On top you can see a NEX-C3 review made by Digitalrev (looks like they like the camera a lot!).
BHphoto just send me a email to remind me that you can saave $200 when buying a NEX camera with both lenses (18-55 and 16mm). See all the NEX deals at BHphoto (Click here) and Amazon (Click here).
62 Responses
NEX-C3: No really big differences to the NEX-3.
Overall a good camera, but there’s still not enough high-quality lenses for the E-mount.
Calling something “rather pointless” doesn’t mean they like it ;). Well at the least the NEX-system as a whole at the point.
Admin, sorry to change the subject, but is it possible to get more info about the probability of the nex-7 design rendering?
I mean the no/off switch and having 2-control wheels at the same location(impossible to move one without moving the other) seems like basic stuff, but yet, u give it a sr4?
It’s nice to see Sony giving cameras for review to the mentally challenged. “I wike to shuut wabbits and make fee-dee foe-toes”.
Well, if this was a review then a standard cheeseburger must be the hautest cuisine.
It’s DigitalRev its not so much about information but about entertainment. I just like the reviewer and the part with the Sony-Guy was nice ^^.
Someone needs to contact B&H Photo and let them know they are charging $50 MORE than Sony (and everyone else) for the two lens bundle.
It’s sad that they use clowns to do product reviews, setting hope on the funny business. It is empty substance dressed with bad taste plus poor form. Not efficient in delivering useful information at all. British sites seem particularly prone to this disease. I hope this is not what the venerable British rumor is becoming.
Unlike most reviewers he will not simply read a spec sheet and call it a review. Instead, he entertains with humor mixed with real-world testing, and interjects the specs as he goes along — but his mastery is of getting to the heart of whether a camera works as well as intended, or not. He’s the best, imo. That said, he appeared to be in a foul mood for this particular video. His humor is usually much more clever and not nasty.
He’s usually the best.
For examination of graininess, there are lab sites like DPreview, which complement practical overviews like this.
Thanks for the explanations, guys. They are well taken. I overlooked the entertainment side of the story.
Except… he’s not funny… or entertaining.
Just a smug, uninformed, douche bag.
Or at least that is how he seems to enjoy portraying himself.
I agree. I’ve seen many Kai reviews, and this one’s the worst. I agree with his conclusion — nice body, not enough lenses — but his humor was crude, he spent too many moments being “interrupted” (truck, escalator), and didn’t really say that much about the product.
I have seen this guy on a lot of reviews. And he really is just a pri**. There are some reviewers/critics who live off of their negativity and ripping everything apart. But this guy has never liked the idea of the nex system. He is like most snobby photographers and thinks that if it doesn’t look and feel just like every other camera in the market it must suck. Not to mention that fact that completely over looks the fact that you can use any alpha lens with auto focus.
P.S. The statements that the 3D only works on Sony T.V.’s is a lie. I can use it other T.V.’s/Computers
He gave glowing reviews to the NEX3 and the NEX5.
Guys, don’t pick too much on Kai (the guy from the NEX-C3 review) and don’t expect the standard, rather boring review. If you want all the specs of the camera, look them up on the Sony site.
With DigitalRevTV on YouTube it’s all about entertainment around photography. It’s the same with Top Gear and car reviews.
Don’t watch Top Gear and expect a classic review on a normal car and information on the fuel consumption. In the end, the car will have to compete against a tank in various challenges inside a mall. That’s not what you expected … but it’s stupid and highly entertaining.
I’ve seen most of the DigitalRev videos, some were useful reviews, some were just stupid. But I had fun watching most of them.
agreed.
at first I thought he was drunk, but then I understood he didn’t like the camera… hahaha…
but I understand his complains about the lack of good lenses and the fact that the C3 didn’t bring much more than a new design and higher MP count.
I don’t no that much about the NEX cameras, but why exactly did Sony create a new mount for the NEX cameras if the sensor is the same size? I’m asking that because Sony usually does this kind of stupid things – like forcing users to memorystick, ATRAC format, etc.
They created a new mount beacuse the flange distance (basically the distance between lens and sensor) is much sorter on NEX. It’s eighteen milimeters in E-mount and 44.5 mm in A-mount. That allows NEX to be small
Because it’s mirrorless, I understand.
It should have an electronic adapter so you could use the other Sony lenses without losing the AF and other electronic controlled features.
Because as far as I know, there are only adapters that increase the flange distance. It allows you to use even other mounts than just Sony’s, but you can only use manual controls, right?
Well, I think if you use the “official” Sony adapter you get autofocus and aperture control from the camera. (this one: http://bit.ly/njYZmw)
I have never used that one though, maybe someone here can tell us how it works.
For the rest of the lenses out there, there’s still no electronic adapter
The AF for SAM lenses are bloody slow that it’s better off to rely on peaking and MF instead.
SSM is better but I don’t think many will get SSM grade lenses for the NEX.
+1, they really are very funny and much different than droll tech reviews ending with the “conclusions” wrap up. I also loved the parallel to Top Gear, one the best (entertaining) TV shows of all time.
