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Cameras

Field Review: Sony NEX 5 (Day 5)

Chris Gampat
No Comments
08/30/2010
2 Mins read

Last Updated on 08/30/2010 by

The Sony NEX 5has an ISO range from 100-12,800. Most photos in the previous postings have been shot at ISO 1600 and below and so the higher ISOs had to be tested. How did the new NEX 5 sensor perform? As a note, this posting has been written after the release of Lightroom 3.2 and so everything was shot in RAW.

Performance

First off, note that no noise processing was done to these photos and that they were just sized down for the web. All shots were at ISO 12,800 and 6400.

Now, the camera’s sensor seems very standard. By that, I mean that it can handle high ISOs very well, but still exhibit both chroma and luminance noise. The former is worse, and that’s the really bad type of noise.

To be honest though, both the Canon 7Dand Nikon D300sexhibit better noise performance. Granted they are DSLRs, but they have approximately the same sized sensors (the Canon’s is slightly smaller actually). Nikon’s also has less megapixels and is optimized for high ISO shooting.

In some of the darker regions, viewers will see lots of chroma noise. For most cameras, this is standard. Most users will not be pleased with the noise though as it is clearly visible even on the back LCD and the noise doesn’t even look artistic of filmlike.

To be fair, after some testing in Lightroom 3.2, the noise canceling can easily be applied. Further, these are some of the most versatile and sensitive RAW files I’ve ever played with in terms of color applications, details that can pulled out, etc. Although at the time of writing this, the 16mm F2.8 lens doesn’t seem to be the sharpest.

Take a look in the gallery below for more. Let us know your thoughts: am I being too picky?

Gallery

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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.
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