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

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.

Overall there is a ton of helpful info out there on this camera, and many reviews here do it justice. For an entry-level camera, the quality cannot be beat. There is great customization options for the wheels in manual mode to take shots exactly how you want, and the auto-modes work well too. While I highly rate the camera, there are a few things that really annoy me. Most of the pros are already out there so I'll just get to what I dislike; almost all of the dislikes have to do with video. 1. Microphone. The onboard mic is OK, but not great. This wouldn't be a big deal, except Sony did not include a microphone input on this camera. The only way to get external audio in is to purchase the Sony multi-interface shoe microphone, which doesn't even sound that good. So you cannot use any other microphones from your other rigs. What I've opted to do is use a Zoom H1N, and mount it on top of the camera with a blank cold-shoe plate-to-screw adapter. This works, but of course I have to manually add and sync audio, adding unnecessary workload, but not a ton. 2. Autofocus is quick on the lens but zooming and focusing is very audible through any camera-mounted microphone, which is annoying. Louder than it is outside the camera. 3. The LCD screen swivel is only partial-vertical swivel, which is practically useless. The mechanism used is fantastically strong for how light it is, but it is totally useless for framing shots if no one is behind the camera. Would really love to see a flip screen so you can frame from the front, especially with how portable this camera is, it's not likely there will always be someone else around to shoot. 4. Sony remote control app is obnoxious. It's cool that I can control it from my phone, but it's not cool that you can only control it in a few modes, and cannot use it in video mode. I thought with the remote camera app that I'd finally be able to self-frame video shots! Nope. Also annoying with the app is that you have to scan the camera basically every time you want to use it, which takes some time. Why can't I save the camera so I can connect to it every time without scanning the displayed QR code? 5. Battery life is pretty terrible, and the batteries take forever to charge too. 6. The camera straps hook onto little metal rings on the side of the camera. It's extremely difficult to remove the clips that hold onto the camera straps, and the rings are actually affixed to the camera and cannot be removed, even though they protrude right out of the chassis and are really annoying when you're holding the camera in certain ways. Like I said, these seem like a lot of negatives but there are tons of positives too. I just wanted to voice my frustrations. I will be keeping this camera around though, if not purely for the super convenient size factor when going on trips. Love the camera though in every other way!

I purchased my A6000 with kit lens in August 2014. This was going to be my back up camera for when I didn't want to carry my Nikon DSLR. The camera suddenly stopped working while using it saying "Camera cannot recognize lens." I did an internet search for this issue to find out it's quite common and Sony even has a lens firmware update for this issue. After installing the update the problem still existed. I contacted Sony Support being within the 1 year warranty and was instructed to send my entire camera to Precision Camera. After sending it in I was then informed by Precision Camera that my warranty was voided due to external damage. I asked for picture of the external damage knowing the camera was in great working shape beside the lens issue and was emailed a picture of the USB charging port with a pointer towards the charging port and it said "External Force Damage." I then asked for a quote to repair the external force damage they indicated and lens, but was told I only need to pay to replace the kit lens, the charging port worked fine. At this point I contacted Sony to protest the voided warranty because if the charging port works fine and according to Precision Camera doesn't actually need fixed why would my warranty be voided? Precision Camera received my camera on January 29th, it's now March 13th and I'm still waiting for Sony to make this right with no end in sight. After hours spent on the phone with Sony no one has specifically looked into the issue or offered to help explain the reason of the voided warranty. Precision camera still has my broken camera. I cannot believe a company as big as Sony is running me around like this. I made the mistake of buying a Sony camera and now know that I will never buy a Sony product again. Very disappointed.

