It might be a while before they make one. I am considering getting one. Yeah i will probably get NEX5 with the pancake lens. I can always sell it so, it's not like I am locking myself into this.

I'm tempted, but I think I'll hold off till Nikon or Canon makes such a camera, not to mention I'd be breaking my rule of never buying anything made by Sony.

I stopped by Adorama today. And guess what I happened to stumble upon a Sony rep. He said that they will start shipping in two weeks time.

I also played around with the pre-production model of NEX5. It's pretty damn sweet. Hell I don't really care about the more pro controls of the supposed NEX7. I found the controls to be pretty damn "smart" and very quick to change. I wouldn't be missing more physical direct controls on the body.

When asked about NEX7, he said that new cameras are coming out every 6 months blah balh blah. Yeah well no sh!t Sherlock, you could have at least hinted at something. then proceeded to laugh at me. Screw you man.

Anyway, so who is getting one?

Those things are so adorable! Please, Nikon, deliver something similar soon...

So I tried to interest my wife in one of these cameras, and she completely outsmarted me by asking for a GPS watch instead—a garmin forerunner 405cx. [So you want to spend $600 on me?...the rest is history] I found a great deal on it ($270 at REI - $50 MIR that runs until 31 May = $220!). I will use it for biking, too, so I can't say I'm completely against it, especially at close to half price.

If Nikon doesn't do APS-C EVIL, I think I'll buy this and an E to F-mount adapter. Hopefully it autofocuses. If not, I could live with just that sweet little pancake.

I've heard Oct/Nov although a NEX 7/9 could be shown at Photokina in Sept and not actually be out until end of the year or early 2011. Remember that the NEX 3/5 "concepts" were shown at PMA in Feb 2010. So Sony might show off a pro "concept" to keep attention away from competing EVIL cameras from Olympus, Panasonic, Leica, and Nikon (?) that will show up at Photokina.

I believe that is what has been suggested as a time frame for introduction.

PB PM said:
Keep in mind that the NEX3 and NEX5 are aimed at consumers. If the rumors of a more advanced amateur, semi-pro friendly model (NEX7) are true, it might come with a flash hotshoe or a PC sync port.

They probably are true. I am just lamenting here, because summer vacation starts in a week for me and I wanted to have this camera by then. Unfortunately it's not going to be available until at least a month maybe more.

NEX7 is aimed at September, correct?

Yeah I agree with PB PM however I'm sure an adapter could give the NEX 3 and 5 a traditional hotshoe. Though I don't think I'd want such an adapter since it would bulk things up too much and would defeat the whole purpose of having such a small design. The microphone accessory would be as big as I'd want to go with an external attachment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fr_GGYXH62A&feature=player_embedded

Keep in mind that the NEX3 and NEX5 are aimed at consumers. If the rumors of a more advanced amateur, semi-pro friendly model (NEX7) are true, it might come with a flash hotshoe or a PC sync port.

The one thing that really bothers me is the lack of a regular hotshoe. this thing would be awesome if it had one. Hell if there would be some kind of adapter for it. Or just an option for off camera sync.

Nice, slap a 35mm F1.8G on there and you have a nice package without blowing the bank or buying a bunch of Sony lenses. I'm assuming any non-Sony lens would be manual focus only though.

Sony E-mount to F-mount adapters with aperture ring will be available too! They will go on sale (in Japan) this summer.

Amazon is saying that the NEX cameras will start shipping at the end of June.

NikoDoby said:
. (Bmxdad, please don't start a thread now titled "Should Nikon make an AF motor equipped battery grip for non AF-S cameras?" *facepalm*

But your facepalm picture is so cute

BTW, I think Pro bodies would only loose AF motors if they became lost the mirror system, (EVIL style)don't laught I actual think future Pro bodies, special for sports will be a EVIL style camera

Pete

niko - my wife still doesn't know that she needs this new sony cutee :), but soon she will realize what are her needs :D

PB - I doubt nikon will ever get rid of AF motor from the top end bodies - it doesn't cost them, and the weight tag also is not a big deal in the Dx series

Delie said:
Niko, reading the forums you've talked a bit about these evil/M4-3 cameras. Specifically, the Panasonic GF1 and the Olympus E-PL1.

Question is, how do you think the Nex-5 will compare to these? It would seem, on paper at least, to have a lot going for it. Now that the Nex 3/5 announcements are out, have you been put off completely from buying an E-PL1 for your wife? :)

The one thing that the GF1 and E-PL1 still have going for them is their ergonomics. Specifically that they offer more buttons on the camera instead of going into the menu every time you want to change a setting. The NEX cameras have virtually no external controls. Just about everything is menu driven. For some that will be a big turn-off.

Then there's that "clumsy" proprietary flash but I'll hold off judgement on that until I actually use it. At least it kind of folds down to lay flat against the lens and isn't in the way all the time. So in that respect the Panasonic and Olympus are still better than the NEX cameras.

