The Sony NEX (5N and 3) In Use With Two Minolta Legacy Lenses

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Just a quick post with two videos showing what you can do when using old school Minolta Lenses with a Sony NEX. The video above features a [shoplink 8452]Sony NEX-5N (price & specs)[/shoplink]with a Minolta 135mm f2.8 Rokkor-PF lens. The video below a Minolta 50mm Rokkor-x f/1.7 lens with a [shoplink 3000 ebay]Sony NEX-3[/shoplink]. Both by YouTube user Beau Reyes.

Use slidoo.com to comfortably find this lenses on eBay.

Sony NEX-5N price check: [shopcountry 8452]
Sony NEX-3 price check: [shopcountry 3000]

 

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(SR3) 85mm f/1.8 is an all Black lens.

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I have been told there will be 5-6 new E-mount lenses announced in 2013. One of them is almost certainly the High Quality standard zoom from Zeiss. Another rumor I got (from new sources) is that there will be a 85mm f/1.8 lens and to be more specific this will be an all Black color lens.

I repeat, I still need the confirmation from my trusted sources to be almost sure (SR5) about the lens release.

Reminder (SR = Sonyrumor):
SR1=probably fake rumor
SR2=rumor from unknown sources
SR3=50% chance it is correct
SR4=rumor from known sources
SR5=almost certainly correct!

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Update: Adobe Creative Suite 2 Is A Free Download!!

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Update3: This comes from imaging-resource:

Here’s what Issacs wrote on Adobe’s community forum following the reports.

“On behalf of Adobe Systems Incorporated …

You have heard wrong! Adobe is absolutely not providing free copies of CS2!

What is true is that Adobe is terminating the activation servers for CS2 and that for existing licensed users of CS2 who need to reinstall their software, copies of CS2 that don’t require activation but do require valid serial numbers are available. (Special serial numbers are provided on the page for each product download.) See <http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1114930>.

Update2: the download link appears to be still alive. Just tried it out. Don’t know what is going on.

Update: To good to be true! According to diyphotography, which cites Adobe support forum, the download was never meant to be free. The download page was meant for photographers who bought CS2, but needed to reactivate it. The download link has now been disabled.

Adobe’s CS2 suite can be downloaded for free. Click here to download. Serial numbers are provided. You have to be registered to Adobe (it’s free) to make the download. Mac (PowerPc) and Windows versions.

[via 9to5toys via nachbelichtet.de via canonwatch]

 

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Review: Minolta MD 50mm f/2 And Sony NEX-6 (thru RainbowImaging Adapter)

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Jay at Sonyalphalab posted a nice review about using the Minolta MD 50mm f/2 lens with a [shoplink 14167]Sony NEX-6 (price & specs)[/shoplink]. Try out slidoo.com to easily find the lens at a bargain price. To use the Minolta with the NEX-6 a RainbowImaging adapter was used (click here to see it on Amazon).

The Minolta is a good old school lens. Jay writes:

Minolta MD Old School lenses are in another league of build quality compared to what we see today. They are heavier, beefier, simpler, and engineering excellence in my opinion. The fact that this lens is so old and it still works flawlessly is a sure sign of a well made product. It also means it was well maintained and not left in a garage somewhere for years.

The really cool thing is the focus peaking feature of the NEX-6. As Jay puts it:

As I said above in the into, the fully manual Minolta MD 50mm f/2 Lens is an absolute blast to use on the Sony Nex-6 thanks to the Focus Peaking feature!! It makes manual focusing cake, and I could not stop taking pictures of stuff in total newbie amazement

Be sure to check the pic he shot with the NEX-6 & Minolta 50mm combo (there are a lot of them to see).

Sony NEX-6 price check: [shopcountry 14167]

Shot with the NEX-6 and the Minolta 50mm. Image credits: sonyalphalab

[via sonyalphalab]

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EU Deal: Amazon Germany Has The Sony NEX-6LB Discounted (starts at 2:00 pm EU time)

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Amazon Germany will discounted Sony NEX-6LBs with 16-50mm f/3.5-5.6 Zoom Lens on sale starting at 2:00pm (German time). It’s a “Blitzangebot“, so stay tuned at the right time to get it if you are looking for it, because it won’t last long. Click here to check the deal.

