sony nex 5 vs 5n

A

aras

Active member
Dear forum members,

Ik want to buy a new camera and it is going to be a sony nex camera. I shoot with canon at the moment ( 550 and 5d)
What are the differences of their movie mode's?? It seems that for photography the differences are negligible. I only see people praising the 5n and not much about the previous 5 version.
What wideangle lens would you recommend instead or along with the sony 16mm 2.8?

Thanks in advance for your input.
 
NEX 5n is the only one capable of shooting proper video. NEX 5 lacks the following important features for movie making:-

No manual control of ISO, Shutter and Aperture during video record mode. It is fully auto with no user controls available.
no progressive recording (only interlaced) it records 1080i(not 1080p).
Low bitrate (it shoots at about 15mb/s instead of the 25mb/s of the 5n)
Video Crop - the nex 5 crops the sensor during video mode so it doesnt use the full sensor. it means you see a narrower field of view during video mode than when using the camera for still photography.


as far as lenses are concerned. get the kit lens (18-55) this is very good thanks to its OSS. 18mm is wide enough IMO. if not, the 16mmf2.8 + the sony wide angle adaptor can create some really good images IMO.




aras said:
Dear forum members,

Ik want to buy a new camera and it is going to be a sony nex camera. I shoot with canon at the moment ( 550 and 5d)
What are the differences of their movie mode's?? It seems that for photography the differences are negligible. I only see people praising the 5n and not much about the previous 5 version.
What wideangle lens would you recommend instead or along with the sony 16mm 2.8?

Thanks in advance for your input.
Click to expand...
 
NEX 5n is the only one capable of shooting proper video. NEX 5 lacks the following important features for movie making:-

No manual control of ISO, Shutter and Aperture during video record mode. It is fully auto with no user controls available.
no progressive recording (only interlaced) it records 1080i(not 1080p).
Low bitrate (it shoots at about 15mb/s instead of the 25mb/s of the 5n)
Video Crop - the nex 5 crops the sensor during video mode so it doesnt use the full sensor. it means you see a narrower field of view during video mode than when using the camera for still photography.


as far as lenses are concerned. get the kit lens (18-55) this is very good thanks to its OSS. 18mm is wide enough IMO. if not, the 16mmf2.8 + the sony wide angle adaptor can create some really good images IMO.




aras said:
Dear forum members,

Ik want to buy a new camera and it is going to be a sony nex camera. I shoot with canon at the moment ( 550 and 5d)
What are the differences of their movie mode's?? It seems that for photography the differences are negligible. I only see people praising the 5n and not much about the previous 5 version.
What wideangle lens would you recommend instead or along with the sony 16mm 2.8?

Thanks in advance for your input.
Click to expand...
 
thanks.
It indeed is a huge difference.

Now i understand why the 5n is always mentioned and not the 5.
The nex 7 seems also interesting though i guess it doesnt give you much more than the 5n, or does it?

There are 2 reasons why i want a nex camera. first it is a small camera with the 16mm it's manageble to take it with you anywhere for personal use and i really love to use the 50mm 1.8 oss. Obviously i have a severe addiction for camera's and lenses and just want to have one lol
 
The Nex 7 and the 5n share almost the same quality for video but the 5n win in low light with a clean image at 1600 ISO, but the 7 has mic input, hotshoe and a great EVF included. But something you must to know about the Nexess is they overheat in video recording, so, it is not reliable at all for long shots.
 
Thanks xenogears. I am getting the nex 5n in a few days with the 16mm lens. I first wanted a small camera for personal use to take with me on daytrips, holiday, parties while not wanting to compromise on quality too much. It seems a great little camera for a few hundred euro's so i'm already happy with my choice lol.

BTW I have seen the reel of your company it looks great,
 
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The NEX-5n is a great little camera. I have had (and sold the NEX-5) and have a NEX-7 that should arrive tomorrow. I got a chance to play around with the NEX-7 at NAB a little and really love the handling. The thing I didn't really like about the 5n is going through menus to switch aperture, shutter speed, ISO, etc. The 7 has 3 dials that you can program so that you can have most of the necessary things at your fingertips. I also disliked having to put the little Sony shotgun mic on that tiny proprietary Sony mount along with EVF and flash. You can only do one at a time. Since I was using the EVF so often with manual lenses it made sense to just get the 7. I might keep the 5n around for an extra B, C or D cam though. It's not all that expensive in the scheme of things.
 
I have the nex 5n now for 1 day and i am pleased. Though one thing i can think of is that it shoots 25/50 p and no 24 or 60p it seems that is the difference between the versions for europe and the us. Did not ye upgraded the firmware but it doesnt seem that that will change with the new firmware !! Anyway the camera was initially supposed to be for general purposes as a carry around camera but it is a pitty.

I dont really mind the handling with regards to the menu ( i would prefere some more dials like the 7 and the af is not great.
I never used peaking filter before but the one on the sony nex5n seems useless to me !!?? maybe it's just me i'll have to try it out a bit more
 
yes, PAL version is 25p/50p, NTSC version is 24p/60p - and firmware update won't change that
 
I briefly owned a Sony NEX 5n for 10 days. I bought the camera shortly after it first became available last Fall. However, I never could get used to the unusual ergonomics of the camera, which I felt were poor. My hands are a bit large, and I never could become comfortable holding the camera and operating its controls. The camera felt awkward to hold, and I could not get a solid grip on it. With the kit zoom lens, it was also quite unbalanced. So I returned the camera for a refund.

The camera did take outstanding still images, as good as a Nikon D7000, in my opinion. The inability to use an external microphone, though, does limit the camera somewhat for video.

Here is a test video that I shot with the camera, to see how well shooting at 60/p would do in recording action:



The Autofocus did do a fantastic job of tracking the subject and keeping her in focus.

So while this is quite an amazing little camera that does a lot of things really well, do beware that its ergonomics are not going to be everyone's cup of tea. I've since held a NEX 7, and found it to be much easier to hold and operate.

However, I ended up getting a Panasonic GH2 instead, on sale with kit lens for $899. While it cost me $200 more and is also larger than the NEX 5n, it is still much smaller than a DSLR. And I found the ergonomics, controls, and features to be a better fit for my needs. While the GH2 does not take still images quite as good as the NEX 5n, it is definitely superior for shooting video, and does not suffer from the overheating problem that the NEX 5n has in shooting long clips.
 
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I have the nex5n for a day now and am happy with it, mind you i bought it as a carry " small" around camera and am not very familiar with it yet but with the 16mm it is a great little camera. When i have been shooting with it i will see the limitation which they all have ( specially camera's for so little money ).
I do see one thing about the handling though, i'm constantly aware that i just might drop the little thing lol it is very small and light but then again not that small and light. But that is the compromise we have to make to have a very little camera with high level of performance. I found the nex7 too expensive for the purposes i had with this camera but as i see it now they seem to be capable of more than only family and holiday shots.
 
I've had my 7 for a couple of months and it is the sweetest little camera I have ever owned (I've had many dslr's) for stills and for some short video scenes. Super easy to use, fast, and small. Definitely overheats after 20 minutes or so, so just don't use it for long running pieces. Gorgeous images. Fun tool. Goes anywhere under the radar.
 
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