However the image quality on the NEX cameras seems to be pretty outstanding! You are getting a camera that has a sensor the same size as the D90 and D300 with more megapixels and (as far as we can initially tell) very similar if not better ISO noise performance. All in a camera that is incredible small.

Speaking of the size some might actually think the NEX is TOO small. Not enough of a grip with lenses that are waaay too big. Well I used (still use actually) a Sony 717 for many years. That camera had a huge lens slapped on a small rotating body. Very similar to the NEX design but on a larger scale. Though the hand grip was small the large lens made for a good grip too so it was a very well balanced camera for such an awkward looking design.

I'm going to try to hold off buying my first EVIL camera until I know what Nikon intends to do. Our anniversary is in the summer so it'll be a hard decision. Though I have to look at it from my wife's perspective and what her needs are and not on my Nikon "fanboy" bias.

She doesn't know much about Olympus other than the "super cute" E-PL1 she handled. But she does know the name Sony so she's willing to wait to handle one of their NEX cameras to see if she likes it. I'm going to guess that she will. Although I'm married so I've been trained not to assume anything :^(

PB PM said:
I doubt that is the reason. Nikon is upgrading all lenses to AF-S so that they can at some point remove the focus motor from the higher end models, forcing people to buy new lenses when they upgrade camera bodies.

I wouldn't mind if they did get rid of the motor in the body to save on weight and size. I much prefer the AF-S lenses anyway so it's just a consequence of technology advancing. No big deal for me. Plus the optic technology and quality is improving too so eventually you'll need to upgrade your lenses at some point in time. Just not as often as camera bodies thankfull!

Having said that, I doubt Nikon would totally go "cold turkey" and remove the motor from their high end cameras. Backwards compatibility has always been part of Nikon's products. However perhaps in the future they can make some kind of a lens adapter or a battery grip with an AF motor. So that even a high end cameras like the D5 or D7 can still power lenses even if they don't have an internal motor. (Bmxdad, please don't start a thread now titled "Should Nikon make an AF motor equipped battery grip for non AF-S cameras?" *facepalm*

I doubt that is the reason. Nikon is upgrading all lenses to AF-S so that they can at some point remove the focus motor from the higher end models, forcing people to buy new lenses when they upgrade camera bodies.

praying for a Nikon NEX with an F-mount - WOOT, would be awesome to have continuous AF with my 35 1.8 lens.

Maybe that's why nikon is updating all their lenses with an AF-S motor . . .keep it fast and silent?

Gosh.. I must be really slow but I just realized that Nikon's next DX cameras could have this sensor therefore Nikons next dx cameras could probably have better capability than the NEX cameras.. wouldn't that be just lovely! What do you say? Is the NEX sensor capability better than the D700 ?

I only hope that someone from Nikon is at this moment begging on their knees that Sony will make them a Nikon version of that Camcorder model

Pete

Found a test video on Vimeo of the NEX-5 which might interest some of you. Looks pretty nice considering it's hand-held, although the wind noise is a bit irritating:
http://vimeo.com/11668007

(Click to the button to watch in HD)

Niko, reading the forums you've talked a bit about these evil/M4-3 cameras. Specifically, the Panasonic GF1 and the Olympus E-PL1.

Question is, how do you think the Nex-5 will compare to these? It would seem, on paper at least, to have a lot going for it. Now that the Nex 3/5 announcements are out, have you been put off completely from buying an E-PL1 for your wife? :)

I was really excited to preorder one of these puppies, but seeing that they will only ship out in that timeframe, I can probably just buy it myself. Last time I check Sony doesn't have problems with producing enough units to satisfy the demand.

I am really excited to see how it works.

I heard July too but for the NEX5. I don't remember where but I heard the NEX3 will be shipping out in June. I think perhaps Sony's website will be shipping out there first before other retailers. Yes there is also a "pro" version NEX7 that will be supposedly out at the end of the year or early next.

Here's some more hands-on stuff.
http://www.quesabesde.com/noticias/sony-nex-5-analisis-fotos-videos,1_6335

Dpreview has full size sample images and a HD video sample from a production version of the NEX5.

http://www.dpreview.com/news/1005/10051202sonynex5samplesgallery.asp

I'm surprised there are so many full size image samples available already. Sony must be pretty confident, and judging from these photos they should be.

Apparently sony NEX 7, a more serious, fully manual camera, is going to be showcased in September.

I wish Sony would start shipping the cameras quicker. Adorama says that they will start getting them by the end of July. Whhaat? I want one to start my vacation off. Kind of sucks.

guys, if You don't like the NEX don't buy it, if You like it than You know what to do. if this camera is too big for You mb, than there's plenty of other options on the market.
anyway, I'm waiting to see what Nikon will show us. maybe it's gonna be even smaller than the sony one with the same specs.