sonyalpharumors

No nex-5 preorder on Amazon at the moment!!!

@hjp
I presume they are well aware of this, but are trying to encourage those who see the value of beautiful video images with a shallow dof to buy the upcoming nex-7 when it comes out. However if the nex-7 is significantly bigger/more expensive, then the aim of a small compact sized camera capable of shooting beautiful video with a shallow depth of field still has not been realized.

My personal way around this is to use an adaptor and mount old lenses with manual aperture rings. This way I can keep a shallow dof. However the cameras automated control of shutter speed is one of the biggest drawbacks. From the video samples on the web it can be seen that it has a strong tendency to use very high shutter speeds to keep the exposure within the correct range. This results in a staccato like impression on movements in the video. Leaves are moving jerkily. Birds flying through the sky look like they are in a club filmed with strobe lighting for example. The only way I can think of controlling this is to use a variable nd filter, like the fader nd on the end of the lens, to force the camera to reduce the shutter speed. This whole thing of shooting video with the current nex cameras is full of massive compromises. But I would rather get one, and use it than wait for the nex-7 or go for the bigger e-pl1. I have bigger cameras which shoot impressive video, but the “holy grail” of a small compact with shallow depth of field, low noise and proper manual control of video remains still just out of reach. But give it time and it will come!