Sony’s Alpha-series APS-C mirrorless cameras have lengthy been widespread selections for informal in addition to fanatic photographers, due to their ease of use, excellent efficiency, and portability. Sony has been churning out new iterations of the A6000 sequence like clockwork and it launched its newest flagship digital camera, the A6600, in late 2019.
This digital camera builds upon the already highly effective A6500 with neat enhancements similar to an even bigger battery, even faster autofocus, a flip-up LCD show, eye autofocus (AF) for video, and plenty of extra little issues which we’ll get into additional within the evaluation. Suffice to say, it is the very best cropped-sensor mirrorless digital camera Sony has provided thus far. Along with these new options, additionally comes a barely larger value of Rs. 1,17,990 for simply the physique. Is the Sony A6600 definitely worth the premium? It’s time to seek out out.
Sony A6600 design
The physique of the A6600 will look very acquainted for those who’ve used any of the earlier fashions on this sequence. However, there’s one main distinction: the digital camera grip is quite a bit greater due to the bigger battery. For the primary time, Sony has used a battery from its full-frame mirrorless fashions within the A6600, which is alleged to supply 800 photographs per cost. This is a large step up from the earlier 350-400 photographs per cost that different A6XXX fashions have been rated for. The bigger grip additionally implies that this digital camera is extra snug to carry for a protracted time period. The physique is constructed from a magnesium alloy and is alleged to be mud and moisture-resistant.
The Sony A6600 has the biggest handgrip within the sequence, due to the larger battery
The buttons are ergonomically laid out on the again, and most of them will be customised, together with the labelled ones. The mode dial on the highest provides the same old capturing modes, together with the devoted S&Q (sluggish and fast) mode, which we noticed on the A6400. Sony has ditched the pop-up flash on this mannequin, however you continue to get a hotshoe for exterior flashes.
The ports on the left facet of the A6600 now embrace a headphone jack, together with the same old microphone, Micro-USB, and Micro-HDMI ports. We’re somewhat disenchanted that Sony hasn’t moved to the USB Type-C customary but for this sequence.
The rear 3-inch touchscreen has a 921Ok dot decision and will be flipped upwards 180 levels, making it simple to take selfies or body a shot when vlogging. There’s a three-second timer that is routinely enabled for stills when the display is flipped up. It can be tilted downwards, supplying you with a good bit of flexibility when you must shoot at odd angles. You additionally get a 0.39-inch OLED digital viewfinder with a 2.35 million dot decision.
Overall, the A6600 feels extraordinarily well-built and durable, simply as you’d anticipate from a premium Sony digital camera. The small physique makes it simple to slide into any bag, and at 503g its weight may be very manageable. The proportions clearly improve when you slap a lens on to the physique. Sony despatched us an 18-135mm zoom lens together with the digital camera physique. We’ve discovered it to be pretty versatile for informal capturing, however the aperture vary of f/3.5 to f/5.6 would not make for nice low-light photographs. Still, as a starter lens, we did handle to get first rate outcomes with it.
Sony A6600 specs and options
The Sony A6600 encompasses a 24.2-megapixel cropped (APS-C) CMOS sensor with a local ISO vary of 100-32,000. This will be expanded to 50-1,02,400 and you may set a threshold for the utmost ISO that the digital camera can use when capturing. Burst capturing tops out at 11fps (in Hi+ mode) and 8fps within the live-view and silent shutter modes.
The buffer for holding burst photographs is not too massive, and Sony claims it may possibly maintain solely as much as 115 JPEG frames or 46 RAW information at a time. This is quite a bit decrease than the 269 JPEGs and 107 RAW information that the A6500 was able to. The digital camera makes use of a single SD card, positioned beside the battery, however it solely helps as much as UHS-I speeds and never UHS-II.
One of the highlights of the A6600 is its AI focus monitoring functionality. The sensor options 425 section detection autofocus (PDAF) factors, and the identical variety of distinction detection AF factors, which is the way it’s capable of lock focus in simply 0.02 seconds, in keeping with Sony. This is not precisely new, since Sony’s personal A6400 which we examined a 12 months in the past had the identical setup.
Face and eye monitoring are nonetheless very dependable and instantly kick in once you half-press the shutter button. There’s real-time eye autofocus for animals too, and this labored decently once we tried it. The digital camera additionally has in-body 5-axis stabilisation to assist scale back blur in stills when utilizing a excessive zoom degree.
The A6600 has some fairly nifty video capabilities too. Besides having the ability to shoot at as much as 4K 30fps, with full pixel readout, the digital camera additionally helps superior image profiles similar to S-Log2, S-Log3, and HLG, for HDR workflows. This can also be Sony’s first APS-C digital camera to supply eye autofocus when capturing movies.
