Sony NEX-5N + 18-55mm - digital cameras (Auto, Cloudy, Custom modes, Daylight, Flash, Fluorescent, Incandescent, Landscape, Panorama, Portrait, Self-portrait, Manual, Movie, Scene, Black&White, Vivid, Movie, Single image, Battery)

Product Information

Here are two 100% crops which have been Saved as Web - Quality 50 in Photoshop. The right-hand image has had some sharpening applied in Photoshop. The out-of-the camera images are soft at the default sharpening setting. You can change the in-camera sharpening level if you don't like the default look. The Sony NEX-5n is built around a 23.5 x 15.6mm APS-C Exmor CMOS sensor that produces an effective resolution of 16.1MP. At maximum resolution in the default 3:2 aspect this equates to a maximum output of 4,912 x 3,264 pixels. In addition, it’s also possible to record images at 8.4MP (Medium) and 4MP (Small). Alternative shooting aspects are restricted to just 16:9 however, so if you want to give your images a 4:3 or 1:1 look you’ll have to crop them accordingly on a computer. While the touchscreen interface feels like an intuitive and natural addition to the NEX range, it is possible to use the camera fully using the external controls, so much so that you may not realise that the camera can be controlled via the tilting screen at all! For us the faster auto-focusing and greatly reduced shutter lag have a much bigger impact on the camera's handling and are worth upgrading from the NEX-3 / 5 or a simpler compact camera on their own. Image quality appears to be excellent, and even though megapixels have increased, the camera is still providing low noise levels, with the addition of a new ISO25600 range giving additional usefulness in extremely low light. The new 50mm f/1.8 Portrait lens also helps in low light. The incomplete model number of NEX-3/NEX-5 series may include letter(s) at end. The definitions are:

While the NEX-5n is presented as a camera that’s easy to operate, it does take some getting used to before you know instinctively where to find things. Thankfully, these navigation quirks are mitigated somewhat by the NEX-5n’s touch-screen control, which proves pleasingly responsive and easy enough to use despite the fact that the on-screen virtual buttons are a little on the small side. We also like how the NEX-5n offers the ability to assign user-defined functions to the right D-pad key and the two soft function keys. The Sony NEX-5N and additional lenses, viewfinder, and new adapter give the NEX system added versatility, and a much more useful range of choices regarding lenses. The touch screen is an improvement in the way the NEX-5 is controlled as it helps make up for the limited number of buttons on the original NEX-5, aids access to options, and ultimately makes it an easier camera to use. It also makes it a more fun camera to use, particularly when viewing photos. The optional viewfinder is extremely impressive, with stunning detail and colour, although the addition of the EVF does stop you from using flash. Certain third-party mechanical adapters also provide circular control rings that provide some mechanical control of the aperture of Nikon G, Pentax DA and Canon EF lenses, as these do not have a mechanical aperture control ring on their lens barrels.Image stabilisation via the lens is a very useful feature that works well when hand-holding the NEX-5N in low-light conditions or when using the telephoto end of the zoom range. The 16.1 megapixel images were a little soft straight out of the camera at the default sharpening setting and ideally require some further sharpening in an application like Adobe Photoshop, or you can change the in-camera setting. The pop-up flash provides an adequate level of exposure and thankfully no red-eye. Chromatic aberrations were only really noticeable by their absence, a great credit to the 18-55mm kit lens. The Sony NEX-5n uses a 25-point contrast-detect AF system and, in addition to regular autofocus (in either Single-shot or Continuous mode), there’s also a Manual Focus option that employs a helpful MF Assist function to magnify whatever’s inside the focus box to screen-filling proportions for more precise results. Last but not least is a DMF focus mode which keeps the autofocus switched on but also allows you to fine-tune the camera’s results manually using the focus ring on the lens (albeit without any help from AF Assist). Lenses available: there are seven lenses currently available (16mm, 18-55 OSS, 18-200 OSS, 30mm Macro lens, 24mm Carl Zeiss, 50mm Portrait, and 55-210mm telephoto). There are also wide-angle and fisheye converter add-on lenses available for the 16mm lens as well. Adapters to use Sony Alpha / Konica Minolta Alpha lenses are also available.