The Sony A6000 is everything I could have wanted in a camera as an amateur photographer. The camera takes fantastic quality of pictures, gives the user as much or little control as they want, and is a very sturdy and strong quality of camera that can hold up to the abuse of moving to get the right photos. Here are some of my main points from my use with the camera the last 2 months. Price Obviously everyone is interested in the price of the product. I believe this camera is prices well for the amount of product you are getting. Because it is a mirrorless camera, it can take pictures at a quality of a $1000+ DLSR for a lower price. I Picked up this camera at Best Buy for $700 and did fork over the $180 for 3 years of Geek Squad to go with it. Even though $880 is still a good chunk of money I have found the camera to be well worth it. Ease of Use The Sony A6000 setting will let more professional users have complete control of all settings, or will let the newest amateur have almost no control and auto all settings for still a very great picture. I usually have the camera in full auto mode. The only times I have placed the camera in any of the manual modes is for nighttime skyline and drag racing photos. Picture Quality This camera has a 24.3 megapixels and the pictures are great. As long as I haven’t screwed things up from a camera control perspective, the photons always come out fantastic. Obviously, post editing photos is something that any realistic photographer will do, but because the photos are so great coming out of the camera, there is usually very little for me to do. For examples of photos that I have taken, please see my online portfolio: SSH-Photography.com Cons Very few cons with this camera. But here are 2 that I have found while using the Sony A6000. - Continuous shooting speed. On this camera, for sports photos or fast moving nature photos, a fast shooting speed is necessary to get the shot you want. Some more high end cameras and DSLRs will allow you to actually choose the number of photos per second. This camera will allow you to choose from low, medium or high shooting speed. The shooting speed of high is pretty fast, but what I noticed while at the drag racing track here in town is that even when shooting at a high speed with picture settings to JPEG the camera was just barely slower than I would have wanted. Now, please note that the cars I was shooting were traveling at 250+ MPH and I was standing about 20 feet away, so the kind of photos I was getting were at the extreme end of sports shooting. - Hot Shoe. The hot shoe on the top of the camera works with almost all accessories, but for some reason some of those accessories do not lock in securely completely all the time. If you notice the camera you will see the hot shoe is black compared to a Nikon or Cannon hot shoe. Part of me wonders that in an effort to keep the camera esthetically pleasing SONY painted the hot shoe in a way that makes it difficult for accessories to lock in completely sometimes. It has never been a major issue, but just something I noticed that I wish was just one more step towards perfect. Recommendation I would recommend this camera to any other individual who wanted to get into amateur photography that wanted a good quality camera for a price that is less than $1000. As I learn more about taking photos and how to become a better photographer this camera allows me to take those next steps. This camera is better than I could have imagined at first and only wish I had gotten started on this hobby a lot sooner. Once again, if you would like to see some examples of photos that I have taken please visit my online portfolio: SSH-Photography.com

I would recommend the a6000 to beginners and to photo enthusiasts alike. It has been used by pros. I have used the SONY a6000 for some hundreds of pics in about 3 weeks since purchasing. During this time, I put aside a Pentax K-5iis and K-3 ii DSLR. It is so good to carry a very capable compact APS-C mirrorless that can take shots to rival any of the enthusiast level APSC DSLRs. The SONY Alpha a6xxx series is highly regarded for capability of making use of Canon lenses using an adapter, though for video purposes, I've read one needs to use the @6300. My Pentax lenses are incompatible and can be attached to be used (with proper adapter) in Manual mode only. It is important to consider there is no touchscreen,the screen is fixed- in-place, there is no in-body image stabilization and video performance ( I do not use for video) will likely not satisfy semi-serious video shooters. Look that up for details . But for the price, I could not resist this. The a6000 overall is excellent. Almost 5 stars, but since it is not top of it's line now, and 2 rs old. But the current high-end a6300 is much more money, perhaps worth it for videographers. The coming a6500 -at nearly 3x price of a6000(!) will include wish list items, chiefly in-body stabilization, touch screen to select focus point, plus better processing power. That is only a wish list item. The a6000 is something to get now, with kit lens OK for true beginner or with a fast prime lens for somewhat more experienced ,or aspire to a whole other high-end top rank (large price and large size) lines of lenses aimed at pros. A good system to buy into, after all. To get best use of this camera, as soon as you are able, do customize function buttons. it will save time looking thru menus. There are 3 customizable modes available in menu, and so, this is one selection choice I've set a button on the body for. I am used to using prime lenses as well and zooms. I have the 2 kit zooms and purchased the E-mount Sony 35mm f/1.8 (stabilised) and a Sigma 60mm f/2.8 (non stabilised). I wanted excellent lenses on a budget and these are amongst those I would recommend. I've set up this and the DSLRs for back-button focus. It is good to use on the a6000 as much as on the DSLRs. Try the camera in-hand; the grip may not fit large guys hands. I find the grip fine, and it is better with the accessory SONY half-body case. Highly recommended for some protection and a better grip with access panel to all compartments. A beginner can certainly use auto mode and the general photo "looks" modes such at B+W, natural (color), sepia, etc. There are NO, pardon my attitude, modes on as on most beginner cams such as "sports", "party" "night", etc. . This is a good thing. View mode can be set to either just the screen, just the EVF (electronic viewfinder) or auto switchable as you put it to your eye the view changes from screen to viewfinder. That was a bit of a problem as the screen would go dark for the viewfinder when I tilted the camera upward to frame a shot. What this camera does, as with other 'mirror-less', you get to see your shot as you go in better, more seamless manner than live-view on DSLRs.

