The Complete Sony NEX 5 Review

The Sony NEX 5has been a rather odd camera to review in many ways. However, the pure image quality that comes from the sensor is just fascinating for something in the mirrorless interchangeable lens compact market. It hands down wins awards for best image quality over the G2, GF-1, and Olympus EP-2. Granted, it isn’t the holy grail of the segment.

Testing

Day 1- Trying to get a feel for the camera.

Day 2- Found slight problems in the sweep panorama mode.

Day 3- Tested the camera like a tourist in Times Square.

Day 4- Talked about my unique workflow in order to use the photos since Lightroom 3.2 wasn’t available yet.

Day 5- Testing high ISO performance on the Lower East Side of NYC.

Vs the GF-1′s lens- The GF-1′s 20mm F1.7 held its own fairly well against the NEX 5′s 16mm pancake lens.

Movie mode tests and words from a Minolta shooter- The review was passed onto Julius, a Minolta film shooter. He tested the video and gave his findings.

Autofocus

In my casual testings, the autofocus seemed speedy. In fact, it was very speedy. Still can’t beat the class-leading GF-1 but it is a smidgen behind it. Fast autofocus is great—but if it isn’t smart then it’s game over. The NEX-5′s autofocus is not very smart based on how a user may compose their photos. For example, when I wanted it to focus on the center area in multi-focus mode it would focus around the center. Vice versa also occurred.

The Face Detection tracking was very spot on and even faster than the GF-1′s. For users that just want to leave it in this setting, they’ll have no problems with the camera.

Manual focus users will enjoy the higher resolution LCD screen than its Micro Four Thirds competitors. It will allow users to ensure that focus on eyes are sharp for portraits, and that the intended subject is always perfectly in focus.

Image Quality

The NEX 5′s image quality is second to none in this segment of the market. In fact, I’d rate it right behind the Nikon D300sand Canon EOS 7D(reviews here). This is quite a feat as Sony DSLRs are right behind Nikon and Canon in the market. On the contrary, this isn’t a DSLR—but the sensor sure is DSLR technology. If it is any hint as to what may come from the A700 successor, then Canon and Nikon should be looking very closely at the results of this little powerhouse of a camera.

Couple the camera with some M Mount lenses with an adapter and the image quality will be even better. I tried this with Brian Smith’s camera.

High ISOs

The high ISO value of the NEX 5is better than its competitors. Part of this is because of the larger APS-C sized sensor and the processing engine. Overall though, I’d probably still want to stay away from the very high settings. The images are plagued with chroma noise that can be removed only with lots of smoothing over.

Ergonomics

The NEX 5is essentially a point and shoot with a big grip and a big lens. How the user holds it will give different experiences. For example, holding the camera like a point-and-shoot will actually make shooting very comfortable. However, you can’t help but pay attention to that huge grip and try to hold onto the camera like a DSLR. When trying to do this, it becomes slightly awkward. Add onto this the fact that there is a major lack of buttons and almost every setting needs to be changed through the menu, and you’ve got yourself an almost unwieldy camera. Granted, it isn’t intimidating. However, it could use some sex appeal.

Menus

They’re long. Not else really needs to be said about that. They’re not particularly intuitive, but the learning curve is short and after a while it all does seem to click into place.

Ease of Use

Considering the intended demographic that this camera aimed at, this should be left in total auto and never changed. People stepping up from a point-and-shoot will be very intimidated and confused by the menus but will be ecstatic when they finally do end up taking the pictures. Getting them onto your computer may be a bit more complicated.

To be honest with you, besides size I can’t really see why one would want the NEX 5vs something like the brand new Sony A55 (hands-on review here).

Tagged as: a55, ergonomics, high iso, image quality good camera, nex 5, review, sony

Christof

Hi Chris,

Nice review. As you know I am a great fan of shallow depth of field as it is usually the thing compact digital cams cannot do. With which lense aperture did you take the pciture of the dog?

Most reviewers also find the camera itself quite good but the lenses are not so high quality…obviously.
- http://thephoblographer.wordpress.com Chris Gampat
  
  Hey Christof,
  
  Thanks, I appreciate it. The aperture I believe was either F/4 or F5.6. I rarely kept it at f/2.8 because the puppy moved around way too much.
  
  Slap a lens for the M mount on their via an adapter and the lens issue will change. I’ve put a Leica M9 and one of Photographer Brian Smith’s Voigtlander’s.
  - Christof
    
    Cool idea.
    
    Does this mean there is an M mount adaptor that really works well with this cam. Did I miss something in your review?
    - http://thephoblographer.wordpress.com Chris Gampat
      
      There is one from Novoflex I believe. I didn’t talk about it, I really saw it on the day I had hands-on time with the A55 and A560. Believe it or not, the NEX-5 review had been completed about a week before then. It’s only published today because ThePhoblographer has so much content that we spread it out. This is also a reason why we publish on weekends now. Part of it is the fact that there is a staff of four of us and we may be looking for one or two more later on.
http://senselessstreetshootings.blogspot.com Michael

Wonderful work on the review, Chris! Kudos. This camera is quickly becoming a favorite among street photographers. I bought the package which includes the 16mm f/2.8, and I use it specifically for up close work on the street. It’s the carry anywhere alternative to my dSLR. For my purposes, I’ve found that shutter priority is the preferred setting, since I need to keep the shutter speed above 1/200 or so in order to avoid unintentional blur or shake. In spite of its shortcomings, both minor and significant, I’m quite happy with the NEX-5. Like everyone else, I’d like to see a bigger selection of auto focus e-mount lenses available from Sony, but until then the 16mm is just fine. Things should get real interesting when they’re up to NEX-10 or thereabout!
- http://thephoblographer.wordpress.com Chris Gampat
  
  Hi Michael,
  
  Thanks a million for the kind words. I agree about lenses, they need a 50mm, 85mm and 135mm equivalent of some sort. Believe it or not, I actually personally prefer the ergonomics of the NEX-3 more but appreciate the NEX-5′s power a lot more. If Sony found a way to put the NEX-5 in the NEX-3′s body and made it in a price range in between the two, they’d have a new convert from me.
  