Sony NEX-6LB specs:

  • 16.1MP Exmor APS-C Size CMOS Sensor
  • 16-50mm f/3.5-5.6 Zoom Lens Included
  • Fast Hybrid AF With Phase-Detection AF
  • 3″ 921K-Dot TFT LCD
  • XGA OLED Tru-Finder EVF
  • Captures 1080 HD Video
  • Wi-Fi Capable
  • Built-In Flash
  • Fast 10fps Burst Shooting
  • PlayMemories Camera Apps
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Update – The Multispectral Sony NEX-5 For B&W Photography

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Update: you can own this modified camera by taking part in a black and white photography challenge. Read all details here. Good luck!

Wouldn’t it be great if you could shot RAW and get wonderful looking black and white pics just by desaturating and with almost no post-processing work? Photographer Ming Thein did an amazing hacking project on a [shoplink 3003]Sony NEX 5 (price & specs)[/shoplink]. Before we get into details it is best to read Ming Thein’s motivation for the modification of the NEX-5:

I’ve been paying a lot of attention to black and white tonality both in the past, and of late in conjunction with my serious re-exploration of film; there’s something about the way film responds that gives it wonderful quarter and three-quarter tones. The look is achievable in digital, but it requires a lot of post processing simply because sensors do not natively respond to light in that fashion.

From a more technical point of view, the issue is that digital sensors are optimized to accurately reproduce the colors of the visible spectrum. That’s perfectly fine if you want to take color shots: you want a reliable reproduction of colors. Things, on the other hand, change with B&W photography. Not only it is, as Ming Thein states, a widely subjective aesthetic matter. Moreover, often, if not always, the artistic outcome lies within the tones. Hence, the matter is how to get a film like tone rendering without having to do heavy and time consuming post processing on the computer. A possible way to obtain such a result is to remove all filters from the sensor. Let’s go back to Ming Thein (emphasis partly mine):

Infrared, and to a lesser extent, ultraviolet, photography have been done for some time. There are companies out there which offer (not cheap!) conversions to either or both; there are even companies which offer services removing the anti-aliasing filter – though oddly, not both. But to create what I envisioned as the ultimate black and white camera*, all of this would have to go: no UV or IR filters, no AA filter. Just bare naked sensor. After several days of monkeying around with dozens of tiny ribbon connectors, and breaking one (caveat: the camera of course still works, but that connector will never be able to be opened/ released again) and nerve-wracking moments with various sharp implements, I’m pleased to report that this particular Sony NEX-5 has no filtration at all in front of the sensor, except for the Bayer filter, which is part of the sensor itself and thus cannot be removed. It’s about as close as you’re going to get to bare silicon […].

This is obviously more than a weekend’s DIY task. Ming Thein spent a lot of time to do the hack, and not everything worked at first glance. Opening such a tiny and densely packed camera isn’t for the faint of heart. But results are spectacular (don’t miss the awesome samples). Back to Ming Thein:

I’m going to be blunt here: the camera doesn’t hit full marks across the board. From a tonal viewpoint, the results are fantastic – just shoot raw and desaturate, and that’s all you have to do for almost every situation. All of the images in this post have had almost no work done on them at all – just desaturate. They came out of the camera 99% there, with this wonderfully filmic quality – even at high ISO. Is the more dynamic range? Not really. Skin tones are smooth yet delicately textured; deep shadows have that glow thanks to IR reflectance; and the detail is definitely better than a standard camera

There are also some drawbacks. Resolution isn’t at best, not because of the sensor but because of the lens (he used the 18-55mm kit lens). The lens resolves good in the center of the frame but isn’t apochromatic enough in the borders to be able to cope with the IR and UV rays reflected by the subject and caught by the sensor. An issue that is normally cut of by the filters that have been removed. The result is a sort of smearing in the corners. Quoting:

The smearing is caused by UV and IR spectrum image forming rays from the subject – cut out by the filter pack, normally – being registered on the sensor at a different physical location to visible light. There is still more visible light, of course, which means that focus is mostly where autofocus puts it, but not for all subjects – warm subjects in low ambient light – people indoors, for instance – tend to be a little back-focused because of this. Outdoors, things are fine (visible light > IR again)

However, the results are amazing. Don’t miss this interesting post and the images shot with the modified NEX 5!

The Multispectral Sony NEX-5 For B&W Photography
An image shot with the modified NEX-5 (image credit:

[via mingthein.com]

 

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