Cameras

Field Review: Sony NEX 5 (Day 2)

Chris Gampat
No Comments
08/24/2010
3 Mins read

Last Updated on 08/24/2010 by

At the time of writing this posting, despite it performing very admirably, there have been technical problems with the Sony NEX 5. Because of said problems, this posting will talk about the sweep panorama feature and the image quality delivered from the camera using this feature. Once again, the RAW files cannot be processed in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3and the provided program did not work on my Macbook laptop at the time of writing this piece. Editor’s note: once again making a note that Lightroom 3.2 can process the files and that this review is being written as it happened in chronological order for accuracy. On my PC, the program works, but it is quite cumbersome and slow to use. In a couple of days, all images recorded from the camera will be shot in JPEG unless otherwise stated.

Sony’s Sweep Panorama Feature in the NEX 5

The sweep panorama feature is perhaps the best implementation of a panorama feature I’ve ever seen in a camera with the older version in HP’s cameras being a close second. What it does is takes pictures from left to right and “stitches” them together into a single very wide photo.

The Sony on-screen menu guide you in the process of making the photos. The camera optimizes the aperture, shutter speed and ISO levels when doing this. Results are always in JPEG format. As you can see in the opening photo for this posting, this is even regardless of low-light situations.

This feature is perhaps the most fun to use option that the camera offers users.

In Practice

In practice, swinging your camera around from right to left to take the photos is actually pretty cool and very fun to do as stated earlier. You look like a kid with a new toy and the camera is obnoxiously loud when doing this, but it is a great feature nonetheless.

It isn’t without its flaws though. Take a look at the above photo. At first glance, it seems fine. Then take a look at the right side—there is a big problem. As you can see, the area showing Dennis’s hand and the Nerf gun on steroids is repeated. This isn’t good or accurate to what we see in real life at all.

A similar problem happened with exposure and stitching as seen on the right-hand side of this photo. Perhaps there is a slight problem with that area.

All photos were taken with the 16mm F2.8 Sony lens. It comes bundled with the NEX-5 along with a little flash that can be mounted on camera.

It isn’t always a problem though as seen in this photo and the opening one. Sony’s on-screen menu does actually tell you if you are going too slow or too fast. However, all results here are shown with the camera going at the recommended speed according to the camera.

This feature can be very useful if you’re vacationing and want to capture large landscapes or taking a big family photo. Otherwise, it’s just plain fun.

Editor’s Note: The raw files now are working with the provided Sony software on my Macbook. Day 4 will talk about this and show off the photos.

Please Support the Phoblographer

We love to bring you guys the latest and greatest news and gear related stuff. However, we can’t keep doing that unless we have your continued support. If you would like to purchase any of the items mentioned, please do so by clicking our links first and then purchasing the items as we then get a small portion of the sale to help run the website.

camera features image quality nex 5 party review sony sweep panorama
Shares
Written by

Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.