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 LOVE this camera. I've always had a camera in-hand since I was about 8 years old. My dad spoiled me with a basic Minolta film SLR when I was a freshman in college, and I learned so much with that camera. When the world went digital, I reluctantly made the move, and did my best to research awesome point-and-shoots that would fit my small budget, but was never fully satisfied with the photos. I recently found myself able to upgrade from my Canon Powershot SX260HS, and discovered the world of mirrorless cameras. I'm not a professional by any means, and the bulk (and expense) of DSLRs has kept me from considering them. I know myself, and my previous experience with a film SLR taught me that I will often leave a SLR behind due to it's sheer size. So when I discovered that a mirrorless camera is basically a DSLR in a much smaller body, I was intrigued. I did my research. So much research. And the Sony is definitely the way to go. I purchased the a6000 mostly because of my budget (or I would have considered the a6300 or a6500), and because the a5100 doesn't have a viewfinder, so you're stuck with the LCD to frame your shots on bright sunny days. The sony mirrorless cameras have the biggest CMOS sensor of their class, and they have a hot shoe for adding external flashes and such. The hand grip is solid and comfortable, even for my smaller hands. It may be a bit compact for someone with larger hands. But, you end up using both hands to control and support this camera anyway, so that's not a huge deal. The built-in flash is nothing special, but most of us considering this class of a camera wouldn't expect it to be anyway. It looks frail, but it's actually quite flexible, which allows you to point it away from your subject if you'd like. Sony has done a great job understanding a photographer's needs when designing this flash - it won't fire at all - even if you have the settings set for automatic flash - unless you have physically popped the flash open. It gives you incredible control, and you never have to worry about the camera firing the flash when you don't actually want it. One thing that I've found helpful with using this flash is a set of bounce cards I purchased on Amazon for $15. You get 3 cards that slide into the hot shoe, which help you direct the flash apparatus upwards, and spread the light up and to the sides to bounce the flash off the walls and ceiling. Highly recommended for indoor flash photography! Also recommended is a book called David Busch's Sony a6000. The manual that comes with the camera is tiny and not very useful. But this book is a wealth of information. I've learned so much in just the first two chapters of this book!. It's available on Kindle and iTunes, plus Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Kindle was the least expensive, however, and I like the idea of having the book available on my phone no matter where I am, in case I need a quick tip. One easily-remedied down-side to this camera is that the battery charges in-camera. You don't get a wall charger in the box. I'd highly recommend getting a wall charger and a couple extra batteries to keep on-hand so you don't find yourself stuck charging your battery, unable to use the camera. I bought two batteries, a wall charger, and a car charger from Wasabi on Amazon for less than $30. Anyway, long review, but the basic message is: Yes! Go get this camera! It's easy to use, versatile, responsive, takes great photos, and is appropriate for photographers of many levels.