Sony - Alpha a6000 Mirrorless Camera with 16-50mm Retractable Lens - Black

I almost bought the A7 when this camera came out and decided to purchase it instead - has been a great decision (also saved a substantial sum of money.) I've loved photography for nearly 50 years and the advances that have been made are truly astounding. This camera will do far more than most people really need, and takes pictures that are far superior to even the best fixed lens camera (the exception being the RX1 perhaps.) What you get for the price is amazing. For the average advanced amateur/semi-pro like myself, the A6000 will do everything you need and far more, and you'll want to take it everywhere. You can pull it out when you first get it and start shooting immediately (provided you purchase it with a lens - I bought the 16-50 and 55-200,) and the photos are great, even when enlarged far beyond the old 8"x10" size. If you have any legacy glass (which I have a lot of,) simply buy an adapter and start shooting. It is exciting to finally find a camera that has so fully engaged my love for photography again. I continue to learn and use features that are really helpful in my quest to make better photographs. If you want to take some great photos, and have a load of fun doing it, I seriously doubt you would ever regret this purchase. Oh, and the video.... simply amazing!

So pretty much this camera beats out anything that I've had my hands on in it's price segment. I've had hands on the nikon 5300, 7000, 7100, canon t5i, 70d and to be perfectly honest this would be the camera I would pick up until the point we start talking sony a7. The controls on this camera are very intuitive and are actually explanatory. The noise level is also very low even at iso 1600. This camera literally has the fastest and best tracking autofocus that you can find in it's segment, with the speed coming in at 0.06 seconds in ideal conditions. Most potential customers will look at this review and think a Sony?!?! Truth be told Sony makes the sensor for most of the great Nikons. There have been rants and raves over this camera for months now and After receiving mine i know exactly why. Summary in comparison to standard DSLR. - There's no sacrifice in image quality - It's considerably smaller and lighter so that alone makes it better by the fact that the best camera to have is the one you take with you. - lens library has something for everyone at this point and sony makes an a mount adapter allowing use with older sony dlsr lenses. -11 frame per second burst shots, but the camera can actually refocus itself in between those shots. -Less moving parts than a DSLR (so less to break). Recommended first after market lens. sel50f18-great for family, portraits, and general use. Make sure you get a fast sd card if you plan to use the burst alot..

