Sony A6000 Review

The Sony A6000 is a new compact system camera with a 24.3-megapixel Exmor APS HD CMOS sensor, a BIONZ X processor, a sensitivity range of ISO 100–25600, Fast Hybrid AF for optimal fast and precise autofocus as quick as 0.06 sec with 25 contrast-detect and 179 phase-detect points covering 92% of the image, 11 fps burst shooting with autofocus tracking, an OLED Tru-Finder, Wi-Fi and NFC connectivity, a shot mode dial, two control wheels, a dual-axis electronic level gauge, the Sweeeeeeeep Panorama mode, and the ability to record 1080p video at 60/50/24 fps are also great features.

The Sony A6000 comes in black or silver and costs £550 or $650 for the body alone or £670 or $800 with the 16–50mm OSS Power Zoom lens.

Sony A6000 Camera Specs

PROS

• Outstanding cost-effectiveness
• Excellent autofocus and facial recognition
• Sturdy construction
• Superb picture quality

CONS

• The flip screen and electronic viewfinder of the Sony a6000 have room for improvement.
• Messy user experience

Size and weight

First, I’d like to talk about one of my favorite things about the Sony a6000: how small it is. This camera is very small because it only weighs 12.13oz and is the same height and width as my cell phone. One of the main reasons I left Canon was to find a more compact and easy-to-use daily setup. With the a6000, especially when paired with one of the many ultra-compact lenses, I did just that.

In some cases, like with the Neewer 35mm F1.7, I’ve been able to put both the camera and lens into the pocket of my jacket when I’m not using them. My Tenba BYOB 10 does the job with bigger lenses. When I first moved to the Sony ecosystem, this was exactly what I was looking for.

Simple to use

The new Sony A6000 fits in between the consumer-focused A5000 and the top-of-the-line but older NEX-7 in Sony’s line of mirrorless cameras. It also has a number of features and functions that you won’t find in either of those two models. At first glance, it looks a lot like the old NEX-6 model from the outside. The big rubberized hand grip on the front of the camera makes it easy to hold and also hides the battery and memory card compartment at its base. Strangely, the A6000 review unit we got came with the FE 35mm f/2.8 lens, which you can’t buy with the A6000 but is a good way to test the picture quality of the camera.

Most people will probably buy the A6000 with the Sony E PZ 16–50mm f/3.5–5.6 OSS power zoom, which is currently the smallest E-mount zoom lens. When not in use, this lens retracts into its housing like the lens on a compact camera. This helps the Sony A6000 have a low profile and makes the whole thing small enough to fit in a big coat pocket. When you use a power zoom that can be folded up, it takes longer for your camera to start up and wake up. If you don’t like the idea of shooting with a power zoom, you can always just buy the camera body.

Image Quality

During the review time, the Sony A6000 took pictures of great quality. The Sony A6000’s ISO range of 100 to 25600 is large and very useful. ISO 100–800 has no noise, ISO 1600–6400 gives more than good results, and ISO 12800 and the fastest setting, 25600, can be used in an emergency. But the RAW samples show how much processing the camera does by default because they are much noisier than the JPEG examples at all ISO settings.

The default standard creative style makes the 24 megapixel images a little soft right out of the camera. You can either sharpen them more in an app like Adobe Photoshop or change the amount of sharpening in the camera. The built-in flash worked well indoors; there was no red-eye, and the exposure was good overall. With a maximum shutter speed of 30 seconds and the bulb mode, which allows for creative night photography, the night shot was great.

Performance

Some of the most interesting compact system cameras on the market right now are made by Sony. Many of them are in the A6000 line, which the A6000 started. The A6000 does a great job, even by today’s standards. Its pictures are very clear and have beautiful, deep colours.

You can play around with how JPEGs look right out of the camera by changing creative styles. Some of these styles are already set up. The A6000 does a very good job with details. Most of the time, picture smoothing doesn’t become a problem for normal-sized prints until ISO 3,200 or higher is used. When you look at images at 100% from ISO 1600 and up, there are some parts that look like paintings, but the overall result is good.

What’s The Trouble?

The A6000 starts to fall behind the latest cameras when it comes to high ISO quality. The metering system of the camera does a good job with exposure, but it can have trouble in settings with a lot of contrast, in which case you’ll need to dial in some exposure compensation. In the same way, the automatic white balance works well, but it can sometimes get confused by some fake light sources. When there is a lot of light, the autofocus speed is very fast. As the light fades, the speed slows down, and the camera only has trouble focusing at all when it is very dark.