Sony's Alpha A5100 sounds surprisingly good

With the Alpha A5100 (aka ILCE-5100), Sony replaces the NEX-5T and sticks a fork in the NEX line, unifying all its mirrorless interchangeable-lens cameras (ILC) under the ILCE model-naming convention. Coming in at $550/£420 for the body or $700/AU$899/£550 for the main kit with the 16-50mm power zoom lens, it's sufficiently close in price and similar enough to the A6000 to make your choice a little confusing.

It also means that at $500 (£350) the more feature-packed 5T disappears in favor of the relatively less powerful A5000 . As I complained about this type of decreasing-power-for-the-same-price behavior vis-à-vis the Canon EOS Rebel T5 , I thought it only fair that I call Sony out for similar activity. So if you're looking for a $500 Sony kit, snap up the 5T before it disappears.

Sony's current sub-$1,000 mirrorless line now consists of four models:

• The big, $300 dSLR-style A3000 (approximately £254/AU$500 for the kit, though in Australia it's called the A3500 and has a different lens) for budget-constrained folks who want better photo quality than a point-and-shoot but can't afford to pay more to get smaller size or better performance.
• The A5000 at $500 (£350/AU$700 for the kit), its entry-level ILC for folks who want a compact model that delivers dSLR-quality photos but don't care that it can't match the speed.
• The new $700 A5100, designed to provide the speed and quality of a dSLR in a compact design.
• And the A6000 at $800 (£670/AU$1,100), which adds the electronic viewfinder that advanced users find handy.

The A5100 seems like a budget version of the A6000 more than a higher-end version of the A5000, which makes sense given the relative price gaps. It incorporates the sensor, autofocus system, and Bionz X imaging processor of the A6000 in a body almost identical to the A5000.

If you don't want or need the viewfinder on the A6000, it actually sounds like a better deal, and despite the $200 price bump over the A5000, seems to give you a lot for the money.

Notably, for the price premium over the A5000, you get the hybrid autofocus system which works far better than the contrast AF that bogs down the A5000 and the A3000, a higher resolution, touchscreen LCD, and significantly better continuous-shooting performance that can handle more shots at a higher rate of speed and with autofocus.

In addition, it outclasses the A6000 with the addition of support for Sony's higher bitrate XAVC S codec. The codec produces better HD video than the AVCHD codec in the A6000 and allows for simultaneous high-quality and Wi-Fi-upload quality movie recording. It also bests the A6000 with a flip-up, touchscreen LCD plus interface optimizations that make Sony's cameras stand out for selfies. It's rated a bit slower for continuous-shooting than the A6000, which Sony attributes to mechanical differences, but 6fps is fine for most consumer uses.

Right now, while there are a lot of competitors at and around the A5100's price, Sony's option seems to offer quite a bit for the money.

Specification comparison