Sony NEX-7


The Sony NEX-7 pushes the compact interchangeable mirror-less lens camera system over the cliff. The NEX-7 is a compact digital camera with professional-level technologies fused in beautifully crafted magnesium alloy. The top-of-the-line NEX sports a 24.3 megapixel Exmor APS HD CMOS image sensor with a world’s fastest 0.02-second release time lag, 1024×768 OLED viewfinder, 10 fps continuous shooting, 1080/60p video recording with full manual focus and exposure controls.

With an optional lens adapter the NEX-7 can be equipped with almost all existing a-mount lenses, including the Carl Zeiss Sonnar 135mm f1.8 you see in the photo above.

I’m not impressed with camera brands that unnecessarily increase the number of pixels on the same-sized image sensor. I get the feeling Sony is saying, “More pixels on the same image sensor is better.” The NEX-5 has a 14.2 million effective pixels; the NEX-7 has 24.3, on an image sensor with the same size. This means each pixel is significantly smaller on the NEX-7. Smaller pixels generally mean less light is absorbed and that leads to problems in low light photography. Instead of adding a ton more pixels what would have been impressive is a 24.3 megapixel full-frame sensor. The iconic Leica M9 has one, and it’s not much bigger.

Let’s compare the NEX-7 to a US$7000 Leica M9 and find out if a full-frame sensor could have been fitted into the NEX-7. The Leica M9 has a dimension of 5.5×3.15×1.5 inches (WxHxD). The NEX-7′s dimensions are 4.75×2.75×1.69 inches. The NEX-7 is shorter in length (0.75 inches) and height (0.35 inches), but a little thicker (0.19 inches). The Leica M9 has a Kodak KAF-18500 CCD 35.8×23.9 mm full-frame image sensor. The APS CMOS sensor on the NEX-7 is 23.5×15.6 mm. By eliminating the tilting capability of the LCD monitor the NEX-7 could have been fitted with a full-frame image sensor.

With all of the other specifications left the way they are and by keeping the megapixel count to 14.2 as in the NEX-5, I wonder how much better the NEX-7 might have been for low-light photography. If Sony was really serious about photographic quality it should have shied away from packing so many pixels into the APS-C image sensor. Keeping the same number of pixels or moving to a full-frame image sensor would have been better choices.

Ever since photos of the NEX-7 have been appearing online, I’ve wondered what the two dials on top were for. Well, they are for whatever you want them to be. Sony calls the design TRINAVI:

The NEX-7 offers quick, easy control over creative settings via an intuitive new TRINAVI control. Two control dials on the top of the camera are complemented by a control wheel. Pushing the navigation button cycles quickly through various shooting modes, allowing enthusiasts to make custom adjustments and control images with the flexibility of a DSLR camera.

In other words, the two unmarked dials on top and the control wheel on the back can be custom configured for direct control of settings. The NEX-7 takes the concept found in previous NEX models to another level. The NEX-5 and NEX-3 had two buttons you could assign almost anything to. Not only does the NEX-7 allow you to customize a dial, I don’t know of any other digital camera on the market today that gives you the ability to customize three of them.

Unlike prior NEX cameras, the NEX-7 integrates an electronic viewfinder into the body. The biggest advantage of an EVF is the ability to take photographs in bright environments where a display-only solution would be difficult if not impossible. The 0.5-inch 1024×768 OLED Tru-Finder has an approximately 100% field coverage and is supposedly supplied by Samsung. The 3.0-inch Xtra Fine LCD monitor sports a 640×480 pixel format.

Mount Adapter LA-EA2: This optional piece significantly enhances lens options for the NEX-7 as well as the entire line of NEX cameras. The LA-EA2 uses Translucent Mirror Technology, which means light passes through the mirror component to the image sensor but at the same time light is reflected upward to another sensor for phase detection autofocus. Almost all A-mount lenses can be used on the NEX-7 with the LE-EA2 mount adapter for both still images and video.

Video capture at 28Mbps 1080/60p is impressive, but falls short of the best DSLRs with video capability. The NEX-7 easily trumps the video captured by the NEX-5: 17Mbps 1080/60i. There is a 65% increase in bandwidth and the shift from interlaced to progressive will result in better video quality. From my experience the NEX-5 produced very good 1080i video for such a compact digital camera. Unfortunately video continues to be wrapped in AVCHD; Quicktime (MOV) would have been better. For comparison, the Canon 5D Mark II records video at 38.6Mbps 1080/30p, encodes in H.264, and uses a Quicktime wrapper. And the Nikon D7000 at 44Mbps 1080/24p, H.264, Quicktime. It seems the best DSLRs with 1080p video capture capability have chosen Quicktime as the wrapper. Sony should have done the same.

The NEX-5 I’ve used for several months before selling it was manufactured in Thailand. Although the build quality was generally good enough, there were parts of the NEX-5 that felt plasticky. I hope Sony saw fit to have the NEX-7 built in Japan and expect build quality to be as exceptional as the technical specifications, especially since the body-only price will be about US$1200. Available in November.

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“Android isn’t free.”


Farhad Manjoo, Slate:

In other words—and I never thought I’d say this—Steve Ballmer was right. Android isn’t free. In fact, it’s not even cheap. As Daring Fireball’s John Gruber points out, the $12.5 billion that Google is spending for Motorola amounts to almost two years’ worth of the search company’s profits. No company—not even Google—can throw around that kind of cash without envisioning a direct return on its investment.

