Sony Alpha 5000 Review

This is not a full-on technical review. Rather, my experience of using the camera and my personal take on photography. Though I'm nowhere near professional, I believe that a good camera, coupled with proper photography and editing skills, would produce a wonderful and memorable end-masterpiece. 

On that note, let's see how the Sony Alpha 5000 performed. 

Photo of me with the new Sony Alpha 5000 at the bloggers gathering at Carcosa Seri Negara

Appealing to the decidedly higher-end market from the Point-and-Shoot cameras, Sony has taken the category up a notch with a model that looks and feels more parallel to producing DSLR quality shots, minus the full frame and weight. 

This time round, I got to test out the Sony Alpha 5000 in white. My favorite color!

Key features of the α5000

• 20.1MP Exmor APS-C HD CMOS sensor and BIONZ X processor

• 7.5cm wide, 460,800 dots, wide type TFT LCD screen

• 109.6mm x 62.8mm x 35.7mm dimensions on a 210g body

• 180° tiltable LCD screen

• Light and compact body with pop up flash

• 25 points contrast detection AF

• ISO 100-16000 sensitivity

• Full HD video on AVCHD format

• NFC, WiFi and PlayMemories camera app

The first thing I can't help but notice was its physical size. The body weights a mere 210g - an everyday practical camera, which fits as an essential item in a handbag. The frame comes with a comfortable hand grip and lever for fingertip adjustments of the optical zoom. For those who have peanut-butter fingers and fumble with gadgets, this is a seriously smart ergonomic feature.

I was initially sceptical on the image quality it claims to produced - balancing size and performance, but was obviously proven wrong otherwise. Nonetheless, I was extremely attracted by its outlook - sleek and chic. 

Portrait Mode On Full 180° Tilt Screen | 1/125 sec | f/3.5 | 24.0 mm | ISO 3200

The Sony Alpha 5000 model has been enhanced with a 180° tiltable LCD screen that flips for perfect framing within an arm's length, producing a clear image zoom, perfect for the current-age-rave on selfies. Awesome feature for the self-declared like me too! Picture has been enhanced using the in-built soft skin effect mode.

Technical dwellings aside, with most readers of this blog being avid foodies, I'm compelled to share a couple of my preferred camera settings and modes, using the Sony Alpha 5000, for food photography. To do that, I explored the pre-set modes as well as tweaked the manual modes. I tested out 3 separate settings, in which I later found out that 2 of the 3 suited me the best - and figured would go really well with taking food pictures also. Notwithstanding, I have picked out my favorites to share.

Aperture Setting

Pancakes | Aperture Mode | 1/400 sec | f/3.5 | 16.0 mm | ISO 4000

Pizza With Filter Effect | Aperture Mode | 1/60 sec | f/3.5 | 16.0 mm | ISO 400

Here are a couple of unedited shots taken with the Sony Alpha 5000, utilizing the preset aperture mode, varying between f/3.5-5.6 for this particular kit lens. I used the smallest aperture, f3.5, to capture both pictures, focusing on the object rather than the entire masterpiece, with a nicely out-of-focus background. Observe the edible art - great textures, fine details and fast auto-focus while I was snapping away. 

Manual Setting

Eggs Atlantic 1 | 1/250 sec | f/3.5 | 16.0 mm | ISO 1000 | Eggs Atlantic 2 | 1/250 sec | f/4.5 | 25.0 mm | ISO 1250

Pancakes | 1/320 sec | f/3.5 | 16.0 mm | ISO 3200

Pancakes | 1/320 sec | f/3.5 | 16.0 mm | ISO 2500 | Brunch | 1/60 sec | f/4.0 | 16.0 mm | ISO 800

Dim Sum | Manual Mode | 1/20 sec | f/3.5 | 16.0 mm | ISO 6400

Brownies and Ice Cream | Manual Mode | 1/30 sec | f/4.0 | 16.0 mm | ISO 1000

For the seemingly creative person, the manual mode offers plenty of room to manoeuvre. I spend some time toying around with the camera settings, adjusting it based on lighting situations as well as object in view. 

The thing I dread most about shooting indoors - dimly-lit settings and yellow-hued lights. Hence, I hid at a dimly lit corner and tested out Sony Alpha 5000's white balance and low-light capabilities, an exceedingly vital element for a food blogger like me nowadays. Photography output wise, my preference is leaning towards the manual mode.

Why? Simple. In low light settings, I was able to achieve brighter picture outcome, boosted from the large CMOS sensor dimensions and maximum sensitivity of 16000. Thus, greater ability to shoot in low light settings with minimal noise. Additionally, by tweaking the numerous white balance feature according to the current lighting, I was rather impressed with the pleasantly tint outcome.

Nevertheless, I tested out the manual mode on portrait capturing capabilities - well, on me. The first picture was taken under the shade outdoors, and the second picture was taken indoors, under warm-hued lights.

Macro Setting

Flowers | Macro Mode | 1/160 sec | f/4.0 | 18.0 mm | ISO 6400

Lady In Red | 1/50 sec - 1/60 sec | f/5.6 | 40 mm-60 mm

The topmost Flower picture was taken indoors in unduly low light setting. Apart from the back-lit lights and the dimly lit lamp next on the table, there was not much indoor lighting going around. I have manually cropped the image size to showcase the crisp image quality produced on the Macro mode. Let us now look at the Lady In Red. Standing at the same spot, on the macro setting, I captured three shots using different manual zoom length, with focus on the Lady's face. The 16-50mm zoom lens have been paired with an E-mount body, as part of the mirrorless design of the NEX range. 

I can't deny that the Macro mode is a paramount feature for food photography. That said, I had several difficulties shooting in this preset mode. I'm not accustomed to the minuscule auto focus zone in the Macro mode; I had problems framing the focus area. Additionally, images start to blur pass certain focal lengths. In any case, this is entirely personal preference. 

If all of that sound too confusing to handle, there are various preset modes to fall back on. If all else fails, Sony models are designed with features that the masses can enjoy, while still providing the ease of use for any first time photographers. Hover over to the help? button for assistance.

Ever since social media took off, in the past couple of years, I have been quite dependable on swiftly posting pictures whenever I stumbled upon something interesting - as soon as possible. Because everyone love instant updates. Sony Alpha 5000 comes complete with in-built WiFi/NFC connectivity with ease of immediate sharing on smart phones. But of course, with the current millennium of photo-editing, I wouldn't bypass posting without at least some minor filtering. This camera allows for various picture effect modes and also a photo retouch feature for instant editing in-camera too. 

On the flip side, it was handy to have the percentage of battery life remaining on display, yet, from my brief usage, as far as battery life is concern, there are limitations. Nevertheless, a full charge will be able to power up to 420 images. 

The Sony Alpha 5000 will be available in Malaysia from 21 February 2014 onwards, retailing at:

Single Lens Package (Body + 16-50mm f/3.5-5.6 Lens) at Rm1,999
Twin Lens Package (Body + 16-50mm f/3.5-5.6 + 55-210mm f/4.5-6.3) at Rm2,799

The single lens package come with an exclusive carrying case and three colours of choice - white, black and pink. The twin lens package is only available in black at the moment.

To find out more about Sony Alpha 5000, head over to http://bit.ly/1nJhA4k.

More info at Sony Malaysia official website and Facebook Page.