NEX 7 Day one

[Greg McCary]

I went out this afternoon with the NEX 7 and lenses. The camera really performed like expected. The AF was a big improvement over the 5N. Not close to the a77 but still much faster than the 5n. The menu is still complicated and hard to navigate. But once you get the camera set up with the custom buttons it makes life a lot easier. The thumb wheels at the top are a dream come true. I can finally shot in manual with the ease of a K1000. The EVF is pretty much the same as the a77.
The LCD will blink some when the lens hunts as well as the image in the finder. I never have been big on the dial on the back that goes for the Pens as well. I always seem to be knocking settings off. I'll turn around and I will be at 1000 ISO. I wish they made it a little harder turn.
I am still learning the camera if there is any questions or if you can think of anything you want me to try or look at please feel free to ask. Here are a few pictures from this afternoon. All shot in RAW processed in Lightroom, resized in CS4.
I am really happy with the camera and it's going to make a nice addition to go along with the a77. I hope this upgrade last me a few years.

ISO 400, F/6.3, 1/160, 16MM Plus Fisheye


ISO 400 F/8 1/1600 28mm Voigtlander


ISO 400 F//8 1.1600 28mm Voigtlander


ISO 400 F/6.3 1/250 16mm Plus Fisheye


ISO 100 F/6.3 1/800 55-210mm @ 181mm


ISO 200 F/8.0 1/800 18-55mm @ 29mm


ISO 100 F/13 1/20 18-270mm Tamron

[BravoGolfTango]

Great pics!

[ksbryan0]

Looks like a successful test-drive! I look forward to your further thoughts on this camera.

[Franglais]

Did you add much Fill-in light in Lightroom for the car interiors? You've managed to get detail both inside and outside the car, which would be difficult with a very small sensor.

[Greg McCary]

Charles here are the unedited out of camera shots.

[OldClicker]

Did you add much Fill-in light in Lightroom for the car interiors? You've managed to get detail both inside and outside the car, which would be difficult with a very small sensor.

Small sensor? - Terry

[Franglais]

Small sensor? - Terry

My Canon S95 which has a 1/7 inch sensor (slightly bigger than a point-and-shoot but much smaller than the APS-C sensor in the NEX-7).

Even shooting RAW it is impossible to bring back burnt-out highlights beyond about half a stop with such a small sensor. With an APS-C sensor I can bring back at least 1.5 stops without it looking too bad.

The image quality that I get with the S95 is very good - but not as good as I can get on APS-C. 20% of my best images from last year were shot with the S95. But as soon as there is excessive contrast in the image, there's nothing much I can do with it.

[Greg McCary]

One dissapointment is the NEX 7 can not wirelessly trigger my HVL-F58AM, even though there is a WL setting on the camera. I really like shooting at night. With that said my a77 won't fire it eithjer unless it direct site and fairly close to the camera. I have a flash trigger that works real well for that.
In the hot shoe it does well.

[Anbesol]

Excellent shots Greg, thanks for sharing. I keep getting psyched to finally get my hands on one of those 24 mpix sensors. Now you have two! Lucky dog.

One dissapointment is the NEX 7 can not wirelessly trigger my HVL-F58AM, even though there is a WL setting on the camera. I really like shooting at night. With that said my a77 won't fire it eithjer unless it direct site and fairly close to the camera. I have a flash trigger that works real well for that.
In the hot shoe it does well.

You could add the F20AM or F42AM or something for a commander, the additional power increases the wireless signal a lot, and is a lot more useful. Though I try to stick more to wired triggers. The stock flash triggers well indoors and close distances, but pretty limited in range and power. At least, thats how it's been for the A700, I assume it should be at least as good for the A77.

Greg - is that the Sony 11-16? Hows the 24 mpix treating it?

[Greg McCary]

Thanks Charlie for the additional info and yes that's the lens its turned out to be my favorite landscape lens. It treats the files very well

[OldClicker]

One dissapointment is the NEX 7 can not wirelessly trigger my HVL-F58AM, even though there is a WL setting on the camera. I really like shooting at night. With that said my a77 won't fire it eithjer unless it direct site and fairly close to the camera. I have a flash trigger that works real well for that.
In the hot shoe it does well.

