Hello from Vancouver, BC

[Yohan]

Hello everyone,

Seems like we have a growing group of NEX users here. Hoping to learn lots and hopefully add a little bit to the community also.

After making some difficult decisions, my camera gear now consists of a D700 and NEX-5N. I'm hoping to pick up some legacy lenses for the 5N. Sometimes I get so focused on capturing the moment that I go more trigger happy than I want.. With a 5N and manual lenses, I'm hoping to enjoy the experience of manual focusing, composing, exposing, etc...

If you have tips and tricks on how to manually set the exposure on the 5N, please share. Does A mode work with a manual aperture ring or will I be using M always?

Best regards,

Yohan

 

[Dioptrick]

Welcome to the forum Yohan!

Manual focusing (if you've not grown up with it) has an entirely different operational "tempo." It takes a bit of mental pre-planning each time you approach a shot, but like anything else it can be honed into an instinct, with time and practice. Once you get the hang of it, it's quite satisfying... if not addictive in a therapeutic sort of way. AF has it's place though and is indispensable in certain conditions. So if you're going to start learning manual focusing with legacy lenses, pick "still" subjects at first and progress to action photos as you gain confidence.

All the shooting modes in the 5N will work with legacy lenses (even A mode I think, but you can't select apertures electronically so there's no reason to go there). You must however, enable "Release w/o Lens" in your Set-up menu... otherwise the shutter won't work if the NEX body can't sense a native lens connection.

Aperture settings are changed mechanically via the lens ring obviously, and the 5N will take care of the exposure according to the mode you selected. The LCD screen will always self-adjust to a bright and clear display even if you select small apertures. You will then be able to see the ACTUAL Depth of Field according to the aperture selected on that specific legacy lens.

 

[Bolampau]

Hi Yohan,
welcome to the forum.

The shooting mode I use mostly with manual lenses is the S mode and set the camera to Auto ISO. The camera then adjusts exposure by changing the ISO rating.
Cheers,
Paul

 

[Yohan]

Welcome to the forum Yohan!

Manual focusing (if you've not grown up with it) has an entirely different operational "tempo." It takes a bit of mental pre-planning each time you approach a shot, but like anything else it can be honed into an instinct, with time and practice. Once you get the hang of it, it's quite satisfying... if not addictive in a therapeutic sort of way. AF has it's place though and is indispensable in certain conditions. So if you're going to start learning manual focusing with legacy lenses, pick "still" subjects at first and progress to action photos as you gain confidence.

All the shooting modes in the 5N will work with legacy lenses (even A mode I think, but you can't select apertures electronically so there's no reason to go there). You must however, enable "Release w/o Lens" in your Set-up menu... otherwise the shutter won't work if the NEX body can't sense a native lens connection.

Aperture settings are changed mechanically via the lens ring obviously, and the 5N will take care of the exposure according to the mode you selected. The LCD screen will always self-adjust to a bright and clear display even if you select small apertures. You will then be able to see the ACTUAL Depth of Field according to the aperture selected on that specific legacy lens.

Thanks for the information and the welcome.

That's awesome to hear as I have no experience using manual lenses. Preview on the LCD screen would be helpful with manual exposure. I was hoping to use the A mode to set the aperture and use Auto-ISO. But as Paul said, S mode makes more sense. The experience of it all is what I'm hoping to get out of it. If I need to depend on AF, I have a reliable beast in D700.

I just picked up a M-mount to NEX adapter from Craigslist. Excited to get started.

 

[Dioptrick]

I was hoping to use the A mode to set the aperture and use Auto-ISO. But as Paul said, S mode makes more sense.

I agree... I've found S mode to be very useful when shutter-speed is crucial to the composition. Because you choose the aperture manually (fixed), and you set the shutter electronically (fixed), the camera changes the Auto-ISO for correct exposure... so in reality it isn't a true S-mode with variable apertures on auto, but it's more like a manual with variable ISO on auto. If you select a specific ISO value (fix this variable as well), then S-mode becomes fully rigid and in reality operates like a true M-mode.

The A-mode, P-mode, and SCN-mode options WILL also all work in exposing the image correctly but seeing as the NEX body can't electronically change the aperture on legacy lenses, ALL these modes will pretty much function like an semi-programmed A-mode (you set the aperture manually, the camera automatically selects a variable "shutter-speed/ISO combination" corresponding to the lighting conditions).

Don't hesitate to experiment with the various options available in the SCN-mode, as there's some really cool low-light exposure pre-sets in there.

The experience of it all is what I'm hoping to get out of it.

I'm excited for you!