HnRM thoughts on the Sony E 55-210mmm f/ 4.5-6.3

Hello everyone
Well, this is my review of the Sony E 55-210mm 4.5-6.3 lens. or the SEL55210.
I review it my style, if you looking for charts, pixel peeps and all, this is not the right review for you; I just share my experiences with it.

So here is the lens I'm talking about

• It's an E mount telephoto lens, going from 55 to 210 mm.
• The focus ring and zoom ring are made out of plastic, but it feels durable.
• It works on all the Sony NEX cameras, the newer, A5000, A6000 and even the full frame A7 and A7r (in crop mode)
• It's relatively cheap 340 USD.
• That lens is relatively small, well, not so much...It's looks huge on the NEX bodies; but decent compared to the canon or nikon lenses with similar focal ranges.

Mounted on the NEX F3 at 55mm

Mounted on the NEX F3 at 210mm. Kinda looks funny

• I love the circular lens hood. I always have it on. And I never had unwanted flares wih it.
• The lens is not heavy.
• Some people use it for nature, wild stuff, birds and all. I happen to use it for portrait,and flowers it works well and creates a rather pleasing bokeh.

You said bokeh? This is one of the first shot I took wih it. Unedited raw. 

• The autofocus is not the fastest and not the slowest. it's alright. Screw it, it's good.
• That lens sucks in low light, straight up. At dusk, the autofocus is slow, sometimes it might take 1 to 2 seconds to focus on the subject; which is tooooo much. I use it in manual focus when I feel there's not enough light, always. I never use indoor by the way.
• People will come and ask you about it, because it's weird how it looks so long on those NEX bodies. I got used to it.
• I always get some vignetting that is easily removable in lightroom with lens correction. I might be crazy, but it creates good vignettes (it's subtle) that I rarely remove in post processing.
• If you want a telephoto for your NEX or now alpha camera, don't hesitate. For that price range, you can't beat it. Just know that it is not good in low light.
• Oh, It's has OSS (stabilization) which is a huge advantage with telephoto lenses. you get less blurred shots.

@ 126 mm

this was shot at 210 mm, I rarely shoot it at 210

Probably the only indoor shot I took with it.the light was good though

Both shot at 117mm iso 400 f/5.6. The one above has no correction. The one below I applied the lens correction.

The vignette is subtle as you can see. I rarely correct it when I take portraits with this lens.


OK. Overall I like this lens for the price it has 340 USD. I really hate how it performs in low light.
I will soon move up to a full frame sensor, probably the A7. I will keep this lens. It does the job.
I don't use it everyday, but it's good to carry, just in case. When used well, it give you some fantastic images.If you only have a kit lens, i recommend this sel55210 to you, it will give you a different perspective on your day to day shots.
I'll post more portraits that I took wih it soon.
That's it.

Compared to the 18-55 kit lens (right).

How I rank all the Sony's NEX Cameras

First of all, I'm not a Sony fan boy.
Second of all, I'm slowly becoming a Mirrorless shooter, because they have so many advantages over DSLR, it's the way to go.

The equation is simple: mirrorles cameras are taking over the market (over DSLR) and in my opinion, SONY is running the mirrorless market right now.
Lately, Sony has ditched the NEX name and all of their mirrorless camera sport the Alpha name now (Sony A6000, A7, A7r...Which are fantastic cameras by the way).
As the NEX name faded away, I decided to rank the Sony NEX cameras based on my experiences with them, reviews, testing and all.

The NEX lines sparked it all up for Sony, the image quality they deliver is phenomenal. It's funny of the  NEX can rival if not beat those entry levels Canon and Nikon DSLRs ( talking D3200, 600D etc...) even the mid level ones (D7000 ,D5100 and them).
THOSE NEX CAMERAS KICK ASSES. Plus they are small.
I'm talking image quality, ISO sensitivity..

Enough talking, We going from 1 to 10 in order.

1- NEX 6

Sony nailed this one. I think it's the best of them all...Great viewfinder. Fast hybrid autofocus, Universal hotshoe, PASM dial, Enhance grip, built in flash...What else do you want? It only misses an external mic jack. I think it's better than the NEX 7, and it's cheaper.
Replaced by the A6000.






2- NEX 7

Fantastic, The TRI NAV interface makes it great and confortable to use. external mic jack, great viewfinder. The proprietary hotshoe ruins it. And too many megapixel (24) which reduice the low light capabilities a little. yeah, and too damn expensive for an apsc mirrorless. 950  USD body alone. other than that it rocks.




3- NEX 5T

The 5T is basically the 5R with touchscreen, WIFI  and NFC added. The viewfinder is sold as an accessory. The touchscreen is a necessity these days. I love the pronounced grip.
thanks to Nicolas perrot for the correction. 



