Sony NEX-3N Compact System Camera Preview: Bringing Micro Four Thirds Photography to a Larger Audience

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NEX3NLB image Call it what you will—compact system camera (CSC), mirrorless, Micro Four Thirds (MFT) or interchangeable lens camera system (ILCS)—it has carved a rather significant niche for itself in the digital camera market during the past few years. Sony was one of the first companies to develop the technology and a wide range of cameras, creating a space between compacts and DSLRs.

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It has proven to be a wise move, as many photographers have discovered that this middle ground allows them to improve their skills and the quality of their images without a commitment to the size and expense of a DSLR system. Many of these photographers may not advance any further than a CSC, but they are a ready market for upgraded models and the growing number of lenses for these cameras.

Sony has done so well in this market niche that it introduced the new NEX-3N during February 2013, offering an even more basic version of an interchangeable lens camera and at a lower price to increase the company’s market share. Officially, the NEX-3N replaces the older NEX-F3, but Sony has updated the body design with the primary purpose of it becoming the smallest and lightest camera of its type with an APS-C-sized sensor. It is 16.1-MP and the same in Sony’s NEX-5R, a more-expensive model released during November 2012. To maintain a lower price point, however, Sony could not give the new NEX-3N all the features found in the NEX-5R. For example, both models have a 180-degree tilting LCD screen, but only the NEX-5R’s screen is touch-sensitive. In the age of smartphones, this may have made perfect sense, but Sony had to cut costs somewhere. The upside is the screen will need less cleaning of fingerprints and smudges.

The Sony NEX-3N does include a number of new features and capabilities that make it quite a versatile shooting instrument, considering its price.

Area-specific noise reduction comes from Sony’s top-of-the-line DSLT, the Alpha a99. It categorizes the areas of an image with the lowest light and applies the appropriate noise reduction automatically. This could result in better low-light photos than what the NEX-5R can render, even though both cameras have the same sensor and image processor.

Auto Object Framing expands on the functionality of Sony’s Auto Portrait framing, providing more compositional control of virtually any subject or object. Your frame is filled with your subject and this mode will also read and adjust for two-person portraits.

Auto Tracking Framing identifies the direction a subject is moving, so the AF can maintain a continuous focus.

SELP1650 Power Zoom Lens can be controlled with just one hand from a zoom lever on the camera body.

Sony A65 | Sony A55 | Sony A77 | Sony A99 | Sony A57

Sony has made the body of the new NEX-3N smaller, but that was the goal. In doing so, however, the camera still retains quite a bit of build quality. The metallic finish gives it a contemporary look, but Sony was also smart enough to design it to look very similar to the NEX-5R, which has proven to be very popular.

The Sony NEX-3N comes with a 16–50mm kit lens, or 35-mm format equivalent of 24–75mm, and is only 3/16” when fully retracted, so this camera can be easily carried in pack, bag or large pocket. Video capabilities are Full-HD 10890/60i/24p or 1080/30p MP4 movies.

Although the new Sony NEX-3N has yet to be fully tested by independent experts and reviewers, it’s expected that it should deliver images of the same quality as those from the higher-priced NEX 5R, since they both have the same sensor and imaging engine.

The Sony NEX-3N is available on the Sony Website for pre-order at $499.99, with a late-March 2013 ship date. The camera is not yet available from Amazon, but check there prior to the ship date for pre-ordering information.

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