Sony A5000 – Why I’ve given up with it. (Long Term Review)

So I’m nearing the end of my use of my Sony A5000 camera. And to be honest – it’s not happy relationship let’s be honest which has been evident from near the beginning.

It’s knocked out some pleasing images, as well as creating a lot of work for me

From The Peak in Hong Kong with vingeretting in the corners.

Distortion filled fun in Chicago.

However the relationship is coming to an end. What was the straw that broke the camels back?

• It wasn’t the atrocious lens (although that lens is enough take me scream how bad it is, and giving me hours playing in Adobe Lightroom to adjust settings to make image remotely passable)
• It wasn’t the handling that was just about passable.
• It wasn’t the weird file formats that made editing with the files an absolute pig
• It wasn’t the odd way videos were stored thanks to another Sony propitiatory format.

In the end, it was the physical built that let it down.

Whilst I don’t expect my electronics to be indestructible, I do expect them to take a knock or a drop.

Whilst in Philadelphia, I popped the A5000 in my pocket whilst waiting to queue to board a regional jet to DC. However, by accident my Sony A5000 fell out of my pocket… and the lens fell apart.

And when I say fell apart, the lens split into three different pieces (the fact I can only find two bits of it at this point is just a detail).

I’ve tried to put it back together to no avail.

Yes, I know I’m clumsy as heck – but I’d expect a little better construction than this for a camera to survive a little fall like this.

So… what next for this thing?

Well, I’ve ripped off the data I wanted off the SD Card. That was easy enough.

I might get a new lens for it, but at nearly £120 to replace it (or £150 for a 16mm pancake lens) I’d rather invest my money in a stable platform (for example I brought a lovely Canon 40mm f2.8 STM for £75) which won’t fall apart when I breathe on it.

There is a side effect to this, and it’s Vlogging. I’ve had a go at vlogging, and I’m going to be honest – It’s not for me. I’ve got no aversion being in front of the camera, however there are things I don’t like, such as

• The epic disk space consumption – It’s not just the Raw video files – it’s the file space consumed when editing
• The editing time – It actually takes a lot of time to get stuff done and edited how I like.
• iMovie – It’s a right royal pain. It gives Apple applications an extremely bad name with the ability to crash by breathing on it.
• Time to relevance – Pushing out video articles that have a deadline on it is tough work, especially when you are writing, taking photos and have a real job at the same time.

I’ve had a go Vlogging with the Canon 100D, but that just ended me being out of focus all the time. And as for iPhone recording… some image stabilisation would help (or a gimbal).

So good news: No more Vlogging for now. Bad news: We’re back to the written form until further notice.

And as for the Sony A5000 and some of its newer cousins? I’ve checked the lens. It’s exactly the same as the A5000.

If you have a case of butterfingers, one word applies. AVOID.

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