Reviews

I think of the NEX-5 as my photographic Swiss Army knife: a small package with lots of tools, which will tackle 90% of the tasks you throw at it. Here are some aspects of the NEX which I’ve found the most useful or interesting over the past few weeks…

There’s a gulf between basic third party flashes and the manufacturers’ all singing, all dancing models. It’s this market space that a few pocket lighting specialists fill. The German brand Metz is one of the best known and produce a range which aims to match the big boys in every respect while still remaining slightly more ‘cost effective’.

To call the Olympus Pen range and their Micro Four Thirds brethren a watershed in the camera market doesn’t sound quite right, even if it’s true. To call the Pen E-PL1 a watershed once housed for diving is maybe a little more understandable – though it’s not any kind of shed you’d recognise from your garden. Sharing the latest toughened up styling with the housed E-620 SLR it carries off a cute Tonka toy look with aplomb, but is it merely a plaything?

Once again Canon have attempted to create a camera with sufficient capability to ensure value for money, with longevity a high priority. Broadly speaking, this is not a camera that anyone will be bored of quickly, with a superb array of capture modes and controls which will grant enormous creative license to experienced photographers whilst being easy-to-use for beginners.

When you move to an SLR there’s very little point sticking to just the kit lens… you’re buying into the idea of a system, so make the most of it! Choosing which lenses to add to your bag isn’t to be taken lightly, you aren’t Madonna picking children! Here I’ve gathered a few of my favourites together to help you navigate your first steps into a lens collection.

I didn’t think that more than a year on, the Micro Four Thirds posse would still have such a dominant position in the new market space they created. The move seems to have genuinely caught the camera world off-guard and now we’re beginning to see some really impressive offshoots…

I’m the kind of person who loves ‘stuff’ it doesn’t matter what that stuff is just as long as it is something. So I was delighted when this arrived in my office a few weeks ago giving me the chance to have a play! With Easter weekend and a trip home to Scotland planned I would put this little baby through its paces!

When I visited this year’s Focus exhibition there was a bit of a buzz on the Bowens stand. The reason they were so upbeat was that they had just developed another new model! It wasn’t on show, but I did get to see a pre production version…

It’s not a subtle bag for walking around town; from the proud, chunky rubber Camera Armor (sic) logo to the reflective strip around the top this is an action bag for the kind of folk who aren’t worried so much by street crime as finding their camera downstream after rolling a canoe. The exterior is constructed from ‘Ballistic nylon and waterproof rubber’…

If you have invested in a big body and bright long lens then you want it safe in transit and by your side whenever you can. They always say the best camera is the one you have with you and the right bag stops you wondering whether it’s worth the hassle.