Control
button and wheel all lie here.
NEX-F3 still owns controlling structure like
that on NEX-5 and NEX-3, which means there’s only one wheel that is responsible
for many functions, including from adjusting aperture, capture speed to modifying
focus and ISO according to your custom settings.
To switch between capture modes (P/S/A/M,
auto mode, scenario, panorama…) requires pressing the tiny round button on the
screen’s top right corner (Menu button), then select Shoot Mode and roll the
wheel to pick your favorite mode. This process takes considerable time to
switch between modes when DSLRs commonly own a physical wheel. Of course, you
can assign shortcuts for Shoot Mode (as well as other parameters) but overall
further process will still take more time than common DSLRs and SLTs do.
Moving focus point is also time-consuming because
you have to press Soft Key B first to be able to move the point. Because F3
doesn’t have touch-sensitive display like NEX-5N does thus focus is not as quick
as the process of tapping the screen. In fact, with such compact size, adding
extra switching wheel or a bunch of buttons seems difficult so for this NEX-F3,
it is acceptable.
NEX’s
menu bears resemblance to those of NEX-5 and NEX-3.
Regarding other control keys, there’s 3
remarkable points. First, button in the wheel’s center has curved surface thus
it is more easily and smoothly pressed than other NEX models we have experienced.
Second is record button which is surrounded by quite high edge thus hard to be
pushed. We can infer that Sony’s design tends to prevent user from pressing
wrong button. Though when recording, in fact, we had to use a lot of pressure so
our movie’s ending was slight shaken. Finally, Menu and Soft Key B (two buttons
near the screen in the bottom) have turned from bar shapes (on NEX-C3) to round
shapes (on NEX-5 and NEX-5N), which makes users’ pressing easier.
Connector
On NEX-F3, Sony provides many connectors
including 1 micro-USB, 1 mini HDMI, 1 battery tray and card slot. We would like
to emphasize on micro-USB port, not mini USB one (like we did with most
cameras). This interesting connector can be used to charge this device when you
connect NEX-F3 with PC. This is the first time that I have experienced a camera
(plus replaceable lens) which can be recharged via USB connection, which was
hardly seen on other DSLRs or NEX models. By default, Sony doesn’t include a recharger
for NEX-F3 in the pack because there’s one available micro-USB connector that
is compatible with most mobile rechargers. This feature comes with pros and
cons. It’s good that you can easily refill this camera’s battery by any mobile
recharger without bringing a bulky suit when carrying the camera during your
travel. Though, it’s bad that if you only have one USB recharger, it will take
considerable time to refill the battery. Total time allotted may be 5 hours via
micro-USB connector.
Micro
USB and mini HDMI port
Nex-F3 is compatible with memory cards,
like SDHC/SDXC or Memory Stick Pro Duo. You can only choose one of both because
there’s one card slot available. The slot lies under bottom edge and you have
to flip a small cap to get the card out. Next to it is battery tray. The
battery’s code name is NP-FW50, similar to that of NEX series and other Alpha
SLT models.
Battery
tray and card slot
Focusing
NEX-F3 focuses by measuring contrary quickly
and accurately in most of the popular cases. When lighting gets a little
complicated, the camera may focus more slowly and sometimes inaccurately. Although
the compact has informed to lock specific points but resulted image still looks
dimmed. However, this issue isn’t commonly seen and it happens in 2-3 out of
100 cases in extremely dark lighting condition. Supporting light is also
helpful in low-lighting condition though sometimes this light is totally or
partly covered by a finger.
Another interesting feature of NEX-F3’s
autofocus is Object Tracking. When this mode is activated, we can select a
specific object and lock it in the frame’s center then press OK button. From
then, the camera will continue follow the object regardless that we will move
the camera or how the object will move. The camera is able to follow objects in
fast speed. Plus, focusing during following object is quite good and quick in
standard lighting. In my test, I was driving parallel to a motorbike while
focusing. As expected, Object Tracking followed the object closely even when the
object came near the fringe before it disappeared. In low lighting, focusing
done by Object Tracking was a little slower. It is a pity that we can only lock
the object when it comes to the screen’s center (though when the object’s
moving, locking frame will be moving and focusing in any area).
