Sony Alpha NEX-5

Motion (6.85)

In the Sony NEX-5’s Full HD mode the camcorder records video with a 60i frame rate. There’s also a 1440 × 1080 recording mode that uses a 30p frame rate (and MP4 compression). This frame rate offers slower, less fluid motion than the 60i setting, but overall the NEX-5 delivered one of the better motion performances of the video-capable DSLRs we compared it to. More on how CamcorderInfo tests motion.

Artifacting was definitely noticeable in the NEX-5’s motion video, but it wasn’t as prominent as what we saw from the other cameras shown below. The NEX-5’s Full HD record mode has a 17Mbps bitrate and uses AVCHD compression, which is a system identical to what Sony utilizes on many of its consumer camcorders. While the video captured by the camera was generally low in the artifacting department, it did show lots of blur and trailing—particularly in the two rotating pinwheels in our motion test setup.

We thought the E-PL1’s motion video looked smooth, but there was more artifacting than we’d hoped to see. There was also a lot of blur and trailing present in the motion video recorded with the camera. The E-PL1 records all video using a 30p frame rate.

The Panasonic GF1 has two options for recording 720p HD video—one captures video using a 30p frame rate, while the other records at 60p (although the sensor output is still 30p). We had problems working with the 60p footage, as it appeared to play back at double speed on our computer. We think this problem had something to do with compatibility issues between Panasonic’s AVCHD Lite codec and our media play back software.

The Samsung NX10 also uses a 30p frame rate to record HD video, and we found the camera produced lots of blur and trailing in our test. The camera also had a very noticeable rolling shutter effect that added a wobble to footage whenever we quickly panned the camera from side-to-side.

Click here to view a higher quality version Click here to view a higher quality version Click here to view a higher quality version Click here to view a higher quality version More...

Video Sharpness (10.59)

The Sony NEX-5 is the only camera in this testing set that can record a 1920 × 1080 (Full HD) video image. The other models all top out with 1280 × 720 recording (still HD, just not 1080p). Needless to say, this gave the Sony NEX-5 a big advantage when it came to our video sharpness testing because the camera literally captures a larger, more resolute image than the competition (there are plenty of other video-capable DSLRs that record 1080p, but most of them are not as compact as the NEX-5). The Sony NEX-5 measured a horizontal sharpness of 700 lw/ph and a vertical sharpness of 650 lw/ph—both of which are significantly better than what we saw from the Olympus E-PL1, Panasonic GF1, and Samsung NX10. More on how CamcorderInfo tests video sharpness.

Low Light Sensitivity (6.30)

The Sony NEX-5 surprised us with a solid performance on our low light sensitivity test. The camera needed 11 lux of light to hit 50 IRE on our waveform monitor, which is less than half the amount of light required by many video-capable DSLRs to reach the same levels. We have seen some consumer camcorders and high-end video-DSLRs with better low light sensitivity than the NEX-5, but this is still a very good performance from the camera.

Other than the NEX-5, all of the cameras in this testing set record using 30p frame rates, although the Panasonic GF1 also has a 720/60p option. Since one of the primary assets of a video-capable DSLR is the fact that you can use interchangeable lenses, you should remember that much of what determines low light sensitivity is based on the speed (aperture) of the lens used with the camera. The numbers from all of our testing were obtained using the kit lens with the Sony NEX-5.