Sony DEV-5 review

The Sony DEV-5 digital binoculars are - along with their little brother the DEV-3 - the "world's first digital binoculars with HD video recording," according to the company, and the devices' imaging capabilities go beyond that. In addition to 1080p high-definition recording at both 60 frames per second and 24 fps, the binoculars capture 3D still images and 3D video.

Viewing content in 3D with the Sony DEV-5 binoculars while shooting or playing it back doesn't require glasses, because the stereographic effect is created by viewing separate channels for the left and right eyes through the binoculars' eyepieces.

Both the Sony DEV-5 and the DEV-3 offer twin 10X-optical-zoom Sony G lenses (F1.9 to F3.4) with optical stabilization, backed by a pair of backside-illuminated CMOS sensors optimized for low-light situations. In still-image mode, the binoculars capture 7.1-megapixel still images in 4:3 aspect ratio or 5.3-megapixel stills in 16:9 aspect ratio; the 2D images are shot through one of the two lenses.

A removable storage slot accepts both SD/SDHC/SDXC cards and Sony's Memory Stick format, and both pairs of binoculars offer HDMI output to an HDTV or 3DTV for playing back footage and images. The main difference between the two models comes down to a few extra features and accessories accompanying the Sony DEV-5: It provides geotagging features (thanks to a built-in GPS receiver); an enhanced digital zoom that reaches a simulated 20X telephoto; and a carrying case, strap, and eye cups.

I spent a little hands-on time with the Sony DEV-5 digital recording binoculars, and the process of recording video with them - especially in 3D mode - is about as immersive an experience as you can imagine while shooting video. Though the binoculars' eyepieces are fixed in place, you can adjust the interpupillary distance of images seen through them via a control wheel, which comes in handy for adjusting the "3D-ness" of images while you're shooting.

They're a bit larger than a typical pair of binoculars, and even though they're lighter than they look, operating them requires both hands. A toggle on the top of the camera handles zooming the binoculars - and the autofocus system worked without a hitch throughout the zoom range in my hands-on time. The binoculars also have manual focus controls, which a manual adjustment wheel underneath the eyepieces governs. Both models also have a mic-in port and a shoe on the top of the binoculars that accepts an external microphone; and an omnidirectional, two-channel Dolby microphone is built into the unit.

Though a pair of video/3D-shooting binoculars falls on the "niche device" side of the fence, the effect of viewing a scene with both eyes through the viewfinder, encompassing your entire field of vision, would be a welcome addition to mainstream 3D cameras of the future. A few 3D-capable camcorders currently have glasses-free 3D displays, but peering into a 3D image with both eyes as you're filming it is another experience entirely.

PC Advisor

Sony Alpha A77 Is About to Beat DSLRs at Their Own Game

At first glance, and probably even after several subsequent glances, you might mistake the just-announced Sony Alpha SLT-A77 for a DSLR.

Its size, $2000 kit price, and weather-sealed magnesium alloy body are all well in line with what you'd expect from a high-end consumer DSLR. Its 24.3-megapixel APS-C CMOS sensor, A-mount for interchangeable DSLR lenses, and manual control scheme are usually found only on DSLRs. And perhaps most important, it just looks like a DSLR.

This is not a DSLR. The distinction won't mean much to most people, but many photographers say that something is "not a DSLR" in the same tone that a guy with a sweater tied around his shoulders uses to describe a box of Franzia wine. A camera is "not a DSLR" in the same way that Oasis is not the Beatles, Footloose (2011) is not Footloose (1984), and this sandwich is not a real Philly cheesesteak.

But with the Sony Alpha A77, the whole "not being a DSLR" paradigm may get flipped on its head. That's because what makes this camera "not a DSLR" is precisely what makes it more compelling than a DSLR, especially for videographers and fast-action photographers. And by "fast-action photographers," I'm not just referring to NFL sideline photographers or the paparrazi; a fast-focusing, fast-shooting camera is incredibly useful for people interested in taking photos of their baby, wildlife, Bigfoot, or their dog jumping to catch a Frisbee.

The Alpha A77's fixed translucent internal mirror makes the difference. Because it doesn't reflect the light coming through the lens to an optical viewfinder, the camera doesn't meet the "reflex" requirement of the "digital single lens reflex" (DSLR) name. Instead, the camera redirects light to an autofocus sensor.

In practical terms, the translucent mirror means that the Alpha A77's phase-detection autofocus system works when the camera is shooting video or is in burst mode, neither of which is the case with a DSLR. As long as light comes through the lens, the Alpha A77's mirror redirects some of the light to the camera's autofocus sensor. In a traditional DSLR, the mirror is flipped up during video capture and in burst shooting mode, and the DSLR's through-the-lens, phase-detection autofocus system punts to the camera's less-effective contrast-detection autofocus system, which the imaging sensor itself drives.

