Sony Alpha NEX-C3 Review

My Related Pages


Revision 0.3
Copyright © 2011-2012 by Zack Smith.
All rights reserved.

Table of contents

Introduction

The Sony NEX-C3 was a much-anticipated camera, following as it did the already successful NEX-3, and with the promise of a better sensor. Sony delivered on that promise and the C3 generates excellent photos.

With the NEX line of cameras, the sensor is key. They are, each of them, quite compact yet each has the very large APS-C sensor, providing excellent image quality as well as high-ISO capability, resulting in amazing low-light performance. The price of the NEX-C3 camera with 16mm pancake lens in late 2011 was $550, and with 18-55mm zoom lense it was $600.

Sony Alpha NEX-C3 Specifications

  • Camera format: compact (pocketable only with pancake lens)
  • Sensor type: Sony 16 MP
  • Sensor size: APS-C
  • Sensor resolution: 4912 × 3264 = 16.03 MP
  • Normal ISO range: 100 to 25600
  • iAuto ISO range: 100 to 3200
  • Shutter range: 1/4000 to 30 seconds
  • Display size: 3 inches & 921600 dots
  • Display type: LCD with touch capability

My unboxing video

Written Review

The NEX-C3 is a very nice camera in most respects.

Its major qualities are as follows.

  1. It is very well built.
  2. Photo quality is pretty stunning.
  3. Low-light performance is amazing.

Touch screen

The touch screen is helpful and it makes perfect sense to have a touch screen on a camera. Unlike with the NEX-5N, the C3's touch screen is less readily touched by accident.

A common question is, how to protect the screen without reducing touch sensitivity? I have used an iPhone screen protector, which I cut down to size.

Control dial

The rotating control dial works pretty well on the NEX-C3, better I'd say than on the NEX-5N that I briefly owned.

Sounds

This camera makes a few sounds that you should be aware of before you assume they are symptomatic of a defect.

Chirp: About 5 seconds after you power off the NEX-C3, you may hear it make a high-pitch chirp sound. This is the lens cleaning function.

Errrp: When you power the camera down, it displays an alpha logo and makes the errp sound.

Shuck: Sometimes when powering off the camera, the shutter will make its usual shuck sound as if you had pressed the shutter button.

Macintosh issues

iPhoto '09 on the Macintosh does not read Sony's RAW file format.

Recently RAW Compatibility update 3.8 gave Aperture and iPhoto '11 support for NEX-C3 RAW images.

iPhoto '11 costs $15 in the App Store if you didn't receive it with your Mac.

List of supported RAW formats from Apple.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

How loud is the shutter?
It is definitely not super-quiet. If you are photographing a small animal then it will be surprised by the shutter sound.
Is the C3 with 16mm pocketable?
Yes. It is small enough to fit in a coat pocket but not truly small as you see with cameras that will fit inside a shirt pocket.

NEX-C3 Accessories

There are several lenses that are available.
  • 16mm pancake -- I have this one.
  • 18-55mm zoom -- I tried this when when I had the 5N. It was large and heavy and the zoom range was not very useful to me.
  • Sony sells a few more.

Conclusion

So far so good.

NEX-C3 Links

Optics links

Links


Google ads on this webpage now use Google's interest-based advertising.