When you're a millennial like me, or if you've been active in any platform of social media, then you know that travelling is the new stress-reliever for a lot of people. Open up Instagram/Facebook and surely pictures of skylines, beaches or food will pop up with the hashtag #foodtrip, #beachPlease or #blessed. We always capture moments that we never want to forget. We make memories as we hop from one place to another and we share these experiences to friends and loved ones. Of course, one of the essentials in doing so is a camera.

It might be a little tedious to bring a bulky camera instead of just using a smartphone's camera, right? Well, there's no need to sacrifice the quality of your pictures for this problem — the solution: mirrorless cameras. There's a reason why these cameras have been raved about for a long time now, they are lightweight, compact and packed with features. There's a long list of these bad boys to choose from, but the Sony α5000 is the best bet when you're just beginning to dive into that #TravelPhotography goals.

If you're a newbie like me, then you would appreciate these features:

20.1 MP Exmor® HD APS sensor and BIONZ X™ image processing engine — The large 20.1 megapixel APS-C sensor size and Sony Exmor® APS HD CMOS technology can take your newb picture and turn it into high resolution and DSLR quality image; with truer color rendering, better noise reduction, and faster burst mode shooting.

Built-in pop up flash — You don't have to worry about low light situations anymore. Just pop the flash when an extra burst of light is needed to get the shot. Combine with high ISO sensitivity—from 100 to 16000 ISO—to enable shooting in just about any setting.

Face Detection/Smile Shutter — The Face Detection locates up to eight faces in a composition, then adjusts exposure, white balance, and other settings based on these faces. Smile Shutter—adjustable with three levels—automatically takes a shot when smiles in the scene are detected. No more setting up a timer then running just to be included in a #groufie!

Full HD 1080/60i/24p or 1080/30p MP4 movies — Sometimes, photos are not enough to tell a story. Record stunning high quality Full HD video in either 60i or 24p frames per second. Records in your choice of 60i/24p Blu-Ray quality AVCHD™ format, or in PC-friendly 1080/30p MP4 format.

Convenient power zoom lens with motor zoom lever and body control — Too many controls in a camera can be intimidating to someone who wants an easy way to take photographs. But the convenient zoom lever on the body of the camera allows for effortless one-handed operation and smooth zooming even when shooting self-portraits.

Beautifully composed self-portraits made easy — Having a perfect #selfie is crucial! The α5000’s tiltable LCD screen flips up 180° to make shooting self-portraits a snap. Include other people, experiment with interesting angles or shoot against famous landmarks. When you press the shutter, the camera does all the work.

Compact Power Zoom 16–50 mm kit lens — Compact and lightweight are the things that most of us travelers look for in anything we bring with us. Don't fret because this kit lens is collapsible so it definitely will fit in that bag of yours!

MF Assist — Improve your accuracy during manual focusing by magnifying the scene 6.8x or 13.6x on the LCD screen and fine-tuning what you see.

One-touch remote and one-touch sharing — The one-touch remote lets you use your smartphone or tablet as a viewfinder and remote control for a digital camera, and one-touch sharing lets you transfer your photos and videos from your camera. So you can get your #OOTDs on point and post it right away!

Anti-Motion Blur — Sometimes, the only thing holding you back from being a great photographer is shaky hands! Well, the Sony α5000 got your back (or hands). This feature enhances clarity by reducing motion blur.

Those are just a few of the great features of this small yet impactful camera! You can read about more of it's features by visiting the Sony Philippines website here.

To be quite honest, I'm not yet a very good photographer. But learning the nooks and crannies of it will be easier with the Sony α5000. If you're like me, then it can definitely offer you a helping hand in learning the basics and you can become a pro in no time!