Sony NEX-5R/B 16.1 MP Mirrorless Digital Camera with 3-Inch LCD - Body Only (Black)

I just love this camera. I bought this to replace my old original NEX-3. There is a lot to love.-Great battery life. My old NEX-3 eats up battery pretty quick. To my surprise, the NEX-5R lasts significantly longer.-Function button and extra dial on the top. One of the challenge in using the NEX-3 outside auto mode is the minimum amount of physical control available for you. There is only one rotating dial, making things harder when you want to adjust things. On the 5R, there's an extra dial on the top right and a function button, allowing you to access a quick menu for common settings. This makes the shooting experience in other modes, even on manual, much more usable.-Wifi. Yes, this camera has wifi that allows you to upload a resized JPEG shot to the Sony PlayMemories app on your smartphone/tablet. Even better, you can set up your phone/tablet to be a wireless viewfinder for the camera. Refresh rate is fairly low because of wifi, but it's a great thing to have. Imagine having the camera in one corner of a room, and you are taking pictures from the other side of the room using your iPad. Not much controls you can do from the app though, but it's a neat concept.-180 degrees screen swivel. The screen swivel 180 degrees up so you can take selfies easily. Well, it's not just for selfies, but it makes things easier in certain situations, allowing you to keep seeing the viewfinder instead of guessing when composing.-Touch screen. Touch screen allows easy focusing. You can also interact with the menus via touch (unlike some Olympus micro 4/3rds).-Phase detection auto focus. A firmware update adds phase detection auto focus. It's supposed to allow faster auto focusing. I'm not technical enough to notice any differences though. Also, some lenses' firmwares have to be updated too to take advantage of this.-One weird thing is that Sony is selling "apps" for this camera. Yes, there's an app store. I doubt people would be willing to pay for any though., and I also doubt we will see 3rd party developers doing anything for this really niche app store.-Also an annoying thing is how Sony design the settings menu. It takes too much scrolling just to get to some settings. Luckily there's that function button.-Lastly, it didn't come with an external battery charger. Yes, just like most modern smartphones, Sony wants you to charge the battery in-camera, via USB charging. This makes charging a spare battery highly inconvenient. On the bright side, if you are low on battery, you can simply charge it with your phone charger or many USB external battery packs out there.An awesome camera. Coupled with some of the great E-mount primes, like the 35mm f1.8 or the 50mm f1.8, you can get stunning pictures, on a device that is a fraction of the size of a typical APS-C DSLR. The only concern I have is that Sony considers the NEX as a consumer lineup, so don't expect long term support in terms of firmware updates. The NEX-3 stopped getting any further firmware updates fairly quickly. Sony already release a newer version of this, the NEX-5T.

Maybe I'm just old fashion, but this camera came short on image quality, the G15 is better at half the price. For $1100 (including average lens) there are many other cameras with better image quality. If you are going for the convenience/geeky features, then this camera is great and leads the pack by a long shot. The phone interface is great! To me that fact remains, a camera should take good pictures first,else I just get a Galaxy 4 at 12 MP, already includes a lot of the same toy features for no money.IMHO if you want good pictures get a real SLR. Entry level consumers should be happy with it, considering that most people seldom print larger than 8X10 in anyway, they will never notice the shortcomings of this baby. Sony is banking on that, I'm sure.

I've toyed around with 7D's, D3100's, Canon's new 6D...I sent them all back mainly because I wasn't thrilled with the images. I'm a film guy and never really made the switch to digital full-on until recently. Don't be fooled by the size, weight, plastic, touch screen, it's actually a serious camera that produces excellent images on all factory settings. The white balance is always perfect. There is more dynamic range and subtle color reproduction than the 7d or the 6D. Throw a Zeiss Contax or Voigtlander ASPH lens on with an adapter and you've got a poor man's Leica.Of course it's not suitable for most professional work, but it's fully capable of producing comparable images.Manual focus assists are a life saver, image mag. and focus peaking are great. Battery lasts quite long.Video: looks as good or better than Panasonic's $4,000 AF100 (maybe 5R not built for pro's but gives comparable results)You may want the NEX 7 if you demand the absolute best image possible from a NEX camera, but I'm satisfied with the 5R.

