Sony NEX-3N Hands-on Preview ~ Photography

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image of Sony Alpha NEX-3N

Sony NEX-3N Hands-on Preview

by Mike Tomkins

Posted 02/25/2013

Last year, Sony announced a Alpha NEX-F3, a mirrorless camera revisiting a progressing NEX-C3 design, and gifting it with both a built-in peep and a self-portrait accessible sloping LCD. Unfortunately for fans of unequivocally small cameras, those changes also combined significantly to a NEX-F3′s weight and size.

The new Sony Alpha NEX-3N is a approach followup to a NEX-F3, nonetheless in some ways it’s also a lapse to a ethos of a NEX-C3. Compactness is key, and a Sony NEX-3N’s newly-designed physique is roughly accurately a same stretch as that of a C3. In an considerable underline of miniaturization, though, both of a pivotal facilities combined in a NEX-F3 — a built-in peep and forward-tilting LCD — are defended in a smaller, lighter replacement. And in a initial for an Alpha-series camera, a NEX-3N also includes a wizz push on a camera body, easing a transition from a compress camera for consumers.

Unfortunately, some compromises have had to be finished to grasp a NEX-3N’s pairing of facilities and size. Key among these is a dismissal of Sony’s exclusive appendage port, that significantly reduces a options for Sony 3N owners looking to build a complement around their camera body. To strike a NEX-3N’s goals for stretch and pricepoint, Sony also had to dial behind a LCD resolution, peep output, and burst-shooting performance.

For some-more gifted photographers wanting a smallest and lightest probable NEX-series body, those sacrifices — and generally a composed burst-shooting opening — competence be a step too far. While a Sony 3N is a smallest NEX-series camera we can buy right now, a NEX-5R comes a tighten second, and nonetheless it lacks a built-in flash, a underline set is differently a healthy step above that of a entry-level model. The Sony Alpha 3N, then, is a camera directed initial and inaugural during a consumer photographer. For that market, stretch and cost are key, and a NEX-3N bests a siblings on both fronts.

Available from Apr 2012, a Sony NEX-3N will sell in a US marketplace for usually US$500 — and that’s in a pack including a company’s E PZ 16-50mm F3.5â€“5.6 OSS lens. The lens is a good pairing for dual reasons. Not usually is it a energy zoom, concordant with a NEX-3N’s on-camera wizz lever. It’s also significantly some-more compress than a 18-55mm pack lens bundled with many of a NEX-3N’s siblings. The Sony NEX-3N will be accessible in dual physique colors: black, or white. Alongside a camera, Sony will also offer a new appendage connected remote commander, a RM-VPR1, labelled during around US$65.

Walkaround. With measure of 4.3 x 2.4 x 1.4 inches (110 x 62 x 35mm), a Sony NEX-3N is significantly smaller than final year’s NEX-F3 (4.6 x 2.6 x 1.6 inches; 117 x 67 x 41mm). The nearest indication in Sony’s stream NEX-series line in terms of stretch is a NEX-5R (4.4 x 2.3 x 1.5 inches; 111 x 59 x 39mm). At a ready-to-shoot weight of 9.5 ounces (269g) nonetheless lens, a NEX-3N is also lighter than both cameras, nonetheless a NEX-5R (9.7 ounces; 276g) comes unequivocally close. The NEX-F3 trails by utterly some distance, with a weight of 11.1 ounces (314g) prepared to go, before a lens is attached.

Seen from a front, a Sony NEX-3N is about as purify and elementary as interchangeable-lens cameras get. Beyond a branding, a small palm grip, and a steel lens mountain with recover symbol in a common place, a front of a NEX-3N is roughly abandoned of features. The usually other fact is a small nonetheless intensely splendid orange autofocus support lamp, tucked underneath and rather to one side of a Sony logo. This sits a small offer divided from a handhold than it did in a NEX-F3, creation it rather rebate expected to be incidentally lonesome with a fingertip.

The handhold itself is many smaller than that of a NEX-F3, and is no longer surfaced by a plateau for a shiver button. It’s finished of tough plastic, and tinged with tiny, textured dots that give your finger purchase. (And we do meant usually one finger — with my vast hands, wise even dual fingers on a reason was too uncomfortable. For me, a easiest and smallest overpowering approach to reason a camera was with my index finger twisted over a shiver button, and my second finger backing a corner of a grip, a tip usually jacket around a bottom of a camera. A two-fingered reason won’t be possibly unless we have small hands and comparatively slim fingers.)

