Well, right now there's a $150 rebate on the two-lens kit—with the 18-55 and the 16 2.8 pancake—so for the NEX-5 and the two lenses it's $800. I'll bet you can sell the 16mm pancake for more than $200, so it would be about $600 for the kit with the standard zoom lens.

You could look on ebay for an e-mount to f-mount adapter if you're interested in that. This most recent bellows cost me about $7 and two hours to make or lensbaby makes one that they call the tilt transformer.

Very nice JA...how much was the nex5 with kit lens? I didn't know there were adapters to our existing lens..pretty sick!

Rereading my analysis, I see I left out one more important thing and that's autofocus. contrast detection is slow and inaccurate, although I will say the NEX has one of the quickest implementations I've seen.

very interesting... Time to consider a Tilt shift lens for my kit I think!

shivaswrath said:
hey JA - sorry to bring up an old post from the past, but how's the NEX-5 compared to D7k? More of a P&S size?

I'm not even sure how much they $$$ just need something small. . .

I can't compare now because I still haven't even touched a D7000. Next weekend I should have my new baby (costs less than a real one) and I'll have a better idea. My comment above about ISO not assignable to a soft key was fixed with the most recent firmware update, so it's a nearly perfect camera. I will say this: the main thing I miss is a flash hotshoe. I wonder if Sony is waiting to release a hotshoe attachment with the new rumored NEX early next year. That's the main complaint I have now, but with D90-like noise handling it's not the end of the world, either. Awesome video, great stills, good image stabilization in the kit lens which works wonders for handheld video, and the UI is really quite good.

I just made my second iteration of NEX to Nikon bellows—this time with an actual attachment to the camera instead of just fitting over the mount ring. I also added a pin that lets you control aperture in G lenses (with no aperture ring). I went back and reread Ansel Adams's view camera section from The Camera now that I actually have equipment that can do some of the movements he talks about. I'm having a lot of fun with it. Here's a 10-ft handrail on my stairs, and sitting at the bottom of the stairs I got the entire thing in focus at f/2.8 with my 50mm 1.8 nikkor:

(click for full size—5MB file)

hey JA - sorry to bring up an old post from the past, but how's the NEX-5 compared to D7k? More of a P&S size?

I'm not even sure how much they $$$ just need something small. . .

Since now the Panasonic LX5 has been announced, shipping in August - this will be my point & shoot camera for times it is not possible to have slr with you. The Canon SD1300 , I will give to Tanya at end of visit in Sumy, Ukraine but keep sd card with photos. Guessing it bw when I come back from trip, I be able to order LX5. One of few small cameras that you can use optional external optical viewfinder.

I was just forwarded a link to an informal survey of professional photographers as to what point and shoot they use when they are not shooting their SLR's. The top 3 were:

1. Canon G series (G9, 10 & 11)
2. Apple iPhone
3. Leica D-LUX series (3, 4)

It is an interesting read. They surveyed 50 pros, including a couple of Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalists and others that some of you may recognize their names. The complete survey had the top 15 P&S models ranked, comments about the camera from the pro and some tips/tricks.

Since we cannot post commercial web sites here, PM me if you are interested and I will give you the link to the entire survey.

Of course I'm interested to see your photos. When you get back be sure to put a link or post some here in the forum.

Niko, would you be intersted in seeing some pictures from trip when I am back? When I was there last year historic buildings really interesting and landscapes unique))))
I always been into photography since high school ( 1976 ), so this always passion for me. Remember spending so much time in dark rooms and thinking how great 1000 ASA film was. Times sure have changed.

Dan

Just remember that "the best camera is the one that's with you" :^)
Enjoy your trip and just take picture and don't worry about camera specs!

I never heard of CHDK and was curious. Not willing to mess with firmware anyhow unless it came from manufactor. I am hoping that pictures I do take when travelling do turn out well but know I have to work with limitations of small sensor.

Dan

I wouldn't mess with that if you don't know what it's for. You risk turning your camera into a paper weight, but I guess you can't complain if your camera was free to begin with :^)

It's free hackware for canon cameras. I think it even lets you shoot raw.
http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/CHDK_in_Brief

jonnyapple said:
Is the SD1300 one of the ones you can run CHDK on? I've always wanted to try that.

