Sony Alpha NEX-5 Interchangeable Lens Digital Camera w/18-55mm Lens (Black)

Comments about Sony Alpha NEX-5 Interchangeable Lens Digital Camera w/18-55mm Lens (Black):

This is our family camera and we love the ease and portability of it. My 8 yr. sold son enjoys using it to snap photos of his interests and my husband and I have loved having it to take pictures at all of the sporting events and family gatherings we have been to.

Comments about Sony Alpha NEX-5 Interchangeable Lens Digital Camera w/18-55mm Lens (Black):

I was looking for a compact camera that is easy-to-use in versatile situations with superior lens options and good video functionality. A friend turned me on to the Sony NEX series and I couldn't be happier. The photo quality, even after only a brief tutorial with my new camera, is far superior to the Nikon D60 that I was using previously.

Comments about Sony Alpha NEX-5 Interchangeable Lens Digital Camera w/18-55mm Lens (Black):

This was my first EVIL camera and it is excellent, especially at this price range. It takes gorgeous pictures and has easy to use controls for any lighting situation. None of the preset functions feel gimmicky and actually serve a purpose. Sweep panorama mode is probably the most fun while hand-held twilight is the most useful.

The physical size of this camera is also a huge bonus compared to the standard DSLR. If you buy the 16mm pancake lens I can easily see this being carried around in a jacket pocket. Unfortunately, the stock lens is on the big size but it's great for almost every situation. Don't expect to pocket it with the kit lens, though.

The video mode is has nice quality, but only good light. Only the NEX-5N (And 7) allow manual controls over video. All you can adjust on this model is the contrast, saturation, and sharpness via the various creative styles. Low light video has visible noise.

Overall this is an excellent travel camera for taking photos and family videos. I highly recommend getting the pancake lens for maximum portability.

Comments about Sony Alpha NEX-5 Interchangeable Lens Digital Camera w/18-55mm Lens (Black):

I'm at an amature when it comes to photography, but I know what I want from a basic picture and from the camera taking my picture, and I've (mistakenly) looked for it in $200-300 point and shoots. This camera is EXACTLY what I've been looking for.

I read reviews about the camera, and I agree with all of them except the negative comments (every once in a while there comes along a faulty product ... but I didn't get that and I haven't had to deal with Sony directly, so i can't speak to their quality of customer service).

The camera is compact enough to fit in a coat pocket (the lens of course adds more size than a regular point and shoot), and it really is easy to just carry around.

One of my favorite aspects of the camera, and the one that really makes this camera worth the money (i've been looking for a camera that does this) is the low-light capabilities. Most point and shoots have difficulty keeping a steady shot in anything but bright light -- indoors is almost off-limits without a flash, which affects any natural lighting. The nex5 does the low-light. I took it into the bathroom with the light off and only a trickle of light coming in, and it still took a half-decent pic! I had to close the door for pitch black conditions to get a bad picture.

Although there aren't many quick buttons on the exterior, the menu setup really is easy to use. It is well-organized and easy to navigate the options. Although the option to designate which functions are controlled by the quick buttons, I wish there were a little liberty in assignment options (for example, if i want the ease of switching between color and b/w, it's impossible to assign a b/w function to those buttons). Regardless of that very minor setback, the menu is still easy to use.

One other small option that i wish it had is being able to change the point of focus in the "intelligent auto" mode. Point of focus can only be changed in the manual modes. That being said, the intelligent auto mode takes REALLY good pics.

The back LCD is superb. The images are super clear, and even the menu search is pleasing to the eye and easy to use with the scroll button. Up and down tilt makes it easy to get those "other" point of reference shots (shooting above a crowd or taking a shot near the ground).

In short: I LOVE THIS CAMERA.

Comments about Sony Alpha NEX-5 Interchangeable Lens Digital Camera w/18-55mm Lens (Black):

I have two sons that have both studied photography and when I asked them what camera I should buy, I got the third degree... Once that was done they decided I needed to look at this one. They couldn't have been more right. Simple Stupid and takes great pictures. I take it with me everywhere and have not been displeased. Thanks to my sons and Sony

Comments about Sony Alpha NEX-5 Interchangeable Lens Digital Camera w/18-55mm Lens (Black):

small,compact

Comments about Sony Alpha NEX-5 Interchangeable Lens Digital Camera w/18-55mm Lens (Black):

Use the camera to take reference photos that I can use as subjects for my fine art. Easy to use and takes great pics.

Comments about Sony Alpha NEX-5 Interchangeable Lens Digital Camera w/18-55mm Lens (Black):

I use this camera take family picture and some time take on travel. I like this camera because it has intercharge lens. I can choose any lens I want to. and I can focus the picture as a professional camera. I can choose any optional lens and etc...

