Like many, my whole DSLR phase had come and gone. The allure of lugging around a massive and heavy DSLR was gone no matter how nice the picture. It was a tiered process for me. From a massive Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 complete with lens hood to a slightly more manageable Sigma 30mm f/1.4, it didn’t matter, enough was enough. For a little while, the Canon PowerShot S90 satisfied everything I needed. A decent low-light performer with the right footprint. But then I realized, while I was happy to regain the ability to shoot macro shots, it really wasn’t all that conducive to taking photos in the spur of the moment. More often than not it was hidden away in a backpack or pocket and by the time you took your camera out (or if you even took it out in the first place), the shot was either gone or felt uncomfortably contrived.

When the Sony NEX series first launched with the NEX-3 and NEX-5 I knew I was looking at something *gasp revolutionary. A bigger than Micro 4/3rds sensor in a smaller albeit unique body. I was pre-sold… however reviews pointed towards a flawed v1 firmware and the multiple button presses required to make simple changes would be enough to hold me back for the first round. I wasn’t actively following the firmware updates, why should I since I didn’t own the camera. But eventually I found out about the new update which made necessary layout changes towards something more simple and straight forward. ALMOST READY TO BUY…

But then… the kit lenses available weren’t all that impressive and the path ahead wasn’t that great either (I started this last night but today I was thrown a bone, 3rd party lens developers will start developing E-mount lenses). I had wanted a fast prime like the 17mm f/1.7 for Panasonics but no such luck with Sony, probably something to do with the sensor I assume regarding a faster lens. Zooms are something I’ll live without cause the size kills it for me.

I had seen a lot of people pair manual focus lenses with the NEX-5 with good results but I wasn’t that keen on pure manual focus. But rest assured, manual focusing is extremely easy on the large screen while zone focusing alleviates any problems you might have when out and about.

I’ve become relatively obsessed with a 50mm focal length. Of course it’s because its similar to the field of view of the human eye but it provides the most jack of all trades focal length when you only have one lens cause I’m too poor to get more than one. So with the 1.5x crop factor, I went searching and ultimately settled on a Voigtlander 35mm f/1.4 Nokton (35mm x 1.5 = 52.5mm). I’m sure I could have found a cheaper setup but I got an ok deal on a pretty flawless copy in awesome shape, I swear it was barely taken out of the wrapper. I was looking for a 2nd hand Voigtlander 35mm f/2.5 Skopar but couldn’t find too many copies available).

Legacy M-mount lenses are cool cause they’re so compact and I can live with the lack of autofocus obviously, however the minimal focusing distance at 0.7m sucks. I am unabashed about my love of food photography haha but legacy lenses make it nearly impossible. Although I have plans for maybe the Voigtlander Super-Wide Heliar 15mm f/4.5 Aspherical down the line as the extra wideness should make it an even better walk around lens… but we’ll see what true E-mount offerings will yield.

Aesthetically I really liked the NEX x Voigtlander combo but I went a bit further and picked up a strap from Andy’s Camera Straps. A nice and affordable utilitarian strap out of Singapore which set me back about $30 USD. The half-case is from Sony and surprisingly, the Epi-style leather is pretty nice and ties everything together nicely.

As for a review, this was a bit of a quasi one in itself. Nothing I don’t like about the actual camera itself but if you want lens options, in the present moment there really aren’t too many.

Photo examples can be seen on my Flickr.

If you have any questions about the camera, let me know.

-Eugene