Sony NEX-5N 16.1 MP Compact Interchangeable Lens Touchscreen Camera With 18-55mm Lens (Silver)

First of all, this is a great camera for the price. Especially for those considering an upgrade to EVIL or 4/3 type. The Nex 5N technically belongs to neither category "out of the box". It is marketed as an APS-C format mirror-less interchangeable lens camera. Here is why 1. The electronic viewfinder FDAEV1S is a $350 accessory from Sony. This accessory has received rave reviews but the total price creep (in addition to a few prime lenses which you might go for ) makes the Sony NEX 7N a much more attractive proposition. 2. The Nex 5N boasts a full sized 23.6 x 15.8mm APS-C sensor which is approx more than 10% bigger than the Canon APS-C sensor and significantly (65%) bigger than the four thirds format sensor. Every sq mm of that sensor is going to give you incredible low light performance. When it comes to sensors, size matters! Apparently this is the same sensor as Nikon D7000! The combination of 23.6 x 15.8mm with a 16 million pixel count beats even the Nex 7N on low light performance (maybe due to higher pixel count on the Nex 7N for same sensor size ) and even some DSLRs. Check out the detailed review on dpreview dot com and sensor performance metrics on dxomark dot com. Kit Lens SEL-1855 18-55mm IMHO, go for the kit. The lens is easily worth the extra $100 on the kit. Sony SEL-1855 F3.5-5.6 18-55mm zoom lens has decent performance for still and is super quiet for video. During video capture, the lens auto focuses quite fast even in low light. Due to the crop factor, the actual zoom is approx 27mm to ~70 mm. I did not observe and clicking sounds in my videos. Some have reported that problem. Interchangeable lens choices The camera performance is so good, it just warrants some prime lenses to complement the excellent sensor. To a serious IQ seeker, that will make perfect sense. The lens on most prosumer cameras (offering PASM modes) open up to at least f2.7. I am sure that many purchasing a $700 camera would want faster lens in their arsenal, at least f2.8. There is a limited but adequate choice of good prime lenses. 1. Sigma 30mm f2.8 ex DN for E mount @ $199 - Approx 45 mm closer to the popular 50mm focal length. 2. Sony SEL50F18 50mm f/1.8 @ $299 - Approx 75 mm. Its sharp, has excellent IQ and its fast. Great for portraits. Lens has built in image stabilization. This is a really good lens, I am glad I got it. 3. Sigma 19mm f2.8 ex DN for E mount @ $199 as a wide 27mm lens. Its hard to say if its significantly sharper than the kit lens at 18 mm, some reviews say its sharper at the corners. All i know and care is that it is faster (f2.8) and smaller! There are others as well, the Sony SEL16F28 pancake (cost / performance issues), Sony SEL24F18Z 24mm f/1.8 Wide-Angle Prime Lens. Its a Carl Zeiss but its $1100. The LA-EA2 adapter for alpha mount lenses enables DSLR style phase detect auto focus. Phase detect auto focus is fast. Its really fast. But it restricts the alpha mount lenses to f3.5 in the AF mode. That's a bummer. Must have accessories 1. As per many reviews that I read, if you must buy a prime, buy the Sigma 30mm f2.8 ex DN. It makes the camera pocket-able and is a great walk around lens. I ordered mine, am yet to receive and test it. 2. If you go for a second prime, try the SEL50F18. Its perfect for portraits and some outdoor shots. It has built in OSS. 2. Get a tripod. Any tripod. More than the lenses itself, a tripod will make a significant impact on the IQ, especially for landscape and low light shots. 3. Get a B+W polarizer for outdoor shots. 