Amazon Lightning Deals
For these 8mm Rokinon Lenses, check out the discounts following the links below.
Rokinon 8mm F2.8 Ultra-Wide Fisheye Lens for Sony E-mount and Sony NEX Cameras 28FE8MBK-SE Black
Rokinon 8mm F2.8 Ultra-Wide Fisheye Lens for Sony E-mount and NEX Cameras Silver
Constantly poking around for a good set of lenses for the Sony NEX-7, this eBay seller takes old vintage lenses and modifies them to fit (without adapter) to most Micro Four Thirds, Sony NEX (e-mount), and Leica cameras. That's right, no adapters needed. He seems to always have some interesting modifications for these small sensor cameras including modifying a Canon 50mm F/0.95 and a 55mm F/1.0 lens for the Sony NEX. If you're looking for a good set of cheap portrait lenses for your small sensor cameras, check out his constantly updated auctions (click here).
Jieying Modded Lens Sony GH2 Leica
I picked up the Panasonic GF2 camera lately because I wanted something small and really lightweight. Sure you can adapt Nikon or Canon lenses, but that took so much away from being 'small and lightweight'. An excellent solution for Sony NEX and Micro Four-Third cameras are to use CCTV or 'C-Mount' lenses. Here's an excellent video test from Vimeo member Dario Viola showing the quality of these inexpensive lenses. These C Mount lenses are normally used in very small security cameras, but they've become a popular choice for many M43 shooters. You'll find many CCTV lenses with fast F/1.4 and F/1.7 apertures for about $30 dollars.
You can't go too wide without seeing the inside of these small lenses, but for the GH2 you might be able to use crop mode to use just the center of the lens (eliminating the barrel ring on the edges). The most popular sizes for the NEX5 and GF1/2 cameras are the 25mm F/1.4 and 35mm F/1.7. Keep in mind that M43 is a 2x crop, so a 25mm is more like a 50mm F/1.4. I'm picking a few of these up to use on the GF2 and will post results soon after receiving. You can find other C Mount lenses below.
I love me some RedRock Micro gear, but unfortunately i'm just one of those poor souls who can't afford even their entry level stuff. As seen in the image below, this is just one bundle in the line up of RedRock Micro's Nano rigs called the Running Man. Pretty solid piece of gear that doesn't look quite overkill. Light weight, sturdy, sets up fast, and packs down small. Nice little stabilizer for the frequent traveler. You can find the Running Man rig here: Redrock Micro nano - RunningMan
Having a few spare parts around the studio, just decided to mount the Calumet Mini Tripod / Handle to a Manfrotto 361 Shoulder Brace for Monopods. The bearing on the shoulder support spins freely, but by adding a handle under the camera, you can keep it steady. It's also handy having the handle break out into a Tripod to rest the gear down (gotcha on that one RedRock..JK).
Would be an interesting travel brace for a smaller camera like the GH1, GH2, Sony NEX, or A55. I don't know..all for fun...
Ok, so i'm sitting here playing with the Sony NEX-3 Interchangeable lens camera trying to figure out better ways to make this shoot like a real video camera. Next I get an email from Alex Cahiz pointing me to the latest Engadget article about Sony's latest Video Camera announcement. A 3" Swivel LCD, Still Photos, 1080p, 24 frames, and SDHC storage are some of the terminology being dropped, oh and also an estimated street price of $2,000 US. It should be bundled with an 18-200mm lens, so it's not a terrible price for something that acts more like a Video Camera should. Check out the full write up over at Engadget.
From the images above it looks like it has both an LCD and a ViewFinder for sharper focus? It also has a better Stereo microphone position over current DSLR's. The smartest thing Sony can do to really steal back some of the current market is to come out with a Canon Lens adapter right from the start. Hey, Apple went to the Intel platform, supported Windows installations, and now look where they are at. If Sony can adapt for Canon, i'm sure most of the Canon users would love to pick this thing up and test it out with the current gear they are already so much invested in.
Update: Looks like more specs are available and many comments are talking about the correction on 24p. It's actually 24Mbs bitrate which is half the 5D Mark II, and no indication of 24p. This is a big time deal breaker for people who can already afford the T2i with several aftermarket accessories available on the cheap. I don't think Tamron, Sigma, or Tokina are making Sony mount lenses for the NEX? This will definitely put Sony in a niche audience.
I received the $99 Dollar DSLR Shoulder Shooter from Express35.com today. It was late when I got home, and didn't get to test it out with all my Canon cameras, but I did quickly throw on the Sony NEX which seems perfect for it. I have extra clamps which I was able to mount my Rode VideoMic and my Zoom H4n.
This is a great start to an excellent event coverage type rig for me. Very lightweight and very stable when holding it. Some things i'm looking to improve upon this lightweight setup is to replace the Rode Microphone with something hard mounted, not with a shock mount.
Maybe an Azden Self Powered Mini Shotgun Microphone would suffice.
The Azden SGM-X found at BHPHOTOVIDEO.com, looks promising.
I also want to replace the Zoom H4n on this rig with the new Zoom H1 (once it ships). This would make it extremely light. Also I may add a very small LED light if I happen to be shooting in a Night Club scene.
click image for pre-order
The Sony doesn't allow me to adjust Aperture manually with the current lens. There is a Canon FD mount adapter that will allow me to use those older Canon FD manual lenses on this Sony, so that should fix that problem. I'll see if I can get one of those to finish it off with a nice FD 50mm. Check out the Canon Lens to Sony NEX adapter.
click image for Canon FD adapter to Sony NEX
Soon i'll get some footage up of a Canon DSLR on this $99 Dollar DSLR Shooter, unless someone beats me to the punch. As of now I love the look of this shoulder rig on this Sony NEX, and the rig seems to be the right size for it.
The Sony NEX interchangeable lens camera is now available at bhphotovideo.com
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It's no secret that the Sony NEX has an adapter to mount the large Alpha lenses. I guess it was just a matter of (very short) time before other adapters were available to support other lenses. The Sony NEX is very new, and it's great to see manufacturers adapting for it. Actually after a bit of research, this seems to be a one off custom job. The seller is responding to questions stating they can make an adapter for any type of lens to Sony NEX. I'm also not finding any other manufacturers of such adapters to the Sony NEX. Very cool! This Canon EF lens adapter for the Sony NEX changes alot of things for people like me who are well invested into Canon Lenses.
Just a note that someone pointed out. With adapters, they can't control the aperture on EF lenses. Your lens will default to a certain aperture and you can't easily adjust this. This seller also has a Canon FD lens adapter available too, which will give you the ability to use the FD manual lens to adjust to any aperture. The best bet is to just stick with the FD adapter and grab some FD lenses for full manual AV control.
click image for Canon FD adapter to Sony NEX
Traveling with a lightweight camera that does both photos and videos (and awesome panoramics) that can accept some very decent lenses that I already own makes this camera much more affordable for the long run. The adapter also has a built in tripod mount, since we can't rely on that Sony NEX body to carry the weight of the big lenses. Now that's thinking smart... Check out the Canon EF Lens to Sony NEX adapter.
