Brian's Notebook: April 2011

More thoughts on my NEX 5

Posted by Brian Godfrey Wednesday, April 27, 2011 comments (1)

I've gotten to use the NEX 5 at the Easter get together at Ami's parents' house over the weekend. I have a better feel for the camera now, having used it in situations from shooting quick or miss the shot to having someone pose for me to taking macro shots of flowers. Before handling the NEX 5, I would've opted for shooting with a viewfinder in all of those situations. Now, though, I'm pretty stuck on this vari-angle (I think that's what they call it) screen.

From Sony NEX 5

I wind up shooting it like a lot of people do, by folding out the screen to face upward and I shoot it like a TLR, at chest height. That comes in real handy when you're going for candid shots that people don't know you're taking.

From Sony NEX 5

I got caught here.

From Sony NEX 5

Also, the video is very, very good. I'm shooting in the MP4 format just to save space and I still get video like this.

13 Year Cicadas or Magicicada from alowisney sleemtoe on Vimeo.

I'm loving this camera. I can't wait to try my hand at street photography with it!

My new Sony NEX 5

Posted by Brian Godfrey Thursday, April 21, 2011 comments (0)

I've succumbed to the siren call of digital photography again. Well, I never really disliked digital. I've always thought that digital was good and that film was just fun. I'm still going to be shooting film from time to time and I still love my film cameras. This camera was just calling to me because it does a lot of things very well.

From Sony NEX 5

First, it's small. Really small. Like the size of a point and shoot. People don't notice point and shoots like they do dSLRs, so that will come in handy when I do some street photography.

Second, it has an APS-C sensor, the same size as the sensor in most dSLRs. That makes for good low light performance, really good ISO sensitivity, and good dynamic range.

Third, video. This camera does 1080i video, which is light years above my iPhone and our old point and shoot. Here's a sample.

Sony NEX 5 Test from alowisney sleemtoe on Vimeo.

Fourth, this camera works very well with adapters so you can use all kinds of manual focus lenses. I'm looking forward to getting a Leica thread mount adapter so I can use my Industar-61 on it. I'd also like to get a few more Former Soviet Union lenses to play with on it. The adapters are around $20 for the cheaper ones, but that's just fine with me.

Fifth, this thing takes pictures with great image quality. Here are some samples.

From Sony NEX 5

This is Fuzzy Wuzzy. He's Oliver's brother.

From Sony NEX 5

All of these shots are straight out of the camera JPGs. I'm really loving this camera and can't wait to use it at Easter this weekend!

Wee Kitten

Posted by Brian Godfrey Wednesday, April 13, 2011 comments (1)

I talked about Wee Kitten before but never explained what happened. Wee Kitten came inside and became Oliver. I know, I thought Wee Kitten was a girl, but I was way off. He came in on 1/15 and has been rip-roaring though the house (in the cutest way possible) since. When he first came in, he was about Trudy's size. Now, he's much bigger. He's getting to be Black Kitty's size and he's only 8 months old!

He's pretty adorable. Ami took all of these, by the way.

From Oliver

Oliver and Trudy are like peas and carrots.

From Oliver

Massee Lane Gardens

Posted by Brian Godfrey Thursday, April 7, 2011 comments (0)

We took Trudy to Peach Vet Care in Fort Valley, GA to get her surgery and while we were waiting for her we went to Massee Lane Gardens. It's a gorgeous place and if you're in the area, you should visit! Here are some pictures taken with our old point and shoot Canon A560 we got in 2004.