4. Buy an Additional battery. Sony does provide an attachable flash. If you learn how to use this camera well, you might never need to use a flash. Ever. Or if you do use a flash, use just as a close range fill flash, not really to light up the subject. The pros Great out of the box jpeg results in the iA mode. Big sensor, awesome low light performance, articulated LCD screen, touch screen display, touch to focus, light weight. Excellent built in HDR and DRO options. Customizable buttons and menu. One of the best options is to set the focus on DMF. Once the lens is focused at half shutter press, turn the lens ring to sharpen the object in focus, and the screen enlarges the object image to make it easier. This also works in flexible focus where the touch to focus feature is used to focus on an off center object. This feature also works with the Sigma prime lenses. There is also a peaking level which makes focus adjustment extremely easy. I have set the peaking light to white. It provides a quick and easy reference in most cases for focus adjustment. The Cons : 1. No in-body image stabilization. 2.The camera is light weight but the lenses are big. Presumably due to it's large sensor size. Its not easy to pocket even for a jacket. Unless you get the Sigma primes, be prepared to have it hanging around your neck. 2.Those considering this as a back up might be put off by the absence of quick access dedicated buttons and a mode dial. The menu needs a bit of customization and getting used to. IMHO, the commonly accessed settings are an extra button or menu press away even after the customization. The more you know about photography, the more you find yourself wasting precious money shot moments getting thru an additional layer in the menu. No wonder they decided to redesign the 7N interface. 3.The shutter is annoyingly loud. Bye bye quiet sneaky shots, the shutter is sure to attract attention. And no, its not a fake shutter sound that can be turned off. 4.From the economics of the camera price / features / accessory cost, IMHO, this provides limited upgrade options. Additional investment in lenses will only pay off only if you go for the Sony "next" Nex. The additional accessories drives up the costs. The 7N might take a minor beating in the low light department but is an awesome upgrade. It focuses faster, has a built in EV, and has additional dial controls that can only by appreciated once you realize that you are 1 dial and 1 button short on the 5N. Most of all, the shutter click sounds quieter than on the 5N which is a loud click clack. Tips Learn to use the PASM modes well. Take que from the iA mode and then try the settings in the P mode. The right set of Aperture, shutter speed, exposure comp and WB can lead to a gain of a stop and therefore permit a lower ISO setting. Try to stay at 800 or below. ISO 3200 is still useful but has visible noise. At ISO 1600, the noise depends on the conditions and other settings. For better low light focusing, turn off the auto focus assist light. You will be surprised with the results. Set the focus and metering to center, that somehow translates into a gain of one stop and permits a lower ISO setting for the same shot. Try HDR and DRO settings for better results. HDR requires multiple shots, DRO works it magic within a single shot. Maybe set DRO to level 3 and leave it there. Software : The AVCHD video can be viewed natively on Windows. No converter required! DXO optics Standard is on sale for $99 @ DXO site. This is the only one software worth getting for this camera. The DXO software has the 5N camera and kit lens profile. The default adjustments based on the camera and lens profile for lens distortion and denoising are quite impressive for Nex 5N. this applies even for jpeg files. I dont shoot RAW and I still saw impressive results. For e.g. try a brick wall or fence shot and run it thru the software or for people shots, notice the skin tone smoothing from the denoising process. If you are a PC user, just download the Windows Live Photo Gallery which provides basic adjustments and has a very useful auto adjust option. Its a free useful software from Microsoft. In case you have the photoshop chops , go for the Photoshop Elements for $68 @ Amazon. Most of all , remember to have fun taking pictures.

Just received the NEX-5N camera and it seems ok. It's a little more "used" than indicated on the description but everything appears to be working. Will give it a good use and tests and update my review. The shipping was very good and the camera and accessories were packed very well. No charging cable or file transfer cable included. A little disappointing. To be continued...

