meet NEX Design Team - Interview of NEX creator

Meet the NEX Designers here:

http://www.sony.com.ph/productcontent/405946/productcategory/e-mount-camera

What an amazing camera produced by this team. It wasn't that long ago that I read a similar Interview on Sony A230/A300/A330 team and criticized their every move. Apparently, the so called "lack of grip" was actually part of a design idea to stream-line the camera.

NEX doesn't exactly have the greatest grip, but I find myself agreeing with their every moves. Well done!

it is old news.

007peter said:

Meet the NEX Designers here:

http://www.sony.com.ph/productcontent/405946/productcategory/e-mount-camera

What an amazing camera produced by this team. It wasn't that long ago that I read a similar Interview on Sony A230/A300/A330 team and criticized their every move. Apparently, the so called "lack of grip" was actually part of a design idea to stream-line the camera.

NEX doesn't exactly have the greatest grip, but I find myself agreeing with their every moves. Well done!

Click to expand...

Ask him why no hot shoe? It wouldn't have taken up that much space.

I'm fine with abandoning the old school hot shoe as they did with a lot of legacy technology on the NEX platform. But there are 14 conductors on that mini-flash connector and I'd love to know what other kinds of things will be available for that connector other than a flash and microphone.

tedolf said:

Ask him why no hot shoe? It wouldn't have taken up that much space.

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Don't be silly Tedolf, look better: there IS a hot shoe, only it is a new design. It is now in the camera and not on top. This way it is possible to make the camera thinner, creating not only a hot shoe, but as well a very effective accessory port with much more possabilities, like using it for a microphone and who knows an EVF. Clever thinking don't you agree?

Clever?

Not being able to use any industry standard third party accessories?

Not being able to use any of the expensive flashes you already have at home?

No backwards compatibility even with Sony's own products, not even for alpha users?

Setting a new standard that no one else is going to adopt and then abandoning it later?

Well I guess Sony is kind of famous for that (Betamax, Memory Stick, etc. etc.).

Tedolf is correct (it happens sometimes) - this proprietary "hot shoe" is clearly a drawback of the camera. JVC solved the problem of space on their top-of-the line camcorder by having a small proprietary shoe but then providing an attachment that made it the industry-standard kind. Maybe a third-part developer can do that for the NEX.

The Sony NEX camcorder has a standard shoe, in addition to the proprietary one, so they recognize the value of one (not to mention the value of manual controls for video).

Markr041 said:

Tedolf is correct

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No he is not! He said the NEX had NO hot shoe in his first post. Then he corrects it's post by saying it has no standard hot shoe, that is something completly different!

Yes the hot shoe is not an industry standard, correct! but it IS a hot shoe!

(it happens sometimes) - this proprietary "hot shoe" is clearly a drawback of the camera. JVC solved the problem of space on their top-of-the line camcorder by having a small proprietary shoe but then providing an attachment that made it the industry-standard kind. Maybe a third-part developer can do that for the NEX.

The Nex camera is very small, a standard hotshoe would have made the camera bigger (thicker) not what they wanted. And yes maybe there comes a (more) standard hotshoe adapter for the Nex, but most flashes would look very big on the NEX just like the big lenses look on the NEX (one of the complaints of Tedolf in other posts). So, according to Tedolf Sony can't do anything right: when they create the smallesgt APS ILC in the world, the lenses look to big on them, when they use a hot shoe that allows for small flashes, you can't use your big and expancive flashes on them. What if Sony would have put the Minolta (or canon, or Nikon) flashshoe on the camera? I think he would tell us how strange the big flashgun would look on the NEX....

Markr041 said:

The Sony NEX camcorder has a standard shoe, in addition to the proprietary one, so they recognize the value of one (not to mention the value of manual controls for video).

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Yes the NEX camcorder has it, it is not the same small camera as the Nex3/4 is. And about the manual mode in video, well it's a video camera isn't it? Shouldn't it have more video features on it?

Tedolf is right on this too (two for about a thousand?) - there are some defensive fanboys here.

There are no reasons whatsoever to cripple the NEX 5 so that there are no manual controls of video. It's video capabilities are advertised, the kit zoom lens is bigger and more expensive because it is optimized for video - the NEX 5 is clearly sold for its video capabilities. The small body size has nothing to do with lack of manual controls. This shows that marketing is influencing design (differentiate a "camcorder" from the NEX 5), and it is not good. I might accept that size (overheating possibilities) makes 24Mbps video not possible, but not controls).

Sony has a track record of crippling devices this way - the consumer minidisc for a long time could not manually control audio levels, while the same design "pro" version had this capability, for example. And, note that there is no manual control of audio on either the NEX 5 or the NEX camcorder - what's up with that? Do you want to defend that too? Of course the pro Sony cameras have manual audio controls. Sound familiar?

Yes, Tedolf is over the top most times, and clearly has it in for the NEX. But overly defensive posts do not help.

I am not defending Tedolf, but the proprietary hot shoe is certainly not an advantage of the camera, and other manufacturers have found workarounds for the body size problem, as I illustrated. And, again Sony's track record of inventing proprietary devices for no good reason is well-know - the memory stick design was a worthless addition to memory cards, and is clearly being abandoned (I disagree that betamax was worthless - it was the best system at the time (better in quality than VHS), and just lost out for reasons most regret).

Markr041 said:

Yes, Tedolf is over the top most times, and clearly has it in for the NEX. But overly defensive posts do not help.