I don't have a 77, but I find the on board flash trigger works very well from the A350, A700 and A900 even with a peice of film over the flash to filter out visible light. Anything inside - such as hidden highlight flash behind - works great. I also use them outside in the bright sun for the hummingbird setup.

That Sony left it off the NEX 7 just doesn't make sense. I guess that's simply not the market they see for this camera.

Terry

[Anbesol]

Terry - Olympus' wireless flash trigger is available in their M43 bodies. In fact, they are even superior in control options and signal power than the Sony's. It offers flash power control for both the signal flash and the receiver. The least sony could do is include it in their flagship CSC body, pretty disappointing they left it out. Then, its also not the end of the world either, at least they didn't do a 2.7x crop body :P lol.

[Greg McCary]

Terry I may have to pick your head some on some flash setup ups. If you have seen how I use flash gels? I have good luck with just a cheap wirelees trigger I found on Amazon. My biggest problem now is that I go through a couple of sets of batteries in a big hurry. When I am out shooting in the cold I really hate to have small things go wrong, loading batteries is one of them. I need some sort of power supply.
The NEX 7 DOES have a wireless setting in the menu but I can't seem to get it to turn on. I just googled around and found out it will not work with my flash. When I use a flash gel it really takes about 7-10 flashes during the exposure to light up the inside of a car. Some options I guess would be a very powerful dummy flash, a continuous light source or a power pack.

If anyone is interested in a couple of RAW files let me know and I will send you one.

[Anbesol]

Yes definitely would be interested in a raw. How would you transfer? Must be a ~35mb image or so.

Can you also send a raw from the kit 16-50? Thanks man.

[Greg McCary]

Yes definitely would be interested in a raw. How would you transfer? Must be a ~35mb image or so.

Can you also send a raw from the kit 16-50? Thanks man.

Can I email them to you? I'll pick a couple out.

[OldClicker]

Terry I may have to pick your head some on some flash setup ups. If you have seen how I use flash gels? I have good luck with just a cheap wirelees trigger I found on Amazon. My biggest problem now is that I go through a couple of sets of batteries in a big hurry. When I am out shooting in the cold I really hate to have small things go wrong, loading batteries is one of them. I need some sort of power supply.
The NEX 7 DOES have a wireless setting in the menu but I can't seem to get it to turn on. I just googled around and found out it will not work with my flash. When I use a flash gel it really takes about 7-10 flashes during the exposure to light up the inside of a car. Some options I guess would be a very powerful dummy flash, a continuous light source or a power pack.

If anyone is interested in a couple of RAW files let me know and I will send you one.

From what I am reading, the NEX 7 does not trigger with the on board flash. It requires an F20, F43 or F58 as a trigger. A mistake and will be fixed??? Don't know.

I don't remember what flash you have, but I'm using several F42s and one F58. I put a set of rechargable AAs in and they are good for days. I have not used them in the cold. I have the power pack for the F58 (6 more AAs) (I think the F43 also uses the power pack - the F42 does not.) and it seems to be a lot of short term power. (I can shoot TTL on camera in a normal room at 3 fps for 10 seconds and it doesn't even slow down.)

The cheap radio triggers not connected to the camera should work well for what you are doing.

Did I answer the questions?

Terry

[Greg McCary]

From what I am reading, the NEX 7 does not trigger with the on board flash. It requires an F20, F43 or F58 as a trigger. A mistake and will be fixed??? Don't know.

I don't remember what flash you have, but I'm using several F42s and one F58. I put a set of rechargable AAs in and they are good for days. I have not used them in the cold. I have the power pack for the F58 (6 more AAs) (I think the F43 also uses the power pack - the F42 does not.) and it seems to be a lot of short term power. (I can shoot TTL on camera in a normal room at 3 fps for 10 seconds and it doesn't even slow down.)

The cheap radio triggers not connected to the camera should work well for what you are doing.

Did I answer the questions?

Terry

Yes you did thanks I have the F58 and a cheap trigger.

[Photo-John]

Great thread. That's really all I have to say. Your photos say it all, Greg. The NEX-7 is still the camera that I'm most excited about right now. And your photos haven't done anything to diminish that