(Minor updates below added in June 2012). I bought the NEX-5N in mid-October 2011 just before a trip to Europe. The bottom line: it takes superb photos without flash, especially in truly adverse lighting conditions (wine caves 1,000 years old, for example). As others have written, the camera with the 18-55 zoom takes extremely high quality photos - there's no quality penalty to get the benefit of the small size and light weight vs. a top DSLR. So I think it could be used happily by both people trading up and people trading down. But the camera does have quirks, some serious. Many other reviews cover the overall high points of the camera, so I'll focus on a few review elements I think need reinforcement. The NEX-5N has a full auto mode, but I hope most buyers will take the trouble to learn the camera's full capabilities, because the camera can produce some amazing photos once liberated from auto mode. However I have to say that the learning curve is steep, not just because the camera has a lot of capability, but also because the user interface is a real pain in the neck until you adapt to it. The lack of dedicated controls, a consequence of the small size, creates a lot of complexity in daily use. Here's a specific example to illustrate some of the potential frustrations. The camera can take an auto-HDR (high dynamic range) photo. It will instantly merge three shots that it auto-brackets (in steps you specify) to yield a picture that would take several minutes to produce if you had to merge three shots yourself using editing software. Great ability, but here are the steps if you haven't customized the menus: 1. turn off raw if you were using it, which requires at least 3 menu presses. 2. press menu again and select the "brightness/color" controls. 3. scroll to and select DRO/Auto HDR. 4. scroll to and select HDR. 5. if desired, press "option" and then change the HDR exposure differential for bracketing (ranges from 1 EV to 6 EV). 6. Press OK twice. In total, you have to go through 6-9 key presses to get the camera ready to take an HDR photo. Then to go back to normal shooting, you have to go through all the steps over again. Your subject has to be no livelier than a sloth to allow this to work out. You can avoid many of those steps by customizing the menu buttons. This requires first understanding what the camera can do and how you will use it, which will realistically take a few days of experimentation. Then you have to futz with programming the menus for a while until you have the customization set the way you want it. Then you have to get used to the new customized menus. In other words, there's a steep initial investment to get usable access to all the power the camera possesses. Most DSLRs have serious learning curves as well, so to me this isn't a reason to avoid the NEX-5N. But it is something to be prepared for. I found that I was taking low-light photos that I couldn't have taken with any DSLR I'm familiar with, so I ended up being quite happy with the camera, but I did some cursing at it before I got to that point. The best features: 1. Extraordinarily good native low-light capability, plus several modes that enhance that underlying natural capability of the camera and lens: examples include hand-held twilight mode, anti-blur mode, auto-HDR, and dynamic range optimization. All four are different. It really benefited my photos once I figured out how those modes differ and when to use them. My shooting may not have been typical -- I was spending hours a day in ancient wine cellars, gothic cathedrals, and the like, but even for snapping a low-light shot in a restaurant with friends (no flash), the camera was great. 2. The size and weight are unbeatable. I bought a Kata Grip-10 DL camera bag, which on paper was supposed to be a skosh too small for the camera, but it worked out perfectly. I could wear the Kata bag on my belt, zipped closed with camera inside, flash attached, a spare battery, spare SD card, and the "raincoat" that shipped with the Kata bag, all fairly inconspicuously. 3. The tilt screen makes a real difference. The features the jury is still out on: 1. The detachable flash was on my list as a problem until I actually used the camera. The last two weeks I left the flash attached all the time and that worked fine, although I found I almost never used the flash. When I did use it, it overexposed the main subject almost every time, so I dialed back the flash output slightly. Once I get the optional viewfinder, I think I'll be able to put the flash aside and not miss it much. 2. Movies. I am not a big movie shooter so this was not a critical item for me. I hoped I would receive a camera after the "clicking noise" was fixed in manufacturing, but no, mine does click during video recording. Sony is kidding themselves if they really think the clicking noise only occurs when people are moving the camera in an unnatural way. It's almost constant. But I will send it in and from all I've read it will be fixed quickly, and the newer units supposedly won't have the problem. So I'm not agonizing about that. UPDATE: I originally wrote that I couldn't get large movies shot in AVCHD mode to transfer to a computer using Windows 7, and when an SD card that contained a mix of AVCHD movies and stills got close to full, the stills wouldn't transfer either. I didn't lose any pics or video but I worried. Updating -- since my original post, this problem seems to have gone away. It's possible that there was a hardware problem with my built-in card reader, which got swapped out during a computer repair and now transfers seem to work ok. Since I didn't see others reporting the same problem, I assume the hangup was at my end. 3. The LCD screen on its default setting ("auto") is hard to see in bright sunlight, BUT there is a setting you can scrabble your way to with many clicks that will brighten it significantly. This setting makes the LCD usable even in bright sunlight, but it also messes up the color rendition of the LCD, adding an orange hue and oversaturating the other colors. It also seems to drain the battery at a vigorous clip. So there are two approaches you can use: turn on the super-brightness setting just for the key times you need it and then remember to turn it off again, or buy the apparently wonderful EVF viewfinder (for more than three bills!) and use the LCD much less overall. I haven't tried the viewfinder yet but I'd like to. It eradicates a lot of the price advantage of the NEX-5N vs a DSLR, however. The features that are not so good: 1. Focus can be slow in low light. That's largely due to the lack of phase-detection focusing, which isn't easily addressed in this type of camera. The focus-assist light eventually gets it right almost every time, but it might take a second or even two. 2. If you set the camera to Auto-ISO, you can't control the highest ISO the camera will use. It will range up to ISO 3200. It's great that the camera takes pretty clean shots at ISO 3200, but that's no excuse for omitting a way for the photographer to limit the top ISO to a much lower number if he or she needs lower noise. Even many inexpensive cameras offer that option. 