I'm an amateur photographer having toyed around with film cameras of old, point and shot cameras as well as other digital models. I bought the A6000 as an upgrade of my old DSC-H50. The H50 was my work horse which I use for producing portrait graphics, product shots for my business and occasional social events. It did what it supposed to do but, not everything. I evaluated different models and based on the following criteria: 1. Price and Quality 2. Usability 3. Size and Ergonomics 4. Features 5. Lenses 6. APS-C 7. Speed (Shooting and Over-all responsiveness 8. Point and Shoot Feature I narrowed my options to pro-sumer brands from Nikon, Canon, and Sony (A7) and either a full frame or an APS-C system. 1. Price: The price of the APS-C with its pro features was really hard to ignore compared to full frame professional systems. Check out the prices online and you'll see what i mean. Quality a. The body is plastic but as long as it is hard resin plastic which is strong and light, I'm happy with the weight. b. I believe the plastic door for the HDMI and Multi-USB ports may break if not handle properly, so handle with care. c. The reticulated flash is kinda fragile, so handle with care. Be sure to store it when moving around and deploy it only when needed. d. The buttons and rotating rings and knobs are firm and not too soft. It prevents accidental changing of settings. e. The flash died after 1.5 weeks of extensive use. Since I was a Best Buy rewards member (now an Elite Plus member) my unit was replaced with a brand new one without too much brohaha. That's what I call customer service. I bought the unit in store and I may have gotten a lemon, because they told me that this is the 1st time they had a defective flash unit problem. The rest of the camera features still worked in spite of the flash being broken. My advise is, when you buy any electronic unit, test it extensively in the 1st few days so that you'll be able to find out if it has defects. 2. Usability a. The EVF, though lower in resolution quality than its predecessors and other competing brands, is just perfect. It's an EVF, period. There is no noticeable lag when panning and the area coverage is perfect for me. The sensor that activates it is too sensitive. The EVF sensor (when turned ON) should detect objects within 10 cm, NOT 30cm which can be annoying especially if you're using the reticulated display. Not a deal breaker, but a room for improvement which can be fixed (hopefully) by firmware upgrades. The controls are easy to understand. b. The Flash It's a good fill flash that's also effective within around 6 feet. Increasing the compensation to +3 would likely extend it to around 15'. But the good quality even on high ISO settings makes the size and power of the flash just enough. It's not there to replace professional flash capabilities, it's there if you need a flash. The reticulation allows you to bounce the flash if you need to bounce it. This simple capability can greatly improve the quality of your shots if you know how to use it. It takes getting used to propping one finger to push the reticulating flash to point upward. Adjust the flash compensation for longer reach. It's more than enough for my needs. Night shots are a challenge to shoot, but the pro-features of the A6000 (exposure compensation, ISO setting, HDR setting, HDO settings) makes it easier to adjust the quality of the night shots. Learn the features of the camera and you would have a host of solutions to address lighting problems. Forget post processing, learn how to use the features I mentioned and you'll get good quality nights shots. c. The 16-50mm PZ F3.5 kit lens. Adequate for my use. at 16mm, I can take selfies with a good coverage of the background or landscape. Quality is good under average lighting conditions. It's a good carry around lens and for tackling close quarter situations. The 16mm is good for landscape. I cant complain really. The 50mm is good for portrait and bokeh shots . Not as great as the dedicated SEL 50mm F1.8 but acceptable. d. Using a SEL 50mm F1.8 I bought a dedicated 50mm lens (in FF specs) it gives me an equivalent 75mm characteristic. Very good quality for regular portraits with soft bokeh shots. Low light shots are well rendered. 3. Size and Ergonomics The size is not pocketable on regular jeans, denims or shirts, but the 16-50mm combo will allow you to pocket it on a regular size coat pocket. It's comfortable to hold for my hand size. My hands are slender and small (not short and stubby!) The right hand grip is enough for a steady and secure grip. Not to big and not to small for me. Maybe too small for those with large gigantic hands. I suggest you try it "for comfort" 4. Features Everything I need is in there: Bokeh, great night shots, Fast moving shots, SLow Sync, Rear Sync, Interchangeable lens, buttons that I can program, video, fast focus using Phase Detection. Every professional feature that I may need is in there i think. 5. The love it or hate it e-mount lenses Either you'll love it or hate it. The availability is becoming better compared to 2 years ago. But how many do you really need? It depends on how you wanna use your camera. In my case, high quality product shots and occasional landscapes for use in websites requires some average quality prime lens in 16mm and 50mm. A good set of studio equipment either DIY or commercially available equipment are needed for product shots. 6. APS-C or Full Frame formats It used to be an issue for me. For the same distance away from your subject and using the same lens with the same focal length, the full frame system will capture more area of the picture versus the APS-C system. I learned to live with the limitations which I believe can be solved by buying the right lenses and positioning yourself at the right distance. The Sony A7 or A7R was being considered but the price of the A6000 APS-C system is worth considering, at least in my case it was a primary consideration. I'm no pro, but it does what I need to do and it does it pretty well in my opinion. if you have the cash, get the FF system, but consider this, Whatever you can do in the FF, you can do in the APS-C albeit using a different solution. 7. Speed Capturing moving objects requires some fiddling and common sense. With the A6000 the PDAF feature and high Frames Per Second, Shooting moving objects with less distortion and blurriness is so much easier. Over-all responsiveness of the system is okay. Minimal lag, cycling time of the flash is quite flash. 8. Point and Shoot feature I also bought the camera with my wife in mind. She may need the camera for hobby purposes, hence the capability to operate the camera with user friendly settings comparable to a point and shoot camera should be supported. The smart controls makes the configuration much easier. Dial the config to Intelligent Auto or super intelligent Auto and you're good to go. Bokeh is also easy to set-up with some fiddling, almost anybody can take great shots! My conclusion For an amateur like me who likes to produce my own materials for my websites, the A6000 + my skills can do the job. For a price that is a fraction of high end cameras, it's a no brainer. My next investment is on some accessories , but I'm still trying to observe what lenses I need and the accessories I need to buy. The investment on lenses has to wait though. I will have to comb through my shots to see which focal lengths I use extensively before buying a new lens system. Do i need a new flash systems, I'm not yet sure. DIY lighting systems maybe the way to go for me as commercial lighting systems are just bulky for me. We'll see. I'll be buying more accessories as I deem it fit. It's easy to fall prey to blogs and reviews where you need to buy this and that because they say you need it. Reality dictates, based on what I have observed with other enthusiasts, pros and amateurs alike, it all boils down on how you want to use your camera. Observe what you need using the 16-50mm lens. Use it extensively. Move around. A picture is not just about the clarity or the color correctness of the image. In general, majority of the viewers of your photos will observe the composition of the photo. Practice proper composition before you invest on high quality expensive units. It takes time, research and a lot of shooting. It's not the camera, it's the person behind the camera that takes beautiful and impressive photos. invest in tutorials and shoot a lot. Practice composition. The A6000 has everything you'll probably need to make professional looking photos. Photography can become a lifestyle and you can be drawn to spend a serious amount of money and I suggest you avail on reward systems that help you earn points which you can use to earn and purchase points or get discounts. For me Best Buy Rewards has helped me a lot. pick one that's best for you. Being a Best Buy rewards member helped me earn points and get perks that I can used to buy more accessories at discounted prices, and I get 45 days return policy instead of the usual 15 days. I can test accessories and I can return it if it doesn't suit my requirements.

