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TITLE :Sony NEX 5N 16.1 MP Compact Interchangeable Lens Touchscreen Camera With 18 55mm Lens (Silver) BRAND : Sony PRICE: $798.00 If not sure !!!!!! Check !!!!! Check Prices>> |

Most helpful customer reviews
223 of 225 people found the following review helpful.
Excellent camera - be sure to customize the menus
By Slept Thru It
(Minor updates below added in June 2012). I bought the NEX-5N in mid-October 2011 just before a trip to Europe. The bottom line: it takes superb photos without flash, especially in truly adverse lighting conditions (wine caves 1,000 years old, for example). As others have written, the camera with the 18-55 zoom takes extremely high quality photos - there's no quality penalty to get the benefit of the small size and light weight vs. a top DSLR. So I think it could be used happily by both people trading up and people trading down. But the camera does have quirks, some serious. Many other reviews cover the overall high points of the camera, so I'll focus on a few review elements I think need reinforcement.
The NEX-5N has a full auto mode, but I hope most buyers will take the trouble to learn the camera's full capabilities, because the camera can produce some amazing photos once liberated from auto mode. However I have to say that the learning curve is steep, not
just because the camera has a lot of capability, but also because the user interface is a real pain in the neck until you adapt to it. The lack of dedicated controls, a consequence of the small size, creates a lot of complexity in daily use.
Here's a specific example to illustrate some of the potential frustrations. The camera can take an auto-HDR (high dynamic range) photo. It will instantly merge three shots that it auto-brackets (in steps you specify) to yield a picture that would take several minutes to produce if you had to merge three shots yourself using editing software. Great ability, but here are the steps if you haven't customized the menus: 1. turn off raw if you were using it, which requires at least 3 menu presses. 2. press menu again and select the "brightness/color" controls. 3. scroll to and select DRO/Auto HDR. 4. scroll to and select HDR. 5. if desired, press "option" and then change the HDR exposure differential for bracketing (ranges from 1 EV
to 6 EV). 6. Press OK twice. In total, you have to go through 6-9 key presses to get the camera ready to take an HDR photo. Then to go back to normal shooting, you have to go through all the steps over again. Your subject has to be no livelier than a sloth to allow this to work out.
You can avoid many of those steps by customizing the menu buttons. This requires first understanding what the camera can do and how you will use it, which will realistically take a few days of experimentation. Then you have to futz with programming the menus for a while until you have the customization set the way you want it. Then you have to get used to the new customized menus. In other words, there's a steep initial investment to get usable access to all the power the camera possesses. Most DSLRs have serious learning curves as well, so to me this isn't a reason to avoid the NEX-5N. But it is something to be prepared for. I found that I was taking low-light photos that I couldn't
have taken with any DSLR I'm familiar with, so I ended up being quite happy with the camera, but I did some cursing at it before I got to that point.
The best features:
1. Extraordinarily good native low-light capability, plus several modes that enhance that underlying natural capability of the camera and lens: examples include hand-held twilight mode, anti-blur mode, auto-HDR, and dynamic range optimization. All four are different. It really benefited my photos once I figured out how those modes differ and when to use them. My shooting may not have been typical -- I was spending hours a day in ancient wine cellars, gothic cathedrals, and the like, but even for snapping a low-light shot in a restaurant with friends (no flash), the camera was great.
2. The size and weight are unbeatable. I bought a Kata Grip-10 DL camera bag, which on paper was supposed to be a skosh too small for the camera, but it worked out perfectly. I could wear the Kata bag
on my belt, zipped closed with camera inside, flash attached, a spare battery, spare SD card, and the "raincoat" that shipped with the Kata bag, all fairly inconspicuously.
3. The tilt screen makes a real difference.
The features the jury is still out on:
1. The detachable flash was on my list as a problem until I actually used the camera. The last two weeks I left the flash attached all the time and that worked fine, although I found I almost never used the flash. When I did use it, it overexposed the main subject almost every time, so I dialed back the flash output slightly. Once I get the optional viewfinder, I think I'll be able to put the flash aside and not miss it much.
