Great Camera

Actuality exceeds expectation. I once was a professional photographer and have always enjoyed shooting. My last digital finally broke and I researched extensively. I believe "the best camera is the one you have with you" and am inclined toward small, but I want full control of my shots and good resolution. The reviews of the NEX-5 had me worried about the menu system and some lack of manual control. So far, I'm blown away and I haven't even yet updated the driver. It didn't take that long to get used to navigating the menu and I have full manual control. I particularly like the manual focus assist (it zooms for critical focusing)with my nikon lenses. I'm tending to use full manual even with the 16mm lens. It is little hard getting used to no eye-level finder. The dynamic range of the larger sensor is great and the automatic HDR is easy, quick, and works well. The camera would be a bit large with the zoom lens and my eye is geared to 50mm equivalent; but I'm getting used to the wider lens. And that's not even talking about the 1080i movie mode...I've put away my old vga camera now. The video is smooth, well focused, well exposed without the jumpiness of my wife's 720i point and shoot camera. Manual focus seems to work with video mode. I've just barely tried out the included software...seems to work well though it's limited compared to Photoshop or Magix Video. I can export to Photoshop, of course.
All in all, this is about as close as you can come to an SLR that you can fit in a coat pocket. I think a couple of friends who use SLRs are saving up for one of these now.

Easy as a point and shoot with far better results!

I am a novice coming from a point and shoot Canon. I purchased this because of the little reasearch I did, I found that sensor size and ISO were two key factors in piture quality. After years of grainy indoor images I decided it was time for an upgrade. This camera takes life like indoor photos without a flash! It's remarkable how little light it requires to take a photo. Conversely on fully automatic mode outdoors in bright sunlight, I found the pictures getting a bit washed out. A salesman in a camera store told me to put the camera on 'P' Program and click the bottom of the wheel down to -0.3 or -0.7 exposure compensation. This allows the sky to remain a rich blue color and does not result in hazy, washed out images. Sometimes I take outdoor pics with a few different exposure settings. One of them is always perfect. I am just learning how to use this camera but even on full auto the pictures are incredibly sharp and realistic. Now I need to learn F stop settings, etc. so I can adjust the depth of field for more artistic shots. I have not had good luck with the HDR mode. It does not come out like some of the HDR photos I have seen elsewhere. The Panoramic mode is absolutely incredible. It can take almost 180 degree images with the photos stitched together electronically. It is nearly impossible to find the seams! There are so many settings that you need a menu button, selection wheel, and LCD screen to change settings. I wish they had put some basic exposure and F switches on the camera itself. The compact size is a great advantage over bulky DSLR's. Now I have to decide whether I get an old telephoto lens with an adapter or the $750 Sony e mount telephoto. Overall I am very pleased with my purchase!

The NEX-5 is a tiny APS-C camera with amazing IQ, but there are limitations

The NEX-5 is an excellent camera with spectacular IQ; particularly for such a compact system. This titanium alloy camera is a beauty which Sony did a remarkable job of fitting with a full sized high resolution APS-C Sensor and it's a great time to purchase one. With the release of the NEX-5N you can purchase a beautiful NEX-5 on eBay with the same body and most of the same features as the 5N for a great price. Having praised the NEX-5, I need to note that there are real limitations. I believe that while an NEX-5 can be used as a primary camera for average shooters it should be used as a 2nd camera if you are an enthusiast or pro.

Sony is bridging 2 distinct demographics with the NEX; those moving up from a point & shoot, and pros/semi-pros needing a small camera with excellent IQ. For experienced shooters the limitations are interface based. To be productive on a device like a Tablet or Smartphone you must work almost exclusively on the LCD so extensive drill down via menus speed workflow. A quality digital camera has an entirely different purpose: you should spend practically no time messing with the LCD since the whole point is to look Through the LCD (or viewfinder) at your subject & take photographs-videos. Extensive menus are therefore a nuisance. New firmware for the NEX has helped a bit, but it's still an issue as there is no way to get around the lack of controls on the camera. If you're a pro having well placed dials and buttons (yes, dials and buttons-how antediluvian!) means you can change settings in a flash without ever taking your eyes off of the subject you are shooting. This is unthinkable with the NEX; even with heavy customization you constantly have to pull back and navigate through menus to change settings. Further, having to use the menus so extensively means the battery runs down quickly, so purchase at least 2 extras.

