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Home Sony Alpha NEX-3 Interchangeable Lens Digital Camera w/18-55mm Lens (Black)-14.2 Mpix | |
|  | |  | | | Sony Alpha NEX-3 Interchangeable Lens Digital Camera w/18-55mm Lens (Black)-14.2 Mpix | | | | | | | |
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NEX-3KB-S | | In Stock | | Availability:
Usually ships in 1-2 business days | | Only 1 left in stock, order soon! | | Condition: Used | | |
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| | Features | 14.2 MP APS (1.5x) Exmor CMOS Sensor, Extremely Compact HD Imaging SystemInterchangeable 18-55mm E-Series Lens720p HD / MP4 w/ MPEG-4 AAC-LC Audio. Up to ISO 12800 / Up to 7 fpsIn-Camera 226° Sweep PanoramasMemory Stick PRO Duo or SD/SDHC Cards (Not Included)Tiltable 3.0" LCD; Accepts A-mount lenses via LA-EA1 adapter
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| | Description | The performance of a DSLR without the size and weight. The NEX-3 stands apart as the world's smallest interchangeable lens camera.3 Experience gorgeous HD movies,1 astounding low-light pictures, continuous shooting up to 7 fps, incredible panorama shots, and Live View on a tilting 3" LCD4. | |
| | Product Details | | Product Length: | 5.75 inches | | Product Width: | 8.7 inches | | Product Height: | 4.69 inches | | Product Weight: | 0.52 pounds | | Package Length: | 8.7 inches | | Package Width: | 5.8 inches | | Package Height: | 4.7 inches | | Package Weight: | 1.9 pounds | | Average Customer Rating: |  based on 49 reviews |
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| $399.99+ $4.99 *Shipping | Used
- Mint | | | $400.00+ $4.99 *Shipping | Used
- Good | | | $424.99+ $4.99 *Shipping | Used
- Mint | | | $429.99+ $4.99 *Shipping | Used
- Mint | | | $439.97+ $4.99 *Shipping | Refurbished | | | $440.00+ $4.99 *Shipping | Used
- Mint | | | $470.00+ $4.99 *Shipping | Used
- Mint | | | $499.00+ $4.99 *Shipping | Refurbished | | | $499.99+ $4.99 *Shipping | Used
- Mint | | | $510.00+ $4.99 *Shipping | Used
- Mint | | | $549.99+ $4.99 *Shipping | Used
- Mint | | | $690.00+ $4.99 *Shipping | Used
- Mint | | | $775.00+ $4.99 *Shipping | Used
- Mint | |
| Used | |
| $399.99+ $4.99 *Shipping | Used
- Mint | | | $400.00+ $4.99 *Shipping | Used
- Good | | | $424.99+ $4.99 *Shipping | Used
- Mint | | | $429.99+ $4.99 *Shipping | Used
- Mint | | | $440.00+ $4.99 *Shipping | Used
- Mint | | | $470.00+ $4.99 *Shipping | Used
- Mint | | | $499.99+ $4.99 *Shipping | Used
- Mint | | | $510.00+ $4.99 *Shipping | Used
- Mint | | | $549.99+ $4.99 *Shipping | Used
- Mint | | | $690.00+ $4.99 *Shipping | Used
- Mint | | | $775.00+ $4.99 *Shipping | Used
- Mint | |
| Refurbished | |
| $439.97+ $4.99 *Shipping | Refurbished | | | $499.00+ $4.99 *Shipping | Refurbished | |
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| | Customer Reviews | Average Customer Review: ( 49 customer reviews )
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
262 of 267 found the following review helpful:
 Finally, the perfect camera! Jun 25, 2010
By Justin T
I have been waiting a lifetime for this camera and it was worth the wait! It provides excellent quality shots in the smallest possible sized body. I am a point-and-shoot user who has been disappointed with the photo quality that comes from even expensive point-and-shoot cameras but who has never bought a DSLR because I knew I would never want to lug one around. If this describes you, then this is your perfect camera. Or, if you own a DSLR and use 5% or less of the features on your camera, this is also the camera for you. On the other hand, if you're a skilled DSLR user, skip this camera because you'll be frustrated the compromises that make this camera a smart choice for the average consumer.