3. Menus are complex and cumbersome and require lots of clicks to change settings, as previously described. In addition, by default the camera is set up to provide "advice" every time you click a menu key, overlaying your menu choice with a paragraph of information you didn't request. This is helpful for about three minutes and is then a big pain until you figure out how to turn it off. 4. The shutter makes the same sound as a DSLR and can't be changed, so there's no shooting stealthily. Since there's no mirror to make a slapping noise, I'm not sure why the shutter is as loud as it is. I wish Sony would change this if possible. 5. The touch-sensitive screen is, in my opinion, a failed opportunity. It's way too easy to touch something by mistake and change a setting inadvertently. On a small pocket snapshot camera, touchscreens may be useful. And in theory the touchscreen could be good on the NEX-5N too, I suppose, but I found it messed me up, so I turned off the touch capability. You may be more dexterous than I am so this may not bother you. 6. The only thing I missed by deactivating the touchscreen was the "touch to focus here" capability. That was good when I meant to use it, but also terrible when I didn't mean to use it. Linked to that issue: focus tracking. Sony advertises that the NEX-5N will track a moving subject once you touch the spot on the LCD screen you want it to track. But it doesn't work. It just makes the focus jittery and unpredictable. The focus will not reliably track anything. Sony should have improved that before going live with it. The concept is great. 6. The movie mode button is badly positioned within a hair's breadth of where your right thumb, or sometimes part of your right index finger, can rest on the camera. I recorded at least ten unwanted movies a day just brushing the movie button without meaning to. The biggest problem this created was that when I went to press the shutter to take a still photo, nothing happened. Only then did I realize the camera had been recording my useless mutterings for the last three minutes. So I lost a few still shots from having to stop the movie recording and get back to stills. 7. Minor points: the default settings for DRO and HDR are too weak to make a difference, so at first those look like failed offerings. But they just need to be tweaked to a stronger setting and they work fine. 8. Update: My son owns a Canon T3i so we've compared pictures taken with the two cameras, although not in any truly rigorous way. The Sony NEX-5N build quality is higher than the T3i (less plastic), the rotating barrel feels more solid, and mostly importantly, the resolution of the Sony seems better. If you read online lens reviews, the Sony 18-55 kit lens seems higher quality than the kits lenses that come with even DSLRs costing a lot more. Summary: While the list of negatives I've enumerated seems long, on balance I think the strengths of the NEX-5N substantially outweigh the weaknesses. In the world of ILC cameras, the NEX-5N seems to be in a league of its own when it comes to pure image quality. To a serious photo enthusiast or professional, image quality is where everything starts and ends. The NEX-5N takes exceptionally high quality photos, especially in low light. The NEX-7 has additional strengths including even higher image quality in good light, but apparently doesn't quite match the NEX-5N's low noise in low light according to other reviews, and it costs a lot more. I'm happy with the NEX-5N.

I've had it for about 3 weeks now. The image quality is INSANE, and the video is INCREDIBLE. The UI is great, the size, weight and build quality are top-notch. The orientation sensor is louder in this one than the NEX-5 (my roommate has that one). But I shake my other (Canon) cameras and they make noise too. There's a lot of operational noise in them too if I use the onboard mike. Try zooming! Am going on a trip, so I'll send it back to Sony for "the adjustment" after I get back. But this "click" meme has gone viral and people are totally blowing it out of proportion. You can get the external mike on Amazon for about $90 bucks if you want to totally obviate it. Chances are if you are making a handheld video of your newborn, your steps, wind noise, and breath in quiet scenes will be louder than any operational noise from the camera. If you're seriously expecting cinema quality sound out of the onboard mike on a $700 point-n-shoot, dream on. I haven't made a single video where the sensor noise bugs me. Go ahead, watch the videos on YouTube. It's not that loud. About like the sound of clothing rustling. These point-n-shoots have automatic gain, which means in quiet scenes they turn the volume up to to the microphone, in loud environments they turn it down. The only way you can make the click annoying is if you're videoing in silence and move the camera around a lot (which produces unwatchable video.) Wouldn't you just silence the soundtrack in your Video Editor in those scenes if you're making the sequel to Avatar? If there's talking going on, and sounds you want to capture the gain goes down and you don't notice operational noise. Jeez gadgets have become the new religion of the 21st Century, and there are apparently folks who think Sony is the devil. For contrast, consider Apple Fanboys who totally forgave the antenna bridging issue on iPhone 4. (And I have an iPhone 4, am left-handed, so I put it in a case.) Sony answered the complaint very fast. Don't let the ideologues let you miss out on a groundbreaking image capture device. Plus, Adobe just released Camera Raw 6.5 which reads the NEX-5N! The raw images are AMAZING! Additional: So now I've taken it on a once in a lifetime 3 week trip of the Greek Isles. I never hesitated to bring it with me, it's so light!! This was my main concern because I'm very lazy. I took tons of photos and many beautiful videos. After I got back, I sent it in to Sony for "the adjustment" and now it makes less noise than my roommate's 5. Seriously I think this is a great balance of weight/size vs image quality. The weight is all in the lens, which is fantastic. I brought the flash, but never needed it, if you can see well, so can it. Many fun pics of dinner on the boat with no flash artifacts. My cohorts on the trip had tiny point n' shoots, but I came back with postcard quality images and video. Still very happy with this little monster!!!