2. Movies. I am not a big movie shooter so this was not a critical item for me. I hoped I would receive a camera after the "clicking noise" was fixed in manufacturing, but no, mine does click during video recording. Sony is kidding themselves if they really
think the clicking noise only occurs when people are moving the camera in an unnatural way. It's almost constant. But I will send it in and from all I've read it will be fixed quickly, and the newer units supposedly won't have the problem. So I'm not agonizing about that. UPDATE: I originally wrote that I couldn't get large movies shot in AVCHD mode to transfer to a computer using Windows 7, and when an SD card that contained a mix of AVCHD movies and stills got close to full, the stills wouldn't transfer either. I didn't lose any pics or video but I worried. Updating -- since my original post, this problem seems to have gone away. It's possible that there was a hardware problem with my built-in card reader, which got swapped out during a computer repair and now transfers seem to work ok. Since I didn't see others reporting the same problem, I assume the hangup was at my end.
3. The LCD screen on its default setting ("auto") is hard to see in bright sunlight, BUT
there is a setting you can scrabble your way to with many clicks that will brighten it significantly. This setting makes the LCD usable even in bright sunlight, but it also messes up the color rendition of the LCD, adding an orange hue and oversaturating the other colors. It also seems to drain the battery at a vigorous clip. So there are two approaches you can use: turn on the super-brightness setting just for the key times you need it and then remember to turn it off again, or buy the apparently wonderful EVF viewfinder (for more than three bills!) and use the LCD much less overall. I haven't tried the viewfinder yet but I'd like to. It eradicates a lot of the price advantage of the NEX-5N vs a DSLR, however.
The features that are not so good:
1. Focus can be slow in low light. That's largely due to the lack of phase-detection focusing, which isn't easily addressed in this type of camera. The focus-assist light eventually gets it right almost every
time, but it might take a second or even two.
2. If you set the camera to Auto-ISO, you can't control the highest ISO the camera will use. It will range up to ISO 3200. It's great that the camera takes pretty clean shots at ISO 3200, but that's no excuse for omitting a way for the photographer to limit the top ISO to a much lower number if he or she needs lower noise. Even many inexpensive cameras offer that option.
3. Menus are complex and cumbersome and require lots of clicks to change settings, as previously described. In addition, by default the camera is set up to provide "advice" every time you click a menu key, overlaying your menu choice with a paragraph of information you didn't request. This is helpful for about three minutes and is then a big pain until you figure out how to turn it off.
4. The shutter makes the same sound as a DSLR and can't be changed, so there's no shooting stealthily. Since there's no mirror to make a slapping
noise, I'm not sure why the shutter is as loud as it is. I wish Sony would change this if possible.
5. The touch-sensitive screen is, in my opinion, a failed opportunity. It's way too easy to touch something by mistake and change a setting inadvertently. On a small pocket snapshot camera, touchscreens may be useful. And in theory the touchscreen could be good on the NEX-5N too, I suppose, but I found it messed me up, so I turned off the touch capability. You may be more dexterous than I am so this may not bother you.
6. The only thing I missed by deactivating the touchscreen was the "touch to focus here" capability. That was good when I meant to use it, but also terrible when I didn't mean to use it. Linked to that issue: focus tracking. Sony advertises that the NEX-5N will track a moving subject once you touch the spot on the LCD screen you want it to track. But it doesn't work. It just makes the focus jittery and unpredictable. The focus will
not reliably track anything. Sony should have improved that before going live with it. The concept is great.
6. The movie mode button is badly positioned within a hair's breadth of where your right thumb, or sometimes part of your right index finger, can rest on the camera. I recorded at least ten unwanted movies a day just brushing the movie button without meaning to. The biggest problem this created was that when I went to press the shutter to take a still photo, nothing happened. Only then did I realize the camera had been recording my useless mutterings for the last three minutes. So I lost a few still shots from having to stop the movie recording and get back to stills.
7. Minor points: the default settings for DRO and HDR are too weak to make a difference, so at first those look like failed offerings. But they just need to be tweaked to a stronger setting and they work fine.
8. Update: My son owns a Canon T3i so we've compared
pictures taken with the two cameras, although not in any truly rigorous way. The Sony NEX-5N build quality is higher than the T3i (less plastic), the rotating barrel feels more solid, and mostly importantly, the resolution of the Sony seems better. If you read online lens reviews, the Sony 18-55 kit lens seems higher quality than the kits lenses that come with even DSLRs costing a lot more.
Summary: While the list of negatives I've enumerated seems long, on balance I think the strengths of the NEX-5N substantially outweigh the weaknesses. In the world of ILC cameras, the NEX-5N seems to be in a league of its own when it comes to pure image quality. To a serious photo enthusiast or professional, image quality is where everything starts and ends. The NEX-5N takes exceptionally high quality photos, especially in low light. The NEX-7 has additional strengths including even higher image quality in good light, but apparently doesn't quite match the NEX-5N's low noise in
low light according to other reviews, and it costs a lot more. I'm happy with the NEX-5N.
