fbpx
Cameras

The Complete Sony NEX 5 Review

Chris Gampat
No Comments
09/24/2010
3 Mins read

Last Updated on 09/24/2010 by

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).

a55 ergonomics high iso image quality good camera nex 5 review sony
Shares
Written by

Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
You might also like
Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Canon RF 24-105mm f4 L IS USM review product images Canon EOS R
Features

Did Canon Miss the Memo That Says Mirrorless Lenses Are Meant to Be Smaller?

3 Mins read
12/26/2018

When Canon introduced their new Mirrorless cameras earlier on this year (The EOS R) one of the stand out features was that the lens mount was so huge. While other manufacturers like Sony have made all things Mirrorless smaller, the late comer to the Mirrorless party seems to have decided that bigger is better. In a recently released interview, Canon engineers seem to be having a sly dig at Sony by saying that lenses with smaller mounts are far less capable than those with larger mounts. Read on after the break to find out more about what the Canon engineers are wafting on about.

X-T3_Black_LeftObl+VPB-XT3+XF18-55mm
Features

Opinion: The Fujifilm XT3’s Sensor Still Doesn’t Output Images That Look Totally Like Film (But They’re Nice)

3 Mins read
09/20/2018

The Fujifilm XT3 (or as they call it, the Fujifilm X-T3) is the company’s latest evolution to their SLR style camera body designed to be a workhorse for many photographers. Despite a whole lot of great and absolutely fantastic things built into the camera, I personally am wondering what Fujifilm’s goal is here with the idea of the X Trans sensor and Film Simulations. One of the reasons why I was so smitten with the X Pro 1 was the fact that it delivered images that really looked like well shot and developed film. To some extent, the Fujifilm XT2 did too but only really with Acros. With the latest iteration, the Fujifilm X-T3, the company is delivering a new 26.2MP X Trans Sensor that delivers the most beautiful colors of any APS-C sensor that we’ve seen. But at the same time, the film simulations just don’t feel right.