Sony NEX-5N camera, is it professional?

Sony advertise their NEX-5N camera as Professional goes compact. Is it professional?

Pixels

Image libraries set minimum standards for images because their customers demand a minimum quality. Libraries demand images with at least 15, 18, or 20 million pixels. The NEX-5N has 16 MP and the images will be accepted by some libraries but not all libraries. The slightly larger NEX-7 has 24 MP and is definitely the minimum Sony NEX camera for all professional uses.

You might produce a lot of good images with 16 MP. Be careful with cropping. Practice zooming in to exactly the right frame for your image. Otherwise you will cut lots of pixels off your image at the editing stage and nobody will want the result.

Practice taking shots in both landscape and portrait. You produce an excellent image in landscape. A magazine asks about using the image on their cover. You cut the landscape image to magazine format and send it off. The magazine rejects the cut image because of the low resolution. If you had the same scene in portrait format, there would be less to cut off and a better chance of selling the image.

If you started with the 24 MP from the NEX-7, cutting a landscape to magazine format would give you a 20 or 18 MP image acceptable to most magazines.

Raw

Pixels are of no use when destroyed by JPEG. You need Raw output. A pro camera usually produces a raw image for professional use and a JPEG copy for quick transmission back to your editor. The editor can lay out the magazine article using the jPEG image then replace the JPEG with the real image when you have the bandwidth to transmit the full size raw images. The NEX-5N can produce raw plus JPEG in one hit and qualifies as professional on this point.

24 mm

Lenses are compared based on their relationship to a lens for a 35mm camera. The standard for professional wide angle lenses is 24 mm. Anything longer is not wide enough for interior and architectural shots. Many compact cameras will reach 28 mm but not 24 mm. There are wide angle lenses for the NEX-5N and an adaptor to fit some older Sony lenses. The Sony SEL16F28 16mm f/2.8 wide angle lens is equivalent to a 24 mm lens on a 35 mm camera and passes the pro test on this point.

No mirror

The biggest disadvantage of SLR cameras for covering social events is the noise of the mirror clacking back and forth. The NEX cameras use a semi-transparent mirror that does not have to jump out of the way. You get a big noise reduction and a small increase in speed. This is a big feature for weddings and other events where people do not want the distracting noise.

The only disadvantage of the semi-transparent mirror is the compromise with light. There is less light in the viewfinder and less light on the image sensor. Modern sensors and electronic viewfinders reduce the disadvantage.

No shutter

Almost no shutter. The shutter on a camera slows down you shots and makes a noise. The NEX-5N and NEX-7 have an optional electronic shutter opening that should capture your photographs closer to the point where you press the button. The difference will be most noticeable when you prefocus your lens because the autofocus delay is usually the slowest part of the shot.

Colour depth

Standard cameras have a colour depth of 8 bits. JPEG is limited to 8 bits and the instant you edit a JPEG image, or allow any form of compression you eat away at the bits. A professional camera starts with a higher depth, 12 or 14 bits, and gives you the margin to edit the file while retaining enough bits to produce full 8 bit images for printing and display.

You will hear about 24 bit and 30 bit colour depth. 24 bit depth is 8 bit depth multiplied by the three primary colours, reg, green, and blue. 24 bit colour depth is 8 bit colour depth as presented by the marketing department.

You will hear about 16 bit colour depth. When you move up from 8 bit software, the first step is 16 bit software then 32 bit software. There are currently no cameras producing 16 bit colour for your 16 bit colour software.

There are ways to shoot multiple exposures on different settings then merge them to produce 16 bit colour. If your subject is not moving, perhaps a landscape, and your camera can shoot several images in sequence with different settings, there is software to merge multiple images and combine the extremes of colour from each image. One image is in the centre of the perfect exposure range. One or two images are added each side of perfect. The really dark parts of your central image can be adjusted using the brighter bits from the overexposed images. The really light parts of your image are adjusted using the slightly darker equivalents from the underexposed images. The result can be close to 16 bit.

I have not found a test of the colour depth from the Sony NEX cameras. The NEX-7 uses the same image sensor as one of their new SLR cameras and I expect it to have a reasonable colour depth.

Interchangeable lenses

The NEX cameras let you use any lens in the Sony E series plus there is an adaptor for some older Sony lenses. The adaptor is big and takes away the advantage of the small NEX body. If you buy the NEX, you are committed to the Sony E series and need to check the range before proceeding.

The Sony E series lacks extreme telephoto lenses for shooting wildlife. You might be able to use one of the other type of lenses with the adaptor. I expect the combination to be impractical if you do not already own the Sony lenses. Sony should encourage Sigma or Tamron to make lenses for the E series.

When Olympus released a similar size camera with interchangeable lenses, Olympus shared the lens fitting with Fuji to encourage the quick development of a wide range of lenses.

Dial or touch?

One of the big differences with the NEX-5N is the use of a touch screen. The normal dials are missing. you are committed to the touch screen. Screens are hard to read in sunlight and the touch screen may be useless in strong sunlight. Test the camera outdoors in the brightest sunlight before buying.

The NEX-7 has dials you can use when you cannot see the screen. I would choose the NEX-7 over the NEX-5N just for that difference. Many professionals choose a camera with dials because of the speed at which they can spin a dial to the right setting, often without looking at the camera.

Alternatives

Looking at the NEX-5N and the NEX-7, I would choose the more expensive NEX-7 to get the extra pixels. I have not used the NEX-7 and do not know if there are any specific handling problems.

The NEX-C3 has the same still image resolution as the NEX-5N but not the same video performance. If you do not need the video, the NEX-C3 is the better buy for the beginner and you can reuse the lenses for future NEX cameras when you want to upgrade.

Olympus PEN cameras have models similar to the NEX cameras and might have an equivalent that is a better fit for your requirements. The Panasonic Lumix range crosses over the same area with frequent releases of new models. Olympus and some of the Lumix cameras use a 4/3rds lenses shared with Fuji.