Sony Alpha a6000

Sony Alpha a6000

Sony Alpha a6000
Announced: 23 Apr 2014
Sensor Resolution: 24Mp
Sensor Type: APS-C CMOS
ISO: 100-25600
Weight: 344g
Physical Dimensions: 120 x 67 x 45 mm
Viewfinder: Electronic
Screen Type: 3" Tilting
Video Resolutions: 1920 x 1080
58
Overall Score
48
Image Quality
58
Speed Performance
62
Versatility
73
Comfort
Portrait

50

Portrait
Landscape

47

Landscape
Sport

56

Sport
Street

65

Street
Everyday

67

Everyday

Amazon best deals on Sony Alpha a6000

Disclaimer

This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking through my links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

prospros

  • Its extraordinary color depth makes it perfect for portrait photography
  • Its wide dynamic range makes it ideal for landscape photography
  • This camera autofocus is able to follow moving subjects
  • The LCD display is a convenient and almost indispensable feature
  • It has fast shutter speed, ideal for action photos
  • Sony Alpha a6000 is one of the smallest cameras in its category. This makes it very easy to handle and suitable for street photography and daily use
  • Thanks to the wireless connection, Sony Alpha a6000 allows immediate picture sharing

conscons

  • Warning - Sony Alpha a6000 is not a tropicalized camera. If you use it in adverse conditions, you could ruin it.
  • Warning - Sony Alpha a6000 battery has only 360.0 shoots autonomy. This might be a limiting factor if you think you'll have to do long photo sessions without having the chance to recharge it.

SONY a6000: full review

When it was launched at the beginning of 2015, Sony a6000 was a very innovative mirrorless. Five years later, many things have changed but this camera is still a respectable APS-C for many reasons. Sony a6000 was the model that legitimized Sony as one of the most competent companies in terms of mirrorless once and for all.

The nomenclature with the alpha comes from the acquisition of Minolta and at first it was used for reflex models. Not produced since 2010 anymore, the “prefix” moved to Mirrorless models, which differ from the compacts called Cybershot. Sony a6000 (“a” is actually a Greek alpha) was for years the Mirrorless model by definition of the Japanese company.

Over the years came out Sony a6300 (with 4k videos and improved AF) and then Sony a6500 with stabilizer and touch screen. This review will help you understand how this model is still great, five years after its launch. Or not.

SONY a6000: the design of the camera body

Like all Mirrorless, Sony a6000 has a quite small and easy to carry camera body, sized 120x66.9x45.1 mm. Almost a compact, to be clear. Including battery it weighs less than 3.5hg! With the kit supplied lens – 16-55 millimeters – the weight reaches 460 grams… a joke compared to reflex cameras. But the good news isn’t over: Sony a6000 needs only a USB cable to recharge, no battery charger… the best travelling companion, then.

Talking about design, Sony a6000 looks very austere and simple: essential lines, typical Sony squaring. Not a soft look. The grip is deep enough also for quite big hands. The viewfinder is not central but is placed on the top-left area.

The buttons are reachable without any particular effort and are customizable for a faster and personalized workflow.

Technical features

Sony a6000 has 24 megapixels Exmor APS HD CMOS sensor, APS-C format. Together with Bionz-X processor, it is really fast in recording and processing images. Consequently, the Autofocus is precise and quick both with photos and with videos.

Still very good, despite its age, the Autofocus of Sony a6000 is a hybrid system (contrast and phase) based on 179 phase detection points with 92% image coverage. When it was launched, Sony defined it as the “fastest autofocus in the world”. Now it certainly isn’t anymore, but it still stands up well. In fact, the continuous AF and the look detection are very timely features.

Also burst mode (11 f/ps) is still up to it. Same thing goes for the very capacious buffering, which can shoot for 5 seconds at 11 frames per second.

The 3 inches LCD display has some limits, instead, because it is not touch-screen and can be reclined only vertically. Of course, when Sony a6000 came out, this wasn’t a problem. But now that we’re used to lightly touch the display to select the AF point we want, using the settings to do it is a little annoying. Technological laziness. The format is 16:9, with 920k definition dots.