NEW FULL FRAME TO NEX LENS ADAPTER AND LENS SPEED BOOSTER ADAPTER AS WELL AS OTHER ADD ONS and also NEW APPS AVAILABLEI have heard that a 3rd party manufacturer has announced something called a LENS SPEED BOOSTER for the NEX series that will enable the attachment of a "full frame lens" to the NEX mount including of course the NEX5R. According to one review " When you attach a full-frame lens to the adapter, it will give your mirrorless' APS-C or MFT sensor nearly full-frame coverage out of that lens, while increasing the amount of light hitting the sensor by one stop. So a 50mm f/1.4 effectively becomes a 35mm f/1.0". The NEX5R has what is called an APS-C size sensor. The so called full frame sensor is a larger sensor size found on more expensive cameras and is supposed to be the same size as the old 35mm film. This is another example of 3rd party add on s including the various adapters that allow the attachment of a variety of lenses. You'll have to search on the Internet for details of the new lens booster.NEW APPS FOR NEX5R and NEX6 ARE HERE (Update)Much more than just loading photos onto a computer by WiFi, one of the key capabilities of the NEX5R is the ability to modify the camera and make it more powerful by uploading new apps to it. It's sort of like buying a camera that can grow more powerful over time. It depends on your imagination as well as Sony's.Two new apps have been added to the app store. As I mention below, these apps join others including the remote control app which I think is wonderful. THE REMOTE CONTROL APP WORKS WITH TABLETS TOO,you can SEE THE IMAGE ON A SCREEN MUCH LARGER THAN THE LCD OF THE CAMERA. Remember the NEX 5R GENERATES IT's OWN WI-FI SIGNAL. You DON'T NEED TO BE IN A WIFI HOTSPOT.1. Timelapse , which as the name implies automates time lapse photography2. Cine photo , which creates a sort of photo-video mashup where part of the "photo" is a movie.You can see samples at the app store.The 180 DEGREE TILTABLE ARTICULATING SCREENThe ability to see yourself (something the Nex5n and the Nex6 can't do) as well as yourself and others or yourself and the surroundings is incredibly handy. It enables many shots at interesting angles you just wouldn't get and the ability to frame the picture or video leads to more great shots and fewer duds. I can't over emphasize this. Until you try this yourself it isn't obvious what a potential boon this could be. You'll scratch your head wondering why so few other cameras (exceptions, albeit more of point and shoot type, include the Samsung MV800 and MV900, BenQ G1 and the Casio ZR1000)5R EASIER TO ADJUST THAN THE 5N, GREAT FOR MANUAL CONTROL and WHY USE MANUAL ANYWAY?The EXTRA CONTROL WHEEL allows for better manual control vs playing with with the menu screen on the 5N. By rotating the control wheel on top and the wheel on the back you can get full control of aperture and shutter speed in manual. Using that together with the histogram and you can adjust for exquisite pictures. Why use manual control? Because sometimes the semi automated settings just don't get you what you want.INDOOR PICTURESThis camera can TAKE GREAT PICTURES in less light THAN OTHER CAMERAS using higher ISO with less image noise. Automatic white balance (color adjustment) to get accurate colors in the picture works better outdoors than in. I often need to use Custom White Balance indoors to get accurate colors. It's easy,set it to custom and just aim the lens at something in the room that is white and click the shutter.See below for UPDATE ON USEFULNESS AND FUN OF THE REMOTE CONTROL APP FOR CELL PHONES AND TABLETS. This remote control app facilitates self portraits and group or scenery shots with yourself in the picture,something which turns out to be very handy creating a lot more opportunities for photos as does the 180 degree and also fractions thereof, tiltable screen. (once you have worked with an articulating screen such as this one that allows views from all sorts of angles you will scratch your head wondering why all cameras don't have one)POWERFUL IMAGE SENSORThe 16 megapixel sensor on the 5R seems to have hit a sweet spot for light sensitivity. The megapixel count along with the large size of the sensor helps get better pictures versus a point and shoot. It is also easier to get shallow depth of field which lets you focus on the subject and blur the background. Some reviews argue that the 16 megapixel sensor as on the 5R actually produces better looking pictures at higher ISO than the 24 megapixel sensor