What is CHDK? Please explain

thanks

Dan

Is the SD1300 one of the ones you can run CHDK on? I've always wanted to try that.

Yes, Niko you are correct - for free can not complain about picture quality. I had wanted to take my D5000 body + 1 lense ( 35mm AF-S DX F1.8) on trip this summer because picture quality is important but since only taking carry on luggage there is only so much room and I am taking toshiba netbook as I need it for translation purposes ( can not speak russian ). I will be in Sumy , Ukraine 2.5 weeks. Yes, Canon G11 or Pansonic LX3 is better but I know most likely Pansonic LX5 is out this year and that will be my point & shoot camera. I will give Tanya the Canon when there in Sumy at end of visit but keep the sd card with photos.

Dan

Well for free you cant complain about image quality even if its not good :^)

Niko, you are correct, no camera can compete against free but I could of ordered Nikon S3000 for free as well from air miles program. Also listed was the Panasonic DMC-FS6.

I did read reviews in general and Canon SD1300 seemed to get more positive reviews.

On a another note, getting the camera free allowed me to save more money towards Nikon D700 replacement )))) , this is my main goal for this year.

Dan

No other camera can compete against free

Hi

As a update, I ordered Canon SD1300 compact camera ( free using airmiles program ).

This model received good reviews in dcresource.com, imaging-resource.com, cameralabs.com etc. For me biggest limitation of these point & shoot is the small sensor size. For what ever reason Canon seems to do well in this catagory of camera.

Dan

jonnyapple said:
Update after a few days of playing around with my NEX-5:
I still haven't had time to play around with video as much as I'd like to, but so far I'm really impressed. Exposure controls during video with smooth transitions as it changes brightness, no rolling shutter, and like I mentioned before AF during shooting.

I'm liking M mode more now that I turned on two features—live histogram and DMF focus mode. In DMF the AF turns on and acquires focus, then you can adjust focus with the focus ring. If you do turn the focus ring, you get a zoomed-in view of the area around the AF point so you can MF more precisely. I'm hoping it will work with the Rayqual adapter for the f-mount, but my hopes are not high. I preordered one the day after I bought the NEX.

If the ISO was assigned to one of the soft buttons (how about instead of the cutesie shooting tips?), I would be so happy. For now I'm just happy.

I've shown it to a couple of photographer friends and one was about to trade me straight up for her D300. If only I were a better salesman...

Sounds very promising then. I need to try one out at a store. Also, I need to return to the EPL-1, I never gave the Olympuses a fair chance.

Update after a few days of playing around with my NEX-5:
I still haven't had time to play around with video as much as I'd like to, but so far I'm really impressed. Exposure controls during video with smooth transitions as it changes brightness, no rolling shutter, and like I mentioned before AF during shooting.

I'm liking M mode more now that I turned on two features—live histogram and DMF focus mode. In DMF the AF turns on and acquires focus, then you can adjust focus with the focus ring. If you do turn the focus ring, you get a zoomed-in view of the area around the AF point so you can MF more precisely. I'm hoping it will work with the Rayqual adapter for the f-mount, but my hopes are not high. I preordered one the day after I bought the NEX.

If the ISO was assigned to one of the soft buttons (how about instead of the cutesie shooting tips?), I would be so happy. For now I'm just happy.

I've shown it to a couple of photographer friends and one was about to trade me straight up for her D300. If only I were a better salesman...

kyoshinikon said:
I hate autofocus and just want full manual control (particularly a designated control for aperture whether it be a dial or a ring), so that may be why I preferred the M9 over EVILs. I agree that the M8 was also a flop and have heard mention of Niko's Leica woes in another post, but the m9 was a fantastic comeback. Then again to each his own... :)

You should try the Leica X1 then. Not a very good focal length range, but seems to have what you want.

I hate autofocus and just want full manual control (particularly a designated control for aperture whether it be a dial or a ring), so that may be why I preferred the M9 over EVILs. I agree that the M8 was also a flop and have heard mention of Niko's Leica woes in another post, but the m9 was a fantastic comeback. Then again to each his own... :)