When we reviewed a NEX-F3 progressing this year, we commented on a craziness of a top-deck control layouts in new NEX-series cameras, and a NEX-3N brings nonetheless another choice to a table. Sony’s designers have reverted to a side-facing push around a shiver symbol for energy control as seen formerly in a NEX-C3, rather than a apart controls of a NEX-F3, a front-facing push of a NEX-5R and -7, or a angled-inwards push of a NEX-6. Where a NEX-C3 placed usually one ring around a shiver button, however, a NEX-3N now sports a second. In a curtsy to a laxity of consumer photographers with a on-body wizz controls standard of compress cameras, a Sony 3N’s shiver symbol is also encircled by a wizz lever. If a energy wizz lens is mounted, this will offer an choice to a on-lens energy wizz controls. If you’re regulating a primer wizz lens, this new wizz rocker will have no outcome in Record mode, nonetheless it will offer as a playback wizz control in Playback mode.

The F3′s two-port stereo microphone is defended in a Sony NEX-3N, and moves to a tip deck, where a apart ports camber possibly side of a popup peep strobe. There’s still a shelf between a behind and tip decks of a camera, and a symbol to lift a peep now sits during a unequivocally leftmost finish of this beveled area. It’s a stiffly spring-loaded automatic recover with a comparatively brief throw, and if we press off-center on a small symbol zero happens so it infrequently take a integrate of tries to lift a strobe. (On a and side, given it’s a automatic release, a camera doesn’t terrify we by incidentally lifting a peep whenever it feels a need!)

The Sony NEX-3N’s dedicated Movie symbol sits in many a same place it did on a NEX-F3, during a unequivocally rightmost finish of a bevel. It’s not a good plcae for extemporaneous shooting, as it’s not within easy strech of possibly ride or forefinger. Instead, we have to change your reason to strech behind for it. A ambidextrous reason works best for videos, that has a advantage of compelling a steadier reason as well. Finally, a Play symbol has been altered off a beveled area, and now sits to a left of a shiver button. One remaining object is important by a absence: a Sony NEX-3N no longer offers an appendage port, and so can’t accept outmost accessories such as strobes, microphones, or viewfinders.

Moving to a behind panel, a informed soothing symbol and dial blueprint common to all Sony’s NEX-series cameras is defended for another generation. It’s sparse, nonetheless it’s also sincerely candid and approachable. Labels on-screen subsequent to a controls state their stream function, that differs depending on a camera’s doing mode. There are a integrate of differences compared to prior NEX models, nonetheless they’re comparatively minor. Since there’s now a dedicated wizz control on a tip deck, a dial surrounding a core soothing symbol is no longer labeled for playback zoom, nonetheless it can still be used to wizz in and out of prisoner images if you’ve turn accustomed to this from another NEX camera, and cite it to a wizz rocker. In Record mode, a right side of a dial — that also acts as a four-way symbol control — now serves to yield discerning entrance to ISO attraction control. If we prefer, we can instead use it to call adult a configurable duty menu, for discerning remember of adult to 6 opposite options, from a sincerely endless list. Or we can invalidate it altogether by environment all 6 options to “Not set”.

Alongside these controls is a LCD monitor, that along with a accent resource dominates a residue of a NEX-3N’s behind panel. Like that in a NEX-F3, it can be slanted upwards by 180 degrees, permitting it to be seen from in front of a camera. Since there’s no longer an appendage port, a usually thing that competence retard a prominence when lifted is a peep strobe. That’s not unequivocally of concern, given that on-camera peep would give an assumed demeanour for arm’s length self-portraits anyway. For tripod-mounted self-portraits, we can simply endorse your framing initial with a peep lowered, and afterwards lift it before holding a final shot.

More of a regard is that a LCD no longer tilts downwards during all. On a NEX-C3, we could lean a guard downwards by around 45 degrees, and even on a NEX-F3 there was a rather rebate inexhaustible 13-degree downwards tilt. For a Sony NEX-3N, a accent is a elementary hinge during a tip of a LCD panel. It’s substantially some-more reliable, smaller, and lighter finished this approach than with a accent resource of a progressing cameras, nonetheless it creates a Sony Alpha 3N many rebate gainful to arm’s length shots over a throng than were a predecessors. There is a workaround, nonetheless it’s a awkward one: we can lean a LCD upwards, reason a camera upside down so that a LCD now faces downwards, and trigger a shiver with your ride instead of your forefinger. On a and side, a camera’s march sensor recognizes what you’re perplexing to do, and tags a images appropriately. You competence need to stagger a images on your mechanism if your selected program can’t know a march tags, though.

Finally, we come to a sides and bottom of a Sony NEX-3N. The right-hand (grip) side of a camera is radically featureless, with a difference of a projection for a shoulder strap. Unfortunately, this attaches to a camera around a small, steel D-ring with cosmetic cover. As we’ve remarkable in many reviews over a years, these D-rings are disposed to metal-on-metal sound with a smallest hold of a shoulder strap, that is simply picked adult by a onboard microphone when sharpened video. If we devise on sharpened a lot of video, you’ll wish to mislay a D-rings and go strapless.