Despite my listing these limitations, an NEX-5 is well worth buying. My Nikon D7000 is a tank, an amazing tank, but a tank nonetheless. It's incredibly bulky and a dead weight. If I carry the D7000 around with a decent sized zoom for a couple of hours I feel like I have an elephant around my neck. The NEX-5 by contrast is a featherweight even with the 18-55mm lens. If properly used the NEX-5 with the 18-55mm lens can turn out spectacular results particularly since all standard features such as auto-focus are well implemented and very fast. There is some barrel distortion with the 18-55mm lens at the focal extremes though the images are very sharp. I have no issue with this. Diane Arbus & Garry Winogrand created photographic masterpieces by learning how to use barrel distortion to enhance composition and I use it all of the time in my work. Further, if you live for perfectly straight lines and grids you can correct this in any decent post processing program in 2 seconds. Avoid the 18mm lens unless it's free; the only positive is that it's small. At 24mm with the crop it is of limited utility and it is not sharp, which is ridiculous for a prime. The Sony 30mm f/3.5 Macro recently released is the lens that should have been the prime alternative to the 18-55mm. With the crop you get a neutral focal length of 45mm. At f/3.5 it's a bit slow, but macros always are, and the NEX-5 performs so well in low light that losing 1-2 stops isn't a major problem. Best of all it is cheap; the same price as the 18mm. It is very sharp for a budget lens with no corner shading & little distortion.

There are Feature-Rich Point-and-Shoots That Perform Better w/Less Hassle

I bought (and soon after, returned) the Sony NEX-5N. I had been looking for a small, but feature-rich camera that could compete with a DSLR image quality-wise and serve as a backup.

I liked the NEX's small body size, but hated the bulky kit lens, which is made of cheap aluminum and therefore easily scratched and dented. Sony's video features are great, but the lens quality was a restricting factor. I didn't like being limited to Sony's lenses, either - Canon and Leica have much better quality. The NEX-5N doesn't have an on-board flash, and I did not like having to line up and install the removable flash every time I wanted to use the camera. I also didn't like the LCD screen's limited position range - why did Sony even bother when it could have gone just a little bit further and made it a true flip-out screen?

I took the NEX-5N and its shamefully bad kit lens out for a round of photos. They were soft and in some cases, even blurry. Toward the edges of the photos, there was distinct warping, kind of like an unintentional funhouse effect, which I was definitely not impressed with on a nearly $700 item.

The camera was awkward handling-wise due to the heavy lens on such a skinny body (in any other situation, the body size would have been a plus). The touch screen feature is also a bit overrated and redundant: the buttons on the side of the LCD screen are sufficient, and who needs fingerprints and smears on an LCD screen when trying to gauge photo quality on a camera with no native viewfinder?

Add to that, the pictures where I used the screw-on flash showed huge shadows where the lens got in the way - in other words, poor flash location and design! It's almost as if Sony wants you to start spending BIG money on accessories like remote flashes, viewfinders and lenses that just don't cut it.

Overall, I wanted to like this camera. But I couldn't. The software that came with the camera was very good, but Sony should seriously reconsider a few things regarding its hardware offerings. A MUCH better kit lens, a built-in (and better positioned) flash and even a basic viewfinder would have made what is potentially a very capable camera great right out of the box.

NOTE: After I received my refund, I opted for a Canon S100 at half the price (and size). Its compact size, lens and photo quality make it a great first camera or a very worthwhile companion to a high-end DSLR when you don't want to carry around bulky equipment.

DSLR Quality in a Small Package!

I bought this kit, plus the 16mm 'pancake' lens and am so happy with the results! Picture quality exceeds that of my Pentax DSLR, so much so that I just sold all my Pentax gear on eBay to finance the purchase of Sony lenses. Auto-focus is speedy and the images have great color, depth and sharpness. Besides the normal P-A-S-M metering choices, there are a myriad of special scene selections (landscape, action, evening portrait, etc,) that make automatic shooting even better. I also like that the camera is not festooned with buttons like so many others these days. Just a simple click wheel and two selection buttons do everything. There are many menus that will take some getting used to. The LCD is also a touch screen, which is very nice, but all choices can be made with just the buttons.

I am amazed at the quality of movies, which look just as good as those from a dedicated movie camera.

The 18-55mm kit lens build quality seems to be better than similar lenses that I have seen on other brands' SLRs or mirrorless cameras, and the images are sharp across most of the range (a little soft at 18-20mm). The 16mm lens lets you carry the 5n around as a pocketable compact camera. Images are good from this lens, but some softness around edges.

Cons: the flash is tiny and must be attached in a proprietary slot, instead of being built in. There is a fantastic eye-level electronic viewfinder that I would dearly love to have, but it too sits in the same slot as the flash and costs $350!