Steve Huff - GXR vs NEX-7

[Keith]

After owning an X100 and ultimately being disappointed ... I watch the release of every new camera with interest and what they say gets logged! 😀

Who was it that said ... "opinions are like ****holes, everybody has one!"

😀

 

[uhoh7]

Hi Douglas,
Good Job there. Re corners, As first I thought just the general sensor upgade. i.e. overall rez might explain it. But look at that tree on the right side of your crops, right under the building--YOW huge difference there. But it still would be interesting to see center crops also 🙂

Re colorshift. Better for sure though it still has some obviously, but for most shots you could get away with it.

I forgot if you are pre-ordered for 7?

 

[douglasf13]

I'm away from my computer, but I can tell you the center crops are very similar. The Nex-5 center crops almost appear slightly sharper, but downsizing the 5n shot to 5 size negates that. I'm always scared to put my trust in any singular tests, even my own, but the corner resolution improvement seems quite tangible in the 5n shots.

Yep, I preordered the 7 on Aug. 24th from Amazon, but we'll see if I get lucky and get one.

 

[squirrel$$$bandit]

Wow, thanks--a great comparison. I ordered from Amazon on the 24th as well and am holding out some hope that I'll get one. Fingers crossed! But if I don't, I will keep using the 5n quite happily. Maybe I'll get the EVF if no 7 is forthcoming.

 

[douglasf13]

Alrighty, here are a few more crops from the above photos.

NEX-5 right side:

NEX-5N right side:

NEX-5 center:

NEX-5N center:

 

[uhoh7]

I'm away from my computer, but I can tell you the center crops are very similar. The Nex-5 center crops almost appear slightly sharper, but downsizing the 5n shot to 5 size negates that. I'm always scared to put my trust in any singular tests, even my own, but the corner resolution improvement seems quite tangible in the 5n shots.

Yep, I preordered the 7 on Aug. 24th from Amazon, but we'll see if I get lucky and get one.

I bet you get one. Then you will be the man with all the bodies 🙂

One other thing to try at some point, though I'm sure you already thought of it. Focus the 5 with mag in corner @ f/8 and 5n--no hurry.

I called sony today worried about billing hassles relating to the fact you can't even put a PO in the Billing Address. USA this time. 3 helpers later, "No problem sir, you are good to go, it will ship on 11/11.

SOny's answer to Herman Cain:

Sir, have no fear from SOny here
Your nex seven will ship for sure
furs thing in the morn
not nine nine nine
no, THIS friday: EEleven EEleven

🙂 even worse than my photography OMG

 

[fireblade]

looking at these pics, the 5n is a huge improvement on the 5.

 

[douglasf13]

I bet you get one. Then you will be the man with all the bodies 🙂

One other thing to try at some point, though I'm sure you already thought of it. Focus the 5 with mag in corner @ f/8 and 5n--no hurry.

I actually already did the same shoot at f8 and got similar results, although the NEX-5 shots are better than at f5.6. I don't think that I can really focus into the corners any more, because infinity on this lens is basically everything from 10 or 20 feet out, and those trees were pretty far away, so focusing at infinity should cover everything. It's almost as if the NEX-5 sensor is creating a pseudo field curvature. I'll be interested to see how much better the CV 35/1.4 is in the corners with the 5N.

In the shots above, everything looks fine until around the chimney area, and then it just falls off with the NEX-5. I'll try to do more tests so that I don't lead people astray, just in case I make any mistakes.

 

[uhoh7]

"Thank you for your recent Sony purchase.
We would like to inform you we are experiencing a delay with your Sony order.
Due to the flood in Thailand and the direct damage to Sony’s manufacturing facilities resulting from the flood, Sony is not able to meet the original delivery schedule that we shared with you when you ordered the NEX-7 camera. It is our highest priority to launch the NEX-7 as soon as possible and we would like to update you bi-weekly beginning Monday, November 21st until we can confirm the new intended shipping date. As a reminder, pursuant to your pre-order terms, your charge will not place until the order is shipped.
We apologize for this unforeseeable situation and thank you for your continued support. You are going to love your NEX-7 camera!"

