Gadgetory

well this is David with a virgin this is the Sony Alpha any xf3 that's a brand new camera it's an update to last year's NEX c3 and the NEX cameras are generally great because they put DSLR sized aps-c sensor into a much smaller more inexpensive body the f3 is not a huge physical change from the c3 it's actually a little larger it weighs about a pound with the kit lens on and it's almost 2 inches thick it kind of feels more like the NEX 7 then the NEX c3 it's still small for a digital camera but this is definitely not something you can just drop into your pocket and carry around with you there are some additions that come with the bigger size though you get a much bigger more usable grip that actually makes the camera possible to hold just in one hand and you get the awesome pop-up flash from the NEX 7 you can bounce it or move it down so it's a much more useful flash than most there aren't very many dials or buttons to speak of on the camera you do almost everything using the on-screen menu all the menus help you get used to the camera or tweak settings in ways that make sense and it's just really simple but if you've used a DSLR before it's gonna feel really clunky and harder to change settings the camera has a super sharp 3-inch LCD and it's filled with 921,000 dots the screen is great it's really accurate with really good colors it's not necessarily very bright by default and can be hard to see outdoors but fortunately you can make it brighter manually the screen also tilts so you can shoot above your head or below your waist while still being able to see the screen which is cool but it doesn't rotate quite enough down so if you're holding the camera above your head it's still a little hard to see unfortunately the screens not a touchscreen like the nex-5n but it's still pretty too easy to navigate with the scroll wheel on the back and there are few menus in there really icon based so it's pretty easy to navigate anyway we get lots of art filters and scene modes on the camera and a lot of really wide-ranging and powerful auto modes the camera also charges via micro USB instead of needing a separate charger which is again just designed to make it easier to use and less cumbersome to carry which is pretty great images shot with the NEX f3 generally look really good and there's certainly a huge step up from a point shoot camera images are really sharp details are pretty good and there's really accurate colors the biggest problem is dynamic range anytime you have spots in the image that are particularly dark or particularly bright whatever ends up being the brightest spot in the image is going to get totally blown out often to the point where pictures look overexposed and just bad anytime you have relatively uniform or controlled brightness you'll get photos that look great but outdoor photo is almost always look overexposed which is a problem with a camera like this low-light performance is pretty solid - that has ISO range up to 16,000 and you can shoot up to about ISO 3200 and you'll still get great-looking photos but things drop off way after that you definitely get some noise once you start cranking up the ISO levels the NEX f3 can also now shoot 1080p video at 24 frames per second or 1080i video at 60 frames per second the c3 couldn't shoot 1080p video at all so it's a nice upgrade video looks pretty good it's a little oversaturated and darks can be a little too dark at some points but the video still looks good the camera will auto focus and zoom while recording video but auto focus in particular isn't particularly great it searches a lot and focuses and refocus is really fast so you get this kind of jarring experience as you go in and out of focus and it switches as you record video auto focus in general is actually one of the biggest weaknesses with the NEX f3 it's just slow and not particularly precise it takes a half second or more to find a focus point even on still images and will often go past the point of focus and then try to come back otherwise the camera is actually pretty fast it's it's a bit slower than the nex-5n but it'll shoot about five-and-a-half photos per second in burst mode there's very little shutter lag and it can turn on and start shooting photos in just over two seconds in general if you're coming from a point-and-shoot camera the NEX f3 is a great option especially at $599 so you get a big sensor and a fast processor and a lot of manual controls even though the interface helps them feel more accessible and less complicated anyone looking to upgrade from a point-and-shoot camera should definitely consider one of the NEX models but which one you buy will depend on which features you really think you need and how much you're willing to spend you