Sony NEX-5N review

The stylish CSC gets tried and tested to see how it stands up in this booming marketplace

The Sony NEX-5N is a nippy shooter. It’s lightweight, portable, and when set to the Speed Priority mode the camera is capable of firing off images at ten frames per second. The fast shooting capabilities make the NEX-5N a first-choice model for capturing sports and action.

Once you get used to the menu system the NEX-5N is an easy camera to control, as most of the shooting options are intuitive to source. The only query we had was where the ISO control had been placed. We found it under the Brightness/Color menu, which doesn’t appear to be a natural place for the ISO to fit.

The touch screen or back buttons can be used to control the camera, and having the option to use either is handy. The LCD has been placed on hinges so the screen can be pulled away from the camera body and can be angled up or down for creative shooting.

Results are crisp, sharp, and the quality is excellent. The NEX-5N is capable of recording images from ISO 100 all the way to a massive 25600. This is well beyond what most CSCs can stretch to, but even in tricky indoor conditions the images remain detailed. Noise is evident at the high end of the range, but the flexibility to push the camera up to this number when it’s needed is handy.  

Another plus was the accuracy of the metering results. Highlights and shadows remained correctly exposed, and only very occasionally did the highlights blow when there was a vast difference between lights and darks.

The only slight issue we had was with the white balance results on the Auto setting. They were not always completely accurate, and a slight magenta cast was noticeable in some of the daylight shots. You can easily adjust the WB manually in camera if this problem bothers you, and the NEX-5N has the option to shoot in the Sony RAW format (ARW). This made it much easier to correct this issue in post-production.