Oh well 🙁

At least i'm not living in a pool of water, right 🙂

 

[Adanac]

That is too bad about the NEX-7 delivery, particularly after Sony was reassuring pre-order holders just a few days ago in a mass email. They certainly could have handled that better -even continually stating "we don't know if or when" would have been better. No doubt there'll be a lot of over-angry folks over that although I won't be one of the mob.

But as you say, not getting a new camera is but a trivial thing compared to what the Thai people are going through and will continue to go through.

I'm currently compact camera-less. Do I try to hunt down a NEX-5N and EVF folks? Or continue to sit it out? I think I'll do the former but not if prices have already jumped.

Need some hassy leather to spruce up the evf too!

PS: Canadians near as I can tell have not yet been told *anything*. I wonder when Sony is going to break the bad news to us.

 

[uhoh7]

I consoled myself and ordered 5N from B&H. Might as well sell my 5 while it is worth something 🙂

they had a deal for 100 off on the 55-210 if you grabbed both together.

what the heck. somebody might want that if i don't care for it.

 

[leicashot]

So guys if you're interested in a good comparison of the GXR, NEX-5n and M9-P I'll do one.

Tell me (within reason) what you'd like me to shoot and test for and I'll do my best to do it within 7 days with a full write up on my new site PhotoHub.

Keep in mind, I won't do a dpreview style lab test, but I will do my best to test these cameras in real shooting situations that are somewhat interesting.

 

[noimmunity]

So guys if you're interested in a good comparison of the GXR, NEX-5n and M9-P I'll do one.

It being RFF and all, it would be fun if you could include the M8 and the R-D1 in that. Within reason, of course :angel:

p.s. Nice site !

 

[leicashot]

It being RFF and all, it would be fun if you could include the M8 and the R-D1 in that. Within reason, of course :angel:

p.s. Nice site !

Thanks, officially, the site is not yet launched and I'm currently moving countries so it's gone on hold till next week.

Including the M8 may be possible but not sure about getting ahold of the R-D1. I'd also rather work with current cameras to keep things, well, current 😉

 

[uhoh7]

So guys if you're interested in a good comparison of the GXR, NEX-5n and M9-P I'll do one.

Tell me (within reason) what you'd like me to shoot and test for and I'll do my best to do it within 7 days with a full write up on my new site PhotoHub.

Keep in mind, I won't do a dpreview style lab test, but I will do my best to test these cameras in real shooting situations that are somewhat interesting.

That would be great, what glass do you have?

What's missing really are "flat" samples at mid distance and infinity. I think we all know the M9 is in another league, but the GXR vs Nex 5n would be interesting.

Shots at 10 meters and some long landscapes with corners populated by detail would be ideal. Focus on the 5n is key as it is very easy to overshoot infinity on many adapters. these at iso 100 f/5.6 🙂

Then maybe some high iso stuff, where we can see noise comparisons---1600 and or 3200.

Flickr takes full size jpegs, or any host you choose, but that's better than the ususal 100% crops because we can really scroll all around the images.

Maybe if you list which Ms you have handy we can pick some. Cheaper the better, hehe. Most have a CV or two. A wide, a normal and something 75-90. A CV 75/2.5 or tele elmarit 90/2.8 are both popular and either would do nicely in that department.

Normal, a modern 50/2, something clean and sharp.

Wide, ideally one CV retro-focus like the 21, 25 or 35 skopars (more common than the heliars-and we seen so many heliar shots), and something less extreme like the elmarit 28, which was always well behaved even on the nex-5.

How does that sound?

 

[rxmd]

So guys if you're interested in a good comparison of the GXR, NEX-5n and M9-P I'll do one.

