SONY α NEX-5 sweep Panorama

Horizon +1 Optical filter, Kodak Tri-X

At last a quick option to make panorama on the fly with decent resolution. Two years ago I have stopped taking panoramic photos after 10 years of shooting in the streets, with an old Horizon Russian camera and Tri_X film Kodak film. The hassle to develop, scan the negative in compare to the quick results of the digital camera brought me to decide to move to digital cameras. Used the camera to stitch photos mostly of classic landscape but always missed the intuitive quick panoramic street photography, not to mention the time to stitch and wait in front of Photoshop.

Sony α NEX-5 16mm,  regular Panorama length. Eran Bendheim

The new Sony α NEX-5 with the sweep photography is compact to carry around (the 16mm pancake lens) in my pocket, with a 16 gig card has over 1400 images to be shot (The battery will surly be drained before that). it give the option of making two length of panorama pictures classic and wider. I am usually shoot from the heap with out looking at the screen and get used to the rhythm of the shot and rotation speed I need to apply, the camera fail the photo if you are turning too quickly. The sweep is very good at stitching non moving objects, cars walking people is facing a fate of being narrowed, duped or sliced in the process. In the old film camera you would get and smear effect in this case since the it is a multiple exposure and not a long scan exposure you get those cut out. I hope that Sony will enable a smart logic similar to face recognition or smile they have now to apply on the sweep option. A quick option might have been to write also the separate images in the card so I would have the option to edit later on if I want, but there is no option like that yet.

I have also tried a wider filter on the 16mm lens not sure how wide it translate to mm ( the wide angle x0.79 I guess it some were around 12.5 mm, with sensor size effective of around 16mm). The panoramic could be wide almost as 360 degree, photos closer to objects with less problems of duplicated in the stitching of moving objects, maybe the overlap is not that narrow as a bigger lens.

Sony α NEX-5 16mm,  wider Panorama length. Eran Bendheim

The way I photograph I take the camera errors for now and adopt them if they match the visual and the content, great! Part of the way I view my process is to let the camera process be part of the dynamic in creating the shot, all my photos are in a constantly in a changing environment. The street is always changing and the automatic sweep stitching the camera create is part of the process. The editing at the end will decide in the process if an image is erased or being saved and presented in a series like any regular process I have.

Hope this blog made you more interested in panoramic photography and you are welcome to see my site www.eran.com with is panoramic classic photos and check out mu flicker account with new panoramas and more

Thanks Eran Bendheim

The SONY α NEX-5.

Canon EF 28-300 mm f/3.5-5.6L IS USM

Lenses are changing and evolve so quickly, I am pretty used to look and observe in the mm of my focal lens. Luckily I have accesses to a Canon s mark III that convinced me to invest in lenses, since the body is there for me to use. I have bought two legacy canon lenses. the Canon 50 mm f/1.0 which I will find the time to write in the future, and the Canon zoom EF 28-300 mm f/3.5-5.6.

I am usually photograph street scenery on my way to work, or on a short trips around my apartment. I like to travel and look for stuff that capture my interest and edit it at home. looking for and ideal lens that will cover large range and will let me choose quickly my cropping and setting on the shoot brought me to the zoom world. Up until now I have either used a fixed wide lense usually around the 28 mm or my old Horison panoramic camera. I looked for a bright clear and the widest range possible. THis was a very pricy investment, after watching talks of a celebrities photographers over youtube, they need quick and fast soultions, I decided to get it.

It is like all the review post a very heavy lens. On the other hand you do walk with one lens that will give a huge range. As you can see from the sample at the white house shot covering the full max. and min. of the focal zoom.


The canon 28-300 zoom is pretty bright compare to the other zoom lenses and the big saver in a digital age is the use of ISO as a variable that you can change just aperture or shutter speed. Night shoots in the sample made on a tripod show the full zoom or the wide option (this wide is cropped to feel like panoramic photography). Those shots were taken with a low ASA and a long exposure.





an extreme ISO push and photoshop enhanced night shot in a night street scenery



On other hours of the day like sunset I had found it quick clean and very simple to use





There were lots of complains on places I searched about the zoom that move forward and backward, I find it very intuitive and quick to use. Some wrote that it brings lots of dust and particles into the camera. I am traveling to dusty place at lease once a year desert and see shores with sand. I did not get any unusual dust and and problems then the regular lens use I have don prior to this lens.

The great versatile of the zoom is the fact is also has macro option which does a very nice work when you do encounter a need for a close up option. It is a sharp enough to be use as is or with a little help of photoshop bring a very nice shot.



In general it is a match for me now when I can still carry it around, I guess in the future I will tolerate less the wight and will be happy to find some lighter options but for now it is a great street hunter lens.