Sony NEX-C3 Interchangeable Lens Camera Review by MacWorld With Rating 4/5

The Sony NEX-C3 can also record 720p HD video. A new in-camera 'Picture Effect' setting lets users add extra impact to stills or HD video during shooting. Options include Partial Colour, Retro Photo, Pop Colour, High Contrast Monochrome, Posterisation, High-key and Toy Camera. There's also a 'Soft Skin' effect that removes wrinkles and blemishes from portrait subjects. Improved energy efficiency boosts battery stamina to 400 still shots per charge - over 20% more than the NEX-5/NEX-3. The new NEX-C3 is available in silver, black and pink with an 18-55mm kit zoom and is currently selling at around $649. It is available in black only with a 16mm lens for about $600. Here's the summary of review by MacWorld, giving the camera a rating of 4 out of 5:

"Like other current NEX models, the C3 offers a Special Effects shooting mode that offers some extra-easy creative options including Toy Camera, Posterization (color or black and white), Pop Color, Retro, High Key, High Contrast Monochrome, and a handful of Partial Color options (red, green, blue, yellow). For portraits, the camera also has a special Soft Skin Effect that softens skin and reduces blemishes so your subjects look their best. An interesting-and useful-feature for DMF (direct manual focus, the ability to manually fine-tune the AF) and full manual focus is Peaking. In brief, peaking uses a colored edge to outline what's in focus so you can make more accurate adjustments. The C3 only offers MPEG 4 video at 720p (fine and standard), which is kind of disappointing. For Web and email, there's a VGA option, too. The good news is that MPEG 4 video is much more user accessible and editable than the more common AVCHD. Performance is quite good with fast start-up, minimal shutter lag, and fast shot-to-shot times. Autofocus, at least in still images, is responsive in bright and low light. Continuous shooting at full resolution isn't anything special at 2.5 frames per second but there's a 5.5fps high-speed option, although it locks exposure and focus at the first frame.

Image quality is above average, with nicely saturated colors and accurate exposures across the board, which earned Good and Very Good word scores, respectively. Sharpness was also rated as Very Good and, although at wide angle, the 18-55mm lens shows some distortion, the kit lens generally delivered crisply focused and well-detailed images. Although the NEX-C3's sensor offers a jump of a couple of megapixels from its predecessor, the NEX-3, the physically larger sensor can handle the extra pixels even at higher ISOs. Users can shoot comfortably up to about ISO 800 for the best results but images captured at ISO 1600 and even 3200 aren't bad. The C3's video quality is pretty good for 720p, especially in good light, and earned a word score of Good, although clips are probably best viewed on smaller screens. Audio earned a word score of Very Good. However, autofocus isn't the fastest (or consistently accurate) but color rendition is realistic and friends and family will be happy watching your movies. The Sony Alpha NEX-C3 is a solid option for photographers who want a compact interchangeable lens camera with a good feature set and above average image quality. It has most of the same features as the higher end NEX cameras, so you'll get good value for the dollar."