The left-hand side of a NEX-3N is consumed by a large, hinged cosmetic doorway that covers both a Secure Digital / Memory Stick Duo label slot, and a camera’s usually dual connector ports. At a top, above a label slot, is a USB information depot that is also used to assign a camera. Sony describes it as a multi-terminal, and it accepts a new RM-VPR1 connected remote control that provides a remote shiver symbol with lock, a wizz control, and a video button. Beneath a label container is a Micro HDMI high-def video terminal, that is now a smaller Type-D terminal, rather than a Type-C of a NEX-F3.

With a label container relocated to a left side of a camera body, a bottom of a Sony NEX-3N is cleaner than it was in a NEX-F3. There’s still a steel tripod socket, orderly located on a executive pivot of a lens for easier tripod-mounted scenery shooting. At a left-hand finish is a small three-hole pier for a speaker, that is unfortunately not a unequivocally good plcae — you’re roughly guaranteed to cover it with your fingertip when holding a camera two-handed. At a right-hand (grip) finish is a battery cell door, that is spring-loaded with a small locking switch like that on a NEX-F3. The doorway still includes a small rubber block sealing a cutout that allows outlet for a discretionary AC adapter’s manikin battery.

Shooting with a Sony NEX-3N

by Mike Tomkins

Earlier this year, we reviewed Sony’s Alpha NEX-F3, a camera Sony will be replacing with a new NEX-3N, and we also spent some time with a prior NEX-C3 that precedes both cameras. When a examination representation of a Sony 3N arrived in a lab, then, it was maybe a given that I’d take it out for a spin. we was penetrating to see how it compared, and possibly my concerns with a prototype had been addressed.

On holding a Sony NEX-3N out of a box, we was immediately conflicted. On a one hand, we mourned for Sony’s Smart Accessory Terminal, a exclusive pier that lets we bond outmost accessories to a NEX-series cameras. It’s been private from a NEX-3N design, presumably in a interests of shortening a physique size, nonetheless it also reduces a camera’s flexibility somewhat. There’s no longer any approach to use an outmost viewfinder with a NEX-3N, and maybe some-more importantly, we can’t insert an outmost strobe. (Which also means that rebound peep is no longer possible; even if we qualification your possess rebound card, a inner peep is simply not absolute adequate for bouncing.) And nor can we supplement an appendage microphone, so we no longer have any choice solely an off-camera recorder, if we wish to equivocate issues with doing sound being available along with your high-def videos. That’s even some-more of a regard interjection to a use of loud metal-on-metal D-rings for a shoulder strap.

On a certain side, though, a Sony NEX-3N is handily smaller than a predecessor, and that’s really good news. In my book, a some-more unstable a camera is, a some-more expected you’ll have it with we when we many need it — for a shot we weren’t expecting. And a inclusion of Sony’s 16-50mm energy wizz lens in a pack gold is a essential choice, as it improves both a altogether bulk, and a wide-angle sharpened possibilities. Pick adult a second lens for telephoto work, and you’re set! And nonetheless we didn’t find a NEX-3N’s small palm reason terribly comfortable, we found this smirch comparatively easy to overlook, given a NEX-3N’s lighter weight. Even nonetheless a tag on a camera, we didn’t find my hands overpowering after an afternoon’s sharpened in downtown Knoxville, Tennessee.

Perhaps some-more unsatisfactory to me was Sony’s preference to revoke a NEX-3N’s selection in several areas, that we can usually assume was finished in a interests of shortening a cost of a camera. The LCD guard has a reduce fortitude than that of a NEX-F3, creation it harder to establish possibly your concentration is accurate when focusing manually, or when reviewing images in playback mode. (Although thankfully, Sony’s accessible concentration peaking duty is included, so it’s not utterly as tough to concentration manually as it can be on some cameras.) The peep strobe is also rather rebate absolute — and that’s harder to defend, given that it’s now your only choice for flash.

My categorical concern, though, was for a camera’s detonate sharpened performance. Consumer photographers competence not give this a second thought, supposed detonate sharpened to be something indispensable usually for sports. A good detonate mode can make it many easier to get photos of other rebate predicted subjects, such as kids and pets, though. The Sony NEX-F3′s detonate mode was already singular in terms of depth, generally for tender shooters. The NEX-3N is even some-more so, with fine-quality JPEG detonate inlet in sold slashed in half, compared to a progressing camera. That’s also accompanied by a rebate in detonate rate from 5.5 to 4 frames per second even with bearing and concentration sealed from a initial frame, and a composed 2.5 frames per second with any support being away focused and metered.

