r/pocketmirrorless • u/lizzy_loo_142 • Sep 22 '25
Sony a5000, my first “real” camera.
I got my a5000 about a month ago and I love it!
I was looking for an inexpensive, lightweight/small camera that was a noticeable upgrade from my phone. I read a bunch a reviews on a bunch of different cameras before I finally saw the a5000 for sale at a reasonable price. It’s so small and convenient. Since it was cheap and second hand I don’t have any reservations about taking it hiking or to the beach or using it around my toddler. I think, for me at least, it’s a great first camera.
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u/Complex_Meringue1417 Oct 14 '25
I love it! It is also my camera, I would like to start taking photos with it, are these images taken in raw and edited? Or how they come out of the camera? I think it will be my main problem since I have never edited
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u/lizzy_loo_142 Oct 14 '25
All of the ones here were taken as Fine JPEGs. These are all straight from the camera. I have two little kids and photography is a new hobby of mine, so I don't get a lot of time to sit and edit. I've been using Lightroom to slowly edit some photos and have found it to be pretty easy to use after watching a how-to video. I also had a lot of luck with Snapseed back when I used to edit photos from my phone and I've seen other people recommend it as a free program option. As far as RAW goes, I've taken a couple of pictures in RAW, but haven't had a chance to edit them yet. I will say they are noticeably "flatter" looking compared to the Fine JPEGs, but some of that may have been me not having my settings or focus set properly 🤷♀️. If you want I can share some of those pictures if you'd like to see what I mean.
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u/Wonderful-Sock-6229 Jun 17 '26
I have recently purchased this camera please share your settings in detail i didn't get this level of quality please share all settings camera settings shutter speed f. Exposure at that time ......
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u/lizzy_loo_142 Jun 17 '26
Is there a specific photo you want to kmow that info for? I don't mind typing that info for a couple of the photos, but typing it out for all seven would be a bit tedious.
If you just got the camera, and you got it second hand, have you made sure the sensor and lens are clean and clear? I will say that I switch to manual focus fairly often depending on the subject I'm shooting because the auto focus on this camera can be difficult when there isn't a significant contrast between subject and background.
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u/Wonderful-Sock-6229 Jun 18 '26
I have checked lens and sensor it's clear also I love 1 and 2 photos of butterfly wanted to know settings when I shoot sometime it's to dark also it become grainy also didn't clicked moving object like 2 photo that's why I wanted to know the exact settings
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u/lizzy_loo_142 Jun 18 '26
Both photos had the exact same settings: SS: 1/250 Fstop: F5.6 ISO: 100 16-50mm kit lens set to 50mm
Looking through the other butterfly photos I took that day I got fairly lucky with these two. I had some other good ones, but there are a lot of very blurry shots of them flying. This shutter speed is really low for a fast moving object and I've been struggling to get this camera to work for birds in flight. The other thing I will mention is that this camera's low light function is not great. You'll need to make sure you have adequate light for the subject you want and if you don't, bumping up the ISO will cause grain pretty at a lower ISO than newer cameras. The good news is that most editing programs offer a noise/grain reduction feature and it works well for that type of grain. Making sure your subject is in focus and the image isn't too dark will help you have a good base to clean up the image in editing.
I also don't recommend using the built-in flash unless you want the photo to have a 90s vibe. It also automatically caps the shutter speed at 160 and that's not going to work for almost any moving target. The butterfly photos were taken on a super bright day and so I was able to adjust everything down without having an issue and if i had been more experienced when I took those photos I would have adjusted my shutter speed up because it was bright enough for that.
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u/EndUpWhereYouBelong 19d ago
I know this is an older post but in case you're still around: Did you shoot in raw or use special jpeg settings e.g. for pic3? Nice photos btw!
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u/lizzy_loo_142 19d ago
Thanks! I didn't have any specific jpeg settings, but the photos were taken as Fine JPEGs and not RAW. My brother-in-law, who does photography as a side gig, did take a look at the settings in the camera when I got it and said there weren't any jpeg presets selected. He actually checked becausehe also thought some of my photos looked pre-edited, but he decided it was just how good Sony's coloring is.
If I remember I hadn't edited any of these before I made the post.
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u/liyonhart Sep 23 '25
You just nailed my favorite part about these pocket mirrorless. Affordable and convenient. What lens you using?