I’am waiting for the specs of the high-end compact camera that will be announced next week.
I enjoy watching Kai’s reviews, they are entertaining to watch. This one however, was really half-assed, he completely phoned it in. You could tell he didn’t really want to be there. By contrast, the recent Leica M9 vs Fuji x100 video was much more informative and interesting.
Well, the video does have one good point – there’s not enough E-glass floating around.
Well, there’s a clear and well known roadmap what’ll come from SONY this year and 2012 and the E-Mount specs are opened to third party for free.
I’m starting to become bored about always the same whining here, since SONY is fulfilling all basic consumer needs already, while I’m having nearly everything I need with my old manual lenses with adapter and either have even professional film makers, who’ll simply put their Summilux-C or CP.2 lenses on their NEX-FS100. I’m having much more awesome glass fitting wonderfully to my NEX-5 than I usually want to carry around.
There’s never been more freedom of choice before than now with E-Mount…
The whining will stop when the glass hits the street. Until then, you can’t really say they’ve fulfilled the needs of their target audience. It’s dubious to expect buyers of the C3 to use third party non-autofocus lenses, so Kai’s point is pretty valid from that perspective.
You whiners are a small group grizzling into platforms like this one here.
Most NEX-3/C3/5 buyers will never consider buying more lenses than the ones already available. Only some really want more and might have seen on the published roadmap when to expect their lens(es) while the forthcoming 18 month. And most of the more advanced users prefer fast prime lenses, whose depth of field you can’t manage properly with auto focus anyway.
You’re discussing about cameras often sold as semi- up to professional, so start trying to behave like that and not like a childish brand fetishist…
I understand your point, but since they made this NEX line, that’s just sound like an excuse for the lack of lenses.
If they are really going to release this NEX-7 – that uses the same sensor as the A77 -, I think that Sony is serious enough. So the commitment with better lenses or at least more lenses are really necessary.
If not, why bother making an interchangeable lens camera if you don’t have lenses to interchange? To say that there are not more lenses because of consumers of the NEX line up, it really sounds like an excuse. Because if the consumers that are buying don’t care about the lenses, they are marketing it wrongly.
So I think it’s not about whiney people, since the complain seems pretty reasonable, it’s indeed a valid point.
That’s funny, because I’m getting board with your whining that “roadmap” somehow equals “available lenses” and this precious little concept that the NEX has “everything a consumer could want” or that MF is the all-in-all. Why buy a body with 16MP so you can use old lenses that were never designed to resolve to that level of detail? Your needs are not everyone’s, no matter how much you try to beat it into them.
You’d be extremely surprised about fast old manual lenses’ “level of detail” if you’d try to use them, especially since focussing manually is much easier with a lens built for manual focus than with one, where you have to switch off the auto focus. These old Canon FD, Nikon, Minolta, Pentax and Leica lenses’ prices have increased massively when bought second hand, because they’re so damn good on NEX or μ4/3 even when used at f/1.4 or f/1.2 up to f/0.95..
@Renato M: Yes, SONY’s Marketing is a little confusing. They might have tried to hide what they had in mind with E-Mount until the NEX-FS100, that this should become SONY’s standard for photography and video growing together up to professional devices. They started with consumers and got inundated by demands for more lenses, so they published their roadmap, which is very much focussed on consumers assuming professionals would prefer fast prime lenses from third party constructed especially for their needs anyway. But taking an isolated look on the NEX consumers their alternative to NEX is only μ4/3 where the lens situation is better, but not that dramatically.
Nevertheless I’m extremely happy with my old Canon FD lenses on my NEX-5 and I’m only missing a Super Wide Angle around 10 or 12mm…
I did try many older lenses. The adapter + lens makes for too much bulk. FD lenses (as an example) have a pain in the neck mount. Many of them are too soft wide open, so you lose a partial up to a full stop getting them sharp and not ghosting.
Don’t know what you really have used or if the only lens you’ve tried was one of these cheap CCTV lenses sold with C-Mount adapter. Of course a full frame lens on a APS-C or μ4/3 is becoming a little bulky. But for example my Canon FD 50mm 1:1.4 brings a dramatically better quality than my SONY SEL1855. Even at f/1.4 I can do wonderful portraits only focussing the eyes, which is much easier with focus peaking now than it has been in the 80’s with a Canon FD 85mm 1:1.2 on my A!. You can’t do stuff like that with auto focus lenses at all. And since I’d already bought these lenses 25 years ago, I’m simply using them with the only small cost of an adapter. I’m loving this, so I can’t understand whiners crying they’re so unhappy about SONY’s NEX roadmap, nevertheless I don’t mind anybody decently writing a wish list like I’m doing this myself hoping for a Super Wide Angle around 10 or 12 mm and for Firmware 05…
Sony! Who is this clown reviewing the NEX C3?
I feel sad for anyone that has to interact with him on a daily basis!
How did a China-man get a bad Cockney accent?
This video needs subtitles!
Sony, please just make a simple promo video for each camera/lens that you roll out.