Tell me (within reason) what you'd like me to shoot and test for and I'll do my best to do it within 7 days with a full write up on my new site PhotoHub.

Keep in mind, I won't do a dpreview style lab test, but I will do my best to test these cameras in real shooting situations that are somewhat interesting.

Nice idea. Here's a few ideas:

Wideangle shots are more interesting that tele shots.

Please include the M9, it would be interesting to see whether it really is in a different league. Maybe all it has is less crop factor and other cameras are better in other areas.

Include a shot or two of each camera in your hands, and of you shooting it, looking through the viewfinder or on the display. That will give some amount of comparative idea of the ergonomics.

If you have access to them, please include shots from a "difficult" wideangle lens, preferably a non-retrofocus ultrawideangle - such as a C-Biogon 21/f4.5, a CV 15/f4.5, a Super-Angulon 21/f3.4 (for that matter a Jupiter-12 would probably do, too).

If you do include comparison shots of the same scene with different cameras or lenses, it doesn't have to be "scientific", but please be as rigorous as circumstances allow. Take your time, use a tripod, don't change camera position between comparison shots, use focus bracketing, that sort of thing.

If you have the time, try to change only one parameter between shots (different camera, or different lens, or different aperture, or different shooting position, or different focus) - as with any review, it doesn't matter if you can take way more pictures than you finally post, but this type of testing generates lots of questions by people and also you can be more selective about what you actually post.

That said, please no shots of cats, kids, or brick walls and bookshelves... Or if you absolutely can't avoid that, go the extra mile and have all of them in the same shot - a shot of a kid holding a cat in front of a brick wall. Bonus points for pinning a test charts to the wall. 😛

 

[rxmd]

Wide, ideally one CV retro-focus like the 21, 25 or 35 skopars (more common than the heliars-and we seen so many heliar shots)

I'm not sure whether what you mean by the CV "retro-focus" 21, 25 and 35 - you may have your definitions mixed up. I'd prefer a "problematic" wideangle, like the 15 Heliar, to a less problematic one like the 25 or 35 - the results from the latter just wouldn't illustrate the problem as well.

For explanation, wideangles used to be non-retrofocus, until retrofocus wideangles were invented (in the 1950s, for SLRs), and nowadays they are more popular even with rangefinders because they give more sensor-friendly parallel light rays coming out of the back - that is retrofocus wideangles tend to be more telecentric. However, in the interest of this test resumably you want a non-telecentric lens - in wideangles those are usually precisely the non-retrofocus ones.

Practically all wideangles are retrofocus nowadays - it's almost impossible to build a non-retrofocus 12 or 15mm lens in a mount that sits 28mm from the film plane. If you try, you get extreme lenses like the 15/f8 Hologon that are really slow and cost a lot.

Now if Kristian has a Hologon, then this would be the ideal wideangle for sensor stress testing 😀

 

[michel v]

I'd prefer a "problematic" wideangle, like the 15 Heliar, to a less problematic one like the 25 or 35 - the results from the latter just wouldn't illustrate the problem as well.

Actually, when I owned the CV 35mm f2.5 (LTM, non-pancake version), it did exhibit some visible degree of colour shift.
I kind of regret selling it, now that I have a 5N, but shots with skies or clear borders were just unusable…

(Also, I think you can't shoot a Super Angulon 21mm f3.4 on Nex, and you definitely can't shoot a Jupiter 12, so these can not be compared.)

 

[rxmd]

Actually, when I owned the CV 35mm f2.5 (LTM, non-pancake version), it did exhibit some visible degree of colour shift.
I kind of regret selling it, now that I have a 5N, but shots with skies or clear borders were just unusable…

In that case I guess it would work as well. (The LTM and M, Pancake and non-Pancake versions are optically identical).

 

[bwcolor]

Looks like Sony is hard at work abusing their customers. SonyStyle has backtracked on the USA ship date of 11/11/11 and they now have many upset customers.