Sony Xperia 5 Performance

The performance section is where we look at the image quality performance of the camera. Additional sample photos and product shots are available in the Equipment Database, where you can add your own review, photos and product ratings.

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Sony Xperia 5 Sample Photos

Sample Photos - Colours are punchy and accurate. In bright sunlight, the sky has some lovely deep blue tones. The bokeh mode on for the rear camera does a good job of separating the background from the subject to create a natural-looking effect. Beauty mode for portraits seems to only be available on the selfie camera, which is a little disappointing. As we've found before with Sony smartphones, the beauty effects you can use can make the face look slightly surreal, with overlarge eyes and the ability to shrink and enlarge the width of your face. Images look a little soft, especially at the edges, when you zoom in. 

Sony Xperia 5 Lens test images

Lens Performance - In bright sunlight there are some artefacts present along with some evidence of flare. The building has been slightly underexposed due to the direct sunlight. There is significant barrel distortion on the wide lens capture. colours are a little muted but this works well for the green shades which some phones can make a little toxic. There is up to 10x digital zoom available however we wouldn't recommend using this as it just makes the pixels larger and the image ends up looking 

Sony Xperia 5 ISO test images

ISO Noise Performance - For the lowest noise and best detail possible we would recommend using ISO64 to ISO400, as images have low levels of noise and good levels of detail. For lower light situations ISO800 to ISO1600 still provides good results, although noise increases and detail is reduced. At ISO3200 noise levels become strong and we would recommend avoiding this setting if possible, although results may still be useful if resized and used on the web. 

Sony Xperia 5 White-balance test images

White Balance Performance - Auto White Balance (AWB) performs well, giving a natural-looking result under tungsten lighting, with the tungsten preset giving an accurate result as well.  AWB performs well under fluorescent lights, with the fluorescent preset giving a warmer result. 

Sony Xperia 5 Digital filters

Digital Filters - There is a range of digital features available which can be selected through the Creative Effect palette.

Sony Xperia 5 Panoramic images

Panorama mode - Panorama mode struggled somewhat to provide a well stitched together images, with undulations clearly visible on fences and buildings. There are also issues with colour blocking in the sky. However, the images seem well exposed. 

Video - The Xperia 5 offers 4K HDR video recording at 24fps. You can use the standard (1x) and (2x) cameras when recording 4K video, although if you switch between them during recording, the video can look quite "jerky" or glitchy, as you switch, so it's best to set this before you start recording. 4K video is recorded at 55mbps, and there are built-in editing tools on the smartphone to help you edit your video. 4K video is available with the rear camera(s), but only FullHD with the front-facing selfie camera. The camera can also record slow-motion video at frame rates up to 960fps. 

To access more advanced video recording modes you can use the Cinema Pro app, and this gives you more control, as well as letting you record 21:9 aspect ratio video at 24 and 30fps. 

Video is smooth, thanks to built-in OIS and seems crisp and accurately coloured. 

You can watch additional videos on the ePHOTOzine YouTube channel.