Taking pictures with Sony a6000

Unlike many other Sony models, the menu is not that bad, divided into different pages, each with 6 items, visible without scrolling. The image quality is more than decent, thanks to a dynamic range that works perfectly also on light and shadow. In low light conditions – and this is a limit of Sony – the quality decreases significantly and, beyond 3200 ISO, digital noise is quite impairing. In these cases, manual focusing is always the best choice.

With the same weight of compact cameras but with definitely better performance, Sony a6000 is the ideal travelling companion. Small and easy to handle, it is satisfying also for Street photography, where discretion is priceless. Its autofocus, then, is still very good and captures the most animated situation perfectly.

Video recording

The focus hybrid system is useful during video recording too, providing total control of the aperture and of continuous focusing. There is also the auto peaking mode, an actual assistant in case you choose manual focusing. Then, there are several effects to customize video photography: rétro, pop colors and soft focusing are those who amused me more.

Definition is not 4K yet, unlike its more recent sisters a6300 and a6500, but is a good quality full HD (1920x1080).

Sony a6000 has integrated microphone. As usual, it is not the best so I suggest you to get an external device to connect through the mount, since there is no 3.5mm jack.

My opinion on Sony a6000

On continuous focusing are based all performances of Sony a6000. It’s the first reason that makes me still say this is a mirrorless in all respect, despite the years passed since its launch. The price is also absolutely affordable for this camera range.

Obviously the excellent Autofocus is not the only reason why you should buy Sony a6000: 24 megapixels definition, WiFi connection and many apps for images download are features that make this mirrorless still up-to-date and competitive on this market segment.

Personally, I think that the greatest limit is the non-touch screen. But if it’s not an insurmountable limit for you, then I can say – without hesitation – that Sony a6000 is still a valid APS-C mirrorless, five years after its launch.

Sony Alpha a6000 and its rivals

Review compare Sony Alpha a6000 with overall score Portrait
Portrait
Landscape
Landscape
Sport
Sport
Street
Street
Everyday
Everyday
Sony Alpha a6000 Sony
Alpha a6000
58 50 47 56 65 67 $613.00
Nikon Z7 Mark II Nikon
Z7 Mark II
70 69 68 68 70 71 buy on
Canon EOS R8 Canon
EOS R8
68 65 65 64 68 70 buy on
Nikon Z5 Nikon
Z5
66 65 65 60 67 69 buy on
Fujifilm X-T4 Fujifilm
X-T4
65 52 50 68 72 74 buy on
Sony Alpha a6600 Sony
Alpha a6600
65 51 50 67 72 74 buy on
Panasonic Lumix DC-GH6 Panasonic
Lumix DC-GH6
62 47 46 70 64 67 buy on

Sony Alpha a6000: concluding remarks and technical specifications

The Sony Alpha a6000 is a mirrorless camera launched on 04/23/2014.

Technically speaking, the Sony Alpha a6000 ranks in the average of its category, scoring 58 overall. The Sony Alpha a6000 weights 344 gr and spans 120 x 67 x 45 mm. This means that it is particularly light and small, indeed one of the most handy options within its category.

Going into details, the Sony Alpha a6000 behaves better than average in its category for:

  • Image Quality - Score 48, ranks in the category best 39%.
  • Speed Performance - Score 58, ranks in the category best 30%.
  • Comfort - Score 73, ranks in the category best 21%.

On the contrary, the performance of Sony Alpha a6000 is below the category average in:

  • Versatility - Score 62, ranks among the worst 38% of its category.

