NEX to A55....couple of quick questions

[nsta]

Hey all, just want a bit of confirmation on a couple of things...

I was wanting to purchase an A55, and sell my NEX5..couple of really quick questions...

1) I understand on the A55, to view Live DOF preview on the LCD screen, this is accomplished by the press of a button on the camera, unlike the NEX where it is on Full Time?

My question is, can i set the A55 to DOF Preview all the time so i get a live preview of dof as i go through the apeture adjustments on the lens - Basically a full time live preview system like the nex, so shutter speed/iso/aperture/WB all change on the screen live? Can this be acheived.

2) My main complaint with the NEX system is the autofocusing, 9/10 i can get a much sharper image if i manual focus the kit lens....Do most users here run their camera in autofocus with the kit lens and get very good results? NEX were very soft for me (18-55mm)

3) What is the JPG system like, can i shoot in jpg all the time?

 

[HobbiesAreFun]

Hey all, just want a bit of confirmation on a couple of things...

I was wanting to purchase an A55, and sell my NEX5..couple of really quick questions...

1) I understand on the A55, to view Live DOF preview on the LCD screen, this is accomplished by the press of a button on the camera, unlike the NEX where it is on Full Time?

My question is, can i set the A55 to DOF Preview all the time so i get a live preview of dof as i go through the apeture adjustments on the lens - Basically a full time live preview system like the nex, so shutter speed/iso/aperture/WB all change on the screen live? Can this be acheived.

When it comes to the DOF Preview... The answer would have to be no. Otherwise you would not be able to focus. The Camera automatically uses the lens at a set aperture to focus. It only stops up/down the aperture to your desired settings when you take the shot. Then and only then. So The DOF part is a big fat no.

But yes you can have all that information on the screen at all times.

2) My main complaint with the NEX system is the autofocusing, 9/10 i can get a much sharper image if i manual focus the kit lens....Do most users here run their camera in autofocus with the kit lens and get very good results? NEX were very soft for me (18-55mm)

You won't have any issues with focusing on it unless you do something stupid on your own (known as operator error and ignorance).

3) What is the JPG system like, can i shoot in jpg all the time?

It's fine. My recommended settings would be vivid with sharpness +1 and saturation -1.

--
A Beginning Amateur Photographer

 

[Papasha]

Hey all, just want a bit of confirmation on a couple of things...

I was wanting to purchase an A55, and sell my NEX5..couple of really quick questions...

1) I understand on the A55, to view Live DOF preview on the LCD screen, this is accomplished by the press of a button on the camera, unlike the NEX where it is on Full Time?

My question is, can i set the A55 to DOF Preview all the time so i get a live preview of dof as i go through the apeture adjustments on the lens - Basically a full time live preview system like the nex, so shutter speed/iso/aperture/WB all change on the screen live? Can this be acheived.

When it comes to the DOF Preview... The answer would have to be no. Otherwise you would not be able to focus. The Camera automatically uses the lens at a set aperture to focus. It only stops up/down the aperture to your desired settings when you take the shot. Then and only then. So The DOF part is a big fat no.

Actually, the A55 as any other Sony/Minolta cameras has DOF preview button on the lower front of the camera next to the lens mount and pressing this button closes aperture to set value and provides DOF preview, so you can estimate the resulting picture. Having sad that, I rarely use it - it's so much easier to shoot and then instanlty examine the resulting picture on the screen, as now you can zoom in to 1x1 etc and see what's sharp anywhere on a frame. DOF preview button works in full picture mode, meaning your whole picture is fit into the screen, so although you can kind of see difference in DOF, nowhere it is good enough to really estimate effect precisely. In reality, you know ahead a time what is it you want to achieve with your shot, so you set aperture accordingly. At least that's how I work and I almost never use this button. I have NEX-5 as well and only after reading your post here I checked and kind of saw that yes, you see a little difference in DOF on the screen, but I haven't seen aperture actually closing when doing it, so I am not sure how does the camera calculate 'background defocusing' - I wouldn't be surprised if they do that via software algorithm instead. Anyway, to me it was kind of useless as well, due to the fact that picture is rather small and small variations in aperture do not produce distinct differencies...

But yes you can have all that information on the screen at all times.

2) My main complaint with the NEX system is the autofocusing, 9/10 i can get a much sharper image if i manual focus the kit lens....Do most users here run their camera in autofocus with the kit lens and get very good results? NEX were very soft for me (18-55mm)

You won't have any issues with focusing on it unless you do something stupid on your own (known as operator error and ignorance).

Concur, phase detection AF of A55 wipes a lot of DSLRs in accuracy and speed, let alone contrast detection AF of NEX cams. It is very fast and accurate, but you can also do MF and zoom 7x or 14x instantly and that really allows you to focus on any part of the screen with extremely high precision. Having said that, I love NEX and after I got 18-200 to it (took me about 3 months to hunt it down) I can produce very very nice results out of it indeed. It’s also a fun cam to use, I like for example to shoot Sony 35/1.8 in manual mode with my NEX-5 – excellent combination!

3) What is the JPG system like, can i shoot in jpg all the time?

It's fine. My recommended settings would be vivid with sharpness +1 and saturation -1.

I find my A55 to overexpose a tad, so if you plan to work in JPEG only (personally I think it is not wise – it does not cost that much more to shoot with RAW+JPEG and always have a backup in RAW, if you made a killer shot) I would experiment with possibly dialing exposure to -0.3. I would also lower contrast -1, bump sharpness +1 to make it excellent output straight out the of camera in JPEG only, ready to print.
Good luck!

--
A Beginning Amateur Photographer

--
Some of my older work: http://www.pbase.com/papasha

 

[Denis247]

.

3) What is the JPG system like, can i shoot in jpg all the time?