58 of 60 people found the following review helpful.
High quality of photos, light, excellent low light performance
By Ali Julia
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R3FN42SUEPJ1PA I am a long-time DSLR camera user who wanted a small camera to travel with. I was looking for a camera which would produce results similar to my DSLR and allow me to change lenses yet be lighter than my current Canon DSLR camera.
I like:
(1) The camera is really light compared to my DSLR. Several times I panicked "where is my camera" while it was hanging around my neck. It was so light that I did not feel its weight.
The body of the camera is 4 1/8 inches wide x 1 inch wide in the narrow part. It is small but not so small that is inconvenient to hold or operate. Overall the camera feels good in your hand, the mechanical parts (hinges and other controls) feel well made and pretty sturdy.
(2) I am pleased with the quality of the photos I took.
(3) Features that I loved, two features I never had in other cameras I owned:
* Sweeping panorama - I absolutely loved
it! It worked fantastically even hand held taking photos of night time skyline. (I am attaching a photo showing this feature)
* Anti blur - in addition to having Optical Steady Shot this camera has an option for hand-held night shots. It takes 6 photos in quick succession and combines them to generate one shot reducing blur due to unsteady hands.
Note: these settings produce JPEG format even when the setting is set to RAW
(4) NEX-5N comes with a separate battery recharger, which is handy since the camera drains the battery rather fast it is nice to have a spare battery charging while the camera is being used. I purchased a 3-d party (Wasabi) battery pack (two NP-FW50 batteries, one Wasabi AC charger, one car charger converter for Wasabi AC charger, European converter) which works well with my NEX-5N. The entire pack costs less than one extra SONY battery: Wasabi Power Battery and Charger Kit for Sony NP-FW50, Alpha SLT-A33, SLT-A35, SLT-A55V, NEX-3, NEX-5,
NEX-5N, NEX-7, NEX-C3
(5) NEX-5N has a touch screen interface, I found it most useful to select the area where I wanted the camera to focus. The auto focus often selected the point of interest in the middle of the frame, when I was trying to compose a photo using 1/3 rule.
(6) I was able to use the tripod quick release I use for my SLR without any special adapters. The quick release plate is a wider than NEX-5N body. It extends both in the front and the back of the camera. You cannot balance the camera on it (it tips forward), however once it is on the tripod it is very secure. I am attaching a photo which demonstrates the fit of the quick release.
(7) SONY will have an OLED high resolution view finder for NEX series shortly. This will improve the ability to see the LCD screen when using the camera in the sun. Note: the mount on the OLED electronic viewfinder is only compatible with NEX-5N and is not compatible with NEX-C3.
Update: I now own the
OLED view finder. Love it. For more details you can see my review of it: http://www.amazon.com/review/RXNWAESUUHR49/ref=cm_srch_res_rtr_alt_8
I don't like:
(1) Edited 10/23/2011: When I originally purchased the camera Photoshop CS5 did not recognize the RAW format produced by NEX-5N. However today I downloaded the latest CS5 update and now it recognized ARW files generated by NEX-5N.
(Many thanks to clskip who alerted me to the availability of this update!)
(2) The camera drains the battery, I plan to buy at least one possibly two spare batteries. On the day when I shot a lot of sweeping panoramas and anti motion blur photos (these options require multiple shots to generate one photo) I drained the battery completely. Need to buy several extra batteries (see #4 above for cost effective recommendation).
(3) Default settings could be better. I changed almost every setting.
The changes I found most helpful:
* Changed LCD
display to Big Font Size Display (located under top menu called "Camera")
Why: this mode removes unessential icons surrounding the screen.
Large font is easy to read, the controls became much more clear
* Turned off pop up help (located under "Setup" and called "Help Guide Display")
Why: The pop-up help gets in the way of every operation, you cannot see the screen as it totally obscures
what you are looking at, when you get rid of pop-up then the screen you were looking at also goes away.
* Turned off object tracking (located under "Camera" top menu)
Why: When you are trying to compose a photo where the focus is NOT in the center, you can use the touch screen
to indicate where the focus should be. However, if the object tracking is turned on the focus begins moving
and shifting even though the thing you are trying to focus on is not moving. The camera prefers
items in the center of the photo, rather then a composition using 1/3
rule.