I had been looking for a small and lightweight mirror less camera for several months. I wanted a camera with near DSLR image quality, the ability to interchange lenses ,to shoot in a RAW format, and to manually control the settings when I desired to do so. After looking at several models in stores, and reading many reviews, I chose the Sony α6000 kit with the 16-50mm zoom lens. I have used the camera for three months and so far, I have been satisfied with my decision. The image quality is very good even with the low end lens. One drawback is that the image stabilization is built into the lens and not the camera, so the choice of lenses that fully function with the camera is limited. I am still deciding on which additional lenses I need. Sometime soon I will purchase a prime and a better zoom lens. I purchased an inexpensive adapter to use an old Rokor prime lens and Vivitar zoom lens that I used on an old 35mm film camera, but the results have been less than desired. Obviously, there is no image stabilization or auto focus capability, and the camera’s focus assist and auto exposure controls do not work with these lenses. For someone considering this camera, I suggest reading as many reviews as possible to understand both the positive and negative aspects of this camera. For those who purchase this camera, I do have some suggestions. First, if I had to do it over again, I would probably purchase only the camera body and a couple of better lenses that work with it. The kit 16-50mm zoom is adequate for beginnings and in ideal lighting conditions, but it does have some very noticable barrel and chromatic distortions at various ranges and exposures. Many of those can be corrected in photo editing programs. Sony offers a free program download to convert the .arw (Sony’s version of the RAW format) to jpeg or tiff files. This program works well when using a SONY lens, but the ability to control the image and lens settings is limited. I do not use, but understand that new Adobe products have a profile for this camera and lenses that do a nice job of correcting camera and lens distortions. I found a program named DxO Optics Pro that is much more complete than the free Sony program. In addition to offering many more settings for image quality, it allows corrections for non-Sony lenses used on the camera. If using this program, be sure to download and install the profiles for the camera and lenses that are being used with the camera. My second tip is to purchase an external battery charger and spare battery. The battery life is good, but it takes several hours for the internal charger in the camera to fully charge the battery. The external battery charges the battery in less than half the time. And thirdly, download the complete user manual from the Sony website. The small manual provided with the camera does not even cover all of the basic functions adequately. I have used the smart phone Sony app to remotely control the camera and it works with some limitations. The latency in the video stream, zoom and focus controls, and activation commands is extreme. Quick moving scenes are gone long before they appear on the smart phone and then there is a delay when the capture image command is sent to the camera. Also, when using this control, only JPEG images can be captured in the camera. A full sized JPEG is stored in the camera and a reduced size version of that image is then sent to the smart phone. So, do not depend on this feature as a very useful remote control of the camera. I have not used any other mirror less camera, so I cannot compare this model to other similar cameras. In most situations, the images α6000 rival those from a DSLR, and are much better than an advanced point and shoot type camera that I own. A full featured DSLR still offers better image quality and control in bad or low lighting situations, and a better choice of lenses. However, the trade off is that I now can travel and move around with a much lighter load of cameras, lenses, and accessories for shooting most of my travel pictures and know that the images will be very acceptable.

