Sony NEX-VG10 vs Canon 60d vs Panasonic GH2

Here's a quick comparison by Mike Kobal which puts the Sony NEX-VG10, Canon EOS 60D, and the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH2 up against each other.

NEX-5 vs Leica M8 vs Canon 5d Mark II

Let's see how the Sony NEX-5 does against a couple of heavyweights, the Leica M8 and the Canon 5d Mark II. The test is not scientific since different lenses were used by two different photographers. Light, post processing, etc are also factors that has to be accounted for variations in the images. Let's see what a camera one quarter the cost of the other two can produce.

Here is Neuschwanstein Castle from the perspective of the Sony NEX-5 and the Zeiss 35mm f/2.8 C Biogon.

Here is what the Leica M8 produces with the same lens at f/8.0.

Here is what the Canon EOS 5d Mark II and the Zeiss 50mm f/2.0 Makro Planar at f/8.0 sees.

The Canon 5dII is used again but with a Zeiss 50mm f/1.4 Planar at f/8.0.

Here are some pictures of Neuschwanstein Castle taken with the Sony NEX-5.

NEX-5 with Zeiss 18mm f/4 ZM Distagon

Three pictures from the NEX-5 with Zeiss 35mm C Biogon

Thanks to Boris and Philippe for sharing their photos!

Sony NEX-5 with Voigtlander 25mm 0.95 Lens

Sony NEX-5 with Voigtlander 25mm f/0.95 Lens

Here are some photos by Woodent taken with the Sony NEX-5 and the new Voigtlander 25mm f/0.95 Lens for micro four thirds cameras. Woodent used the adapter on eBay that we posted about previously.

As you can see the Voigtlander 25mm f/0.95 is designed for the tiny sensored µ4/3 system and therefore vignettes heavily on the Sony NEX-5. Woodent also mentions that the Micro Four Thirds to Sony NEX E-mount lens adapter cannot give proper infinity focus. This is unfortunate but the center of the images look sharp.

Thanks Woodent!

Sony NEX Cold Shoe Mount from JTec

We posted about using the NEX FDA-SV1 viewfinder with third party viewfinders back in October. Now a company in Connecticut created a cold shoe mount for the NEX cameras for use with any external optical viewfinder. JTec's NEX cold shoe mount is made out of 6061 aluminum and has a spring loaded screw which mates to the NEX's flash mount thread. JTec will even anodize it in black or silver to match your NEX. The suggested retail price is $59.95.

JTec NEX Cold Shoe Mount

Sony FDA-SV1 Viewfinder for the 16mm Pancake

Find out more at http://jtec-online.com.

NEX Canon EOS Lens Aperture Control

Sony NEX-5 with Canon EF / EOS Lens Adapter with Aperture Control by Kipon

One problem with using Canon EF / EOS lenses on the Sony NEX is that there is no aperture ring and there is no way to control how much light the lens allows in. EOS / EF Lenses come off the Canon EOS body with the aperture locked wide open, unless you do the DOF preview trick.

The engineers at Kipon created a solution for this problem by introducing their own aperture blades and a ring to control the aperture for their Canon EOS / EF Lens to Sony NEX E-mount Adapter. The Kipon aperture ring goes from 1 (wide open) to 6 and beyond (stopped down). We are not sure if the 1 (wide open) setting is big enough for the the large aperture EF lenses (f/1.2).

Canon EF 50mm f/1.2 L Wide Open

Here are the Kipon Canon EOS / EF to Sony NEX E-mount lens adapter photos. It is available through eBay auctions.

Kipon Aperture Ring at 1 Setting

Kipon Aperture Ring at 6 (or more) Setting

The adapter will not work on these lenses: Canon EF-S 10-22mm; EF-S 15-85mm; EF-S 17-55mm; EF-S 17-85mm; EF-S 18-55mm; EF-S 18-135mm; EF-S 18-200mm; EF-S 55-250mm; EF-S 60mm.