camera language was in Japanese. I called Amazon tech support and they said it was a version that could not be changed and supposedly that was in the "fine print". I did not see this anywhere and had to pay for shipping to return for a refund. This is a nice camera but I need something that is in English.

dpreview just gave this camera a Gold rating this week. Very few cameras earn this distinction. This camera should pretty easily be getting 5 stars consistently; however, this first batch of cameras had a clicking sound for people shooting handheld videos with some off-balance camera movements. That being said, Sony is offering a quick fix that seems to be doing the trick (I just sent mine in with free overnight shipping both ways). And the dpreview rating was given despite the video clicking sound that some people experienced. I wouldn't think twice about buying this camera again right now if I hadn't already bought one. I bought this camera because of the 16.1MP CMOS sensor, which is getting rave reviews across the board. This is a better sensor than many DSLRs on the market. I also really wanted the ISO range of 100-25600 (I have some images up to 3200 ISO that are still sharp with barely noticeable noise). I have had the camera almost a month now and I have only used the flash 1 time just to see how it worked. I don't anticipate using the flash much at all as I can get really good photos in low light. And, all of the settings I use can work in video mode as well. And, JPEG photos are spectacular. I planned on shooting raw, but the jpgs are great. I had a Nikon D70 and some nice lenses that I sold and the NEX-5N is helping me to not miss my bigger DSLR. And, this 5N is head and shoulders above any MFT camera. This camera is not pocketable, but I do have the 16mm lens and it can be pocketed in a jacket pretty easily, but not my jeans. Then again, I tried a Lumix LX5 prior to this Sony and I could not pocket it either and this also applies to micro four-thirds cameras (MFT). But this camera is very easy for me to carry around with a wrist strap and barely feel like I am holding it. It's easy to cup my fingers on the grip and be ready for any shot. I also like being able to tap on the touch screen to tell the camera where I want the focus. The touch screen can pop up and tilt up or down, which is nice when trying to be stealth or trying to shoot over a crowd. In any regard, I don't give a lot of perfect ratings but this camera is about as perfect as a camera can get at this price point (or even under $1000). EDIT: I recently purchased an adapter for Canon FD lenses. These are legacy lenses that are manual focus only. I love using manual focus on the NEX-5N. With focus peaking and the touch screen I can focus in low light sometimes more quickly than autofocus. I enjoy using manual focus and doing so opens up a world of affordable and high quality lenses.

