Sony:

While not the best looking camera in this test (some would say the worst but maybe the EPM2 wins there?) the NEX5r has functionality written all over it!  The grip is probably the best here.  Sony smartly rotated the battery and SD card sideways in the camera to make the camera narrower but the grip deeper (but never deeper than their shortest lens so it never adds to the overall length).  The new Fn button and dial on the top/back/right of the body make this camera a dream to control.  Yes the menus are still terrible and overused but you learn where everything is soon enough and that issue goes away. Where this camera really falls on it’s face is in 2 major areas.

The lenses (or lack of) and the logic.  Yes on paper sony’s lens lineup has finally caught up.  Lots of primes in most of the right lengths.  But the problem is there are only three that are fast and all are physically quite long.  The Zeiss 24mm is the one I like to “pick on” most because it’s their widest fast prime but also the one in the magical 35mm focal length we all seem to be after.  It’s “only” 1.8 but costs more than $1k new and it’s massive.  Their 50mm 1.8 is much less expensive but slower to focus and also just as big physically.  Sony made a very nice and compact body in the 5 lineup (5, 5n, 5r) but these lenses really take it from nicely compact to pretty awkward in terms of fitting it in a jacket pocket.  My EPM2 w/17mm or X100 fits in my pocket much easier.  Sony’s got their 10-18mm out already though, and it does look fabulous (and smaller than fuji’s 10-24mm).  So if you want fast primes in a pocket camera, sony is pretty much out.  If you want the smallest landscape camera available with a native UWA zoom, it’s still a great option…

The second issue for me with sony is their auto ISO logic.  It’s basically the same as the panasonic only if you default to Tv/S it uses f/3.5 with the zeiss (a 1.8 lens) instead of defaulting to wide open like panasonic does.  The only walk around I found was either full blown M or going with P.  P is the devil to me because I don’t trust the camera to do the same thing repeatedly there, and in P with the 5r every time I’d turn it on/off it’d reset to a middle of the road aperture and shutter.  You can then dial it down to 1.8 each time, and it’ll then stay there but that’s a PITA.  And it’s stuck with a top end of 3200 again, and just as with the Panasonic it’s going to use 1/60th as the default shutter step in Av.  Bummer.  Apparently these guys either don’t use auto ISO ever or don’t shoot objects that move with it…  Again, for me I’ll go with a camera with working auto ISO over one that doesn’t on that one aspect alone.  I’m that used to it just working and like it.

Sony does have sweep pano which is fun.  Fuji’s is better but they’re the only two with that option.  Sony can’t do in camera raw processing if you want to use an eyefi, but it DOES have it’s own WiFi built in so you can move things to your smartphone that way which is a nice touch.  Another negative though is that you must use a micro USB cable to upgrade firmware and you must have Java installed on your computer.  No copying a file to your SD card here folks…  This bugs me.  In the end sony’s come a long way with the NEX line.  This is a much better camera than my NEX5.  I’m tempted to get one just for their 10-18mm for a micro landscaping kit.  But it’s NOT a good family camera which is what my primary function is with my EVIL camera.

Pros: Great grip, well built, small body, great zooms (great DSLR landscape replacement), WiFi, pano mode, app support for WiFi image transfer, great Fn button and dual dial setup (especially compared to my NEX5).

Cons: Lenses are large and expensive with only 1 pancake options, terrible auto ISO “logic” and no safety shift, terrible menus (that you’ll get used to).