Nex 3 with manual lenses for my wife

[david_smith110]

<p>My wife and I have been looking at moving her up to a more advanced small frame digital camera the last few days and have pretty much decided that a used Nex 3 fits our new baby in the house budget. She has a little Olympus P&S but has never been satisfied with the performance for probably the same reasons most of us arent satisfied with P&S's. She has also been going thru my old film cameras before settling on a Canon A-1 as a daily user. However, we want to move her do digital for the same reason I did last year, namely film development cost. She has expressed an interest in a 'nice' small camera and while I immediately thought of M 4/3's a little internet digging showed what an incredible camera Sony has come out with in the Nex line. APS-C sensor in that little body? Awesome.</p>

<p>The thing is she is interested in using all the old Minolta MD lenses I have since the Nex line makes it very easy to use old glass. Possibly even my old M42 and Contax/Yashica lenses as well. Not to mention the small FD selection I have.</p>

<p>My question is...what is basicly involved in using old glass on a Nex 3? I use these lenses on my 40D all the time and it is a pretty straight forward affair. How does one do this on the Nex 3? And what about exposure compensation? I have found that different lenses on my old 40D sometimes require vastly different exposure compensation (plus or minus) to correctly expose a scene. Is the Nex the same and how easy is it to dial in EC on the fly? Also, Im assuming if you stop down the lens aperture the LCD darkens like my DSLR viewfinder, correct?</p>

<p>And does the NEX 3 have focus peaking and does it work?</p>

[andylynn]

You have to update the NEX 3 firmware to get peaking. Here's a video that shows how it works (the highlight color

indicates focus):

 

If you don't mind using it that way I think a mirrorless and Minolta glass is a great combination. The adapters (try the

Fotodiox models on Amazon) are so cheap you can get them for whatever lenses you happen to find, and later if some

other company's mirrorless gets your interest you can keep the lenses and change the adapters.

[howardstanbury]

<p>I use the NEX-3 with manual Minolta glass quite often - a lovely combination. The native E-mount lens are useful and easy to use as alternatives as well.</p>

<p>So, yes, make sure you have the latest firmware installed to ensure that you get the focus peaking facility.</p>

<p>You can arrange for the exposure histogram to be displayed while you compose pictures, and that can be an aid to exposure compensation as well, particularly if you are setting exposure manually. If you use A-mode then an EC setting is available and you can dial this in as required.</p>

<p>In S-mode you adjust the aperture on the lens to suit your desired level of exposure.</p>

<p>Under most circumstances the live view display is adjusted to compensate for the amount of light reaching the sensor. So, after a small lag, if you stop down the aperture with some sort of auto-exposure in use the image is boosted in brightness to compensate for this, sometimes with an increase in noise if you are under low light conditions. But with deliberate under or over exposure the viewfinder shows you the expected end result.</p>

<p> </p>

[peter_szwed]

<p>One other thing that is necessary is enable the camera to operate without a lens. Since the adapter has no contacts or chip the camera will assume there is no lens. This feature is available via the menu. I have a Nex 5N and keep this feature on all the time because I never know when I'm going to use a manual lens.</p>

[david_smith110]

<p>Andy, thanks for letting me know about the firmware update. I will check on that as soon as her Nex 3 gets here. She went ahead and got one on ebay today. I have to say I am a little stoked since I have been looking at photos from the Nex line on Flickr and quite frankly Im blown away by what I see. Especially from the Minolta Nex group. Just amazing.</p>

<p>Howard, thank you for all the detailed info. Its good to know that about the live view display as well. I cant wait to play around...errrr, I mean watch my wife play around with all these settings. :)</p>

<p>Peter, another helpful tidbit of info. Much appreciated. We will just keep that feature on since we dont have an actual Sony lens for it, we just ordered the body. But I dug out a nice little set of Minolta lenses for her including the 28/2.8, 35/2.8, 45/2, 50/1.4, several 50/1.7's and a 135/2.8. I also realized that I have an extra original Minolta P adapter that will allow all my old M42 lenses to be used as well. Even my SMC Takumar 50/1.4 which oddly enough only works with my Minolta P adapter, but none of my other M42 adapters. Im a little jealous she is gonna get to use that one. :)</p>

[andylynn]

Yeah, that's a nice collection of glass. I've been using an Olympus M4/3 camera lately with some of those. In the

28mm you've got a very nice "normal" prime and the 50mm lenses become nice short portrait lenses. The 50/1.7 MD

has a great image quality I can't quite pin down but it's been described as a "3d effect" for whatever that's worth. I

particularly like the 45mm. It's kind of an odd focal length, but it's sharp, makes a nice bokeh and very small. she might

also have some useful glass in Canon FD.

[jcuknz]

<p>M4/3 also permits the use of legacy lenses with a viewfinder accessory working off the sensor in the case of Olympus. This means you see in the viewfinder whatever you put in front of the sensor. Olympus has sensor shift to help stabilise these old lenses. Panasonic needs OIS capable lenses or steady hands :-) <br>

I find the viewfinder accessory a little awkward to use compared with my G3 with its built-in EVF. The only NEX I would consider is I believe the latest model with a EVF. LCDs are nice but not as the only way to compose with.</p>

[david_smith110]

<p>My FD collection is a bit small Andy. Only a 50/1.4, 50/1.8 and a wonderful little Komine made Vivitar 28/2.8 Close Focus RL edition. The 1.4 is a stellar performer but that little Vivitar has turned out to be an amazing lens. Especially with a minimum focus distance of 9 inches. But you are so right about the 50/1.7 from Minolta. I know that most 50mm's from the film era were of excellent quality and almost every manufacturer had at least one stellar performer but Minolta seemed to just get it right with its 1.7 in whichever version they put out. Here is an example from my MC Rokkor X copy on my XE-7 shot with Fuji Reala.</p>

<p><img src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3608/5693718385_c110fd1138_z.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="424" /></p>

<p>JC, I agree. I much prefer a VF myself and the new Nex 7 is an amazing little camera, especially since they managed to fit a nice VF on it. However my wife seems to like the idea of using the LCD to take the shot. She is not quite into photography as I am and she is really looking at it from a convenience point of view. Time will tell. :)</p>

[jcuknz]

<p>David ...I enjoy looking at the LCD, even small ones as on my earlier cameras, saves bending down to look through the EVF :-), but I would hate to only have it when conditions are not exactly right for it. I equate using the LCD to setting up a LF camera with ground glass screen without needing the black cloth :-) I first enjoyed an LCD with my first P&S camera and shooting big close-ups of caterpillars etc as my wife and I followed the life cycle to butterfly.</p>

[teos]

<p>Since I use my NEX3 (one year) ,My EOS XTi gathers the dust . I use it with MF Lenses exclusively. You'll need a hood for the LCD :<br>

<a href="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LCD-Hood-Cover-Screen-Protector-Sony-NEX-NEX-3-NEX-3C-NEX-5-NEX-5C-DC107-/270913922332?pt=UK_Photography_Screen_Protectors&hash=item3f13ba651c">http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LCD-Hood-Cover-Screen-Protector-Sony-NEX-NEX-3-NEX-3C-NEX-5-NEX-5C-DC107-/270913922332?pt=UK_Photography_Screen_Protectors&hash=item3f13ba651c</a> <br>

Very useful for the sunny days if you want to do manual focus on it .You'll have also to set the display to maximum brightness from the menu.</p>