Comments for My Digital Camera Guide

Comment on “Nikon Rangefinder Camera” de Robert Rotoloni (1993) by pokerbugD40

pokerbugD40 — Mon, 14 May 2012 15:21:06 +0000

I want that…

Comment on Sony NEX-5N 16.1 MP Compact Interchangeable Lens Touchscreen Camera With 18-55mm Lens (Silver) by Jiunjr Feng "Robert"

Jiunjr Feng "Robert" — Tue, 08 May 2012 13:16:54 +0000

36 of 42 people found the following review helpful

Similar Looking, but Huge Change, September 10, 2011

Jiunjr Feng "Robert" (Fremont, CA USA) -

This review is from: Sony NEX-5N 16.1 MP Compact Interchangeable Lens Touchscreen Camera With 18-55mm Lens (Silver) (Camera)

This is my first SONY camera and the 2nd mirrorless camera to replace DMC-GF2.

NEX5N is the final choice after compared with pervious NEX5, incoming NEX7, DMC-GF3, and PEN3 mirrorless cameras because of below reasons.

ADVANTAGES (GOOD):

1. Faster focus and 0.02 sec release time log (Yes, NEX5 is not so good for fast action shooting, but NEX5N improved.)

2. APS-C is better than M4/3 for low light performance. It has less high ISO noise comparing with DMC-GF2. (After own DMC-GF2 for few months, I would like to say goodbye to M4/3 and move back to APS-C)

3. Touch Screen for focus. (I bought DMC-GF2 and skipped NEX5 due to it, but NEX5N improved it now) Notes: currently, it doesn't work as well as DMC-GF2 for this function, but SONY should be able to improve it per future firmware update.

4. 10 Pictures / SEC (You know how amazing it is)

5. 210g (when no lens) That's what mirrorless for.

6. 430 pictures per one charge. Improved a lot from NEX5, so it looks like whole PCB redesigned with better schemetics and layout.)

7. ISO up to 25600 (Even better than NEX7, but it's barely to set ISO more than 3200, so doesn't care of it)

8. AF auto adjustment, E mount shouldn't need using it, buto it's good for mounting with other lens than SONY E lens. :)

9. Build in filter funtions. It's fun.

10. 60P with 24 support. It's p, not i!

11. EV +- 3 (Improved from NEX5 +-2)

12. APS-C = 1.5x (FF), and NEX5N keeps both photo shooting and video recording to be the same as 1.5x (NEX5 auto changes from 1.5x to 1.8x when movie mode)

13. 49 Segment metering from CMOS image sensor (Same as NEX7)

14. 10 x Digital room (Don't like the digital room, so don't care)

15. Video recording enchanced functions such as removing environment noise such as wind noise, RE-focus, and adjustable aperture, ISO, and EV during video recording movie. (I was hoping to take picture when video recording, but NO. it doesn't provide this function.)

DISADVANTAGES (BAD):

1. EVF...... It's way expensive
2. LENs...... Where are they? Even less than M4/3 lens
3. Video "Clicking" Noise...... Sent back to SONY for the improvement

CONCLUSION:

Over all, it's the best mirrorless camera from the price point of view to compare all functions with other pocket size mirrorless cameras. It looks the same as NEX5, but everything changed. It comes with new image sensor and processor for huge improvements. If you aren't a big fan for view finder, not plan to print super size picture, and don't want to spend 2x money on the similar camrea (NEX7). Give NEX5N a try, and you will enjoy it as me.

Update 2011/10/10 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It's not easy to deal with SONY calling center, which must localled outside USA. Finally, they arranged the video issue improvement with wrong delivery and status tracking mistake. The good news is "It works", and I didn't hear any noise when I walk around to record video with naturally shaking the camera. However, it still have the "Clicking" noise when you make crazy shaking, but it reduce the chance like 80% even it shaked crazy. Any way, who is gonna recording vidoe per under crazy shaking mode.

Another worse thing is, LCD had some sticky glue on top of it after NEX5 came back from SONY. So, I am highly recommanded to have body cap to protect the cemera sensor, and put on screen protector for the LCD before send back to SONY. (I did that, so only need to change a new screen protector)

Per awesome photo shooting and video recording without pervious "clicking" noise. 5 Stars for sure!

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Comment on Sony NEX-5N 16.1 MP Compact Interchangeable Lens Touchscreen Camera With 18-55mm Lens (Silver) by Ali Julia

Ali Julia — Tue, 08 May 2012 12:51:57 +0000

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful

High quality of photos, light, excellent low light performance, October 20, 2011

Ali Julia (boston, mass) -

This review is from: Sony NEX-5N 16.1 MP Compact Interchangeable Lens Touchscreen Camera With 18-55mm Lens (Silver) (Camera)

I am a long-time DSLR camera user who wanted a small camera to travel with. I was looking for a camera which would produce results similar to my DSLR and allow me to change lenses yet be lighter than my current Canon DSLR camera.