Continuous autofocus isn't new, but because many DSLRs use contrast-detection AF rather than phase-detection AF during burst and video capture, they struggle with those modes. Maintaining sharp focus on fast-moving subjects that are approaching the lens during burst or video capture is especially problematic for most DSLRs.

In contrast, Sony lists meeting that challenge as the Alpha A77's core strength. The specs tell the story here. The camera's lightning-fast, 12-frames-per-second burst mode at full 24.3-megapixel resolution runs laps around the maximum continuous shooting speed of most DSLRs. Sony claims that the Alpha A77 is the first camera to shoot images at a resolution of greater than 20 megapixels with a speed faster than 5 fps; most DSLRs top out at around 8 fps in burst mode, even at lower resolutions.

Because the Alpha A77 has no moving mirror, you'll see an intermittent, strobe-like black-out time on the camera's OLED viewfinder and LCD screen while you're shooting continuously. This A77 is also the first interchangeable-lens camera to support the AVCHD Progressive format when shooting video, meaning that it can capture 1080p video footage at a higher frame rate and at a higher bitrate, with continuous autofocus employed. The camera's ability to shoot full 1080p video at 60 fps and 24 fps should make it a standout device for video capture.

Translucent-mirror technology isn't new. Last year's Sony Alpha A55 and Alpha A33 offered the same in-camera hall of mirrors. But the Alpha A77 ups the ante with that insane 24.3-megapixel sensor (up from 16 megapixels in the A55), a new Bionz image processor (which has to be powerful to process huge image files and all of those AF adjustments simultaneously), a faster burst mode despite the significantly higher-resolution images, and video capabilities that appear to be second to none when matched up against consumer DSLRs.

The major tradeoff for all of these performance enhancements is the absence of an optical through-the-lens viewfinder, which many accomplished shooters consider a dealbreaker--and a major contributor to their mocking "not a DSLR" tone. Certainly most users of last year's Alpha A55 would list its grainy-security-camera-like eye-level EVF as a key weak spot.

But the Alpha A77 vastly improves on its predecessor in this area as well. The 2.5-million-dot OLED eye-level viewfinder on the A77--which Sony claims is the first OLED EVF in the world--is currently the sharpest and brightest in the game. And though it's not an optical viewfinder, it provides a crisp, bright, full-coverage view, and you get the benefit of better low-light visibility, a histogram display, and detailed data through the eyepiece as you're shooting--all advantages over an optical viewfinder.

The electronic viewfinder isn't the only element that Sony has completely redesigned for this camera. The Alpha A77's 3-inch LCD viewfinder has a new "three-way tilt" adjustment mechanism that lets you position the screen in almost any direction, while enabling it to remain on the same vertical plane as the camera's lens.

The Alpha A77 may also be the camera that shows DSLR users what Sony has been up to with the innovative modes added to its Cyber-shot point-and-shoot cameras over the past few years. The Alpha A77 offers many of the same creative and fun-to-use shooting options we've seen in recent Cyber-shots, which gain even more power from the A77's fast performance, higher-end optics, big sensor, and beefy image processor.

The Alpha A77 has the same Sweep Panorama and single-lens 3D shooting options as Sony's recent Cyber-shot cameras, along with a range of effects that let you simulate a tilt-shift lens, automatically bracket and stack images to create instant HDR and sharper low-light shots, isolate a single color in black-and-white photos, and choose other optional features and effects. The A77 also has a GPS receiver to geotag shots as you take them, and its body-based sensor-shift system ensures that any lens will be stabilized once it's mounted.

So the Alpha A77 may not be a DSLR, but that fact shouldn't deter anyone seeking a versatile interchangeable-lens camera from checking it out. The sum of its parts is a "not a DSLR" to get very excited about, as it seems to cover more ground than any similarly priced DSLR in terms of high-speed capture, video capabilities, autofocus skills, creative in-camera filters, and fun-to-use modes.

The Sony Alpha A77 is slated to be available in October for $2000 as a kit with a 16-50mm/F2.8 zoom lens, or for $1400 for the body only.

PCPro

Sony Alpha NEX-5N First Impressions

August is always a hot month for new camera announcements, and this year August 23 was a particularly busy day. Canon, Nikon, and Sony all introduced multiple models that will be available in the coming months, and Sony concentrated on revamping its entire interchangeable-lens camera lineup.

I managed to get my hands on a production unit of one of Sony’s latest mirrorless interchangeable-lens cameras, the Alpha NEX-5N. It’s a follow-up to last year’s popular NEX-5 camera, and I saw more similarities than differences between the two. For example, the new camera still has no on-board flash, although an external flash is included.