For smartphone connectivity, the A6600 helps NFC, 2.4GHz Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth. Last 12 months, Sony lastly changed its Play Memories companion app with the brand new Imaging Edge Mobile, which is simpler to make use of and arrange. You can use it to wirelessly copy images to your cellphone, both of their authentic measurement or a decreased measurement. You may even use your cellphone’s show as a viewfinder for controlling the digital camera remotely.
Sony A6600 efficiency and battery life
The A6600 has the identical native most ISO because the A6400, which is 32,000, and the outcomes of our ISO check had been related too. Clarity and sharpness had been preserved very nicely from ISO 100 up till about ISO 800, the place we began to see very minor grain. Jumping to ISO 3,200, we observed some gentle distortion alongside the sides of the pencils, however nothing too horrible. At ISO 12,800, the sides of the pencils started to lose definition, however as soon as once more, this was solely noticeable at a 100 p.c crop. Grain was seen too however no chroma noise but.
At the best native ISO of 32,000, the picture had very seen artifacting even while not having to zoom in. Using any ISO above this degree doesn’t yield beneficial outcomes, so we might advise limiting it to about 25,600 for a great stability between a comparatively quick shutter and low grain, when capturing handheld at evening.
When capturing outdoor in daylight, the A6600 hardly ever stumbled and was all the time on level when it got here to specializing in what we wished. We most popular to make use of the digital camera’s ‘Expand Flexible Spot’ AF mode, however the others had been dependable too. There’s monitoring AF, which labored nicely on folks and objects alike. Landscapes had excellent particulars, and hues had been richly represented. Dynamic vary was fairly spectacular too. We did discover some gentle vignetting within the corners of body at larger zoom ranges, however contemplating that you’ve got 24 megapixels to play with, we discovered it simpler to easily crop photographs to the specified body afterward.
Close-up photographs had been dealt with very nicely. Despite the marginally slim aperture vary, utilizing a little bit of zoom for our close-ups yielded some very good depth-of-field results. The giant variety of autofocus factors additionally made it very simple to seize fast-moving objects similar to birds. Even at full zoom, the digital camera was fast to trace our topic and keep locked on for the burst period. One factor to notice is that for the reason that buffer is not very giant, there is a good bit of ready earlier than you’ll be able to really evaluation your photographs, which received somewhat annoying typically. The touchscreen may be very responsive and it may be used to rapidly change the main focus space and evaluation your photos. However, it nonetheless cannot be used for navigating the menus.
In low-light eventualities, the A6600 nonetheless focuses rapidly and we solely observed a little bit of looking when capturing distant objects or at full zoom. Dynamic vary was fairly good too, and the in-body stabilisation labored very nicely, even when capturing from a shifting automobile. In very low mild, we observed a little bit of grain in images, however that is as a result of we had been capturing on the highest native ISO setting. Dropping it down did yield extra beneficial outcomes.
Video efficiency is equally good. We had been primarily capturing at 4K and had been fairly impressed with the element and hues that the A6600 can seize. Focusing was as soon as once more very dependable and a easy faucet on the viewfinder will easily transition the main focus between topics. Faces are routinely tracked however this may be disabled if wanted. You also can set the pace at which focus and monitoring are modified, relying in your capturing fashion.
The A6XXX sequence has typically struggled to supply nice battery life, particularly when recording video. All that modifications with the A6600, due to its a lot beefier battery. With the digital camera in Airplane mode, we observed about 25 p.c left within the battery after taking greater than a 1,000 photographs. Even capturing 4K video would not make as massive a dent within the battery degree as we have skilled with older fashions. You can cost the digital camera (with the battery inside) via an influence financial institution too.
Verdict
The A6600 looks like probably the most full APS-C mirrorless digital camera thus far from Sony. It will get the very best bits of the A6500 and the A6400, together with the bonus of a a lot bigger battery. Plus, issues just like the headphone socket, flip-up LCD, and faster monitoring autofocus make this digital camera very nicely suited to vlogging. That’s not saying it is excellent – we’d nonetheless prefer to see Sony improve to a USB Type-C port and add quick charging; allow us to use the touchscreen within the menus; and perhaps add assist for UHS-II pace SD playing cards too.
Coming to the value, the A6600 is somewhat costly. The digital camera physique and the 18-135mm package lens collectively are priced at Rs. 1,51,990, though yow will discover them promoting for about Rs. 20,000 much less on-line. Keep in thoughts that the A6500, with the identical lens, can now be discovered for underneath a Rs. 1,00,000, so except you completely want the larger battery and barely faster focusing, the earlier mannequin continues to be a great possibility.
Overall, the Sony A6600 is a superb possibility for those who’re in search of a do-it-all mirrorless digital camera or are merely trying to improve from an entry-level mannequin.
Price (M.R.P)
- Body solely: Rs. 1,17,990
- With 18-135mm lens – Rs. 1,51,990
This post was last modified on July 1, 2020 4:53 am