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Did you read the post of Tedolf? he said:
Ask him why no hot shoe ? It wouldn't have taken up that much space.

He says: NO HOT SOE, but there is one! OK not a standard hot shoe, as it would not fit on the small design of the camera, but there IS a hort shoe

After i explained the camera ha a hot shoe, he starts with telling about it is not a standard hot shoe. There he is right, no standard hot shoe...

It is a adapter for more then flashes, for this little camera. As he asked why no (stnadard) hot shoe I explained why. The solution Sony took may be not the best one, but it is a solution. And the flash is free in the box (go ask the PEN E-P2 owners about there build i/free flash unit)

Would I like a standard flash shoe adapter for the NEX? Yes! Is this a major drawback for the NEX? NO!

And about video, well this is a still camera with video features, but it is not a video camera. The ergonomics are for a still camera. So is it thaqt bad they left out manual? Well it woud be nice to havee more controls, but it is still a nice extra to have video, and it does AF and AE, and thqt is a lot better then most DSLs with video!

Tedolf is telling many lies about the NEX cameras, (as if he is in charge of Olympus). When exposing his "facts"as lies he changes the subject, to show how bad the Nex is compared to the Pen he is using.

Betamax was the highest quality video recorder of its time. So your point is not well-taken.

Yes, indeed. It is one of the classic technology (but fortunately rare) cases in which the marketplace led to the inferior system (VHS) winning over the superior system (betamax).

I agree about the hotshoe accessory. It seems like a no brainer. Granted, Sony may not want anyone attaching giant flashes to that little body, because the weight may be too much for the camera to handle. There will at least be coldshoe adapters from 3rd parties in the future, I'm sure.

As for the interface, although I certainly think its clunkiness has been overhyped, it certainly could use improving. I understand that Sony wanted to make it user friendly, but they should've included some kind of "advanced menu mode" that changes the layout and makes things more DSLR like. Access to ISO is certainly annoying. Being an M lens user, I also wish the top soft button could control MF assist, rather than the bottom button.

Because everyone knows it's impossible to make a phone with a nice display and more than a dozen separate buttons small enough to fit in your pocket, they're going to eliminate the 0-9, # and * buttons. iAuto knows who you're going to call. And if you want to call someone different ... advanced callers might want to try a different pizza joint one Friday night, for instance ... the friendly scroll wheel lets you choose each number in turn.

• Dennis

--
Gallery at http://kingofthebeasts.smugmug.com

I think you know what he meant... it has been said over and over that this camera doesn't have a hot shoe.. which is easy to interpret that it does not have a standard hot shoe. We all know what it does and doesn't have.

The issue of using large flashes on the NEX could have been partially solved by having wireless control of standard Sony/Minolta flashes. Why Sony did not provide wireless control is a total mystery & this handicaps the NEX in a very unnecessary manner.
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Keith-C

Great article ...... however:

"Hata (package design)

Since the NEX-5 and NEX-3 are compact products, the packaging must be compact as well. The packages are actually considerably smaller than those of previous a series products. One of the distinguishing features of the NEX packages is that the camera is packaged with the lens already mounted. This was done so that the customer can start shooting right away. "

I thought you had to charge the battery first!

headofdestiny said:

I agree about the hotshoe accessory. It seems like a no brainer. Granted, Sony may not want anyone attaching giant flashes to that little body, because the weight may be too much for the camera to handle.

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I think you would need a kind of tripod collar for the flash, to allow people to hold the gigantic HVL-F58AM with the camera hanging off the bottom.

Frankly, as much as I am a big fan of the Minolta hotshoe (yes, it's proprietary, but so is the lens mount), I can't really imagine using a flash of any size on the NEX.

Wireless support would be most welcome, if they can overcome the need to 'dock' the flash on the camera before controlling it wirelessly (is this always required?). Perhaps a firmware upgrade?

John
Vancouver, BC

In my own point of view the NEX line is base on a good conept, result in a design not too successful, it is stlll a typical Japanese design, not a world design. SONY has been behnd the main stream for awhile, and still is, but NEX is one of their better product in recent years, I have the NEX-5, not a bad camera, performnace is good, but I hope the design can be executed better. To me, SONy try to achieve a modern look, but not really arrived. On the other hand, Panasonic GF-1 is conservative, safe design. SONY wants to move a step further, missioned not achieved. But overall, because of newer lens mechanism (which of course Japanese is great on this), larger sensor, good video capability, save the look, the NEX-5 still acceptable.

007peter said:

Meet the NEX Designers here:

http://www.sony.com.ph/productcontent/405946/productcategory/e-mount-camera

What an amazing camera produced by this team. It wasn't that long ago that I read a similar Interview on Sony A230/A300/A330 team and criticized their every move. Apparently, the so called "lack of grip" was actually part of a design idea to stream-line the camera.

NEX doesn't exactly have the greatest grip, but I find myself agreeing with their every moves. Well done!

Click to expand...

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I agree, wireless control of Alpha lenses would be very useful. Physically attaching a large flash to the small camera seems like a bad idea, and is unnecessary with the wireless control.

KEITH-C said:

The issue of using large flashes on the NEX could have been partially solved by having wireless control of standard Sony/Minolta flashes. Why Sony did not provide wireless control is a total mystery & this handicaps the NEX in a very unnecessary manner.
--
Keith-C

Click to expand...

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Gary W.