That said, the things that have changed are notable.

Who said that mirrorless cameras have to be slow? Even though Sony bumped up the sensor’s resolution from 14 to 16 megapixels, the 5N’s 10-frames-per-second continuous shooting speed definitely (and surprisingly) outpaces the NEX-5’s 7-fps rate. For single shots and in continuous mode, this little camera performs like a champ. Shutter lag? No problem; it’s almost nonexistent. According to Sony, the NEX-5N has a release time of about 0.02 second, and it certainly feels a lot faster than the NEX-5’s 0.1-second release time.

Perhaps the most distinguishing aspect is the NEX-5N’s adjustable touchscreen LCD--a first among Sony’s Alpha cameras. The screen itself is responsive, even when you tilt the hinged display, and the touchscreen doesn't replace the camera's physical controls entirely.

Unfortunately, only a couple of direct touch-panel controls are available, and setting changes require a trip to the rather confusing menu system. (Movie options, for example, are divided between the Image Size and Setup menus.) That slows down operation, at least when compared with the dedicated buttons you find on a DSLR. However, the arrangement may be a necessary trade-off for making a camera this small with such an uncluttered interface.

Flexible Spot AF is, perhaps, the best justification for the NEX-5N having a touchscreen panel, as a single tap of the LCD places a focus point in the desired position. It's fairly responsive in bright light at wide angle, but it slows under low light when the 18-55mm kit lens is extended to its moderate telephoto position.

Although the final focus lock comes when the shutter is half pressed, you can get a nice bokeh (soft background) effect depending on the lens and focal length you use. I was disappointed to find that the NEX-5N offers no way to trigger the shutter via the LCD as other touchscreen cameras do (or maybe I just overlooked the feature, as I'm still getting the hang of the NEX-5N).

In movie mode, focus automatically adjusts as the camera moves across and through a scene. Again--and as expected--focus adjustments are faster when you're shooting at wide angle. In my trials at close range, while using midrange and telephoto focal lengths of the 18-55mm lens, I found the focus slightly slower to catch up during panning but not excruciatingly so. And I saw little noticeable, distracting focus search.

Sony also boasts about having the smallest camera in its class to use a full APS-C-size sensor. Initial ISO tests seem to indicate that the larger sensor helps keep image noise (reasonably) under control, as it should. Of course, push the ISO to the NEX-5N’s max of 25,600, and--well, it’s not so pretty. But it’s also not surprising.

Sony added a few new creative options to the NEX-5N, including the now-ubiquitous miniature mode, along with an HDR painting filter, soft focus, and rich-tone monochrome. Fun, but not terribly exciting at first pass.

The camera has a couple of very cool--albeit very expensive--accessories: an optional eye-level OLED viewfinder and an A-mount adapter that has built-in phase-detection focus similar to the system found on the just-announced Alpha A77. The phase-detection system is, by nature, faster and more flexible than the contrast-detection focus that mirrorless cameras use. Both add-ons sound handy, but at $400 for the mount adapter and $350 for the OLED viewfinder, they more than double the price of the $700 kit package for the NEX-5N.

Nevertheless, the bottom line is image quality, and early test shots show that the NEX-5N delivers some really good-looking images. Its photos are perhaps even a little better than those of the NEX-5, and that’s coming from someone who really, really likes the NEX-5.

I’m still playing around with this new compact interchangeable-lens camera, so look for a full review soon.

PC World

Shooting Rainbows With Your Digital Camera

For an ordinary act of nature, rainbows seem to have an almost supernatural hold over us. A rainbow is really just a giant prism; water vapor in the air splits sunlight into its individual component colors. Yet seeing those colors arcing overhead is always an event; people never seem to tire of rainbows. If you've already tried your hand at flowers, silhouettes, fireworks, and night photography, perhaps you'd like to capture some rainbows. If so, keep reading--this week is all about freezing nature's prism.

Finding a Rainbow

No matter how much digital photography advice or photographic theory you get about rainbows, the first--and likely biggest--problem you'll encounter is simply finding one. If you're in rainbow hunting mode, it's not a bad idea to keep a camera in the car or otherwise carry one around with you.

That said, you can learn to anticipate prime rainbow conditions. To see one, you'll need both water in the air and bright sunlight. Rainbows commonly appear right before or after a storm hits your location, when it's raining nearby but the clouds have parted, allowing the sun to peek through. Rainbows always appear in the sky opposite the sun--so if the sun is in the west, look east for your rainbow.

Rainbows also have a very specific geometry. The top of the arch is always about 42 degrees above a line formed by the intersection of the sun and your head. That means you'll see more rainbows when the sun is relatively low in the sky; in fact, if the sun is higher than 42 degrees in the sky, the rainbow would be below the horizon entirely, and therefore impossible to see. Exception: If you're at a high elevation, such as on a mountain or on a cliff overlooking a valley, the rainbow might have enough room to form even when the sun is high overhead.

