Sony NEX-5

Sony NEX-5 Brian Klutch

Olympus and Panasonic slimmed everything down when they created the Micro Four Thirds format, which tosses the space-hogging mirror box and allows for pocket-sized, lens-changing cameras. Now Sony has done even better. The company shrunk the body further, but not the image sensor. The NEX-5 has a new compact lens format, a miniaturized shutter drive and a smaller battery, but the same APS-C sensor found in most digital SLRs (about 60 percent larger than a Micro Four Thirds camera), avoiding the grainy images that occur when you squeeze too many megapixels onto a small sensor. $650–$700.