These stills are from the NX5U and XR500 in full auto. As you can see I think the NX5U overexposes and is not sure where to focus !! The snowman was a lot darker than it appears in either still. Sony tends to over expose but does show better low light for the NX5U as expected !!! The NX5U grain is also visible in the snowman still, more obvious than the grain in the XR500. For me. in auto the XR500 wins. I will post some more when I have some time showing how both can be improved in manual.

Thanks Ron.
In auto mode, the NX5 may be giving a washed out picture with more grain. But the strong point is the ability to enhance the picture.
I believe you, probably XR500 is more balanced and gives a nice picture out of the box. And in some situations it's easier to adapt itself for a better picture than NX5. But the NX5 has more settings to adjust, it should be possible to achieve a better looking picture if you have time for testing.

IF you have the time and are willing to go through the settings then the NX5U will likely give a better picture as well as recording options and better audio. That is why I have one rather than a smaller camera. If you are just going to run the NX5U in automatic then I am convinced the XR500 or newer cameras will give a better picture almost all the time.

Ron Evans

Yes, absolutely. In fact, it did save the day in this case since I was forced to rely on auto exposure. The white glittery costumes against the black background really pushed the spotlight mode to its limits.