We’ve been playing with the Sony NEX-5 camera all day, testing out the lightweight shooter’s lenses and new features. Want to know if it can dislodge the Olympus E-P1 from it place in our manbag? Read on for our first thoughts.
You’ll be pleased to know that the Sony NEX-5 feels every bit as well built as it looks. Its metal casing is robust, and shockingly slim, especially in comparison to the chunky Panasonic G1/G2/G10 line of Micro Four Thirds shooters. Even with a long lens attached, it’s still a great deal easier to lug around on a trip than a DSLR.
We also take back what we said about the screen earlier: on the Sony NEX-5 model we tested, it’s phenomenally bright and crisp. The scroll wheel control used to navigate the on screen menus however hasn’t been brilliantly thought through: it’s all too easy to skip over a mode, and we hardly think it would have confused things a great deal to have a physical dial with the modes on the top of the camera.
Otherwise though, Sony’s put a ton of effort into making the Sony NEX-5 easy to use for those crossing over from digital compact cameras for the first time, and they are by and large nice touches. There’s a shooting tips manual you can open on screen, as well as an iAuto mode, and a compact-ish Scene Selection option.
We particularly liked the easy focus slider in the iAuto mode. Instead of mucking around in manual modes, you can slide the background of a subject in and out of focus with the dial, giving you the shallow depth of field of a DSLR, without newcomers having to get bogged down in the settings (Though veterans can do that too). There’s also a HDR mode, which shoots under and over exposed shots and averages them out for scenes with lots of contrast: it gets a lot of detail in but we didn’t always prefer its output. Sony’s strangely decided to bury this option deep inside the settings, but it’s worth seeking out in certain situations.
Whatever mode you use, you’ll doubtless be impressed with the Sony NEX-5′s results. Images are strikingly crisp and vibrant, and shots in low light without a flash were frankly astounding with much less noise than we anticipated. Video looked polished and smooth as well, and there are no motor noises on the soundtrack or erratic auto focusing as on some Micro Four Thirds cameras. Here’s a short clip we took today:
We were a bit disappointed by how quickly both still and video modes ravaged the battery though, even without the flash. The Sony NEX-5 is an ideal holiday camera, sure, but you’d want to charge it up every night while away still.
The Sweep Panorama option on the Sony NEX-5 is an interesting addition, as it’s traditionally been a feature of Cyber-shot compacts rather than high end Alphas. It was last seen in Sony’s recent and excellent Cyber-shot HX5V, but on paper, it should be better here: it takes full resolution stills rather than a video with frames pieced together afterwards, and we were shown some astounding samples taken with it by professional photographers.
Sadly, it’s not quite so easy to emulate always. While it processes and stitches the picture together phenomenally quickly, it doesn’t appear to be as effective as the HX5V at joining all the snaps together: even still landscape scenes sometimes turn up disjointed. Other times though, it worked perfectly, so we suspect it may still prove a useful option to have.
We weren’t able to test the 3D panorama option however. It won’t be available at launch, but will be included with a free Sony NEX-5 firmware upgrade in July – beware though that you’ll need a 3D TV to play it back. We asked about the potential of 3D prints as Fujifilm offers, but a Sony spokesperson said this wasn’t an option right now as they’re saved as video clips.
Sony NEX-5 hands on photos galore
A quick word about the lenses. Sony’s selling three different specialised lenses for the Sony NEX-5 and NEX-3 that do have auto focus: a pancake 16mm lens, an 18-55mm and and 18-200mm lens (Shipping later). We tried out and liked the results of the first two, and both will be sold individually with the body, or in combination with the body. From our testing, beginners would certainly do well to go with the 18-55mm lens first, as it has Optical Steady Shot technology to stop wobbles.
Finally, the accessories. The slot on top of the Sony NEX-5 is designed for a bunch of different peripherals, including an optical viewfinder and a microphone for better sound on video. Sony’s confirmed to us that the clip on flash will be free (Great news, and it even comes with a case that clips onto your strap so you won’t lose it ever) and comes included in the box.
Sadly though, you’ll have to pay quite a bit extra for the other add ons: around £130 for the viewfinder, and £150 for the lens mount adaptor (Which we’ve confirmed won’t allow for auto focus on existing Sony Alpha lenses).
Do we like the Sony NEX-5? Absolutely. It’s a potentially great bridge camera for beginners looking for convenience, just like the Olympus E-PL1. We don’t think the compact camera features are the reason for this though, but we’ll have a full Sony NEX-5 review for you closer to launch – which Sony says is around a month from now. Stay tuned and check it out up close once more in our photo gallery right here.
Out Summer | £from c.550 | Sony