I'm reviewing this as a high-end prosumer camera, a grab-and-go camera to complement or even replace my SLR in most situations, which is what most cameras in this range are targeted at. I recently had the opportunity to compare the NEX-5N side by side with a Nikon P7100. I had very high hopes for this camera, especially given the great reviews and its large sensor. Yet, the quick summary is overall, the Nikon wins. Why? I won't mention all the details that the other reviewers have covered very well. Rather, again, I'll focus on its use as an camera for an advanced amateur - someone who knows the kind of shot they want to take, and wants to take it quickly, without needing to use an SLR. Pro NEX-5N - SLR-size sensor means great image quality, even at high ISO. However, in practice it isn't much better than the G12 or Nikon P7100 as it ought to be given that it has ~3x the surface area. (I tested this with RAW settings on all cameras). - I like the zoom on the lens. Feels natural to a SLR user. I wish more cameras offered this! - Some nice features buried in the menus :) - Large, bright lens, even if it's slow. Neutral - The focusing ring on the lens is a great idea - but poorly implemented. Manual focus is actually not very useful on this camera. It takes quite a while (lots of rotation) and if you're in a hurry, you're likely to miss the shot. Then again, you're not likely to be focusing manually if you're trying to get a quick shot. Con NEX-5N - Not pocketable with the 18-55 lens. - The UI is terrible. It takes forever to change settings if you're doing anything other than pointing and shooting. It's really hard to do simple things like change the metering mode. And everything is in 1 of 3 menus, which means LOTS of scrolling to find the setting you need to change. You can't even directly switch between P, A, S, M - first hit Menu, then hit Mode, then Move the dial until you find the mode you want, then hit OK. Gets very frustrating after a while. I cannot overstate this - if you expect to change settings while using the camera, you will find the UI *incredibly* annoying. If you know your way around an SLR, a Canon G12, Lumix LX-3/5 or Nikon P7100, you will likely get better shots from them because you can actually set the shot up quickly rather than lose the shot while messing with the UI. However, if you just point and click and don't deal with the UI much, this won't bother you. Customizing the buttons and menus does help, but it's still annoying that so few parameters are directly accessible. - Subject tracking is terrible and just doesn't work - focus randomly jumps around the screen if you try to turn on focus tracking. Very annoying, since this could have been a killer feature. - The kit lens has a minimum aperture of f/3.5 - so this loses a lot of the benefit of the larger sensor, since you cant shoot with it wide open (f/2 or f/2.8) - so while I'm shooting with f/2.8 on the P7100, I have to stop it down one notch on the 5N. The resulting low-light IQ is very very close to a good quality smaller sensor like the P7100 or Canon G12. So, while it's nice having the larger sensor especially if you're not planning on shooting wide open, don't expect it to significantly improve low-light performance. - Auto White balance seems to end up with a yellowish tinge in almost all cases. - Tends to underexpose by 1/3 EV or so. Given the comparison, I decided to keep the P7100 and ~$200 :). This is not a prosumer camera - it's a point-and-shoot with better image quality at the expense of a more unweildy form factor - at near-SLR prices. If you want a point-and-shoot camera with near-SLR quality but don't want to mess with the controls, I could see this being a great choice. If you're an advanced photographer, you're likely to find it frustrating and prefer the G12, P7100 or LX-5.

I am very impressed with the Sony NEX-5N. The pictures are superb even out of the box and I think the extra weight over a smaller point and shoot is well worth it. I'm just a casual consumer when it comes to cameras, definitely not a professional photographer. I've owned many small digital cameras, but always felt slightly disappointed with them. I wanted to move up to a DSLR, but didn't want to carry around a heavy, bulky camera. I was hesitant about the NEX-5N, since the lens makes it larger than my other cameras, but I wanted I wanted better pictures, so I gave it a try. I am very happy with the results. It is heavy and somewhat top heavy (considering the lens), but it's much more manageable than a regular DSLR. The pictures are simply spectacular. I dislike flash photography and even pictures taken in dark situations turn out nicely. The camera often picks a higher ISO than I would like, but after I set up short cuts, I could more easily switch between ISOs. (Note: I wish I could give the camera a range of acceptable ISOs instead of just picking one ISO.) Pictures taken at high ISOs are acceptable. I prefer to use a low ISO though if I can get away with it. Overall, I am simply amazed at the detail of the pictures. The camera seems to pick up everything without distortion. I don't miss having lots of zoom (like in my point and shoot) since I can crop the NEX-5N pictures to the same effect as having lots of zoom in a point and shoot. The camera is also very quick when it comes to snapping shots. I have a lot of fun taking picture after picture. The camera takes almost no time processing each picture. The NEX-5N also comes loaded with a lot of fun features. Just the other day, I discovered that it has a "smile mode" where the camera will take a picture when it sees someone smiling. I'm not sure how practical settings such as "smile" mode are, but they are fun to use, especially since the mode actually works. I'm still learning about all the settings and having a good time with it. I highly recommend the Sony NEX-5N. It's not pocketable, but you don't need to carry it around in a huge sack either. This is the best camera I have owned.