Please screen your early reviewers.
The NEX C3 looks great but this guy(?) is too painful to watch.
Kai is very bias reviewer, he only likes Canon and Leica.
…and himself.
actually he is more the nikon fan
But he pronounces it “Nikon” instead of “Nikon”.
But he pronounces it “Nikon” instead of “Nikon”.
Wait, there’s a difference? I too pronounces it “Nikon”.
+1
“How did a China-man get a bad Cockney accent?
This video needs subtitles!”
some people may feel offended by this kind of comment and they would be in their right.
I really don’t understand how people can take a simple review personal enough to appeal to this kind of comment. I mean, I understand that the tone that the guy used in the video was not the best, but you pretty much lose your point when you stop talking about the camera and starts to talk about him instead.
It just doesn’t seem right for Sony to release the C3 or the new 30mm macro BEFORE the 24mm Zeiss. Is there even a MSRP on the 24mm?
Oh wow. A slightly positive toned review for digital rev. That’s interesting.
LOL at all the Sony fanboys in here. I will probably purchase the newer NEX 5 or 7, but what digital rev said makes perfect sense to me.
1. Lens selection is bad – Only the biggest fanboy would argue this point
2. 3D is a gimmick – I agree completely, don’t care about “3D”
3. Interface is not enough for the tons of feature – Agree, but I’m willing to deal with it since I’ll be using only manual lenses with peaking
Me too, I was thinking more about NEX-7. Maybe go SLT instead, it all depends on the feats and the price, mainly video feats. But it will only be announced a month from now and it will be lunched in October. So I may not be able to buy it because I travel in September.
I think Kai is funny even when I disagree with him.
But us this a typical accent for hong kong? It sounds British, which youd expect, but not so British. I’d expect HKers to speak with a more Chinese flavored english, or a muddy form like Americans do, not the queens english.
Even Australia and New Zealand got their own accents and they’re a lot closer culturally.
He studied in the UK for a few years. That’s how he got the accent.
Digitalrev always makes these funny “half reviews” but at the end of the day, they are a store wanting to sell products. It’s advertising, so don’t read too much into it.
Yes that’s his real accent, and yes, a lot of HK people speak like that.
Also, he’s not being negative. He is 100% right in what he says. The new C3 is fairly pointless – it’s a new sensor and a curvier design, when realistically there was nothing wrong with the old sensor or old design. The included 16 2.8 isn’t a very exciting or good quality lens, and the fact the E-mount has had more bodies than lenses is just ridiculous.
With reference to DxOMark, there’s a fair improvement on C3 sensor, compared to NEX-3/5.
And I don’t know why people say “E-mount has had more bodies than lenses”. There are 2 bodies (NEX-C3 and NEX-5) and there are 3 E-mount lenses. Even if you count NEX-3 (discontinued), still 3 bodies and 3 lenses.
I don’t think they were being so math literal. It’s more like the lenses:bodies ratio is pretty bad, you don’t really have many options.
Wait what?
The canon EOS system has ~70 lenses and about 50+ bodies. (discontinued are counted in of course).
So, it’s a similar ratio to the nex (4 lenses, 3 bodies)
/troll mode off
+1, that crossed my mind a few days ago
…nice looking argument, but unfortunately it’s five bodies: VG10 and FS-100 are NEX too. But since E-Mount is made for video and photography growing together, there’s nothing to compete anyway.
That’s pretty irrelevant though, since none of the current lenses are making the sensor a limiting factor. The 16.2mp sensor is great, but there wasn’t anything wrong with the old one.
I think he (Kai) hates all Sony cameras (or maybe even Sony products, hell, I think he hates Sony). Never a single Sony cameras review he made that doesn’t have sarcasm about his dislikes on Sony.
But I do agree with him though, about the lack of Sony E-mount lenses (minus A-mount & vintage lenses that you can attach on the NEX).
Best Jeremy Clarkson impersonation. In the world.
Thats not a review, its a clown show.
Yeap. Lacking of lenses. That’s the thing that’s pushing me to upgrade my nex5.
But then I prefer the size and weight.
=\
Yes i think Kai just don’t like Sony Alphas/NEX in particular. His reviews of the a33, a55, nex3/5 and even the nexvg10 were all negative toward Sony, Since he is a Nikon/Leica guy and likes canon also so his expectations are rather high. Im hoping the new a77 may change his mind about the alpha system.
He’s right though, NEX system does lack lenses so what’s the point, they should’ve made the NEX an A mount system imho
How can I convert my Sony Alpha 33 camera to take infrared pictures?
Did the OP even watch the video before they wrote digital rev liked the camera??
Kai has never had a good thing to say about Sonys, I still enjoy his videos though he can often come across as a bit smarmy.
And yes he has got a British accent, it’s not unusual for better off Chinese families to send their children to study abroad (also plenty of British born and bred Chinese too).
conclusion of kai´s review: good camera, but what is a good camera without proper lenses??
It’s more an English accent. “British” also implies Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland, and Kai’s accent is none of those 🙂