on the NEX 7 because the 24 megapixel sensor has more pixels squeezed in and therefore smaller pixel size. Smaller size pixels usually produce more noise than larger size pixels.When you increase ISO, you are increasing sensitivity to light but you also get more noise, it's like turning up the volume on an AM radio with a weak station, it gets louder but maybe also more static.So when higher ISO,(sensitivity to light) is employed to get pictures in darker conditions, they say that the 16 megapixel sensor actually produces superior pictures with less image noise than the 24 megapixel sensor!MORE NEW FEATURES OF THE NEX5RBut a new day has dawned and now I am the proud owner of the Nex-5R. It's like they sent the Nex-5N to a hot rod shop and they ripped out the engine and dashboard and replaced it with a souped up turbocharged 16 cylinder engine with a voice controlled light activated dashboard. This baby has an OPTIONAL TOUCH SHUTTER on the 180 degree flexible screen, you just touch the screen ,not only does it lock focus, it takes the shot! And that SOUPED UP HYBRID focus using a contrast /phase detection combo means speedier focus with pictures when the subject is moving.Having phase detection cuts down on the hunting that contrast detection does.CONTROL OF ISOISO for VIDEO and PICTURES: The ISO for video (sensitivity in darkness) is ADJUSTABLE THROUGH 6400 vs 3200 on the 5N. The ISO for pictures is ADJUSTABLE to 25,600. The availability of the Multi Frame Noise Reduction APP will help with the problem of image noise in darker conditions. This is a built in feature on the SLT cameras.COMPARING FEATURES OF NEX 5R ,5N, NEX6The NEX 5R offers SUPERIOR AUTO (does more) and INTELLIGENT AUTO vs the NEX 5N which offers only INTELLIGENT AUTO.The TILT screen on the NEX 5R tilts upward 180 degrees to allow self portraits and portraits with yourself and others or scenery, the tilt screen on the NEX 6 does not go to 180. The NEX 5R DOES HAVE a TOUCH SCREEN and an OPTIONAL TOUCH SHUTTER (see below) vs The NEX 5N that has a TOUCH SCREEN ONLY. The NEX 6 DOES NOT HAVE A TOUCH SCREEN.By the way, Sony offers a free software update for some older NEX lenses so they can use the ultra fast hybrid focus of the 5R.OVERHEATING WITH VIDEO RECORDINGMay or may not occur and depends on the environment. I can feel the camera heating up as it is recording. I RAN ONE TEST in a 70 degree room and got a warning indicator at around 18 minutes.I did not wait to see when the camera would shut down. Many if not most dslr cameras especially from other manufacturers, C or N ? have limited short shooting times.MORE ABOUT DOWNLOADABLE APPSThe REMOTE CONTROL CAMERA APP is turning out to be more USEFUL than I thought it would be. It allows you to SEE a (nice reproduction) image on your cell phone of what the camera is seeing AND trigger the shutter to capture the picture.. ALSO it has the option of introducing a 2 second TIME DELAY IF you wish. (Remote control does not seem to work in video, I think it ought to!).. This app concept is a great idea. It's sort of like buying a camera that can get more powerful with time. They NEED A LOT MORE APPS. But they are on the right track.The App is USEFUL and FUN. Remember the NEX 5R GENERATES IT's OWN WI-FI SIGNAL. You DON'T NEED TO BE IN A WIFI HOTSPOT. Making a change on the camera is reflected on the tablet image, eg. changing the aperture. Images can be saved to a folder on the tablet in the Gallery. The APP worked on a Google Nexus 7 but not a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2. I see from comments on the play store that many Galaxy Tab owners have experienced this and are looking for an update.SO NEAR YETSony cameras push the technology. Yet,they always seem to leave something out or take something away. Case in point, I bought the SLT-A33. Great for video except the built in mic picks up the noise of the lens motor so I plugged in an external remote lavalier mic..Voila, no camera noise! but the camera shuts down on me when the sensor overheats. OK, so then I bought the Nex-5n. It takes great video and photos but there is no place to plug in an external mic and Sony sells one, count em, one external mic that fits on the "smart" accessory terminal (And still picks up local camera noise such as when you touch, tap or jostle the camera or rotate the lens barrel). The NEX 5R AND the NEX 6 do NOT have an external mic input (the NEX 6 does have a non proprietary hot shoe, though) but the NEX 7 DOES have an external mic input.

