Sony Alpha NEX-5N (with 18-55mm lens, Black)

Pros: Show in summary

Cons: Show in summary

Summary: There are so many positive reviews, that I will stick to just a couple of items. 1) The problem with the clicking noise during movies appears to be gone with the newer versions of the NEX-5N. At least my NEX-5N is completely noise free. 2) The menu system leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to simplicity of operation. However, if you are taking pictures in the IA mode (Intelligent Automatic), the camera is wonderfully simple to operate, and the results are outstanding. You can take a picture of a complex scene and then select just a tiny portion for viewing using the touch screen.

The blown up tiny portion will be sharp, properly colored, and noise free. The same is almost true for dim indoor scenes, with only the slightest hint of noise in the shadows of an object against its background. This is better than most DSLRs costing twice as much. The next unusual feature of this camera is the ability to take panorama pictures. The default is horizontal left to right. An arguably better mode is holding the camera vertically and sweeping left to right (or right to left). To change this setting, after you have selected panorama from the virtual wheel, you have to go into the menu system.

You might search for something to do with panorama - wrong. You have to go to "Image Size" and then down to Panorama to change direction. The instruction manual details this. If this were the only slightly buried item, I would say no problem. The bottom line on the panorama capability is that is produces excellent results with almost no effort. This feature alone makes SONY cameras an outstanding buy for people who do not wish to spend their lives in Photoshop.

One of the strong features of this camera is being able to go into manual mode on the virtual wheel. Then, of course, you would like to change shutter speed, f/stop, and the ISO setting. The mechanical wheel will change the shutter speed, and then pushing in the lower portion of the wheel will switch to the f/stop. Now, how do you get to the ISO, which is displayed right next to the f/stop. It's simple, just switch to the Menu mode and then select Brightness/Color and ISO setting is right there. By then, the picture you are trying to take is no longer available. It should be directly reachable from the screen that allows the shutter speed and f/stop without going back in the menu system.

I must say, that everything you might want to do with the NEX-5N is there in the menu system - somewhere. The learning curve for this camera can be steep, and frequently changing modes is unnecessarily awkward. For most of us, there are only a few special settings that we change with any frequency. You can program these settings for quick access. This saves the day and makes the camera much more useful. The touch screen is surprisingly useful for switching between the many options and returning to the main menu, switching between pictures in the image review mode, zooming in electronically on existing images, and selecting an object to focus on when shooting an image.

This is an excellent camera. Hopefully, SONY will provide some modifications in firmware upgrades to make the camera a little easier to use. This is one of those cases where you have such an excellent camera that just a few tweaks could make it even better, easier to use and more intuitive (and if you will buy the NEX-5N I suggest you have to compare prices before you decide at: lowest-pricing.info/SonyNEX-5N ). As it is, the NEX-5N is already easy to use for most picture taking selections. I highly recommend this camera.