Wednesday 17 August 2011

Sony NEX-C3 - Review and user experience - Part 8 - Nikon 24mm f/2.8

SONY NEX-C3 NIKON 24mm f/2.8
SONY NEX-C3 NIKON 24mm f/2.8

The Nikon 24mm f/2.8 also gave very good results on the NEX-C3. 
SONY NEX-C3 NIKON 24mm f/2.8

SONY NEX-C3 NIKON 24mm f/2.8

The situation with the NEX system reminds me very much of the early days with m4/3. When Panasonic and Olympus first started there were very few lenses and the gap was filled by adapted manual focus lenses. I've only had the adapter since this morning and I tried the 35mm f/1.8, which was very good indeed, and the 10-24mm zoom, which as you can imagine is very big, but which again turned an excellent performance. In the absence of any NEX wide-angle on the horizon, its going to be interesting to see what NEX users come up with.

This afternoon I took out the 24mm only, and while not as sharp as the Voigtlander 28mm, it still produced files that I felt were a distict improvement on the 18-55mm. 

SONY NEX-C3 NIKON 24mm f/2.8

SONY NEX-C3 NIKON 24mm f/2.8

This does seem to be an ongoing Sony problem. Great cameras, very small lens range. The A77 looks to be a real winner in terms of DSLR features, but the lens choice is restricted to very expensive, very heavy Zeiss branded lenses, Sony's own cheap and cheerful range or 3rd. party such as Sigma and Tamron. If the NEX-7 is as expected, that might not be so much of a problem. If the focus peaking is included, and if it works via the OLED viewfinder, then this is going to be the easiest, fastest and most accurate way of focusing a manual lens. 
Today for example, using the Nikon, I was able to focus very quickly and the results are very impressive. Even using the live view screen only, it isn't that difficult and with an EVF it would be a real pleasure to use. It has elements of the Leica Rangefinder system plus the magnification of something like m4/3 and its by far the best solution I've encountered.

SONY NEX-C3 NIKON 24mm f/2.8

SONY NEX-C3 NIKON 24mm f/2.8