So how does Google envision getting a return on its investment in Motorola Mobility?

[...] But the terrific Nexus line of Android phones that Google has built suggests that it knows how to make great phones. With the Motorola acquisition, it will have the opportunity to push out such high-end phones to the mainstream market. [...]

Update:

Android is not free, you have to pay Microsoft to use it.

Absolutely on the dot, by MG Sieger. In October 2010, The Wall Street Journal‘s Nick Wingfield asked if charging a license fee to OEMs for Windows Phone 7 is difficult when Android is free. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer’s answer in that interview:

Android has a patent fee. It’s not like Android’s free. You do have to license patents. HTC’s signed a license with us and you’re going to see license fees clearly for Android as well as for Windows.

Ballmer couldn’t have been more right. There is little doubt Microsoft is collecting significantly more license fees from Android OEMs than from WP7 OEMs. Actually, except for Nokia and Motorola, aren’t they one and the same? Corporate vice president and deputy general counsel, Intellectual Property Group at Microsoft, Horacio Gutierrez on LG deciding to pay up:

We are pleased to have built upon our longstanding relationship with LG to reach a mutually beneficial agreement. Together with our 10 previous agreements with Android and Chrome OS device manufacturers, including HTC, Samsung and Acer, this agreement with LG means that more than 70 percent of all Android smartphones sold in the U.S. are now receiving coverage under Microsoft’s patent portfolio.

More than 70%. Add to this the skyrocketing legal fees fighting Apple and Android becomes downright expensive.

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Grid 10


Dieter Bohn, This is my next…

The Grid 10 comes in a 16:9 aspect ratio with a 10.1-inch screen. Fusion Garage is proud of that screen’s 1366 x 768 resolution and while it deserves credit for upping the pixel density, in general the panel doesn’t rise above your middle-of-the-road Android tablet. The viewing angles on the display are downright terrible and the panel itself feels a little plasticky — we’re told it’s some sort of special mix of polycarbonate and glass. [...]

The folks at Fusion Garage was on the right track with the Grid 10 by cramming 1366×768 pixels and thereby improving resolution. Unfortunately, you can’t get away from having poor viewing angles on a tablet. Instant touch responsiveness is another one of those requirements. John Gruber:

If my iPad’s pinch-to-zoom were that choppy, I’d take it back to the Apple Store, because I’d know there was something seriously wrong with it.

Gruber is referring to Bohn’s video at 1:24:

The pinch-to-zoom action is very, very responsive.

Update 2010.12.17: Nilay Patel, The Verge:

It appears that the wild story of Fusion Garage has come to a sadly ignominious close: the manufacturer of the failed JooJoo and Grid10 tablets has all but disappeared, leaving behind only a database error on its website and a US PR firm that is quitting it representation effective tomorrow.

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LG P220: 12.5-inch AH-IPS Notebook PC


LG: The LG Electronics P220 notebook PC sports a 12.5-inch AH-IPS LED-backlit LCD. The LCD features a narrow bezel of 9.5 mm. LG plans to incorporate IPS LCD technology into more notebook products.

Other specs: 1.6GHz Core i5 CPU, HD Graphics 3000 GPU, 4GB DDR3 1333 RAM, HDMI, a larger touchpad than the P210, powered USB (USB peripherals can be charged when the P220 is off).

In September, LG will introduce a model packing a SATA3 128GB SSD, a world’s first according to the company. The P220 will be available in Color Pearl, White Pearl, Metallic Pink colors on August 10 in South Korea.

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IDAPT i4 Universal Charging Station


The IDAPT i4 Universal Charging Station helps simplify charging.

Six tips are included in the box: Nokia 2, Apple 30-pin, mini USB, micro USB, Sony Ericsson 2, and Samsung 4. My review unit came with an additional 30-pin tip, but depending on the type and number of devices you have there’s a good chance you’ll need additional tips, which are pricey at US$10 each. When purchasing the i4 you can choose between the default pack with six tips or a custom four pack of your choice.

The tips are fairly easy to switch: press the two buttons on the side to pop them out. A compartment to store the extra tips might have been handy for those who need a lot of tips and/or change them out frequently.

There are three tips on top, but looking at the i4, I’m certain there is room on top to have had four tips instead. Maybe there’s an i5 in the works? For larger gadgets like an iPad there is a USB port on the side.

As you can see the iPhone 3GS, battery case, and iPhone 4 are all concurrently being charged. Before the i4, there were at least three chargers, with three cords, and three plugs. Now I have just one.

I like the overall look of the i4; it has simple function-focused lines. But the material left me wanting a bit. Instead of plastic I would have preferred something a bit more robust like aluminum or stainless steel. The $59.99 price would have certainly gone up, but the i4 would have matched up better with the pricy gadgets it powers. Still, getting rid of the clutter and simplifying into a single, albeit plastic, unit was visually satisfying.

As with all new things, it took a while for me and my family to get used to charging on the i4. But because it’s easy to identify the tip and plug in the right device, changing our charging habits and getting used to the i4 didn’t take too long.

IDAPT has accomplished what it set out to do with the i4 Universal Charging Station: simplify the often entangled business of charging our many gadgets. Definitely worth the investment.

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