Luminous Landscape have posted some extremely sharp first impressions of the Sony NEX 5. LL is a great site for camera reviews and they hit the nail on the head every time.
The Sony NEX 5 is undoubtedly be a candidate for many people’s next video camera purchase or a first toe-dip for people new to HDSLR video. It won’t be after reading this.
Sadly it confirms a lot of the concerns we had from the spec sheets before are even worse than we anticipated. Whilst image quality is present and correct, this is not going to be the HDSLR of choice for budding cinematographers.
The good…
• Rolling shutter or ‘jello’ the best of the bunch, even better than GH1. Much better than 5D / 7D.
• Good codec implementation, good image processing
• The camera enjoys a one stop noise advantage over the Panasonic GH1
• Very acceptable high ISO performance up to 3200
• OK this isn’t video related but the lovely Sweep Panorama feature is improved over the compact iterations, you can now use any focal length for stunning shallow depth of field anamorphic style stills. Believe me, this feature produces stunning looking stuff every time. Will be great on a robot controlled tripod for timelapses. Philip Bloom will be pleased. A new timelapse challenge just became possible!!
• Best HDR mode of any camera. Period. Stunning results in stills mode. Again, maybe not applicable to video.
The bad…
• The user interface is dumbed down for none-photographers, with many quirks and buried menu options
• No dedicated button for ISO!
• Not even a physical mode dial
• No quick access menus or programmable buttons
• 18-55mm OIS lens not wonderful. Outperformed by the G lens on the Sony HX5 compact camera! (See the direct comparison on the article)
The ugly…
• Absolutely zero control over video. Nothing. Red button. That’s it.
• AVCHD codec implementation limited to two settings – 1920x1080i and 1440x1080i – yep, both interlaced sadly
• No 24p, no 60p, no 720p.
• Read on…
The lack of video options is a serious downer, and one I am finding very difficult to understand. Sony must really not want to sell this camera to filmmakers or people interested in video. It just about suffices as a family camcorder with very nice image quality. But Sony have chosen to equip this flagship camera with even less control over video than on the HX5 compact camera I reviewed recently. At least on the compact, you have 720p, manual white balance and exposure compensation if not control over shutter or aperture. The Casio FH100 uses the same Exmor R sensor and has manual control over shutter and aperture. So this is some kind of strategic decision at Sony to protect forthcoming cameras, possibly the high end Alpha HD range which is coming (with mirror-box, sigh…) or even the professional Sony interchangeable lens video camera announced at NAB 2010.
Refreshingly for a photography / digital camera review site, Luminous Landscapes know what they’re taking about regarding video on DSLRs.
My colleague Chris Sanderson and I spent a morning shooting side by side comparisons against the Canon 7D. Chris is a life-long director / cameraman / videographer, and has a professional’s eye. What our tests of the NEX-5 showed were lower video resolution, saturation and contrast than from the 7D, and a softer all-around appearance to the footage.
The real problem is that the NEX-5 shoots at any aperture or shutter speed that it feels like, producing some unpleasant and definitely unfilmlike motion effects. We did some frame-by-frame comparisons of cars driving past at a 45 degree angle and the 7D showed typical 1/60 sec frames. From their appearance the NEX-5’s frames appeared to have been shot at at least 1/250 sec. Not pretty.
The high frame rate in video mode is also a problem the Sony HX5 compact has. Not clever Sony, not clever. This is such a disappointment. 24p and manual controls in video mode aren’t hard, and are simply firmware issues (as the 5D Mark II showed). Either Sony don’t understand the needs of HDSLR video customers, or are underestimating their bread & butter customers’ ability to understand even the most basic manual camera settings.
A note on where the GH1 fits into the picture:
Check out this DXOMark article on the GH1 and see the section on ‘Comparison with a similar pixel pitch sensor, EOS 7D’.
The GH1’s sensor is better overall than the 7D, despite being older and smaller. The 7D may have a larger sensor, but it is packed with 18MP, whilst the GH1’s is 12MP – a benefit for video and sensitivity. Since the 7D trumps the NEX 5, the GH1 is still quite some way out in front of both.
Being a site with EOS in the name I’d like to see some good news and innovation from Canon soon, because – well, it’s been too long. I really feel for those early 7D adopters. First the much cheaper 550D, now the GH1 confirming it’s imaging chops on DXOMark.
Right now the best HDSLRs are STILL the 5D Mark II and Panasonic GH1. I’m beginning to get impatient for some real progress on future models. It’s been over a year now since these came out!
For Sony fans, all is not lost. The Alpha HDs are not far off now, though they are not mirrorless cameras and I am beginning to wonder if Sony understand (or want to understand?) video in HDSLRs.
24p and manual controls please Sony.
NEXT!
