It’s been a week since I’ve had my baby camera, i.e. the Sony α NEX-5 and I’ve been enjoying it so far. Here’s a quick low down of the ups and downs I’ve encountered with the camera.
The Good
- Outstanding IQ in any shooting conditions that can only be trumped by careful, deliberate shooting with a DSLR equipped with high quality optics
- Small enough to fit in my laptop bag, if not the jeans pocket
- Excellent iAuto mode for quick snapshots
- Fairly easy to use controls, esp. with button customisation offered by Firmware v03
- Auto HDR and Hand-held Twilight Modes really work!
- Sweep Panorama works really well for hand-held shooting. You can’t do better with a DSLR until you mount it on a tripod.
- Focuses almost as fast as an AF-D type Nikkor with D80/D90 body
- Optical Steady Shot (OSS) on the 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 Kit Lens is outstanding
- Movie making is super easy and fun!
Top Left: ISO 12800 shot. Top Right: “Hand-held Twilight” shot @ ISO 6400. Bottom: Sweep Panorama
The Bad
JPEGs tend to be a little less sharp by default
Chromatic Aberration is visible in high-contrast scenes, though not unusually excessive and removed in one click with Nikon ViewNX
Zooming while composing is cumbersome due to missing support from the forehead as with an OVF equipped DSLR
Cumbersome MF adjustment despite on-screen MF assist. The electronic focus ring twists indefinitely so you’re not really sure if it’s locked at minimum/infinity focus, when you need it
The Ugly
Excessive battery drain if you take time while composing a shot due to OSS, continuous AF and LCD
Fingerprint -magnet of an LCD and screen protector not provided as part of the kit
I’ll probably add more to this post as I get more familiar with the camera, especially when I start shooting RAW (+JPEG, of course).