Comments about Sony Alpha NEX-5 Interchangeable Lens Digital Camera w/18-55mm Lens (Black):

We love this camera. This is the second one that we have owned, the other one was taken by a family member because she loved it so much. The portability and ease of use make this camera superb for photos at family activities and sporting events.

Comments about Sony Alpha NEX-5 Interchangeable Lens Digital Camera w/18-55mm Lens (Black):

Great product, low price, And awesome price guaranty! I bought for the first time, Ino problems. 2weeks later, checked the web site again, and it was $200 cheaper. Called customer service, without even a order number ... Credited me without question.

Comments about Sony Alpha NEX-5 Interchangeable Lens Digital Camera w/18-55mm Lens (Black):

I recently bought this camera after selling a large SLR camera that became too cumbersome with my 2 young kids. This camera has a solid frame and is durable. It is so compact it can fit in my diaper bag. I thought not having a flash available at all times would be an issue, but it's actually not at all. While dim lighting generally is an issue, the night mode on this camera is excellent. This is a great choice for a more simple approach to amateur photography.

Comments about Sony Alpha NEX-5 Interchangeable Lens Digital Camera w/18-55mm Lens (Black):

About a year ago I was looking for a compact camera that would take DSLR quality photos. The Sony Nex alpha 5 seemed to fit this bill.

I have taken several thousand photos over the last year with my Nex alpha-5. At the same time many hours have been spent coming to grips with the menus and reading the manual. My general feeling has always been that the layout of the menus and options provided to the user were designed by engineers with little if any interaction with photographers. To give one example, the purported HDR facility. Firstly, this is NOT HDR, but an 8-bit jpeg image. Secondly, there is no way to take an "HDR" image remotely - you actually have to press the photo button, so the first of three images has camera shake, even with the camera on a tripod.

Also, why is the shutter soooo noisy? And in addition, you can feel the shutter so I think this adds blur to the images.

There are also times when options are grayed out, but without any apparent reason. Again, you have to be very familiar with the manual.

I think the issue that I found most annoying is the noise in images within areas of sky or shadow, even at ISO 200.

There is little point taking photos in the Intelligent Auto mode since they are almost always over exposed.

So is this a terrible camera? No, there are some good features such as its small size.

Finally, I am sad that I spent my money on this camera. Oh well, I still have my Nikon D700.

Comments about Sony Alpha NEX-5 Interchangeable Lens Digital Camera w/18-55mm Lens (Black):

This is a great camera. It is very user-friendly and can capture both artsy pictures and random snapshots of life. There are photo tips and you can use it on both manual and automatic. This is a perfect camera!

Comments about Sony Alpha NEX-5 Interchangeable Lens Digital Camera w/18-55mm Lens (Black):

I have owned this camera for several months and find that it is an excellent travel camera. I bought it mainly for this purpose but have found it good for macro work as well. Using legacy lenses is a lot of fun and I dug out some Minolta Rokkors and Nikon AIs that I have from the 70's and 80's. Some of these are excellent lenses and capable of some great images. I do not find the camera overly complicated or difficult to use. It will not replace a DSLR for some things... Birds in Flight, Sports, Fast moving kids etc. But for a lot of applications it is fine.

Comments about Sony Alpha NEX-5 Interchangeable Lens Digital Camera w/18-55mm Lens (Black):

The NEX5 is the best camera ever really high quality, portable, great looking, quality that of a very professional camera.Really great videos and an affordable price. The quality of the pictures will leave you speechless.

Comments about Sony Alpha NEX-5 Interchangeable Lens Digital Camera w/18-55mm Lens (Black):

I'm not even close to a professional photographer...rather just a guy who has been steadily upgrading a line of sony PNS's over the last few years. All of the PNS I have ever own had the same problem, low light performance required an extremely steady hand and really good timing with the subject. So when we had out first child recently It seems like even my newest Sony HX5V couldn't keep up with my little mover in low light. Then I bought the NEX-5 and now all that has changed. The NEX-5 thanks to its sensor size takes great photos, with the low light photos being amazing compared to even the HX5V. The only time I added the flash so far was to test it to make sure it worked. Of course if I went camping that would change. The background defocus is great for us amateurs and makes my little girl look even better. I've tried the Fine jpeg and RAW...to me I can't tell much of a diffrence. I've only had the camera for a month now, but my impression with this one is its a keeper. B&H had a great deal at the time I bought it that included a bag and memory card. I saved the memory card for a backup since I already had a larger one. Overall I would give the camera 5 stars because it met all of my concerns, but since I've only had it for only 1 month I didn't want to rate it too high only to dock it later as I learn more about it.

