Review by T. W. Grimes "Tee Wayne" : the NEX-5 is the NEXT great camera

OK - I just love new gadgets and technology. I had been using a D90 for nearly 2 years but upgraded to a D700 and use it for all of my heavy lifting photo shoots. (what a great camera). However, I wasn't using my D90 except on the rare occasion that I wanted to use two bodies on a shoot and used the D90 for my 70-300 lens for telephoto shots, giving me up to 450mm. OK, I digress.

I sold my D90 and bought the Sony NEX-5 (silver because I couldn't wait for the black one). I just bought the 16mm lens and will wait until later this fall when I hear they are coming out with a 18-300 E-type.

This is a really cool camera. I basically keep it in my pocket almost all the time. It is pretty bulky in my pocket ever with the smaller 16mm lens (and protective lens & cap). I know I have read some bad reviews about the menu system but it really only took me about 20 minutes to get used to it.

The focus ring kind of reminded me of my Blackberry when I had one.

It was a little slow to get used to not having a view finder but there is a great feature that you can use to help fine tune your focus (it only works with E type lends and not the A with adapter. You basically can get it to auto focus and then lightly touch the focus ring and it ZOOMS in to help you FINE TUNE the focus. If I knew how to upload some sample pics I would but trust me, the picture quality is great. There are just too many other features for me to comment on but I highly recommend this camera form not just a step up for an amature but a pro wold use it just like I try to do. I get a lot of great shots just because I have this camera buldging out of my pocket.

Review by Karmacomposer : Amazing camera at a great price!

I bought the Nex5 hoping to do video and still photography, but needed the quality compareable to my Canon XH A1 pro video camera. I was NOT disappointed with the Sony Nex5! The image quality is superb. It is fantastic in outside light and indoor light. The fact that you can interchange lenses is a massive plus because my broadcast quality camera cannot do that.

Funny thing is, I went to a photography store to look at lenses and they scoffed at the size of the camera not knowing it was a new product with very high specs. After looking it up, they found out that almost every lens in the place could fit it with the adapter I bought - and they said the sensor was MASSIVE for a camera that small.

The quality of video is unreal. You have to see it to believe it. I bought a 500MM lens, a zoom lens 60-300MM, a 135MM lens and the wide angle lens that came with the camera. With those lenses, I have a pretty amazing video camera. I also purchased the mic attachment and will be buying the viewfinder attachment.

I took all kinds of video in daylight, at night and in various situations. Because the camera can be fully manual, it allowed me to set my ISO small and make adjustments so low light looked clear and crisp - dark, but clear and crisp. Don't set the ISO to high or you will get a lot of digital noise (gain) in your video. Because it shoots in 1080p 60i, the quality is on par, if not better, than my broadcast quality video camera. In fact, I could swear it is actually more clear and higher quality. Simply astounding.

The picture quality is superb - 14MP is pretty big, so your images look great and can be used for full page spreads in magazines! At the same time, the lenses allow me to achieve everything from up close macro shots to shooting a player's face from the stands at a ball game.

The screen is gorgeous and tilts. It IS hard to see in direct sunlight, so the option viewfinder is nice for photography. For video, it's a bit tough, but doable. I wish there was a sun shade for it. The focus feature is great - the camera will zoom way in on a subject so you can properly focus. It works very well, though I am used to focusing using a viewfinder, so once I have the optional one, my shots and video will be perfect.

In a nutshell, you get Sony quality in a small package, but with big results. I have no regrets buying this camera and know I will get great images and video from it. This tiny camera packs one massive wallup!

Mike