The Sony NEX-5N has an antishake mechanism built into the camera body, which allows you to take sharp photos at slower shutter speeds than other digital cameras. To test this, I took 2 handheld shots of the same subject with the same settings. The first shot was taken with Shake Reduction turned off, the second with it turned on. Here is a 100% crop of the image to show the results. As you can see, with Shake Reduction turned on, the images are sharper than when it's turned off. All of the sample images in this Review were taken using the 16 megapixel Fine JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 5Mb. Digital Filters - there are a number of filters and effects available, with the choice of:Toycam, Pop, Posterization, Retro, Soft High Key, Partial Colour Red, High contrast mono, Soft focus, HDRpainting, Rich Tone Mono, and Miniature. While the NEX-3 and 5 were close siblings, differentiated mostly by styling and HD video capability, the NEX-5N and NEX-C3 are more like cousins. The 5N has a wider ISO range, spanning 100 - 25600 (equivalent) and adds support for the new FDA-EV1S electronic viewfinder. Like the co-announced NEX-7, the 5N also offers the option of using an electronic first-curtain shutter that promises to substantially reduce shutter lag. Furthermore, when paired with native E-mount lenses, it gains the capability to compensate for certain optical aberrations (namely lateral CA, vignetting and distortion - each of which can be turned on or off at the user's discretion). The NEX-5N also adds support for the new LA-EA2 SLT Alpha mount lens adapter which will also be compatible with the NEX-7.

x 1080(50p, 28M, PS), 1920 x 1080(50i, 24M, FX), 1920 x 1080(50i, 17M, FH), 1920 x 1080(25p, 24M, FX), 1920 x 1080(25p, 17M, FH) The Sony Alpha NEX-5N is the fourth model in Sony's NEX line of APS-C format mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras. Just as the NEX-C3 replaces the NEX-3, the 5N is a direct replacement for its predecessor the NEX-5, using the company's latest 16.1MP CMOS sensor in place of the previous 14MP chip. Although the 5N is nearly indistinguishable from the NEX-5 on the outside (and is bound to be regarded as such by many casual observers), it is actually a very different camera, and one that is worthy of serious attention. The Sony NEX-5N is an update to the NEX-5 - it gives the camera a new touch screen giving easier control of options, as well as an updated 16.1 megapixel sensor, and the ability to add an electronic viewfinder. The electronic viewfinder is rather unique in that is features an OLED screen with 2.359million dots! The Olympus PEN series have, historically, been geared more towards the enthusiast crowd than Sony's NEX cameras which have been marketed primarily towards compact upgraders. However, with the 5N's new bevy of customization options and expanded features, that line is becoming blurred. Detailed technical specifications for the Sony NEX-5N are available at Sony.com. NEX-5N + E 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 OSS @ 22mm, ISO 100, 1/400, f/9.0 Sony 16.1 MP Exmor Sensor

Newsworthy differences between the plain old Sony NEX-5 and the NEX-5N include an upping of the headline resolution from 14.2MP to 16.1MP, albeit courtesy of the same APS-C format sensor, plus an ISO boost from a maximum ISO 12800 to ISO 26500, due to what Sony claims is a new Bionz processor. High Dynamic Range Optimiser (HDR) is Sony's solution for capturing more contrast than a single exposure can handle by combining two exposures into one image. Disappointingly you now have to delve into the Camera main menu system to access the various flash modes. The flash options more unusually include rear sync as well as slow sync, plus the regulars of auto and fill in. Somehwat confusingly the NEX-5N's red eye reduction setting isn't also found here - instead it has to be first enabled via the aforementioned Setup folder if you're shooting portraits with flash. The Sony NEX-5N allows you to take panoramic images very easily, by 'sweeping' with the camera while keeping the shutter release depressed. The camera does all the processing and stitching and now even successfully compensates for moving subjects. The main catch is that the resulting image is of fairly low resolutionSensitivity has received a boost too, with the NEX-5n able to offer a maximum setting of ISO 25,600 (compared to 12,800 on its predecessor). Continuous shooting speed also rises to a maximum 10fps (7fps on the NEX-5). The newer model also benefits from a bespoke Accessory Port hotshoe that (unlike its predecessor) allows the NEX-5n to accommodate Sony’s optional FDA-EV1s, 2.3million-dot electronic viewfinder, among other accessories. In terms of AF speed, the NEX-5n isn’t the fastest we’ve seen on a camera of this type and is certainly slower than rival CSC models from the likes of Nikon, Olympus and Panasonic. That said, we’re only really talking small margins here (mere hundredths of seconds) and the NEX-5n’s AF speed remains perfectly serviceable, especially in good light. There’s also a powerful little AF Assist light on the front of the camera that can help out when light levels drop too low. By ISO 800 this softening in shadow areas continues, but again it’s not really doing the image any harm.