The Abecedarian Stirs

NEX-5N Test Drive

Let me start by saying that I am not a professional photographer, I am an enthusiast who has been taking pictures for a long time, but in no way am I claiming that this is an expert's opinon. But that may be what makes this review valuable to you. I shoot to make myself happy, what I like may be too plebian for some, but so be it. On with the review.

I approched this test with the idea in mind that most people do not have a long time to set up a shot so these shots are not overly studied or framed and I did not spend a great deal of time messing with the camera setting for each shot. The good news is I didn't have to in order to get good results.

Note: None of these images have been color corrected on a computer.

Manual vs Auto 

This camera is not aimed at the professional camera market so it does not opperate the way a traditional DSLR camera does, and I found it helpful to view the camera as a differnent type of camera completely. I did a test of the basic automatic setting vs. me maually getting the best shot I could (which was the longest I took to set up a shot). As you can see I got nearly identical results to the auto settings.

 

Dynamic Range

I was very please with the wide range from black to white that this camera captured. Here is a building being blasted by full sun, shot on complete auto settings. The camera retained detail in the light colored part of the building and well as in the white letters of the sign, at the same time there are details in the shadow under the overhand and in the street light. Detail Photo 
The colors themsleves are close to what they are in real life. 

 

Creative Settings

Most of the time I cringe when I see the "creative" modes of most cameras, and this camera does let you apply a range of special effect to you photos which I may get into in a later post. But for the NEX-5N Photo Creativity mode is a good tool for changing the look of the photo to match what you want, and letting the camera take care of setting the appeture and shutter speed. I came to think of it as a more artisic manual mode. There are five things you can change in this mode, Backgound Focus, Brightness, Color (warm or cool), Vividness (saturation) and Picture Effect (the wild effects I talked about earlier). The first four are the most useful in quickly getting the look you want to your photos.

Background Focus changes the appeture and shutter speed to blur out the background of the photo and focus on the foreground subject.

As I quickly set up this shot of a leaf on a tree the camera did a good job of keeping track of where it should be focus as a slight wind blew the leaf around. The back screen of the NEX-5N is a touch screen, so you can touch where you want the camera to focus and it will track that object as best it can and for the most part it does a good job in a tough environment of swaying branches and leaves.

You can see the amount of detail in this shot here, it is amazing for the amount of motion that was going on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The other three setting can be used in tandem to help shape the look of the shot in the camera before you do any editing on a computer. Which is good because most of the special features of this camera cannot be use with RAW mode or RAW + JPEG mode. This frustrates me a bit, I wanted to use this camera to shape the shot and then record it in the best quality I can. I wouldn't mind if I had to download the RAW file as well as a data file that would make that RAW file look like it did on the  camera, it would save me time editing on the computer and move more of the creative choices to the time of the shot instead of later at a computer screen. So I like these settings but they are only for JPEG, which on this camera is still really good looking. 

With these settings, I was able to alter the automatic exposure of the camera and create an image closer to what I like of this bamboo. The back screen does and amazing job in the bright sunlight, in fact I over-compensated for the wash-out effect too much and most of these photos, like this one, are a little darker than I like, but the detail is still there and could easily be pulled out with a few minutes in Photoshop. 

 

I ended up using these creative setting a lot during the rest of the shoot. I used it to bring out the detailof this shop interior while letting the outside burn away.

The top photo is the first attempt with the creative settings and the bottom one is the second attempt. (I  waited for the man to get out of the way, but he must have hit a female shopping force field because he stood there and would not actually go into the shop. LOL)

I like the way these setting let me have control of the image that is not the traditional aperture and shutter controls. As an enthusiest (amature) I don't have a light set or timers or interns to get these looks external to the camera, so it's great to have them internal. Not a professional job by any means, but I like it.

 

 

 

 

 

Selective Focus

This could very well be the feature that excites me the most! The only different between these two pictures is where I touched on the back screen. The level of detail at the focal point is amazing and with one touch the camera changed its focus. Cool.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wrap Up

I was shooting with the 18 - 55mm zoom lens for these shots. I also tried out the 16mm fixed lens, it was okay but obviously not as verstial as the zoom.

I used the 16mm to test out the video I shot and that revealed the first major flaw of this camera. When shooting video and moving the camera, even a little bit, there is something inside the camera that moves and causes a clicking sound in the audio. It is very annoying. The good news is that Sony recognizes the problem and I have already arrainged to have them fix the camera (or as they call it a Performance Enhancement) for free. I do have to ship it off which isn't ideal, but it's good to see Sony taking care of the problem quickly.

These are the things that stood out to me after the first time using this camera, I am sure that after I use it more I will discover more things to do with it and will write about them here. 