Why is this camera "perfect" if you're a typical or even advanced point-and-shoot user?
COMPARED WITH POINT-AND-SHOOTS, you'll immediately see the following improvements:
- Low light/indoor shots are dramatically better
- Quicker shutter response time
- Ability to do continuous shooting at 7 frames per second and other DSLR-like features
- Great HD video
COMPARED WITH DSLRs, you get:
- A much smaller camera than a DSLR that you can actually carry around on a regular basis
- As good or better HD video because of the advanced auto-focus technology in the Sony Alpha Nex which does a better job of continuous auto-focus than the average DSLR
- Photo quality that is comparable to a DSLR for the average user (again, if you're an advanced DSLR user, skip this camera)
- An easier-to-use camera that was designed to make the most important features very accessible with the advanced features tucked away in the menus. The advanced features are there if you need them but if you're more likely to set the camera on the auto setting, you won't need the advanced stuff much and will appreciate how straight-forward the camera is to use.
COMPARED WITH OTHER WANNABE PERFECT CAMERAS, you'll be glad you waited for the Sony Alpha Nex because it's:
- Smaller in size than the other options
- Has better photo performance due to the larger APS-C sensor (12X the size of a typical point-and-shoot and also significantly larger than the competitive Micro Four Thirds sensor)
- Has better video performance
- Is similar or cheaper in price
Other wannabe "perfect cameras" I've considered and almost purchased have all been "Micro Four-Thirds" cameras, which owned this category of cameras before the arrival of the Sony Alpha Nex.
Panasonic Lumix GF1: Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1 12.1MP Micro Four-Thirds Interchangeable Lens Digital Camera with 14-45mm Lens
Olympus PEN E-PL1: Olympus PEN E-PL1 12.3MP Live MOS Micro Four Thirds Interchangeable Lens Digital Camera with 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 Zuiko Digital Zoom Lens (Black)
And I am glad I waited. The Sony Alpha Nex has better photo and video performance than both, a smaller form factor than both and is cheaper than the Panasonic (though slightly more expensive than the Olympus which cut its price when the Sony was announced).
As for the Nex-3 vs Nex-5, if you care about the dollars involved in the price difference, then you should get the Nex-3. Three key differences are not really worth the added cost if you're looking to maximize value: (1) the typical user will not see a noticeable difference between the higher 1080i video resolution in the Nex-5 vs the 720p resolution in the Nex-3 (and I have a hard time believing that home movies can even benefit from the higher resolution). (2) The Nex-5 has a metal body vs plastic for the Nex-3 which is an aesthetic nice-to-have but not a need-to-have. (3) The Nex-5 is marginally smaller in two of the three dimensions (0.2 inch and 0.1 inch). Because of the overall size of the camera with its lens, shaving a little off of the height and width just won't make a practical difference. Spend your savings on stuff that will actually impact how you use the camera like a spare battery or a larger memory card.
Other things to note:
- The flash is small and detachable, and it's different than almost any other camera you're considering. PRO: you don't need it often because of the great low-light performance and you get a more compact camera as a result. CON: there's a part you can lose or forget to bring with you if you really need it.
- If you're looking to own multiple lenses, there aren't many available lenses directly compatible with the camera and they're expensive compared to competing lines. But for the advanced point-and-shoot user, you don't need multiple lenses; just the 18-55mm or if you splurge, the 18-200mm when it comes out (expected fall 2010). But if you have the 18-200mm, the even larger lens starts to erode the benefit of the small body.
- While this is very compact compared to a DSLR, it's not really going to fit in a pocket (though it will fit into a purse). The lens still juts out like on a DSLR so it won't be portable like an ultra-compact point-and-shoot. But for high quality shots, there isn't a smaller camera than this one.
38 of 38 found the following review helpful:
Excellent, for what it is Dec 27, 2010
By J. Wischkaemper
Mirrorless SLR's are the current hot thing. I've done wedding photography for years on the side, and when I want to be serious about taking pictures I lug a bag full of pro-level lenses and cameras around. Frankly, that gets old, especially when you're on vacation. I've been hoping for quite a while to find a camera that would offer SLR-like quality in a smaller form factor that would allow it to be carried around all day with minimal effort. I owned a Panasonic LX-2 and more recently a Canon Powershot S90, and while both were decent cameras, I never really fell in love with their images.
