SAN DIEGO – Sony kept pace with competitors like Samsung and Pentax Monday with the introduction of an Alpha-series mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras (ILC), offering one of the smallest body’s on the market for a model with an APS-C sensor.
The Sony a5100 will incorporate a new high-resolution 24.3 megapixel APS-C sensor when it ships this September at a $549 suggested retail for the body only.
Sony will also offer the camera in a kit with a 16-50mm zoom lens for $699.
Sony billed the camera as having “the world’s smallest body” for an APS-C compact system camera. It weighs just 7 ounces and measures 4.31 inches by 2.47 inches by 1.41 inches. Black and white bodies will be offered.
The camera also features improvement in low-light sensitivity with an ISO of up to 25,600, a new fast hybrid autofocus system with 179-point wide-area focal plane phase detection and 25 points of contrast detection, built-in Wi-Fi connectivity with NFC, camera apps and built-in 4.0 (ISO 100m) flash guide number.
Video is captured in up to FullHD 1080/60p in MPR/AVCHD and new XAVC S format.
Sony said XAVC S format enables FullHD (1,920 by 1080) image recording at 50Mbps (60p/50p, 30p/25p, 24p) and high-quality sound recording with linear PCM sound compression.
Sony said high-level video-image quality results from the large image sensor, Bionz X image processing engine, high sensitivity and low noise.
The large APS-C sensor size also enables defocusing for artistic backgrounds.
Dual-video recording is also supported in AVCHD or XAVC S format plus MP4 for easier online sharing.
The camera includes a tiltable/flip-up 3-inch LCD touchscreen designed to rotate for easy selfies. The screen supports both touch focus and touch shutter control for more intuitive image adjustments.
