Live-view Live view lets you take photos without using the viewfinder which makes you less obstrusive and this works very well during street photography where you don't want to get people's attention.
Tilting LCD Screen An articulated screen gives you the flexibility to shoot in non traditional positions such as waist level, which helps you to be more creative and unobtrusive in the streets.
Large APS-C (23.4 x 15.6 mm) sensor Large sensor in Sony NEX-5 ensures a good low light image quality compared to smaller sensor, and it also provide shallow depth of field and a nice blurry background when needed.
Medium sized Body Mirrorlessbody of Sony NEX-5 is a good combination of relatively small size and good handling camera, without giving the impression of a professional camera.
No Built-in Viewfinder In the lack of a a viewfinder, holding the camera away from the body while using live view is not very stable, especially with heavy camera bodies and lenses. Besides, LCD screens are very hard to read under bright sunlight.
No Image Stabilization Due to the lack of sensor based Image stabilization, Sony NEX-5 users have to rely on lenses with optical IS in order to maximize the sharpness of their handheld street photography photos. Currently there are native Sony E mount lenses with Image Stabilization for Sony NEX-5.