* Turned off face registration and smile shutter (located under "Set Up")
Why: these options got in the way of a good photo composition
(4) Movie record button is in awkward position. I hit it by mistake numerous times. I only realize I did it again because camera stops responding to my other commands.
Overall, I am pleased with the camera and it satisfied my requirement for a light camera that produces results similar to a DSLR. Note that I am mostly interested in still photos, and have not used the movie option so far.
Ali Julia review
84 of 99 people found the following review helpful.
Good as a high-quality Point-and-Shoot, not suitable for the advanced photographer
By Nav J
I'm reviewing this as a high-end prosumer camera, a grab-and-go camera to complement or even replace my SLR in most situations, which is what most cameras in this range are targeted at. I recently had the opportunity to compare the NEX-5N side by side with a Nikon P7100. I had very high hopes for this camera, especially given the great reviews and its large sensor. Yet, the quick summary is overall, the Nikon wins. Why?
I won't mention all the details that the other reviewers have covered very well. Rather, again, I'll focus on its use as an camera for an advanced amateur - someone who knows the kind of shot they want to take, and wants to take it quickly, without needing to use an SLR.
Pro NEX-5N
- SLR-size sensor means great image quality, even at high ISO. However, in practice it isn't much better than the G12 or Nikon P7100 as it ought to be given that it has ~3x the surface area. (I tested this with RAW settings on all cameras).
- I like the
zoom on the lens. Feels natural to a SLR user. I wish more cameras offered this!
- Some nice features buried in the menus :)
- Large, bright lens, even if it's slow.
Neutral
- The focusing ring on the lens is a great idea - but poorly implemented. Manual focus is actually not very useful on this camera. It takes quite a while (lots of rotation) and if you're in a hurry, you're likely to miss the shot. Then again, you're not likely to be focusing manually if you're trying to get a quick shot.
Con NEX-5N
- Not pocketable with the 18-55 lens.
- The UI is terrible. It takes forever to change settings if you're doing anything other than pointing and shooting. It's really hard to do simple things like change the metering mode. And everything is in 1 of 3 menus, which means LOTS of scrolling to find the setting you need to change. You can't even directly switch between P, A, S, M - first hit Menu, then hit Mode, then Move the dial until you
find the mode you want, then hit OK. Gets very frustrating after a while. I cannot overstate this - if you expect to change settings while using the camera, you will find the UI *incredibly* annoying. If you know your way around an SLR, a Canon G12, Lumix LX-3/5 or Nikon P7100, you will likely get better shots from them because you can actually set the shot up quickly rather than lose the shot while messing with the UI. However, if you just point and click and don't deal with the UI much, this won't bother you. Customizing the buttons and menus does help, but it's still annoying that so few parameters are directly accessible.
- Subject tracking is terrible and just doesn't work - focus randomly jumps around the screen if you try to turn on focus tracking. Very annoying, since this could have been a killer feature.
- The kit lens has a minimum aperture of f/3.5 - so this loses a lot of the benefit of the larger sensor, since you cant shoot with it wide open (f/2 or f/2.8) -
so while I'm shooting with f/2.8 on the P7100, I have to stop it down one notch on the 5N. The resulting low-light IQ is very very close to a good quality smaller sensor like the P7100 or Canon G12. So, while it's nice having the larger sensor especially if you're not planning on shooting wide open, don't expect it to significantly improve low-light performance.
- Auto White balance seems to end up with a yellowish tinge in almost all cases.
- Tends to underexpose by 1/3 EV or so.
Given the comparison, I decided to keep the P7100 and ~$200 :). This is not a prosumer camera - it's a point-and-shoot with better image quality at the expense of a more unweildy form factor - at near-SLR prices. If you want a point-and-shoot camera with near-SLR quality but don't want to mess with the controls, I could see this being a great choice. If you're an advanced photographer, you're likely to find it frustrating and prefer the G12, P7100 or LX-5.
Sony NEX 5N 16.1 MP Compact Interchangeable Lens Touchscreen Camera With 18 55mm Lens (Silver) . Sony NEX 5N 16.1 MP Compact Interchangeable Lens Touchscreen Camera With 18 55mm Lens (Silver) . Sony NEX 5N 16.1 MP Compact Interchangeable Lens Touchscreen Camera With 18 55mm Lens (Silver) Sony NEX 5N 16.1 MP Compact Interchangeable Lens Touchscreen Camera With 18 55mm Lens (Silver) .