However, the technical performance of your camera should be put in context. Indeed, depending on the type of photography you are interested in, each individual camera feature can impact your pictures to a different extent. This is the reason why we developed the iCamRank. iCamRank has been designed to weight all the individual technical specifications of each camera in the camerarace database, depending on different shooting conditions. Thus, here is what we suggest, depending on the photography type you like most:

  • Portrait - Good, score 50, ranks in the best 38% of its category. Sony Alpha a6000 works well for Portrait photography, however even better options are available, which you may want to take into account.
  • Landscape - Good, score 47, ranks in the best 40% of its category. Sony Alpha a6000 works well for Landscape photography, however even better options are available, which you may want to take into account.
  • Sport - Good, score 56, ranks in the best 38% of its category. Sony Alpha a6000 works well for Sport photography, however even better options are available, which you may want to take into account.
  • Street - Good, score 65, ranks in the best 29% of its category. Sony Alpha a6000 works well for Street photography, however even better options are available, which you may want to take into account.
  • Everyday - Good, score 67, ranks in the best 31% of its category. Sony Alpha a6000 works well for daily photography, however other options are available too, which you may want to take into account.

Last but not least, the price. You can find the Sony Alpha a6000 sold on Amazon for a price comprised between 613.0 USD and 1034.95 USD, which is in the average for this camera category.

Overall, Sony Alpha a6000 is a great value for money. If this is the kind of camera you are looking for, you should definitely consider buying it.

Sony Alpha a6000 technical specs

Sensor Type

Sensor Type

CMOS

Sensor Size

APS-C

Sensor Dimensions

23.5 x 15.6 mm

Sensor Area

366.6 mm2

Sensor Resolution

24 Mp

Max Image Resolution

6000 x 4000

Max Native ISO

25600

Min Native ISO

100

RAW Support

yes

Lens

Manual Focus

yes

Lens Mount

Sony E

Number of Lenses

73

Focal Length Multiplier

1.5

Screen Type

Screen Type

Tilting

Screen Size

3.0"

Screen Resolution

922Kdot

Live View

yes

Touch Screen

no

Viewfinder

Viewfinder

Electronic

Viewfinder Resolution

1440000.0

Viewfinder Coverage

100

Viewfinder Magnification

0.7

Features

Min Shutter Speed

30s

Max Shutter Speed

1/4000s

Continuous Shooting

11fps

Shutter Priority

yes

Aperture Priority

yes

Manual Exposure Mode

yes

Exposure Compensation

yes

Custom White Balance

yes

Image Stabilization

no

Built-in Flash

yes

Flash Range

6.0

Max Flash Sync

1/160s

Flash Modes

Flash off
auto
fill-flaw
slow sync
redeye reduction
hi-speed sync
wireless control

External Flash

yes

AE Bracketing

yes

WB Bracketing

yes

Dxo Sensor Scores

DxO Overall Score

82

DxO Color Depth

24.1

DxO Dynamic Range

13.1

DxO Low Light ISO

1347

Exposure Modes

Multi-Segment

yes

Average

no

Spot

yes

Partial

no

AF-Area

no

Center Weighted

yes

Autofocus

AF Touch

no

AF Continuous

yes

AF Single

yes

AF Tracking

yes

AF Selective

yes

AF Center

yes

AF MultiArea

yes

AF Live View

yes

AF Face Detection

yes

AF Contrast Detection

yes

AF Phase Detection

yes

Number of Focus Points

179

Number of Cross Focus Points

0

Video Features

Video Resolutions

1920 x 1080 (60p 60i 24p) 1440 x 1080 (30p 25p) 640 x 480 (30p 25p)

Max Video Resolution

1920x1080

Video Formats

MPEG-4 AVCHD XAVC S

Microphone Port

no

Headphone Port

no

Connectivity

Wireless Connectivity

Built-in

HDMI

yes

USB

USB 2.0 (480 Mbit/sec)

Physical

Environmental Sealing

no

Water Proof

no

Dust Proof

no

Shock Proof

no

Crush Proof

no

Freeze Proof

no

Weight

344g

Physical Dimensions

120 x 67 x 45 mm

Battery Life

360

Battery Type

Battery Pack

Battery Model

NP-FW50

Other Features

Self Timer

Yes (2 or 10 sec, continuous (3-5 shot))

Timelapse Recording

yes

GPS

no

Storage Type

SD SDHC SDXC, Memory Stick Pro Duo Pro-HG Duo

Storage Slots

1

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