burnymeister
Senior Member
I went out for a solo back country ski today (mild terrain) and took my Sony NEX5N along for the bulk of the shooting. I also took a borrowed Sony NEX-7 along, just to see how it could handle some mixed lighting situations and to judge it's combo with my new Zeiss 24mm f/1.8 and the other Sony lenses including the 18-55 & 55-210 zooms.
I mainly wanted to see if the NEX-7 was worth all the hype before committing to buying one for myself. Those who know me, know that I've been in pursuit of the perfect camera for my skiing, hiking and climbing trips for years already. I've used almost every 43, m43 and even large FF cameras like the 5D, A900 and D3S. I'm mainly a landscape / flora / family shooter and liked the idea of larger files with more DR and a faster camera than other small mirrorless ones. I was also interested in the EVF and slightly larger form - I find the 5N almost too small especially in the winter with gloves on.
Needless to say, the NEX-7 is a much different camera than the 5N - and somewhat similar too. Shooting in the dim light of morning with gloves on was a dream with the NEX-7 compared to the 5N! I was shooting in M mode and the two dials made this so much more usable than the little fiddly dials that you have to use on the 5N to do the same thing! Other differences are quite obvious - the files are more malleable, more room for cropping (obviously) and the camera operates much quicker than the 5N - I mean much quicker. Compared to my recent Olympus E-P3 and Panasonic GF-2 there is simply no comparison, it's not the same league, especially with the Zeiss on it. (Please get us more Zeiss glass ASAP Sony!!)
I stopped along the Spray Lakes road a few times on the way home to try some late afternoon shots with both the Zeiss and the 55-210 (see below).
My overall impression is that I will wait until Fuji's and Sony's FF announcements before pulling the trigger on a NEX-7 (why not wait the 2 or 3 weeks right?
) but this is certainly the best mirrorless camera I've shot with to date. The Zeiss lens is an amazing piece of glass, I really, really, really hope that there is more to come, sooner rather than later for the NEX. The kit lenses were OK and sharpened up well in PP but they don't hold a candle to the Zeiss. They'd better not considering what I paid for that 24mm!! 
Here's some pictures (much more interesting than my blather
) - I found that they are very similar to my Canon 5D FF RAW's except of course twice the size and the lenses are cheaper. I know a lot of you will want 100% views and larger etc, etc, but this is the size I do for web display. The stitched panos are over 150MB each so trust me when I say there's a lot of detail there.
Morning shot (clouds were moving and I intentionally kept the shutter slow for a slight blurring effect here, believe it or not the blacks are not clipped, just really dark, I don't like 'fake' lighting on morning shots):
A bit later in the morning (like 30 minutes) from a different location:
Afternoon lighting along the Spray Lakes road:
Two stitched panos (Adobe LR and PS) - my computer was chugging with the large ARW files!
--
Vern Dewit
Calgary, Alberta Canada
http://www.explor8ion.com
http://verndewit.com/
I mainly wanted to see if the NEX-7 was worth all the hype before committing to buying one for myself. Those who know me, know that I've been in pursuit of the perfect camera for my skiing, hiking and climbing trips for years already. I've used almost every 43, m43 and even large FF cameras like the 5D, A900 and D3S. I'm mainly a landscape / flora / family shooter and liked the idea of larger files with more DR and a faster camera than other small mirrorless ones. I was also interested in the EVF and slightly larger form - I find the 5N almost too small especially in the winter with gloves on.
Needless to say, the NEX-7 is a much different camera than the 5N - and somewhat similar too. Shooting in the dim light of morning with gloves on was a dream with the NEX-7 compared to the 5N! I was shooting in M mode and the two dials made this so much more usable than the little fiddly dials that you have to use on the 5N to do the same thing! Other differences are quite obvious - the files are more malleable, more room for cropping (obviously) and the camera operates much quicker than the 5N - I mean much quicker. Compared to my recent Olympus E-P3 and Panasonic GF-2 there is simply no comparison, it's not the same league, especially with the Zeiss on it. (Please get us more Zeiss glass ASAP Sony!!)
I stopped along the Spray Lakes road a few times on the way home to try some late afternoon shots with both the Zeiss and the 55-210 (see below).
My overall impression is that I will wait until Fuji's and Sony's FF announcements before pulling the trigger on a NEX-7 (why not wait the 2 or 3 weeks right?
) but this is certainly the best mirrorless camera I've shot with to date. The Zeiss lens is an amazing piece of glass, I really, really, really hope that there is more to come, sooner rather than later for the NEX. The kit lenses were OK and sharpened up well in PP but they don't hold a candle to the Zeiss. They'd better not considering what I paid for that 24mm!! Here's some pictures (much more interesting than my blather
) - I found that they are very similar to my Canon 5D FF RAW's except of course twice the size and the lenses are cheaper. I know a lot of you will want 100% views and larger etc, etc, but this is the size I do for web display. The stitched panos are over 150MB each so trust me when I say there's a lot of detail there.Morning shot (clouds were moving and I intentionally kept the shutter slow for a slight blurring effect here, believe it or not the blacks are not clipped, just really dark, I don't like 'fake' lighting on morning shots):
A bit later in the morning (like 30 minutes) from a different location:
Afternoon lighting along the Spray Lakes road:
Two stitched panos (Adobe LR and PS) - my computer was chugging with the large ARW files!
--
Vern Dewit
Calgary, Alberta Canada
http://www.explor8ion.com
http://verndewit.com/
