouldn't see the CA (nor the distortions). With this Sony combination, I feel (?) that there is some correction in the camera JPG's, but with the PSE8 conversions, these are very visible.



with crops in the same order:





Summary:
1. I expect a better zoom lens for this NEX camera from Sony, otherwise the potential of the camera will not be used to full extent. I will continue using it as my backup to M8, because with the Leica lenses, the camera shines. (Contrary to Panasonic's GF-1, where it was not very compatible, and the 2X factor was making it quite useless).

2. Unless its only my camera that has a calibration problem, the camera JPG's must be improved in the next firmware upgrade.

Best regards,

Seyhun
 
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