Check out this very detailed review that Jacob from BPL put together on the NEX.

Lots of photos to illustrate the abilities of the camera in use, with different lenses from other manufactures, and comparitive photos showing different visual effects from different lenses.

Definitely helped with me my education into "real" digital cameras as I transition from my pocket "idiot" camera to something better.

http://hikeitlikeit.com/2012/photography-and-backpacking-8/

-Tony

Stir again...

The real difference between cheap lenses and good lenses is light fall off in the corners of images along with several other factors. If this is not a concern in your landscape then kit lense or the cheapest thing you can buy is perfectly Good IMO.

If you want to stitch your images together to be able to print BIG with high resolution, then you must have a lense with little light fall off in the corners so banding does not occur. This means either you MUST use a crappy lense at its optimum setting if it even has such which means more stitching lines usually, or a Better lense.

As for CA/Sharpness/Resolution... Doesn't really matter on today's camera bodies as they all resolve about the same until you start printing HUGE and everyone has easy access to post processing capability.

A few days ago Sigma announced a couple of lenses: 19/2.8 and 30/2.8.

At first blush I took these as four-thirds lenses, but it looks like Sigma will be making them for both the four-thirds cameras, as well as the NEX. They appear to be fairly small and light, the 19 is the larger of the two and is spec'd at 140g and 45mm long, with a 46mm filter size... not too bad.

I have not searched around for any specs on the 30mm, but it should be smaller and lighter, which would also make it smaller, lighter, and about a half stop faster than the Sony 30/3.5 macro lens, although it will lack macro capability.

These might be the first two interesting options in native NEX mount from a third party manufacturer, pending cost and performance of course.

Sigma has a less than stellar reputation, but their lenses have been improving consistently, and a lot of their professional lenses have gotten pretty good reviews. Personally, based on what I've seen of Sigma's lenses over the years, I think Sigma is underrated, but then I don't shoot test charts, I make pictures. :)

Sigma even made a 28-70mm for Leica (that is sold with the Leica name on them) many years ago.
Not that good mechanically but OK ( for Leica standard) optically.
( I sold some)
Later on the same optics (Sigma made)were encased inside a lens made by Kyocera (same part of the factory that made Contax stuff)
However I don't see much love here for the very nice 200-500 F 2.8 .
Great for wildlife with that amazing aperture.
http://www.sigmaphoto.com/shop/200-500mm-f28-apo-ex-dg-sigma
(you will need one of those packs with a built in frame for this)
Franco

Is it worth the extra $600 or so for the Nex7? Is using the bulb mode easy, what do you have to buy to make it work? Where can you buy the converters for the legacy lenses and does one converter for work all older lenses?

The choice between the NEX5n and NEX7 would be up to you. Some adapted lenses do not produce as good results on the 7 as on the 5n. If I were to upgrade I would probably purchase the 5n and save the extra cash for some better lenses. Bulb mode on my camera is easy to use. On my model, NEX5, I have to hold the shutter down for the duration of the exposure. I received the Opteka IR remote for Christmas and it eliminates this issue. Pressing the shutter button on the remote begins the exposure, pressing it again stops the exposure. You can buy many of the adapters off of eBay or Amazon. Each adapter will work with a certain lens mount. For example you'd need a one adapter for Pentax-K mount, one for M42 thread mount, one for Sony/Minolta A-mount, etc. Some camera lines have more than one mount type. Some lenses have an aperture ring which functions fine with a standard adapter. Some modern lenses have electronic controlled aperture and require an adapter with it's own aperture ring. I don't have any experience with the latter type of adapter.

Thanks for the info, I found an adapter by Metabones for $90 on Ebay for Leica M lenses and the IR remote on Amazon. Now i just need to decide on either the 5N of waiting for the 7. Also need to decide whether to get the pancake 16mm or a wide angle legacy lens.

If you haven't looked at Jacob's blog yet I would definitely recommend it. His latest entry in photography is specifically about rangefinder lenses on a NEX5.

http://hikeitlikeit.com/2012/photography-and-backpacking-8/

From what I have seen from samples on the web, the pancake 16mm is a convenience lens. It's optics are inferior to something like the Voigtlander 15mm/4.5. Which is also a bit wider than the pancake.

Is it hard to find these lenses, of just check EBay?

What lenses?

Try: eBay, KEH, Adorama, B&H, local photo shops, I'm sure there are others I'm missing.

I was speaking of the Leica M Mount lenses by Voigtlander, I thought these were older lens but found them on Amazon and Adorama new. Sorry for all the questions but this type of camera and using non OEM is new to me. I currently own a Canon 5D with several L lens and was thinking of switching to one of the Sony Nex cameras and trying to learn as much as I can. Thanks for all the help.

Are there any 10mm lens that will fit the Nex line of cameras, I want to find something that will match the field of view of my 5D on the ultra wide end.

I don't know much about what is available in the rangefinder class. Otherwise, you can look at a Sigma 10-20mm/f3.5 Sony A-Mount.

If you dont need auto focus then any 10 mm apsc lens will work eith an adaptor and there are adapters available for virtuallly every mount ever made. Your only autofocus option right now would be to get that giant a mount adapter and the use the sigma described above.

I would suspect that the sigma 10-20 wpuld one of the first few lens reegineered for the nex system. The only mirrorless system with a native 14 mm fov lens is u4/3

Edited by GregF on 01/15/2012 00:28:06 MST.

Autofocus on a wide angle is not important to me, keeping the weight down is, that is why I would be getting the Nex system.

Exactly. Landscapes shooting, set focus to infinity and click. Lead pipe simple. Its why real lenses have a focus ring on them even if most have never used it.

Old Manual focus lenses plus EVF = GOLD IN MY POCKET!

Brian, what manual focus lens would you use for landscapes?

Landscapes shooting, set focus to infinity and click.

Things seem a little more complex than this to me. However I would agree that having a manual focus ring with markings is very useful.

Huh? I am being stupid here? See below. =)

Weather you have focus or not is determined entirely by the camera body you have in question, so giving a recommendation is rather odd unless you are talking about lenses that have focus/aperture/shutter dials on them made for large format cameras?

It seems lense compatibility keeps increasing with time at least in "pro" or semi pro bodies anyways with the plethora of camera adapters out there. Finding an exact match for what you are looking for is time consuming, but can save you some serious coin if you are shooting landscapes and don't care about focus speed.