If you have one of these adapters please send us a review and some photos. If you want to shoot wide open, you can use a regular Canon EOS / EF to Sony NEX lens adapter.

Thanks for the email Mistral!

New York Times Recommends Sony NEX-5

David Pogue is the New York Time's technology guru and for the 2010 holdiay season he has recommended the Sony NEX-5 over a "you gotta walk around with a 50 pound bag of equipment hanging around your neck like a tourist" dslr. The only thing he was wrong about is that the NEX-3 and NEX-5 come with a flash.

Sony NEX-5 with Included Flash Attached

Sony NEX-5 Digiscoping with Kowa TSN-884

Here are images from Torimian who uses the NEX-5 and the 18-55mm OSS lens with a custom bracket for digiscoping. The scope of choice is the Kowa TSN-884 Prominar PFC 3 88mm with the Kowa TSN-VA3 Camera Adapter with Integrated Eyepiece. So what is the effective focal length of this combination? Crop Factor * Eyepiece Magnification * Focal Length = 1.5*14*(35mm to 55mm) = 735mm to 1155mm zoom lens.

Several features of the NEX makes it a great digiscoping camera:

• The NEX's 7 frames per second burst shooting allows you capture multiple images at a time so that you don't miss a shot and even catch birds in flight.
• The tilting LCD lets you position your scope at various angles.
• The weight of the NEX makes it easy to attach to various eyepieces.
• The E-mount can accept most lenses via adapters.
  

Effective focal length of 735mm to 1155mm zoom lens

The custom machined aluminum allow bracket shown below allows the Sony E-mount 18-55mm OSS lens to be mounted on the Kowa TSN-VA3 Adapter / Eyepiece. It is available through Yahoo Japan Auctions.

Thanks Torimian!

NEX Body and Rear Lens Cap Available

The unicorns have arrived at the Sony Style store. The Sony NEX Body Cap, part number ALC-B1EM, and the Rear Lens Cap, part number ALC-R1EM, are now available at Sony Style. These are necessary if you are using lens adapters since those do not come with any caps.

Hopefully the Sony NEX-3, NEX-5, and NEX-VG10 kits will have both caps included in the box.

Of course you can also search on eBay for third party Sony NEX E-mount caps.

Sony NEX-VG10 Sigma 50-500mm Bigma Video

Here is some footage that Steve N shot with his NEX-VG10 and the Sigma 50-500mm ultra zoom lens aka Bigma. The Bigma used is a Nikon mount so it does have an aperture ring but focusing is all done manually. Steve points out:

...Sony hasn't equipped the VG10 with focus confirmation or focus assist: there is no peaking or image enlargement which would help immensely when working with MF lenses...perhaps a firmware update can address this!

Sony stated at Photokina that they will be working with third party lens makers so we can expect focus confirmation, and aperture control on adapted lenses.

Sony NEX-VG10 with a Sigma 50-500mm Zoom aka Bigma

Click here for more pictures of the combination above.

Sony NEX-VG10 with Sigma 50-500mm Bigma

Here are Steve N's pictures of his Sony NEX-VG10, a Nikon F mount to Sony E-mount lens adapter, and a Sigma 50-500mm f/4.5-6.3 APO Ultra Telephoto, aka the Bigma. This would give an equivalent of 90mm to 900mm zoom lens on the NEX-VG10 with it's 1.8x crop factor. We'll post videos soon...

Check out Steve N's work!

Sony NEX-5 7 Frames Per Second Burst Shooting

Davide C. emailed us to show how to use the Sony NEX-5's 7 frames per second burst shooting mode. He set the Drive Mode of the NEX-5 to Speed Priority Continuous and used Photoshops "load into stack" function to finish the image. The lens used was the Sony E-mount 16mm f/2.8 pancake - a guess from the EXIF.

He mentioned that the NEX-5 buffer fills up after 15 large JPEG shots, we were wondering if using a faster card like the Sony Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo HX would be a remedy. The shots turned out very well even with this minor setback.

This is what the shutter looks like at 7 frames per second burst.

Check out more of Davide C.'s photos.