I was out the other evening when I came upon Nancy feeding the ducks.  She hesitantly asked if I could take a picture since she didn’t see the usual camera in my hand or over my shoulder.  But, I just so happened to have my NEX-6 with the 20mm lens on it in a large cargo pocket.  Most wouldn’t consider the NEX-6 to be a pocket camera but I’m experimenting with it.

The 16 – 50mm kit lens for the NEX system is compact but I don’t like waiting for the lens to extend, and then taking time to zoom out.  It is almost always necessary to zoom it out since it comes on at the 16mm focal length and that is a bit wide with lots of distortion.  To overcome this time delay, I have carried the NEX-6 with either the Sony 20mm or the 35mm lens.  This gives me an effective focal length of either 30 or 52mm … both good general purpose focal lengths.

The camera is still a little too large for normal pockets even with one of the above lenses, but I have some over-size pockets.  Even then it is hard to put in or take out of a pocket or even a small bag.  The camera comes with a nice rubber eye-shield over the eye piece and I really like it in bright sun light, but it sticks out from the camera and tends to catch on things.  Fortunately, it is removable so I’m now carrying the camera without it to see if I can manage.

I’ll also try carrying the camera on a shoulder strap with and without the eye-shield and see how that works.  I have found that the eye-shield also tends to catch on my clothing when using a strap so I’m hoping that I can manage without the eye-shield.

My thinking from the previous article is still in play but I haven’t decided on the focal lengths, etc. that I want in my next system.  I’m hoping that if I carry just the NEX-6 with one of the above lenses that I can learn whether I would be satisfied with the kinds of pictures it enables; i.e. giving up the long zooms, etc.  I might also find that the cameras that I have are enough for me at this time … at least until something better comes out.

By the way, the Sony 20mm lens comes with a nice hood which cuts flare, is pocket friendly (barely sticks out), and keeps the lens clean without using the lens cap (has a small rectangular opening).