The NEX-3 is a classic case of the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. On the upside, the sensor is excellent, even by modern SLR standards. You're not quite on the cutting edge (think Pentax K-5), but you're pretty darn close - certainly exceeding the previous generation of SLR sensors. With a plethora of adapters for other lenses, high quality glass is also available, and can produce some rather stunning pictures. The small and light form factor allows you to carry the NEX-3 places you wouldn't want to take a larger SLR (even a consumer-level one), and the adjustable screen gives you the ability to hold the camera in ways that just aren't possible with a traditional camera, allowing you to be very creative.
Unfortunately, as has been stated many times before, the control layout is a bit poor, though honestly it's completely manageable. Things are not as quick or elegant as they could (or maybe should) be, but the camera is perfectly usable. The biggest current downside is available lens selection, which is limited to three kit-lens quality lenses, which are extremely overpriced for what you get. While the lens that comes with this kit (the 18-55) is not awful, it won't win any awards for optical quality either. The other available lenses are a 16mm prime and a 18-200, the latter of which costs close to $800 dollars - a lot of money to spend for a non-pro lens.
The real question, though, is the future of the format. Sony has announced an aggressive roadmap (7 new lenses in the next 2 years), but we know very few actual details about the lenses that will come out. Does a "high quality standard zoom" mean a 17-55 f2.8, or a 17-40 f4? How much might this lens cost? Will any third party manufacturers produce lenses for the E-mount? How committed is Sony to using this mount going forward? What is the relative level of effort between the A-mount and E-mount lens design groups? All of these are currently unknowns.
If you're a pro for whom $550 doesn't sound like a big deal when buying a camera, then this is a great little toy. Light, fun, good image quality in a small package.
If you're looking at this as a long-term alternative to an SLR, remember that in the land of higher end cameras, you're buying into a system, more than buying a single camera. That system is so uncertain at the moment that it's impossible to say whether it will be worth additional investment in two years.
If you're looking for a one-off camera purchase that will give you better results than the point and shoot's out there, this is a camera you should look at.
Above all, the NEX-3 is an impressive technical achievement, and a fun little toy to play with. More than a toy, it is completely capable of producing gallery-quality prints when paired with competent glass. It certainly hasn't replaced my camera bag, but it's allowed me to leave it at home and still have confidence that I can capture great images.
71 of 76 found the following review helpful:
Great camera with poor battery life Jul 10, 2010
By Julie Le
The reviewer above did an excellent review, so mine will pale in comparison. I bought this camera the very first day it was available (June 29) and have been playing around with it since. It takes beautiful low light photos, even without a tripod, which I'm very pleased with. I have yet to use the flash that came with it.
Anyway, great camera, don't regret my purchase... The only downside that I want to point out is the battery life. I realize the big screen and the continuous autofocus uses up a lot of power, but this camera REALLY sucks up battery power. If you went out for a day of shooting on a fully charged battery, you will need an extra. The camera seems to even suck up a lot of power when it's not even on. There is new firmware that claims to reduce battery consumption when off, so hopefully that will be an improvement. Which leads to another downside, which is that firmware is only available for Windows and not Mac.
Other than that, beautiful beautiful camera.
*** Just a note that the battery life has improved greatly after the firmware update. Much happier with the camera now!
49 of 52 found the following review helpful:
good for what it is, but pickier buyers may not be satisfied Jul 12, 2010
By David Eng
Update: with latest firmware updates, the battery life glitch and start up times have been vastly improved.
The reviews of this camera are pretty correct - if you are a compact point and shoot person that wants to move up to greater picture quality but not necessarily wanting to put up with the bulk of a SLR or the complications of different aspects of photography, then this camera should do nicely for you.
Pros:
1) cost - for what it is, it could have been more expensive, though the additional lenses will cost you.