It's fine. My recommended settings would be vivid with sharpness +1 and saturation -1.

--
Where are these settings made (A55) ?

 

[Mike Fewster]

I was wanting to purchase an A55, and sell my NEX5..couple of really quick questions...

1) I understand on the A55, to view Live DOF preview on the LCD screen, this is accomplished by the press of a button on the camera, unlike the NEX where it is on Full Time?

My question is, can i set the A55 to DOF Preview all the time so i get a live preview of dof as i go through the apeture adjustments on the lens - Basically a full time live preview system like the nex, so shutter speed/iso/aperture/WB all change on the screen live? Can this be acheived.

For all cameras, DOF preview is not very accurate in that it is difficult to really see what you want to see, the small changes on the boundaries of the hyper focal range. Take some time to do trial shots at different F stops and distances with your lenses and you will soon become good enough at estimating the DOF to be able to do this.

2) My main complaint with the NEX system is the autofocusing, 9/10 i can get a much sharper image if i manual focus the kit lens....Do most users here run their camera in autofocus with the kit lens and get very good results? NEX were very soft for me (18-55mm)

If you were getting 9/10 accurate on the NEX, you are doing pretty well. AF is never 100% accurate on any camera. You will get something in sharp focus and generally it will be what you want, but AF may have decided to focus on a point which is not the one you had in mind. It depends on how much time you had when taking the shot as to whether you were able to check the point that was being locked onto. Personally, with AF, I prefer to set the AF to focus on the centre point, I lock onto that with a half button press, then recompose the shot. The variable then is the speed of the locking on and with centre point focussing, this tends to be very fast.

3) What is the JPG system like, can i shoot in jpg all the time?

--
Mike Fewster
Adelaide Australia

 

[tbcass]

1) I understand on the A55, to view Live DOF preview on the LCD screen, this is accomplished by the press of a button on the camera, unlike the NEX where it is on Full Time?

My question is, can i set the A55 to DOF Preview all the time so i get a live preview of dof as i go through the apeture adjustments on the lens - Basically a full time live preview system like the nex, so shutter speed/iso/aperture/WB all change on the screen live? Can this be acheived.

All is visible on the screen all the time except DOF preview. The fast phase contrast AF requires that the aperture be open. As you already know you can see DOF with a simple push of a button.

2) My main complaint with the NEX system is the autofocusing, 9/10 i can get a much sharper image if i manual focus the kit lens....Do most users here run their camera in autofocus with the kit lens and get very good results? NEX were very soft for me (18-55mm)

The A55 is one of the most accurate and fast focusing cameras. This is true with all lenses including the kit.

3) What is the JPG system like, can i shoot in jpg all the time?

Most of us get good results with JPG.

--
Tom

Look at the picture, not the pixels

http://www.flickr.com/photos/25301400@N00/

 

[Amateur Sony Shooter]

Hey all, just want a bit of confirmation on a couple of things...

I was wanting to purchase an A55, and sell my NEX5..couple of really quick questions...

I have both NEX5 and A55, and I am aware of the focus issues too. So my answers bellow:

1) I understand on the A55, to view Live DOF preview on the LCD screen, this is accomplished by the press of a button on the camera, unlike the NEX where it is on Full Time?

My question is, can i set the A55 to DOF Preview all the time so i get a live preview of dof as i go through the apeture adjustments on the lens - Basically a full time live preview system like the nex, so shutter speed/iso/aperture/WB all change on the screen live? Can this be acheived.

No you can not do that in A55. The only way to check DOF is press that little button front/right of lens mount. Many people explained why this is already.

2) My main complaint with the NEX system is the autofocusing, 9/10 i can get a much sharper image if i manual focus the kit lens....Do most users here run their camera in autofocus with the kit lens and get very good results? NEX were very soft for me (18-55mm)

I suspect you had your AF setting wrong. In my experience, NEX5 always give 100% accurate but somewhat slow focus. A55 can give you fast focus and accuracy is acceptable. In general all dSLR (including SLT) can give you fast and good accuracy, but Contrast Detection AF in NEX can give you manual focus-like sharpness. You can read one of my earlier NEX auto focus thread: http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1042&message=36351439

3) What is the JPG system like, can i shoot in jpg all the time?

Depending on your demand for image quality. If you don't do much post processing, and can live with slight pixelated details, then jpeg is perfectly fine. If you want best possible quality with more details, and want to spend time in PP then you should shoot RAW file.

Aside from slightly sensor size and exterior form factor, the main difference between the two is speed of AF. A55 is very fast thus is good for action shoots: kids running, sports, etc. NEX is good for general non-sports stuff: portraits, landscape, street, etc.

 

[tbcass]

I suspect you had your AF setting wrong. In my experience, NEX5 always give 100% accurate but somewhat slow focus. A55 can give you fast focus and accuracy is acceptable. In general all dSLR (including SLT) can give you fast and good accuracy, but Contrast Detection AF in NEX can give you manual focus-like sharpness. You can read one of my earlier NEX auto focus thread: http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1042&message=36351439

Some people make the claim about CD being more accurate but I don't believe it. My experience is I get more accurate focus from PD.

Aside from slightly sensor size and exterior form factor, the main difference between the two is speed of AF. A55 is very fast thus is good for action shoots: kids running, sports, etc. NEX is good for general non-sports stuff: portraits, landscape, street, etc.

Actually the main difference is the lack of an eye level viewfinder with the NEX. I will never own a camera without a TTL eye level viewfinder. I feel about that the way Walt feels about OVFs, maybe more so, but I don't troll the NEX forums screaming about it. To each his own. I vote with my wallet.

--
Tom

Look at the picture, not the pixels

http://www.flickr.com/photos/25301400@N00/