Sony NEX-5 Highly Steady

The Sony NEX-5 is really a very impressive debut into the small system camera class. It is the smallest interchangeable lens camera available on the market, but has outstanding build quality, lots of useful features, excellent performance and the type of still image and HD video quality you would be lucky to get from a dslr. It really raises the stakes within the compact system camera market.

Sony’s NEX series of cameras is the newest entry into that category of little cameras with interchangeable lenses. I picked a Sony NEX 5 while on holiday in London over the summer and having been using it a great deal since. It is an amazing little camera that packs lots of capabilities into a very small bundle, but it isn’t without its disadvantages.

14. 2mp APS-C sensor

3” slanting LCD screen with 921, 000-dot quality

Weighs about 9 ounces (without any lens attached)

SD memory greeting card slot

Rechargeable battery good for regarding 330 shots per charge

The NEX-5 and it is sister camera the NEX-3 represent Sony's debut to the rapidly-growing compact system camera market. Since the launch of the Panasonic Lumx G1 just below two years ago demonstrated that it was possible to achieve the versatility, performance and picture quality of the digital SLR in a smaller type factor, more and more manufacturers have jumped about the bandwagon. Olympus, Samsung and Ricoh (GXR review not far off) have all launched cameras along with compact bodies and interchangeable lenses.

However Sony has trumped all of them with the smallest compact system digital camera yet. The NEX-5 features a full-size APS-C fourteen. 2-megapixel sensor, a large articulated 7. 5cm keep track of and full 1080p HD video along with stereo audio, with a body very little bigger than a standard compact digital camera.

The Sony NEX-5 is Sony’s very first mirrorless interchangeable-lens system camera, along using the less well-specced NEX-3 model that premiered alongside it. Featuring a 14. two megapixel Exmor APS HD CMOS sensor, 25-point contrast-detect autofocus program, 49-segment exposure meter and 3-inch slanting LCD panel with 921, 000-dot quality, the NEX-5 certainly seems to have what must be done to compete with the already well-established Mini Four Thirds cameras from Panasonic as well as Olympus, and the newer Samsung NX sequence. The magnesium bodied NEX-5 can additionally capture fast-moving action at 7fps, shoot Full HD (1920 x1080i) video as high-quality AVCHD files and it is supplied with a compact clip-on expensive that attaches via an accessory fatal. Lenses can be fitted via the brand new E mount system, but the NEX cameras may also use regular Sony Alpha lenses by way of the optional LA-EA1 adapter. 

In the united kingdom the Sony NEX-5 costs £549 entire body only, £579 with the 18-55mm f/3. 5-6. 3 kit lens or £679 using the 18-55mm f/3. 5-6. 3 and 16mm f/2. 8 contacts. In the US the NEX-5 ships using the 18-55mm f/3. 5-6. 3 kit zoom lens for $700 or the 16mm f/2. 8 zoom lens for $650.