  How are you finding the autofocus for street shooting?
- Christof
  
  Hi Michael,
  
  I have read different reviews now and it seems that people either love it or hate it, there is nothing in between.
  
  The big minus for me is the missing optical viewfinder and the missing hotshoe to put one on.
  
  I would be interested in how practical the handling is. Sony claims that the conept of the menus is quite innovtive. I read form some advaned amateurs that their impression was that the cam was really intended for beginners, not for anybody who knows what he wants.
  
  What is your opinion on that?
  - http://senselessstreetshootings.blogspot.com Michael
    
    Christof – I can easily understand the love it or hate it reasoning. Non-standard flash, no hotshoe, optional optical viewfinder (another $200!) is really just a screw-in eyepiece. It’s not a camera that everyone will like. I bought the viewfinder, which I really like, yet I find myself using the flip up LCD more and more these days. It just gives you better stealth on the street by preventing you from making unnecessary eye contact with your subjects. I usually use the viewfinder when the sun washes out the LCD. But for me these are minor inconveniences. Like most other things, I think it’s going to be a matter of personal preferences.
    
    You mentioned handling. I’ve gotten use to it, and fairly quickly, so the menus and the settings are almost second nature at this point. I’m constantly changing settings while walking depending on the light conditions. You can make most of your essential changes with the dial, but for something like ISO you’ll have to go a few levels deep into the menu. And in manual mode auto ISO tops out at 1600 (but you really don’t want to go much higher than that anyway unless you actually want noise). To format your card? About 35 clicks, no lie, but then again you can just hold the button down once and fly though them until you reach the line labeled “Format.” In manual mode the e/v goes into auto for some reason. I also wish that I could turn the LCD off completely, especially when using the viewfinder, which might help extend the battery power. But these things aside, I’m really loving this camera. It’s small and the image quality is quite good. Sorry for the length of these comments
    - http://thephoblographer.wordpress.com Chris Gampat
      
      Auto ISO doesn’t give you unpredictable results in Manual? I actually believe that you can’t shoot in auto ISO in manual now that I think about it. Am I wrong?
http://senselessstreetshootings.blogspot.com Michael

Chris, personally I’d like a 24, 30 or 35mm, perhaps as wide as f/1.4 in the pancake design, if that’s possible. The auto focus works fine for me on the street, unless you find yourself coming out of sleep mode, and in very low light situations where it sometimes needs extra time to lock in. But like you said, center focus is too iffy. I keep my AF set to evaluative most of the time, which also results in a deep depth of field. You can get the shallow DOF if you have time to stop and calmly compose your shot, but I’m usually shooting on the move, or with people coming right at me
- http://thephoblographer.wordpress.com Chris Gampat
  
  fair enough.
Christof

Michael, thanks for the thorough description of your impressions. I am a bit overwhelmed by several realteively compact camera models without mirror, interchangeable lenses but still a larger sensor than the 4/3 which would be too small for my taste.

Sounds like a great buy you made. I have been trying to do street photography for a hwile with my Leica M2 but it really takes a lot of practice and experience to master that. All the settings can easily be made but still it takes long with the manual light measuring and focus.

I espeically understand the value of the flexible display for street photography…as I come from conventional analog cameras, iso setting is not something I would need to change all the time.

Have fun and let me know if you have a few pictures online if you want.
- http://thephoblographer.wordpress.com Chris Gampat
  
  You need larger than APS-C? Have you looked at the Leica M9?
  - http://senselessstreetshootings.blogspot.com Michael
    
    Chris – auto ISO does work in manual mode, but tops out at 1600. And you’re right, the results are unpredictable. This is one of the reasons why I’m using shutter priority almost exclusively these days. Even in aperture priority, which is where I like to work with my dSLRs, it gets tricky depending on the light conditions. I kind of expected that, and in no way believed that this little camera could be a substitute for a dSLR. The good news is that the more you use it the more familiar you become with the eccentricities, and eventually you can predict how it will behave in different situations.
    
    Totally unrelated, anyone get a look at the Fujifilm X100 that was just unveiled at Photokina? It’s a mirrorless and looks like a rangefinder. Early 2011, $1,000.
    - http://thephoblographer.wordpress.com Chris Gampat
      
      True, and it does have a reasonable learning curve. It is much different to most DSLR users though.
      
      We haven’t gotten hands-on time yet with the Fuji. We’re working on that.
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fleu

I’m having troubles with my sony nex 5!!! everytime i’m gonna take a shoot, the camera works properly (focus, move zoom) but by the time i press the button to take the photo it won’t work!!!! i tryed changing the camera modes, changing the lenses and nothing works,,, i think it might be the button because i do videos with no problems!! any idea of what’s going on??
- Anonymous
  
  There probably is something wrong with the shutter button.
  
  Try setting it to manual focus and see what happens.
  
  -Chris Gampat
  Editor in Chief, ThePhoBlographer.com
  Twitter.com/ChrisGampat
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