9/07/12
There's a host of quite neat built-in tricks with the C3, including the ability to take panorama shots straight in the camera with no need for stitching shots together later in Photoshop. The camera did a really good job of this. My only quibble would be that it is quite tricky to pan the camera at the right speed to get the shot. Go too fast and the camera gives up and you have to start again. This is my quite small back garden taken from the back door. Conclusion - I like this panorama feature.
10/07/12
Getting down and shooting low is also pretty easy with the C3. The screen tilts (90 degrees up, 45 degrees down) so you can see what you're doing. The 18-55mm lens seems pretty sharp at mid ranges and colour reproduction is good. Muffin doesn't like to pose for photos, but she didn't seem to mind this time. Conclusion - tilting screens are a good idea, mainly for small dogs.
11/07/12
This was taken at Stormont using the built-in HDR function. This function appears to take three bracketed shots and then combines them in-camera to produce an HDR image. I wasn't impressed with the results and the end product was quite a bland picture. Being honest, the sky was washed out and had to be tweaked in Lightroom and the colours just don't pop as they should in a true HDR shot. I suspect that this function might work better if you are shooting at night or at least not shooting with a lot of sky in the middle of the day. Conclusion - in camera HDR on this camera doesn't seem to be worth it.
11/07/12
"This is me doing my Ellen pose." That kinda says it all. Ok - the reason for this was to see how the NEX coped with a portrait. I had figured a way of making the camera fire my flash guns, but couldn't be bothered actually setting up the whole mobile studio thing. Taken in the back garden in shade with a little ( and well-judged by the camera) fill-in flash this worked quite well. The little plug-in flash looks a wee bit like it's fallen off a child's toy but it copes well for fill-in purposes. I've done a little bit of jiggery-pokery in Lightroom with this shot, but not too much. The photo is pretty sharp and the colours were very well rendered. Conclusion - the NEX copes well with with portraits especially at around the 35-40mm range of the kit zoom lens.
12/07/12
Being the 12th of July, it was necessary to escape Belfast for the day. A walk up Slieve Donard was arranged by Dave (on the left) and it was fairly tough going. I've been up Donard a few times before but never on the route that Dave took us on. After a lot of pain and picking up two cracking blisters on my heels, we reached the top and Dave and Conor climbed the cairn at the summit. I pretended that I wanted to take their photo - really I was so knackered and sore I couldn't face going up the cairn. I foolishly told them to "do something manly" and this is the result. The sheer manliness is almost overpowering. The Sony NEX-C3 was a star on this trip - lots of well exposed sharp shots and it weighed about 1/5 of my D90 and lens. A real pleasure for this kind of trip and again the panorama mode worked really well with the beautiful views on the way up and at the top.
13/07/12
This was a bit of an adventure for me today. I was offered the chance to do a boudoir shoot in a beautifully equipped studio, specifically set up for boudoir photography. I was also able to shoot alongside an experienced and pretty skilled photographer, in the hope that I might actually learn something. I learned a great deal today, mainly from working alongside someone who knew what they were doing - probably my favourite way of learning anything to do with photography - and was able to produce a few shots that I was very happy with. The main thing that I learned was that shooting boudoir is very difficult and quite complicated - I guess I'm not that used to taking shots where the main thrust is to make someone look as good as it's possible to do. That was a major piece of learning for me. I didn't shoot with the Sony, instead using my D90 coupled with the nikkor 24-70 f2.8 and also took some shots with my Lensbaby composer. I'm still at the stage with the Lensbaby where I can see the potential it has but can't just get the technique 100% right to actually produce the shots. The shot above was taken with the Sony, and I'm not sure whether to call it a detail shot or just admit that I'd forgotten to take any shots with it until the end of the shoot and everything was being tidied up. Again, can't fault the Sony here - shot indoors with ambient lighting only and it's sharp front-to-back with good colour and contrast.
14/07/12
Again, this is more a photo taken with the Sony of a set of photos taken with my D90. I couldn't really ignore the project I did with the Belfast Roller Derby crew when I was asked to take the headshots for their upcoming bout at the end of the month. Spread over two shoots, they were an absolute joy to take and process, mainly because of the fun attitude that the Roller Derby folk bring to everything they do. Shot with two speedlights (one high, one low - both placed at 45 degrees to the subject - through umbrellas and triggered wirelessly) and given a lot of punch in Lightroom before being processed through the Camera Bag app for the MacBook. I'm really looking forward to seeing these printed in the bout programme and also got the shots processed into the correct resolution for the programme today. Disc burned and ready to go. I also have to admit to really enjoying seeing shots as prints, rather than on screen.
15/07/12
Went for a walk on the beach this afternoon and took the NEX-C3 with me. There wasn't too much to take but this kinda looked interesting - the bottle isn't mine, I hasten to add. I think that this shot from the NEX-C3 is about as good as what I would get in the same conditions with my D90. If anything, the depth of field in this shot is just a wee bit better with the blurring at the front and rear of the frame really helping the shot. Colours and sharpness (as noted previously) are excellent.
Conclusions about the NEX-C3, after spending a week in it's company?
Pros
Sharp shots and good colour reproduction
Easily set to P,S,A and full manual modes
Will shoot in RAW
Kit lens is pretty sharp in it's mid ranges (around 30-40mm seems best)
There are loads of built in effects, some good - some not so good
The panorama feature is excellent
It's really light and suitable for really long walks up mountains
Cons
The 18-55 kit lens is bulky and makes the camera feel like it's all lens and no body
The in-camera HDR is poor
It's just not quite as good as my D90
Functions are accessed through a slightly confusing menu system as compared with the multitude of easily accessible buttons on the D90
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