My main issue with C3 was seeing the LCD screen in the sun. SONY will have an OLED high resolution view finder for NEX series in November 2011. However the mount on the OLED electronic viewfinder is only compatible with NEX-5N and is not compatible with NEX-C3.
The second issue was ability to easily override the automatically chosen a focus point. NEX-5N has a touch screen which allows one to point where the focus should be, and sometimes this allows you to compose a photo which focal point off-center (automatic focus has a strong preference for items in the center).
WEIGHT
The weight of the camera with 18-55mm lens, battery, memory card, and strap is 17.1 oz.
The body of the camera is 4 1/8 inches wide x 1 inch wide in the narrow part. It is small but not so small that is inconvenient to hold or operate. Overall the camera feels good in your hand, the mechanical parts (hinges and other controls) feel well made and pretty sturdy. The 18-55mm lens in its smallest configuration is 3 inches long.
FAVORITE FEATURES
Features that I loved, two features I never had in other cameras I owned:
* Sweeping panorama - I absolutely loved it! It worked fantastically even hand held taking photos
of night time skyline. I am attaching a photo showing this feature below.
* Anti blur - in addition to having Optical Steady Shot this camera has an option for hand-held night shots.
It takes 6 photos in quick succession and combines them to generate one shot reducing blur due to unsteady hands.
Note: these settings produce JPEG format even when the setting is set to RAW
PHOTO QUALITY
I am pleased with the quality of the photos. I was very impressed with low light performance. I was able to take crisp hand-held pictures of New York skyline using the "anti blur" setting. With sweeping panorama option I do not feel the need for a wider lens. I do get significantly more barrel distortion from the SONY 18-55mm lens than from the Canon 17mm-85mm.
BATTERY
NEX-5N comes with a separate battery recharger, which is handy since the camera drains the battery rather fast it is nice to have a spare battery charging while the camera is being used. I purchased a 3-d party (Wasabi) battery pack (two NP-FW50 batteries, one Wasabi AC charger, one car charger converter for Wasabi AC charger, European converter) which works well with my NEX-5N. The entire pack costs less than one extra SONY battery: Wasabi Power Battery and Charger Kit for Sony NP-FW50, Alpha SLT-A33, SLT-A35, SLT-A55V, NEX-3, NEX-5, NEX-5N, NEX-7, NEX-C3 available on Amazon.com.
USER INTERFACE
NEX-5N has a touch screen which allows one to point where the focus should be, and sometimes this allows you to compose a photo which focal point off-center (automatic focus has a strong preference for items in the center).
By twicking display options I was able to make the UI easy to navigate. The most helpful setting was "Big font" under Camera options. Not only did it make the text easy to read, it removed a larger number of least useful icons which de-clutters the display.
The changes I found helpful:
* Turned off pop up help (located under "Setup" and called "Help Guide Display")
Why: The pop-up help gets in the way of every operation, you cannot see the screen as it totally obscures
what you are looking at, when you get rid of pop-up then the screen you were looking at also goes away.
* Turned off object tracking (located under "Camera" top menu)
Why: When you are trying to compose a photo where the focus is NOT in the center, you can use the touch screen
to indicate where the focus should be. However, if the object tracking is turned on the focus begins moving
and shifting even though the thing you are trying to focus on is not moving. The camera prefers
items in the center of the photo, rather then a composition using 1/3 rule.
* Turned off face registration and smile shutter (located under "Set Up")
Why: these options got in the way of a good photo composition
TRIPOD
I was able to use the tripod quick release I use for my SLR. The quick release plate is a wider than NEX-5N body. It extends both in the front and the back of the camera. You cannot balance the camera on it (it tips forward), however once it is on the tripod it is very secure. The photo at the top of this review demonstrates the fit of the quick release. Photo #1 shows the camera upside down, and photo #2 shows the camera resting on table with the quick release down.
PHOTOSHOP COMPATIBILITY
When I originally purchased the camera Photoshop CS5 did not recognize the RAW format produced by NEX-5N. However on October 23, 2011 I downloaded the latest CS5 update and it recognized ARW files generated by NEX-5N.
PHOTOS INCLUDED with this review
1) Hand-held panorama shot at twilight showing a sail boat leaving New York Seaport with the skyline on the right. Split image in the same photo is a portion of the sail boat mast in actual pixel size, so you can see the details of the noise.
2) A shot of the New York seaport taken with the camera on the tripod. In the split image you see three sections of the photo in actual pixel size. #1 is close to the left edge, #2 is center, and #3 is a section close to the right edge. You can see the difference in sharpness between the center and the edges in the close ups.
Disclaimer: My interest is still photography and I have not used the movie option yet.
Overall, I am pleased with this camera. I found this camera to be a good substitute for my DSLR when I travel.
You can find it on Amazon by following this link.
Ali Julia review ★★★★★
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