With that said, if your reflexes are adult to a charge or we don’t fire a lot of relocating subjects, a detonate opening concerns are value overlooking. Admittedly I’ve usually an afternoon’s sharpened underneath my belt so far, nonetheless my initial feeling is that a NEX-3N’s picture quality, like that of a predecessor, is flattering pleasing. Autofocus and bearing generally seemed accurate, and nonetheless I’m still not a fan of Sony’s menu complement and playback-mode interface, altogether a NEX-3N is a sincerely receptive camera with a inexhaustible array of sharpened aids to assistance consumers get a shot they’re after.

And while a reason isn’t a many comfortable, we did conclude some of a other earthy changes to a Sony NEX-3N’s design. Even for somebody like me who mostly shoots with DSLRs, a new on-camera wizz rocker is a good addition. I’m not a outrageous fan of fly-by-wire lens rings in a initial place, and zooming with a rocker usually felt some-more healthy for an electronic zoom, vouchsafing me concentration on a framing and my theme instead. Of course, not everybody will remonstrate with me, nonetheless if we don’t, we can still use a controls on a lens, as well. And we do meant controls, plural. The lens itself bears both a fly-by-wire wizz ring, and also a slider on a lower-left plot of a lens barrel.

Zoom control, incidentally, is maybe a small bewildering. You’re supposing with no rebate than 3 ways to control a zoom, nothing of that can be disabled, and nothing of whose duty can be changed. That’s something I’d like to see Sony residence in a firmware update; a lens ring could be softened used, in my opinion, for last variables such as focus, shiver speed, or aperture. we indeed disliked it as a wizz control, since there’s no feedback “feel” in a fly-by-wire complement (although a lens does quiver as a wizz engine drives it to a new focal length), and it has a unequivocally brief chuck indeed. More mostly than not we found myself bumping one of a transcribe controls, and wishing it wasn’t there — nonetheless during smallest one of them has to be there for a lens to support other NEX-series cameras, that miss an on-camera wizz control. (As of now, that’s all of them other than a NEX-3N.)

But as we said, we did like a new control on a camera body, and it’s maybe not satisfactory to ding a camera for a lens’ design, even if it is partial of a pack bundle. we also appreciated a new shiver symbol position, and a lapse to a energy control integrated into a shiver symbol cluster.

Among a new firmware features, maybe a many engaging is a updated Auto Framing function, that has been seen on several of Sony’s new interchangeable-lens cameras. It’s a underline clearly directed during consumers, who competence good not be proficient with — or entirely know — some of a simple compositional manners that are second inlet to some-more gifted photographers. The function’s underlying algorithm examines cinema as they’re captured, afterwards decides if a combination could be improved. If a algorithm believes this to be a case, it will stand a picture so as to best compare a inner combination rules, afterwards use a pattern-matching digital wizz duty to increase a picture behind to full resolution. The finish result, suggests Sony, is an picture that’s some-more pleasing, nonetheless not of apparently reduce picture peculiarity to a photographer. More gifted photographers will presumably invalidate a function, nonetheless consumers competence good find interest — and maybe learn how to urge their photos from saying a camera’s choices.

In prior cameras, Auto Framing worked usually for portraits, keying off a camera’s face showing functionality. (Indeed, it has until now indeed been called Auto Portrait Framing.) In a NEX-3N, it also works for non-portrait photos, and even for portraits has been tweaked. According to Sony, it will now commend a theme in macro and movement photos, and stand to urge combination with these theme as well. we was means to endorse this when sharpened macro photos, as a camera would spasmodic stand my picture for me. With my instance macro shot, where we intentionally placed a theme dead-center in a frame, a camera’s combination is certainly some-more pleasing. It also recognizes portraits with dual faces, nonetheless to my eye, a stand here places a faces too tighten to a tip of a image, giving it an lunatic feel. (You can see a pre- and post-crop shots for both images in a gallery.)

Unfortunately, we haven’t so distant been means to get a print of a relocating theme to trigger a function, notwithstanding perplexing a accumulation of subjects, possibly panning with a theme or gripping a camera still, and with my possess framing trimming from comparatively appreciative to intentionally bad. If it’s triggered, though, it will apparently commend a instruction of theme motion, and take comment of this in last how best to stand a image.

And so, we lapse to my initial question: does a NEX-3N softened a predecessor? My answer, so far, is a clear “maybe.” There are some-more than a few changes we like, and equally, several that regard me. As yet, I’ve not had it prolonged adequate to form a clever opinion possibly way, nonetheless a picture peculiarity shown by a prototype (and in my brief time with a Sony 3N) — joined with a some-more affordable list cost — advise it is estimable of offer investigation. Watch this space! (And in a meantime, don’t forget to have a demeanour during a gallery and sample lab photos.)