4- NEX 5R

This is basically the 5T minus the feature mentioned above. Good overall.







5- NEX F3

Yeah the F3 is right here. It's aging a little, but, whew, for the price it's hard to beat. The grip is pronounced, built in flash. 180 degree flip-up LCD. Feels like the NEX 6 in the hands, althought it's the entry level, customizable dials... better than the 3N, 3, 5... This camera is like the 5N. Jeez the 5N doesn't even have a built in flash... Best quality/price ratio. sony got this one for sure.


6- NEX 5N

Nice one, even though it never "wowed" me, because I think the cheaper F3 is better.






7- NEX 5

The original 5. Great camera. The one, along with the original 3 that started all up. It's a little old today but still...







8- NEX 3N

Came to replace the F3. Althought I prefer the...F3. I love this camera because it kinda look classy.






9- NEX 3

Again, old but revolutionary, great if you want to learn basic photographic thing, or if you want to step up from your point and shoot. The image quality still impress for it's price.







10- NEX C3

My least favorite NEX, mainly because it looks like a toy. Image quality is there, but.... gimme a break...I'd buy this for my 5 year old niece.







There it is man, I think there are 10 nex cameras, might have missed one of two variants, but nothing major.This is my personal ranking of this amazing line of SONY cameras...LONG LIVE THE NEX LINE.

Duskie Turn in 2 plateaux

Well, obviously it was at sunset.
Shot it after a lonnnnnng walk in 2 plateaux, Abidjan
It was pretty complicated because it was hot as hell, The sky had started to become moody, I didnt have a tripod, the sun was all up in my eyes...
It came out better than I expected to be honest.

A review of the Sony E 55-210mm is coming up next..

HnRM thoughts on the Olympus OMD EM1

First of all, This is NOT a hands on review...
What you're about to read is just my thoughts. Kinda like my impressions.
How many times have we seen  new phones get presented, and thoughts or opinions come to our mind about the products that we haven't even touched yet???
This is basically what I'm about to do with the Olympus OMD EM1...
Ive seen videos of it, read reviews, I'll try to forget all that though...
This is me brainstorming about the camera, looking at pictures, specs, charateristics...
No paragraphs here just bulletpoints.

• The design is gorgeous. It's sexy. I mean, the camera has that retro look but looks futuristique at the same time.
• This is that camera that your friends will be scared to hold. And it looks solid
• The EM1 looks like The Terminator and Cinderella sat down together to design this toy. I know that sounds silly, but that's how I see it. 
• The lines are thin, the camera as a whole has that robotic looks.
• The grip screams 'Hold Me' and looks comfortable.
• It's weather sealed man...it is!!!!
• I like the abundace of customizable buttons

The viewfinder is 2.36million dot LCD EVF with 0.74x magnification (as read on the specs) It should be sharp, and beautiful...

It's 16 MP, which are enough.

It is a Micro four third camera (Im not a big fan of small sensors) with a 16 MP sensor.

No low pass filter, which promise sharper images, but moire in video.

Images that Ive seen so far looks great in day light. It's a relatively small sensor, so the EM1 won't be as good in low light as apsc cameras. But as technology evolves, with their new processor, it should be fairly good for that size of sensors.

Touch screen!!! yes! That's the way to go. (Hey SONY, are you listening????). Think about it, even the amazing Full Frame mirrorless A7 and A7R don't have that. What a shame SONY!!! Shout out to olympus for this. At this point, every digital camera should have a touch screen IMO.

This baby got WIFI, which is a standard nowadays.

It has Focus peaking, GREAT, I have it on my SONY NEX, it's a real pleasure to shoot in manual focus when the camera has that feature.

The video only gives you 30 frames per second. 

I feel like this is the EM5 on steroids...

This is a camera for people who actually know about cameras.

It could be a fantastic backup for a pro.

If you are an APSC or Full Frame user who shoot stills, and you want to get into the micro four thirds field, with a consistent budget THIS IS THE CAMERA for you.

Yhis is one of the best mirrorless cameras.

I think it's expensive, but you get what you pay for, it's worth it.

$ 1,250 body only, $ 1,980 as a kit with a 12-40 2.8 lens

If you shoot videos primarily, forget this camera, there are better options out there (Panasonic GH3 hey hey)

The micro four thirds lenses are relatively cheap, so it'll be easy for build your collection.

With this money I'd go with the A7 or the D7100

My major gripe about it is the sensor size.

I love the OMD EM1, but with a tight budget i wouldn't buy it.

All Images on this post are from amazon.com