I am quickly falling in love with this camera and I can't wait to use it more. If you have any questions leave them in the comments and I will give you my un-professional opinion. :)

View through the door

The big scare

When I was a teenager in Christian school, a great deal of energy was spent by a great many people to warn me about other people.  The scenario was drawn up like this, one day when you are "out in the world" someone is going to come up to you and try to get you to do something wrong; watch out for it and make sure you have a strong character to resist the temptation. I had ideas of the work place as a den of hedonism where I would have to fend off drug dealers and lose women just to get to the copy machine. 

Having been in the "world" for many years I can say that nothing even remotely similar has ever happened to me. Like most nerdy men I have never, at any time had to fight off the advances of a woman. I have been asked if I want an adult beverage, but if I refused I did not feel any peer pressure to say yes... it's simply was not a big deal. I have never been offered drugs, ever. Now I have worked for, and with, some shady characters who were not above participating in all of the above activities and more, but the closest I ever got to "the scenario" was when I was asked if I would design a pornographic web site; it was asked in a way that assumed I would say "no" and it was laughably easy to reject.

The only time I can see an individual facing enormous pressure to participate in a certain action which may be against his or her morals would be when identifying with a group in which the individual is less important than the whole. The dynamics within these groups such as gangs, fraternities or the military, are not the dynamics that most people experience in everyday life. These group are very distinct and are not accidentally joined, but assume a willingness of the individual to be a part of the group. 

So you may be saying, "What's the big deal, isn't it better in err on the side of caution and put some fear into the minds of young people?" The down side is that the fear instilled drives a wedge between the Christian and the world he or she is supposed to be salt and light to. Instead of seeing the people "in the world" as individuals who need to see the love of God, I saw them as an enemy to be guarded against because they had my destruction in mind. I had no sympathy for the outside world.

All of this is not to say that I have not faced moral dilemmas, some which I have passes and some I have failed, but when faced with these dilemmas there were no individuals trying to lead me astray, the person I was fighting was myself. There is an evil world out there, but it pails in comparison to the evil world inside. As Christians, we are not at war with our fellow humans (although people become powerful making us think so) we are at war within ourselves. Christ did not call us to destroy the unbelievers around us, He calls us to destroy ourselves, our pride and demandingness.  

To borrow a phrase from Frank Herbert, "Fear is the little mind killer" or in this case the little faith killer. Christians today are drowning in fear, fear of change, fear of "the other," fear of the future. The reality is, it's not that scary out there, people just want you to think it is. Yes you will meet people different than you, but it's okay, you will realize that they are actually a lot like you, human beings looking to give meaning to their lives and asking questions, questions you might actually have the answers to.

 

The complement of love

We live in a culture of romance and love. Especially as teens / young adults. Music, movies, greeting cards, holidays... the emphasis is placed on the feelings of love, the quick heartbeat, the impulsive acts, the hormonal surge. But we place almost no emphasis on what is just as important as love, if not more, in a relationship. Respect.

Hormones, cards and candle light will get you pretty far in the beginning of a relationship, but without the development of respect, it will remain at this unstable, emotional level, or it will fade away. In order for a relationship to deepen into a stable, abiding trust, there must be respect in addition to love. It causes the love to deepen beyond the first flirting stage and become something that people can build a life on. They complement and enhance each other making both more enjoyable.

If one person loses respect for another in a relationship, even though the love may still be there, damage has been done to the relationship, and that respect must be restored, over time, if more and more respect is lost, it can begin to erode the feelings of love and can cause serious trouble.

I have always wondered how a couple in an arranged marriage can make it work and I think that this issue may have something to do with it. In this case the respect comes first and then love, maybe. If not love then at least the respect gives them something they can build on.

Couples should take care to maintain both aspects of their relationship, but it's hard to find a "I respect you so much" card. :)

How do you think our culture would be different if we placed equal emphasis on love and respect?

When people make a list of what they want their ideal partner to be like, is the foundation of this list love or respect?

What is on your list?

 

Value

A woman sits in her seat and looks out the window as the plane angles into the sky; she looks out at the wing and sees the shape of it change ever so slightly as it lifts her into the sky. She is glad that her trip has begun and that everything seems to be working normally and the wing is doing its job. Once the flight is over she makes her way to the baggage claim and her thoughts turn to the next task on her list, finding a taxi to take her to the city.

A boy enjoys the dry sound of leaves under his feet as his boundless energy propels him through the woods. His foot unearths a rock and he stops to examine it. This rock, with its unusual weight and sparkling texture, inspires hours of imagination and adventure and becomes one of his favorite toys, never leaving his pocket or his hand. At the end of the summer, it receives a place of honor on his shelf and many years later, he still has it in a drawer or box unable to part with it, although he can't say exactly why.

Two objects, both assigned a value.

Which type of value would you rather have?
Which type do you have more control over?

 

Mr. Leonard Cohen

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