NEX-7 and the SEL1018

I currently used the NEX-7 with the 16mm/2.8 + Fisheye converter with my NEX-7 so when Sony announced the SEL10-18/4 lens, I pre-ordered it.

I must say that when I took the first couple of shot, I was disappointed with the magenta cast.  At least there's no smearing of details or colour-shifting problem.

Here is the first photo I took with my NEX-7 + SEL10-18/4.  Sorry its just a quick snap outside as weather hasn't been really good here in Melbourne, Australia (and it should be summer!).

1/1600 @ f/4 - 10mm ISO 100

As you can see from the photo, there is some magenta casting but not that much and post processing (ugh!) will be able to minimise this issue.

Now to find a way to minimise this magenta cast;  first suspect was the AWB of the NEX-7. Why the white balance? I've noticed that when I converted the files to DNG in Adobe LR4.3 the Temp is around 5450 and the Tint always has a +3 towards the magenta side.

I went into the NEX-7 White Balance setting and instead of shooting AWB, changed it to Colour Temp/Filter, and dialled in the following setting;

• Temp: 5400 
• Filter : A-B:B1 and G-M:G1

1/4000 @ f/4.0 - 10mm ISO 100

You can still see some slight magenta cast but its not as 'bad' as the first one.

This is NOT a SCIENTIFIC test as I still am trying to find the best setting to at least reduce the magenta cast.  

This however highlights another 'weakness' of the NEX-7, the ability to save your setting :(  Come on Sony, at least give us one memory option to store our setting.

Using the lens indoors; the magenta cast is a non-factor.  Here is a quick snap sample (sorry as the photo is not that interesting).  

1/15 @ f/4/.0 - 10mm ISO1600

All I can say personally is that I can work with the NEX-7 + SEL10-18 combo.

I will be doing more testing on the SEL10-18 NEX-7 combo during the holiday period.   For now, I will be keeping my NEX-7 and the NEX-6 and decide which one to keep after the Christmas season.

Keep shooting! :)