Weddingbee Blog

There’s so many options out there! I have so many conflicting thoughts about what I think I want too, which doesn’t help.

My current camera:

The Sony DSC H3 (image from dpreview)

It’s a little larger than your average point-and-click. Sometimes I have felt hampered in that I can’t quite put it in the pocket of my jeans, or into a small purse. I have in the past considered buying a camera like this one:

The Sony HX7V (Image from Future Shop)

That way I could have something tiny, that could fit into small pockets and purses. That always seemed like a waste of money though, when I had a perfectly good camera that is really only marginally bigger.

This makes it sound easy, right? Buy the wee one that has now progressed to be better than your current one. Deal done. Sadly, my brain does not make it that easy. I have also wanted to get more in to photography, to learn about aperture and f stops and bokeh and just be able to take better pictures, and understand how to control the camera more. I have no aspirations of becoming a pro, so a giant DSLR is just not worth it for me. But…companies are starting to come out with cameras that look like this:

The Sony NEX 5 (image from Imaging Resource)

Wee digital bodies barely bigger than the blue camera above, but you have interchangeable lenses, and more ability to control the camera manually! This one in particular, the NEX 5 has me really entranced. I tried one out in a store, and I loved the feel of being able to manually focus, the sensor is one like you find in ‘proper’ DSLRs, interchangeable lenses! The thing with this one though is that when the camera has the ‘pancake’ lens attached (the one on the camera in the photo) it’s about the size of my current camera. The on that I sometimes wondered about being too big. You put any other lens on it, and it is bigger even than that. Would I take it places?

I was feeling really conflicted about what I wanted to do, so I was talking about it with Cinnamon Buns, complaining that I really liked the NEX, but it can get so big, I’d probably carry a smaller one more often, wah wah wah… Then he said pointed out that if I’m concerned about wanting a really convenient camera for crazy stuff that comes up when you’re just out shopping or walking to work, what about taking the cell phone camera into consideration? And that little comment slowly but surely changed my thinking on the matter. I found specs for the next iPhone, reportedly coming out this fall, and it is (apparently, I don’t know how reliable these rumours are) going to have an 8MP camera! My current contract is up this winter.

I’m starting to think that the NEX 5 will satisfy my urge to learn more about photography, take great pictures on vacations, of meals I cook, of places I go, things I make, etc. It wouldn’t live in permanently in my purse like a wee point-and-shoot might, but if I ran into a “OMG THAT’S MICK JAGGER” moment (or whatevs. You know.) I would always have my iPhone on me for that type of thing.

So that’s my thinking at this moment. Leaning towards the NEX 5, but still not read to pull the trigger on the purchase. Also helpful was Weddingbee user ritsi_bitsi’s comment on my last post telling me to check out the NEX! It’s like she was in my mind (or at least my browser history). Is it some sort of sign?!

Price, of course, does come in to this equation. The wee blue camera is listed at $349, and the NEX 5 is listed at $799 on the Sony website. Shopping around, I’ve seen the blue one for $200+, and the NEX 5 + one lens for $600. Neither is a $1000+ DSLR, but $600 is not a small chunk of change, especially after a wedding! (And, I realise that there are some DSLRs at the $600 mark—but they’re too big. This one is on the edge of my comfort zone for ‘too big’).

Has anyone tried out the Sony NEX 5? Do you like it? Do I really need another hobby?!