I like:

(1) The camera is really light compared to my DSLR. Several times I panicked "where is my camera" while it was hanging around my neck. It was so light that I did not feel its weight.

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.

(2) I am pleased with the quality of the photos I took.

(3) 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)
* 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

(4) 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

(5) NEX-5N has a touch screen interface, I found it most useful to select the area where I wanted the camera to focus. The auto focus often selected the point of interest in the middle of the frame, when I was trying to compose a photo using 1/3 rule.

(6) I was able to use the tripod quick release I use for my SLR without any special adapters. 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. I am attaching a photo which demonstrates the fit of the quick release.

(7) SONY will have an OLED high resolution view finder for NEX series shortly. This will improve the ability to see the LCD screen when using the camera in the sun. Note: the mount on the OLED electronic viewfinder is only compatible with NEX-5N and is not compatible with NEX-C3.

I don't like:

(1) Edited 10/23/2011: When I originally purchased the camera Photoshop CS5 did not recognize the RAW format produced by NEX-5N. However today I downloaded the latest CS5 update and now it recognized ARW files generated by NEX-5N.
(Many thanks to clskip who alerted me to the availability of this update!)

(2) The camera drains the battery, I plan to buy at least one possibly two spare batteries. On the day when I shot a lot of sweeping panoramas and anti motion blur photos (these options require multiple shots to generate one photo) I drained the battery completely. Need to buy several extra batteries (see #4 above for cost effective recommendation).

(3) Default settings could be better. I changed almost every setting.
The changes I found most helpful:
* Changed LCD display to Big Font Size Display (located under top menu called "Camera")
Why: this mode removes unessential icons surrounding the screen.
Large font is easy to read, the controls became much more clear
* 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

(4) Movie record button is... Read more

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Comment on Sony NEX-5N 16.1 MP Compact Interchangeable Lens Touchscreen Camera With 18-55mm Lens (Silver) by Slept Thru It

Slept Thru It — Tue, 08 May 2012 11:58:51 +0000

116 of 117 people found the following review helpful

Excellent camera - be sure to customize the menus, November 9, 2011

Slept Thru It -

Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)

This review is from: Sony NEX-5N 16.1 MP Compact Interchangeable Lens Touchscreen Camera With 18-55mm Lens (Silver) (Camera)

I bought the NEX-5N in mid-October 2011 just before a trip to Europe from which I've now returned. The bottom line: it takes superb photos without flash, especially in truly adverse lighting conditions (wine caves 1,000 years old, for example). As others have written, the camera with the 18-55 zoom takes extremely high quality photos - there's no quality penalty to get the benefit of the small size and light weight vs. a top DSLR. So I think it could be used happily by both people trading up and people trading down. But the camera does have quirks, some serious. Many other reviews cover the overall high points of the camera, so I'll focus on a few review elements I think need reinforcement.

The NEX-5N has a full auto mode, but I hope most buyers will take the trouble to learn the camera's full capabilities, because the camera can produce some amazing photos once liberated from auto mode. However I have to say that the learning curve is steep, not just because the camera has a lot of capability, but also because the user interface is a real pain in the neck until you adapt to it. The lack of dedicated controls, a consequence of the small size, creates a lot of complexity in daily use.

Here's a specific example to illustrate some of the potential frustrations. The camera can take an auto-HDR (high dynamic range) photo. It will instantly merge three shots that it auto-brackets (in steps you specify) to yield a picture that would take several minutes to produce if you had to merge three shots yourself using editing software. Great ability, but here are the steps if you haven't customized the menus: 1. turn off raw if you were using it, which requires at least 3 menu presses. 2. press menu again and select the "brightness/color" controls. 3. scroll to and select DRO/Auto HDR. 4. scroll to and select HDR. 5. if desired, press "option" and then change the HDR exposure differential for bracketing (ranges from 1 EV to 6 EV). 6. Press OK twice. In total, you have to go through 6-9 key presses to get the camera ready to take an HDR photo. Then to go back to normal shooting, you have to go through all the steps over again. Your subject has to be no livelier than a sloth to allow this to work out.

You can avoid many of those steps by customizing the menu buttons. This requires first understanding what the camera can do and how you will use it, which will realistically take a few days of experimentation. Then you have to futz with programming the menus for a while until you have the customization set the way you want it. Then you have to get used to the new customized menus. In other words, there's a steep initial investment to get usable access to all the power the camera possesses. Most DSLRs have serious learning curves as well, so to me this isn't a reason to avoid the NEX-5N. But it is something to be prepared for. I found that I was taking low-light photos that I couldn't have taken with any DSLR I'm familiar with, so I ended up being quite happy with the camera, but I did some cursing at it before I got to that point.