Comments about Sony Alpha NEX-5 Interchangeable Lens Digital Camera w/18-55mm Lens (Black):

a very nice camra easy to use great pictures good for traveling! thank you B&H

Comments about Sony Alpha NEX-5 Interchangeable Lens Digital Camera w/18-55mm Lens (Black):

Flash could be inside. editing photos only in computer!!
Pictures quality wonderfull

Comments about Sony Alpha NEX-5 Interchangeable Lens Digital Camera w/18-55mm Lens (Black):

The first thing I did upon laying my hands on the camera was to configure the camera to my taste. Set the softkey functions to the ones I use most frequently and out of sheer excitement, changed to the 50mm f/1.8 SAM lens that had arrived last week. Turned out to be a killer combination.

Firstly, the LCD is magnificent. Haven't yet used it in direct sunlight however. According to the various reviews I've read, its quite unusable in direct sunlight. Will just have to figure out how to deal with this situation should it arise. Apart from this, the LCD,IMHO, is sensational. I don't miss a viewfinder at all.

Almost every review I'd read mentioned a isastrous user interface. At first, having to navigate the menu for every function felt quite painful. Well, it is. However, with firmware version 3 (which mine came preinstalled with), the two softkeys can be assigned four different functions, combined. I've set the single use softkey to MF Assist and the multi-use one to ISO, Metering mode and White Balance. I've now grown to actually like the fact that I can control the whole range of shooting functionality with a single dial.

White balance measurement of this camera is the best of what I've yet used. Each and every scene's warmth was judged to perfection. Not once did I have to adjust the white balance manually. Note that I'm talking about faithfully rendering the scene. The exposure levels are also dead-on! I have not even once had to move away from Auto WB.

Manual focus on the NEX is pure joy! MF Assist is superb. A few minutes ago, I upgraded the firmware to version 4, from version 3 that the camera came with. Peaking now allows me to focus even faster,
without MF Assist - which while very accurate, can be slow to use at times. I'm simply in love with the 50mm at f/1.8 on manual focus on the NEX. Can't wait to get some older MF lenses with adaptors and use them with the NEX!

Both the E-mount lenses that came as part of the camera kit sport a decently fast and absolutely silent autofocus mechanism. The A-mount SAM lens focuses quite slowly, however. Sony's announcement of AF support for the SAM and SSM A-mount lenses via the LA-EA1 adaptor mentioned the AF times to be between 2-7 seconds. From the experience I've had, this is quite accurate. But, I really don't care with such fantastic support for MF.

One annoyance with the camera so far has been the exceptionally loud shutter. I'm not sure whether it's the actual shutter making that noise or if it's some software induced nuisance. If it's the latter, I can't figure out how to get rid of it.

It's also not at all apparent why some of the menu options are greyed out when they are. For instance, the HDR option was unavailable, but no explanation as to why. Turns out that it works only in pure JPEG format on PASM modes.

Also, the battery life is _bad_. LCD usage drains it quite quickly. A full first charge was down to 30% by the end of the day's play time.

All in all, even though I haven't really had much time to test this baby out in the field as such, I find it to be one of my best investments, ever.

The SooC shots are extremely good. I had to shoot above ISO 400 at all times because there was never sufficient light. Didn't go beyond ISO 1600, but all the shots are great. Crisp colours, nice detailed textures in the shots I took of seat covers, skin and even a ventilation mesh.

I guess you can say that I'm in love.

Comments about Sony Alpha NEX-5 Interchangeable Lens Digital Camera w/18-55mm Lens (Black):

After carrying this camera around for a couple months and shooting thousands of photos, I've come to the conclusion that this camera was a complete waste of money. I wanted DSLR quality in a compact profile, but this camera isn't even close to DSLR quality, forget the sensor size. If you're just want a better point and shoot, this camera might work for you--except that it's a lot bigger and more expensive than a high quality point and shoot. So, really, there's no point to this camera. Here's why:

Excessive noise even at the lowest ISO: I've taken many pictures Even when everything is perfect on the camera, there are unacceptable levels of noise in skies and dark areas on the image. A decent DSLR will not show noise at these levels. Also, it only goes to ISO 200. Most DSLRs will go to ISO 100.

AutoFocus is not crisp. Forget crystal clarity. Everything comes out soft and slightly out of focus.

No EVF. Using this camera in the bright light of the Mediterranean, I was shooting blind, even when using a screen hood.

No hot shoe or adapter. The puny little flash that ships with the camera has very little practical use. Since there's no hot shoe or adapter, you can't use any external flash or remote accessories.

Accessory lenses are very expensive and only of moderate quality. Using the adapter and buying alternate lenses results in a severe loss of functionality.

Sony. They are unwilling to own up to the poor quality of the product and will not accept returns—only repairs. How do you repair bad design and poor quality? Not only do I recommend a different camera. I'd also encourage you to use a different manufacturer.