Make Your Own

I should point out that if Mother Nature isn't cooperating, you can create your own rainbow. Since a rainbow is just the right combination of bright sunlight and airborne water, you can generate your own with a sprinkler or garden hose from your backyard on a sunny day. Put the sun at your back and then spray water into the air in front of you. You'll want a fine mist or small droplets of water rather than a stream, so if you have a hose, plug it with your thumb to create a thin wall of high-pressure water. If you're lucky, you'll see a rainbow materialize. To photograph it, delegate hose duty to someone else.

Shooting Rainbows

Now that you know how to hunt rainbows (or generate your own), let's talk about how to capture one with your camera.

This might be obvious, but I should point out that a rainbow is not a real physical thing; it is an optical illusion that is unique to your particular relationship to the sun and where you are actually standing at any given moment. You can't move closer to it; it will always appear to keep a constant distance from you. So while you can photograph a rainbow, remember that you can't lock your camera's focus on it, nor does the appearance of the rainbow affect the exposure setting.

That said, you can take advantage of the optical illusion to make a more interesting composition. If you move parallel to the rainbow (rather than getting closer or further away), the rainbow's relative position will change with respect to the background. That means you can make a rainbow photo more interesting by walking around until the rainbow's ends--where it intersects the ground--line up with something interesting. At the very least, by moving around you might be able to position the rainbow against a more interesting backdrop. In the photo on the right, for example, you can see a rainbow that's been expertly positioned to frame a tree.

Another element of the composition you can control is the zoom level. You'll need a fairly wide-angle zoom setting to capture the entire rainbow in a single photo, but by zooming in, you can focus the scene on just one part of the arc, as in the photo on the left.

Finally, you don't need to worry much about tweaking the exposure. You can shoot the scene normally with your camera set on its Program mode, but photographers will commonly underexpose the shot a little (you can set the exposure compensation dial to -1) to saturate the colors a little. Another way to saturate the colors: Use a polarizing filter. Experiment with your polarizer's setting, since using the polarizer at full strength can make the rainbow disappear from the photo.

PC World

5 Lomography Cameras for Retro, Dreamy Photography

Digital photography has come a long way. It has removed the barrier of expensive film and development, led to decent smartphone cameras that let anyone to snap a photo anywhere, and bumped the maximum resolution up to a ridiculous 59,783-by-24,658-pixel image. At the same time, high-end digital cameras and lenses can get very expensive, and that fact holds back some from experimenting. Some groups still stand by the analog format, and lomography is perhaps one of the most interesting results.

Lomography is an artistic experimental photography movement that revolves around quirky, plastic cameras that use film. The cameras take heavily vignetted and saturated pictures for a low-fi look that makes them comparable to their digital camera counterparts, some of which cost 100 times more money. Some of these cameras are also designed to do something I’ve never imagined with my DSLR.

Holga 35mm

There’s nothing like a reliable classic. My first film camera was a 35mm, and this is probably the case for anyone who has wound his or her film by hand. The Holga 35mm comes with a plastic 47mm lens (which is a good focal distance for any kind of photography), and the minimum aperture limit set at f/8 ensures that nothing in your shot will be out of focus. The camera also has a decoupled film advance and shutter, which means you can shoot double exposures on the same frame.

Holga 120-3D Stereo Camera

3D photography is still a very expensive niche in the digital space. But the Holga 120-3D Stereo Camera is an inexpensive analog alternative that takes two simultaneous shots with twin lenses. However, you'll need to buy a special slide viewer to see the images in 3D, and the 120mm film is a bit more costly than standard film.

Spinner 360°

Taking a regular panoramic shot usually entails shooting a set of vertical photos while moving your camera around an axis. It takes a decent amount of time to set up, and you don’t get any results until you are done with post processing, cropping, and cleaning it up. The Spinner 360° simplifies everything with a ripcord. Just pull the cord, and the camera starts spinning to take a full 360-degree image.

Fisheye One

Specialty lenses that provide a particular look to your photos can be really expensive, so a fisheye camera for under $60 is a real bargain. This particular fisheye camera takes photos in an ultra-wide 170 degrees and a near-circular view thanks to the lens's extreme distortion effect.

SuperSampler

A quick-burst shooting mode is one of my favorite things about using a DSLR, but it’s a feature that's almost completely absent on affordable point-and-shoots. The SuperSampler is quick-snapper that takes four consecutive exposures on the same frame of film. The four separate lenses take a sequence of four exposures in 2 seconds on a single photo.

PCWorld