We use this camera as an addition to a Canon 5D mark 2, however this is really our go to camera because it is so easy to use!It takes great pictures and video. We also love that we can upload pictures straight to facebook from the camera.It takes a little time to get it figured out, but for the quality of pictures it takes.. totally worth it! And if you just want to use it for a very basic camera you can do that quite easily.This camera has a lot of great features that you can take advantage of if you choose to.

Compact, powerful, light. I use it with the 16-50mm pancake so it is extra portable. I toss it in my bag whenever I leave the house. It does extraordinarily well in low-light settings, perfect for indoor gatherings, dusk activity shots, catching lurkers in the shadows and whatnot. Downsides include resistive touchscreen (unless you're into early 2000's throwbacks), and relatively speedy battery drainage, but neither are sources of deep feelings of regret. The wifi/app stuff/selfie-mode is gimmicky but on its own it is already an excellent camera. If you're thinking about getting one, you should probably do that.

If I could give zero stars I would! Do not buy this camera... Pictures may come out nice but the camera doesn't last long... I've had so many issues with the camera turning off after taking one picture. I've paid to get it repaired- $300! And the same problem continued three months later... customer service is horrible save some money and do not buy this camera!

I upgraded a few months back from a point-and-shoot to this camera. I like this camera on the whole, but it has some flaws you should know about.The autofocus is bad and takes blurry photos often enough. This happens particularly at night, but it messed up an afternoon indoor shot with the only light coming in from behind a curtain. While my 5-year-old point-and-shoot took a correctly focused, beautiful shot. This is so bad that I've learnt to manually focus while shooting at night.This camera supposedly has a hybrid contrast- and phase- detection autofocus system that's supposed to be better than the contrast-detection autofocus system used in point-and-shoots. But it only works with some lenses. So the bottom line from my point view is that the autofocus is terrible.Pay attention to the kit lens the camera is being sold with, if any. If it's the old 18-55 lens, you may want to buy it body-only and add a lens of your choosing, such as the more compact 16-50 power zoom, or the 18-200 lens, or the new 18-105 constant-aperture (F4) lens...There's no way to take an exposure-bracketed burst with a timer. This is important for night photography, where you need a timer to avoid camera shake caused by pressing the shutter button (even with a tripod). So you need to manually do exposure-bracketing.The touch-screen is terrible and not worth using. A $200 tablet has a better touch screen.Neither is the wifi, which once caused the camera to lock up so badly that even the power switch (the hardware switch, not the soft button) wouldn't work. I had to eject the battery and put it back in.The Android and iOS apps are terrible, too. They break basic expectations you think you have for a mobile app, even ones you didn't realize someone could screw up.Here's a review of the mobile apps:- Basic functionality such as shooting a burst, or shooting with exposure compensation, or manual focus, is missing. Other functionality like ISO is available, but on the camera, not the Android app.- This app requires a companion app to be installed on the camera. Some settings are there, and some are in the Android app. Both UIs are a train-wreck, worse than the native Sony camera UI (three different UIs!), which itself isn't a work of art compared to an average Android or iOS app. So, for example, if you normally want to a change a setting, like ISO, you'll find it in the menus. But when you're using the mobile app, the setting is not in the standard camera settings, but in the settings pane WITHIN the app on the camera, or the app on the phone. It's anybody's guess which of the two places will have what you want. Or neither.- The app sometimes locks up the camera so badly even the power switch doesn't work -- hardware switch, not a button. You have to remove the battery.- You can't record a video.- This app requires an account, and asks you go to a URL, which is broken.- When you find the correct URL, and fill out the form to create an account, it gives an error. I tried four times over a couple of weeks. Finally I had to claim I live in a different country from where I actually do, to create the account.These are all probably minor flaws with the camera, which is why I rated it four stars.If you are coming from an interchangeable lens camera, you may have higher expectations, in which case you should make sure everything you expect is supported here.