Sony NEX-3 and NEX-5 Compact DSLRs with interchangeable lenses

Sony NEX-5

Sony officially announced the NEX-3 and NEX-5 ultra-compact Alpha DSLRs with interchangeable lenses, joining the company’s Alpha α family. These cameras offers a ultra small form factor at the same time deliver DSLR picture quality and responsive shooting, thanks to the ‘mirrorless’ construction that shrinks the thickness of NEX-5 to just 24.2mm and that of NEX-3 to 25.4mm at their slimmest point. The NEX-5 is in fact the world’s smallest and lightest1 interchangeable lens digital camera.

Sony NEX-3

Sony’s NEX-3 and NEX-5 both are equipped with 14.2 Megapixel Exmor APS HD CMOS sensor, BIONZ image processor, a 3-inch TruBlack LCD with touchscreen, built-in anti-dust system, and E-mount for interchangeable lenses. The major difference between the two are the video recording capability, the former shoots 1280x720p video in MP4 format while the latter is capable of 1920x1080i AVCHD video recording.

These two NEX camera features also ISO 200-12,800, 10 digital zoom, Contrast AF, Face Detection; Smile Shutter; Sweep Panorama (3D ready); iAUTO; Auto HDR; Anti Motion Blur Mode; Hand-held Night Shot and support for Memory Stick card and SD/SDHC/SDXC cards.

The pricing of the NEX line is really competitive. The NEX-5A and NEX-3A cameras, which are supplied with SEL16F28 16mm prime lens, will cost about $650 and $550 respectively. NEX-5K and NEX-3K cameras, supplied with SEL1855 18mm-55mm lens will cost about $700 and $600 respectively.The NEX-3 comes in Black, Silver and Red and the NEX-5 in Black and Silver.