The smartphone photography trend is increasing, smartphone makers are including more powerful imaging processors and sensors onboard, even matching with entry-level DSLRs on imaging quality. Still, smartphone cameras aren’t perfect and they don’t support interchangeable lens, which is why the prosumer will still want a dedicated camera to capture all that beautiful footage when they travel abroad. The Sony Alpha A5100 that we have here has been helping our work a lot and it is our best companion on short trips.
Sony Alpha A5100 Video Review
Hardware & Software – Simple and Straightforward
Sony’s compact camera has an iconic design that you will never miss, it’s compact form factor and huge APS-C sensor makes it look like a camera that is too small to fit that E-mount lens. The Alpha A5100’s design isn’t much different from the A5000 and NEX-5T, featuring the same compact body, similar set of control buttons and wheels. If you come from a previous Sony camera, you will certainly feel at home.
The Alpha A5100 comes with an upgraded 24.3 Megapixel APS-C HD Sensor with the latest BIONZ X imaging processor onboard, the camera features a Super Fast Hybrid AF system with 179 phase detection points and 25 point contrast detection, which makes its imaging capabilities on par with the higher end Alpha A6000. The camera is also able to shoot 1080p60 50Mbps videos with the XAVC S codec and that requires an ultra fast memory card. ISO levels are supported from a range of ISO 100-25600 and you’ll be able to capture RAW images with it.
Equipped with a 180 degree tiltable 3-inch 921k dots touch display, taking pictures with the Alpha A5100’s display is a great experience, we are able to see our shots in detail and perform touch to focus, the display’s brightness and viewing angles are also good which will work well under strong sunlight, you basically won’t complain the lack of a viewfinder on the camera.
Flip over the display, the Alpha A5100 instantly becomes your great selfie shooter, click on the shutter button and a 3 second timer starts counting down.
The camera’s configuration is fairly straightforward, even the most common user will find them easy to understand, if you are not sure on what does that feature do, simply press on the “?”button and you are done. The A5100 really requires no user manual to get it work well.
If you think the camera can’t have more features onboard, you’ll be able to download PlayMemories App on the camera, which you can use it to enhance your images and share your photos directly to social media, however for the Malaysian market, you aren’t getting much apps selection as the other supported countries. The Alpha A5100 has NFC and WiFi Direct built-in as well, so you’ll be able to transfer that beautiful still shot over to your Android or iOS smartphone without much hassle, and oh, your smartphone can also become the remote of the camera by using the PlayMemories Camera App.
Lastly, the camera’s NP-FW50 1020mAh battery has a rated battery life of up to 400 shots by CIPA, our continuous image test shot was approximately 390 shots, which is pretty accurate and impressive according to its standards. The camera charges conveniently via its MicroUSB port and you can use any smartphone chargers to provide power.
Sony Alpha A5100 Camera Samples
The camera samples down below are taken with the Sony Alpha A5100’s 16-50mm f/3.5-5.6 Power Zoom kit lens, which performs extremely well in most lighting conditions and noise control is also pretty impressive even at high ISO levels, the camera rarely needs to reach ISO levels to capture great images under low light. All pictures down below are captured using the camera’s auto mode with no modifications done.
Sony Alpha A5100 Video Recording Sample
While the Sony Alpha A5100 supports taking extremely high quality videos with the XAVC S codec, we sadly don’t have that high speed memory card that the camera requires, do remember to bump the player’s resolution up to Full HD.
Verdict – It captures fast and beautifully
The Sony Alpha A5100 is one impressive interchangeable lens compact shooter that we’ve seen from Sony, the BIONZ X imaging processor proves its capabilities in enhancing images fast and beautifully. The camera’s Super Fast Hybrid AF system and 179 phase detection ensures that you’ll never miss that perfect moment again.
The Good
+ Simple and straightforward features
+ Compact and lightweight
+ Fast imaging performance
+ Clear LCD display
+ Uses E-mount lens
The Not so Good
– PlayMemories camera app limited
– No microphone port
– Lacks horseshoe
The Sony Alpha A5100 retails at RM2,499 and comes with the 16-50mm f/3.5-5.6 Power Zoom kit lens, we rate it at 4.5 out of 5 stars.