2) size - it really is a small body, comparable to some of the larger point and shoots. It's also a nice looking camera, if you care about those kinds of things (I have the red model, which is particularly cute).
3) picture quality - out of the box has been better than my previous point and shooters with the ability to do background defocus and panoramic shots.
4) shutter speed - camera really is fast and you'll see a big decrease in blurry pictures, even with action shots
5) low light shooting - camera comes with a flash but the camera's able to take decent pictures in low light settings without the flash.
6) flip screen - pretty handy for shooting different angles.
7) video quality is good and has all the pluses of being able to shoot video with an SLR type camera - changeable lenses/settings, high quality.
Cons:
1) battery life could be better - I shot about 100 photos and the battery drained down to about 33% after about 2 hours of shooting
2) navigation speed - the camera is slow when jumping between shoot mode and playback mode. NOTE: this issue seems to have been addressed with the firmware update.
3) navigation - it did seem to be a bit cumbersome that there isn't a back button to go back to where you navigated from
4) picture quality - I know I listed this as a pro, one bit of downside on the automatic settings is that sometimes the color is not as vibrant as probably the SLRs are capable of - you might need to futz with the manual settings to capture the best color. In some settings, particularly low light, some of the colors seem a bit washed out.
5) LCD screen is not the most visible in sunlight and gets smudgy at times.
6) would have been nice if it came with body cap and lens back cap, so that you could store the lens and body separately.
7) movie artifacts - sometimes, at the end of a clip, there may be some jagged artifacts. These can probably be snipped off by video editing software.
I'm pretty happy with this camera, though I imagine that an SLR can probably take better pictures - though you'd have to learn how to do so.
22 of 22 found the following review helpful:
Amazing picture quality, get the firmware update if you want better controls Dec 01, 2010
By U Lala
This is the Mustang of digital cameras. Tons of horsepower, no sophistication. This is about as much bang-for-buck picture quality you can get in a reasonably small package. What I'm talking about is ISO performance. It's all good all the way up to ISO 3200, and ISO 6400 is surviveable, especially if you shoot RAW. That's about 1.5-2 stops better than a micro 4/3rds. The 18-55 kit lens is decently sharp. Too bad you can't get too close to do macro shots (you'll have to get a close-up filter kit, which is another inconvenience). I can't comment on the 16mm prime, since I don't have it. For [...] shipped with kit zoom lens, that's quite a deal.
The autofocus is pretty fast, though sometimes it has to hunt a little, especially in the dark. In most cases it's about as fast as my brother's Panasonic GF1, which is commendable.
As you probably already know, the flash comes as a hotshoe add-on (included with purchase). It screws on to lock. It's pretty well diffused but quite weak in range. The operation is pretty simple: flip up to activate flash, flip down to deactivate.
The panoramic mode is very well done. It is smooth and intuitive, and the results usually come out great.
Operation is pretty fast, though is you set it to auto review after ever shot (which everyone does) and then try to zoom in during the review, it will lag for a second or two.
The 720p movies are fantastic in quality. Built-in stereo mic. Sounds pretty good without having to get the hotshoe
High resolution LCD screen is always nice. Plus it tilts up and down so you don't have to find a stool to stand on to take that really wide angle downwards picture.
The arrangement of the interface is quite horrible. Why does it take so many button presses to get to where I can change ISO? Same for white balance. Why can't I set ISO parameters to, say, between 200 and 3200? There a DEDICATED button for tips. Really? Someone from Sony's engineering department thought it was a great idea to throw away all the important buttons and make a dedicated button for helpful tips?
One can make the argument that it is geared towards "point-and-shoot" customers, but is that really a valid excuse? Is it so hard to get an APS-C sized sensor in a live-view-oriented body with decent controls? For $550 I'm not going to cry too much about it, but I have to say I was strongly considering the GF1 despite the higher price and huge loss in ISO performance. Just saying, Sony could've made the choice much more obvious by making a more pro-friendly interface and button layout.
UPDATE 2010-12-08: Apparently firmware update gives some interface customization options that make life a lot better. You can now map two of the soft keys to do something other than shooting tips. Changing from 4/5 to 5/5 stars.
See all 49 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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