I recently decided to upgrade my photography and offer myself a Compact System Camera also known as mirrorless camera. I have always been into photography since my young age. I guess it is a family thing, all my siblings own a camera, some are more advanced than others but it is great to share a common hobby.

So far, I have used my phones, a oneplusone that has 13MP camera, an iPhone 6 with 8MP iSight camera and a Gopro Hero 3. (Yes, I love gadgets!)

I must admit that the photo quality of the iPhone 6 is better, especially in low light. I am far from being a professional, but taking photos has always been a thing and I enjoy capturing life on the go. But sometimes I encounter meeting the limits of my phones when it comes to portraits or landscapes photos. Hence the reason for an upgrade with the Sony a5000. It matches with my requirements. Here are below five reasons why I love this camera.

1. Small, light and powerful

Contrary to SLR cameras and accessories for which you need a dedicated camera bag, the Sony a5000 can fit in a jacket pocket or in a small bag. I needed something small, light and powerful. Small and light because of the space and weight restriction when it comes to luggages while traveling. But also carrying a camera bag full of lenses and photography accessories for a day can be heavy.

Powerful, because my camera phones, as great as they are, have their limits when it comes to shooting modes. With this camera, I can practice night time shots, take long distance shots without lowering the quality of the photo and do portraits with a nice blurred background effect. 

2. Lenses are inter changeable

Like an SLR, the mount of the sony a5000 allows to change lenses as you wish. I went for the E PZ 16-50mm F3.5-5.6 lens and the E 55-210mm F4.5-6.3 lens for long distance shots.  

3. The LCD tilt screen

This screen can flip up to 180 degrees, perfect for selfies. But it also helps a lot to capture some scenes from different angles without necessarily take some poses requiring flexibility only mastered by yogis! (cf.photo below)

4. Manual settings

As an SLR, the sony a5000 offers different scenes mode you can select like a point and shoot camera if you are just starting photography. Some modes such as "Aperture priority" and "Shutter priority" are great to start playing around with the settings and better understand your device. But it also offers the manual mode and some guidance on the screen on how to set the camera to get the image you want according to a situation.

That is very handy and a great way to get familiar with the manual mode and capture scenes as you see them. This is more than enough for me at the moment to learn the basics of photography.

5. Wireless connection

The little bonus for the Millennial that I am is the wifi connection. Another great advantage this camera can offer. Not only you can use your phone as a remote to take photos (great for self portrait or long exposure shots) but you can also transfer the photos directly from your camera to your phone, edit them on the go and share them on social media websites in matter of minutes. I love technology! Follow me on Instagram for more behind the scenes photos. 

I think this new acquisition will be a great travel companion and will motivate me to share better quality photos with you guys. It is not always easy to capture the beauty of some scenes as you will see them for real but it would definitely help to get a better visual. It is  a great camera if like me you want to upgrade your photography game, get familiar with manual mode and carry it around.

You can find more info in the following link here if you are interested, and see a few photos taken since I got the camera two weeks ago below.

Dublin streets photo shoot trial, Sony a5000