With the myriad of brands and models currently available to consumers, it is very hard to know WHAT to choose as being the right one to meet your needs, desires, and pocket book effect. Sony produced this A6000 in 2014 as a follow-on to its 3000/5000 Series of Mirrorless Cameras. Probably the two most important aspects are: (1) The A6000 utilizes a genuine APS-C Sensor which the same type used in DSLR, and DSLT (Alpha) higher end products. In simpler terms for those that may be less familiar with that meaning - this ensures that you will have a SENSOR that is just slightly smaller in physical, and Megapixel capacity for capturing nearly every type of photo/shot condition/movie you would ever come across. (2) It ability to Fast Focus via some 179 Auto-sensed points means that whether it is a Wildlife critter making a jump, or taking off, or your child's first hit at the plate - this unit will capture it quickly and clearly. There are hosts of capabilities you can, or have already read about its features and benefits. This review is NOT intended to repeat all those aspects. This review is a personal opinion from someone who uses this product, owns lots of camera brands, models, and types -not a Professional Photographer- but an enthusiast level hobby photographer. The Sony A6000 is a small, powerful, and very capable Mirrorless camera that equals or surpasses many of the DSLR/DSLT Bridge Type cameras. Bridge Type: A term coined within the industries guru's that means a camera product that is in between a Professional Grade, and just a common Consumer Grade camera. With the Optional Lenses for the E-Mount class of camera's - such as the 50-210 Lens: You can have the ability to zoom out for that tight shot, or select a Lens for close in Macro type shooting. Even more Lens products are coming out for these E-Mount type Cameras. The only negative input here has to do with Sony's chosen method of providing the User/Owner with detailed usage manuals (300+pgs.). Their detailed User Manuals are via Sony's On-Line accessing, which can be downloaded - but utilize "Cascading Sheets" methodology versus straight PDF, or what we are all accustomed to as common Book Type formatting, such as: Accessing a Table Of Contents, correlate to a Page Number, etc. You can not hard copy PRINT - for placing into a binder or such - with a continuous printing from Page 1, to Page xx, the way we can typically print things. Actual Page Number jumps around, and is SUBJECT Driven vs. Page Driven. The Camera Product itself, and all the things you can do with it ARE a hit. The Sony A6000 is a big leader in this type of product. +

I did a ton of research before buying this camera. I was thinking about the Nikon 5300 or a camera with a full sized sensor. I'm not a pro photographer, nor do I need to capture shots of animals in the wild. I mainly wanted something that would take great pictures of two very energetic, fast-moving kids. This does the trick. In low light or fast action situations this camera blows away my old Sony point and shoot camera. It also does great portraits with pretty incredible bokeh. I put it on burst mode, fast shutter speed, tilted the screen down, held it up and held down the button as my kids were whizzing by in a roller coaster. It captured about 20 perfectly focused, sharp images in about 2 seconds. It sounds like a machine gun firing, and I got several great pictures capturing some priceless facial expressions. This is a great camera, and with its size and weight I can definitely carry it around all day with no problems

I was going to pay a photographer $300 to just come to our house and take pics of our boys, so instead I invested in purchasing this camera and I do not regret it. I've been complimented quite a bit on how great the pics I post of our boys come out. Check them out yourself.

This camera is a great piece of equipment. I almost purchased the NEX-6 and saw that this came to my Best Buy store when I decided to make my purchase. It's essentially the same camera as the NEX-6 just with bigger specs. Lots of accessories to choose from and the camera itself is very easy to handle, even with bigger lenses on it. I purchased the bundle with the 50-210mm lens and cannot complain. I'm very happy with my purchase and looking forward to using this camera often.