Sony Alpha 5000 review – Build and handling
The Alpha 5000 is a step up from a point-and-shoot digital camera, but lacks much in the way of physical controls, leaving you with just a control wheel/D-pad and one customisable button for accessing its various settings and shooting modes. It is also missing a hotshoe, but at this level of camera it is not uncommon for this to be excluded.
The textured grip makes the camera comfortable to hold in one hand, but while the Alpha 5000’s matt-black plastic build is attractive and solid, it is designed to be affordable rather than rugged.
Display mode, ISO, exposure compensation and drive mode are included as options on the D-pad, with the scene mode positioned in the centre of the selection wheel. A question mark denotes the custom function button that can be reassigned to a commonly used feature, such as focus type, white balance or metering. This is a useful feature that I mostly used for easy access to the white-balance options, but a second customisable button would have meant less diving into the menu to access the autofocus mode, which is another feature I use regularly.
However, the compact size and simplicity of the Alpha 5000 mean that it is very easy to use, although people with larger hands or gloves may find it a little fiddly.
