Sony dropped their NEX branding long ago in favour of combining them to their Alpha series of cameras. About a month ago, I got a review unit of the all-new Sony a5100 camera. I’ve been using a DSLR myself, and now I have a mirrorless camera to play with. How did it go?
The box has nothing fancy, so it’s not really exciting enough to do an unboxing. However, the things included in the package is the most interesting part.
What I can tell you about the included accessories is this : they are very thorough. Most of the cameras will have only your country’s power plug and that’s all you have to charge your camera. If you’re travelling then you’re out of luck – get a universal adapter and plug your charger to that.
Well – that definitely sucks. The Sony a5100 however has 3 of the most commonly used power plugs from around the world.
A+ in accessories right here.
[nextpage title=”Design and ports”]Truthfully speaking, it’s a small device that fits in the hands of many people, as it is very small and compact.
At the back, there is a menu button, a picture preview button, and a info button that is also used as a delete button. There is another rotating wheel that doubles as a directional pad, where you can select the timer and shooting mode, the display on the screen, the ISO, and also a bunch of effects.
Up top there is a zoom rocker with the shutter button at the center, a on/off switch, and a dedicated video recording button. At the far left side of the camera, there’s a flash button that pops the flash up.
At the right side of the camera is where the NFC is. In the menu, you can select what action for it to automatically launch when tapped. Definitely useful you need to connect your smartphone with the camera at an instant.
On the left side is where all the wired connectivity happens. There is a micro HDMI port, a micro USB port that doubles as a charging port and a data transfer port, and a SD card slot.
The best thing about this camera is that Sony knows you’re going to use the micro USB cable the most, so that created this flap-from-a-flap design specially for ease of access to the micro USB.
Flap-ception! But it works very well!
[nextpage title=”Performance”]Here’s what everyone has been asking me when I brought this mirrorless camera out. How does it perform? How is it compared to a DSLR? All of these questions can be answered by a couple of pictures.
It’s really tiny. The camera is smaller than my hand.
The stock lens is a 16-50mm f/3.5-5.6 with optical stabilization.
It has a 180º swivel screen just for selfies. And yes, this is actually very useful.
It takes some decent pictures with its APS-C sensor (same as some low- to mid-range DSLRs)
Technically, I can take a picture and display it in full crop, and still get decent details out of it.
Play around with some cool effects to instantly share them onto social media through your smartphone. It connects to your phone wirelessly too.
Video recording is amazing, and it can capture in 4K resolution – though it will need a Class 10 SD card to work. Somehow, it just doesn’t work with my SanDisk Extreme 32GB Class 10 memory card. It is rated at 45MB/s, yet it can’t work?
Here’s a sample of 1440×1080 resolution video.
There’s also an option for touch to take picture or touch to focus. Handy, and definitely an amazing update from the a5000.
By the way, all of the above pictures are taken with Sony’s own Intelligent Auto mode. I did nothing, and the camera can capture amazing photos with their auto mode. The reason why I’m not going all manual like my DSLR is because of the next section :
[nextpage title=”Software”]
Sony made the a5100’s software very similar to their previous a5000. I’m not complaining, because that has proven to work for Sony and I find no reasons to further “fix” it.
However, one thing to note about the Sony a5100’s software is how confusing the settings menu is. Sure, it looks like any other camera’s settings page but the amount of pages in the settings menu is just oh-so intense!
7 pages for shooting pictures only, there are a few more other tabs of settings with another few more pages.
If you want to go full manual on this camera, there certainly is a learning curve. However that learning curve is quite unnecessary, since the Intelligent Auto mode is really good.
[nextpage title=”Battery”]
In short, the battery is a tiny, lightweight, and detachable piece of equipment that can be safely stashed into the camera and does not require to be taken out unless it is faulty.
It uses the micro USB port to charge, and it doesn’t take long to reach 100%. With a 100% charge, I can take more than 350 pictures! In another battery test, I drained only 35% of the battery while recording 3 hours of 1080p video straight. Simply amazing.
[nextpage title=”Wrap up”]The Sony a5100 camera is a solid mirrorless camera. For a DSLR user like me, it doesn’t offer as much as a DSLR does – that’s expected, but for the size, it’s stunning. I actually brought the camera everywhere with me since it’s so small!
Then comes the price. This set with the single kit lens bundle costs RM2,399 – it’s not cheap, but you get what you pay for. You get top notch quality with some very useful connectivity and features to go alongside with the great picture quality.
This is a camera that works great as a secondary camera for DSLR users. It’s also great for picture quality enthusiasts who doesn’t want something as bulky as a DSLR. With that said, this is the perfect camera for travelling.
Did I mention about the 3 included travel adapters?
The Sony a5100 is truly a traveler’s companion.
Just look at how happy this make-shift traveler is!
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