The best features:

1. Extraordinarily good native low-light capability, plus several modes that enhance that underlying natural capability of the camera and lens: examples include hand-held twilight mode, anti-blur mode, auto-HDR, and dynamic range optimization. All four are different. It really benefited my photos once I figured out how those modes differ and when to use them. My shooting may not have been typical -- I was spending hours a day in ancient wine cellars, gothic cathedrals, and the like, but even for snapping a low-light shot in a restaurant with friends (no flash), the camera was great.

2. The size and weight are unbeatable. I bought a Kata Grip-10 DL camera bag, which on paper was supposed to be a skosh too small for the camera, but it worked out perfectly. I could wear the Kata bag on my belt, zipped closed with camera inside, flash attached, a spare battery, spare SD card, and the "raincoat" that shipped with the Kata bag, all fairly inconspicuously.

3. The tilt screen makes a real difference.

The features the jury is still out on:

1. The detachable flash was on my list as a problem until I actually used the camera. The last two weeks I left the flash attached all the time and that worked fine, although I found I almost never used the flash. When I did use it, it overexposed the main subject almost every time, so I dialed back the flash output slightly. Once I get the optional viewfinder, I think I'll be able to put the flash aside and not miss it much.

2. Movies. I am not a big movie shooter so this was not a critical item for me. I hoped I would receive a camera after the "clicking noise" was fixed in manufacturing, but no, mine does click during video recording. Sony is kidding themselves if they really think the clicking noise only... Read more

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Comment on Nikon COOLPIX L26 16.1 MP Digital Camera with 5x Zoom NIKKOR Glass Lens and 3-inch LCD (Red) by E. Chiaretti

E. Chiaretti — Fri, 04 May 2012 16:36:34 +0000

26 of 29 people found the following review helpful

Fantastic, March 20, 2012

E. Chiaretti (RENO, NV, US) -

Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)

This review is from: Nikon COOLPIX L26 16.1 MP Digital Camera with 5x Zoom NIKKOR Glass Lens and 3-inch LCD (Red) (Electronics)

What a great little camera. Point and shoot and the picture quality is fantastic. Large view field for those needing glasses. I love it

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Comment on Nikon COOLPIX L26 16.1 MP Digital Camera with 5x Zoom NIKKOR Glass Lens and 3-inch LCD (Red) by Mary J. Norman

Mary J. Norman — Fri, 04 May 2012 15:45:24 +0000

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful

THE VERY BEST OF ALL DIGITAL CAMERAS, April 17, 2012

Mary J. Norman (Reno, NV) -

Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)

This review is from: Nikon COOLPIX L26 16.1 MP Digital Camera with 5x Zoom NIKKOR Glass Lens and 3-inch LCD (Red) (Electronics)

I truly deeply LOVE this camera; it is sooo easy to use and the quality is there. It even lets you select the final size of your photos in pixels. Uploading pictures is a PLEASURE, NOTHING COMPLICATED IN USING IT, unlike other digitals. It is truly a point and shoot camera! I take photos of fast moving puppies and it keeps up with them, no blurs! I recommend it to all! The price was more than worth it without having to spend thousand(s) of dollars. It is meant for the amateur photographer and is simply an absolute VERY TRUE JOY to use! I can't say enough about this VERY excellent camera. Wish I had had it years ago, but maybe it would not be the excellent camera it is today! This is the VERY best digital camera I have ever used and meets all my needed requirements, especially for the puppies in picture taking! It replaces the KODAK cameras I have used over the last 11 years with Kodak now going out of business in this area anyway. I recommend it to all amateurs, well worth the money which is not that much.

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Comment on Nikon COOLPIX L26 16.1 MP Digital Camera with 5x Zoom NIKKOR Glass Lens and 3-inch LCD (Red) by nick

nick — Fri, 04 May 2012 15:22:22 +0000

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful

Above average point & shoot camera, April 13, 2012

nick -

Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)

This review is from: Nikon COOLPIX L26 16.1 MP Digital Camera with 5x Zoom NIKKOR Glass Lens and 3-inch LCD (Silver) (Electronics)

Received this camera about a month ago, and even though it is a point and shoot camera, there are a lot of options to learn, so I am taking the time to do just that! I actually read the instructions (downnloaded the PDF manual)and fleshing it out...the 3" screen was the main draw to this camera, as was the price-under $120.00, and the simple controls that sit just right of the screen....also the fact I can use regular AA batteries and/or rechargeable...comes in 3 choices of finish-red, black or silver. Good documentation available...Nice camera for the price!

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Comment on Canon family by Naomi | Warren

Naomi | Warren — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 01:38:54 +0000

Lovely shot, I really like this one!

Comment on Canon family by Noktor-Matic

Noktor-Matic — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 01:31:06 +0000

i love my G1 lol
it’s a great sub to my bigger work nikons (D3X/D700) fucking love the dedicated BW mode on the dial!

Comment on Canon family by roenroenroen

roenroenroen — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 01:08:59 +0000

If you are informed….there’s an s90 now!!! Yes!!!