Sony’s Alpha-series APS-C mirrorless cameras have lengthy been fashionable 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 digicam, the A6600, in late 2019.
This digicam builds upon the already highly effective A6500 with neat enhancements resembling an even bigger battery, even faster autofocus, a flip-up LCD show, eye autofocus (AF) for video, and lots of extra little issues which we’ll get into additional within the evaluate. Suffice to say, it is the very best cropped-sensor mirrorless digicam Sony has supplied up to now. Together with these new options, additionally comes a barely larger value of Rs. 1,17,990 for simply the physique. Is the Sony A6600 well worth the premium? It is time to discover out.
Sony A6600 design
The physique of the A6600 will look very acquainted in the event you’ve used any of the earlier fashions on this sequence. Nevertheless, there’s one main distinction: the digicam grip is lots greater because of the bigger battery. For the primary time, Sony has used a battery from its full-frame mirrorless fashions within the A6600, which is claimed to supply 800 photographs per cost. This can be a large step up from the earlier 350-400 photographs per cost that different A6XXX fashions have been rated for. The bigger grip additionally signifies that this digicam is extra snug to carry for a chronic time frame. The physique is constructed from a magnesium alloy and is claimed to be mud and moisture-resistant.
The Sony A6600 has the most important handgrip within the sequence, because of the larger battery
The buttons are ergonomically laid out on the again, and most of them might 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 (gradual 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 aspect of the A6600 now embrace a headphone jack, together with the same old microphone, Micro-USB, and Micro-HDMI ports. We’re a little bit disillusioned that Sony hasn’t moved to the USB Kind-C commonplace but for this sequence.
The rear 3-inch touchscreen has a 921Ok dot decision and might be flipped upwards 180 levels, making it simple to take selfies or body a shot when vlogging. There is a three-second timer that is routinely enabled for stills when the display screen is flipped up. It may also 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.
Total, the A6600 feels extraordinarily well-built and durable, simply as you’d anticipate from a premium Sony digicam. The small physique makes it simple to slide into any bag, and at 503g its weight may be very manageable. The proportions clearly enhance when you slap a lens on to the physique. Sony despatched us an 18-135mm zoom lens together with the digicam physique. We have discovered it to be pretty versatile for informal capturing, however the aperture vary of f/3.5 to f/5.6 does not make for excellent low-light photographs. Nonetheless, as a starter lens, we did handle to get respectable outcomes with it.
The rear LCD show on the Sony A6600 can flip outwards and upwards by 180 levels
Sony A6600 specs and options
The Sony A6600 incorporates a 24.2-megapixel cropped (APS-C) CMOS sensor with a local ISO vary of 100-32,000. This may be expanded to 50-1,02,400 and you’ll set a threshold for the utmost ISO that the digicam can use when capturing. Burst capturing tops out at 11fps (in Hello+ 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 maintain solely as much as 115 JPEG frames or 46 RAW information at a time. This can be a lot decrease than the 269 JPEGs and 107 RAW information that the A6500 was able to. The digicam 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 many highlights of the A6600 is its AI focus monitoring functionality. The sensor options 425 part detection autofocus (PDAF) factors, and the identical variety of distinction detection AF factors, which is the way it’s in a position to lock focus in simply 0.02 seconds, based on Sony. This is not precisely new, since Sony’s personal A6400 which we examined a yr in the past had the identical setup.
Face and eye monitoring are nonetheless very dependable and instantly kick in whenever you half-press the shutter button. There’s real-time eye autofocus for animals too, and this labored decently once we tried it. The digicam additionally has in-body 5-axis stabilisation to assist cut back blur in stills when utilizing a excessive zoom stage.
The Sony A6600 now incorporates a headphone socket too
The A6600 has some fairly nifty video capabilities too. In addition to having the ability to shoot at as much as 4K 30fps, with full pixel readout, the digicam additionally helps superior image profiles resembling S-Log2, S-Log3, and HLG, for HDR workflows. That is additionally Sony’s first APS-C digicam to supply eye autofocus when capturing movies.
For smartphone connectivity, the A6600 helps NFC, 2.4GHz Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth. Final yr, Sony lastly changed its Play Reminiscences companion app with the brand new Imaging Edge Cell, which is less complicated to make use of and arrange. You should utilize it to wirelessly copy images to your cellphone, both of their authentic dimension or a decreased dimension. You may even use your cellphone’s show as a viewfinder for controlling the digicam 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 take a look at had been comparable too. Readability and sharpness had been preserved very effectively from ISO 100 up till about ISO 800, the place we began to see very minor grain. Leaping to ISO 3,200, we seen some delicate 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.
Sony A6600 ISO take a look at
On the highest native ISO of 32,000, the picture had very seen artifacting even without having to zoom in. Utilizing any ISO above this stage doesn’t yield beneficial outcomes, so we would advise limiting it to about 25,600 for a very good stability between a comparatively quick shutter and low grain, when capturing handheld at evening.
When capturing outside in daylight, the A6600 not often stumbled and was all the time on level when it got here to specializing in what we needed. We most popular to make use of the digicam’s ‘Broaden Versatile Spot’ AF mode, however the others had been dependable too. There’s monitoring AF, which labored effectively on folks and objects alike. Landscapes had excellent particulars, and colors had been richly represented. Dynamic vary was fairly spectacular too. We did discover some delicate vignetting within the corners of body at larger zoom ranges, however contemplating that you’ve 24 megapixels to play with, we discovered it simpler to easily crop pictures to the specified body in a while.
Panorama pattern shot with the Sony A6400: ISO 100, f/5.6, 1/840, 75mm (faucet to see resized picture)
Shut-up pattern shot with the Sony A6400: ISO 100, f/5.6, 1/640, 69mm (faucet to see resized picture)
Burst nonetheless pattern shot with the Sony A6600: ISO 100, f/5.6, 1/640, 69mm (faucet to see resized picture)
Shut-up photographs had been dealt with very effectively. Regardless of the marginally slim aperture vary, utilizing a little bit of zoom for our close-ups yielded some very good depth-of-field results. The massive variety of autofocus factors additionally made it very simple to seize fast-moving objects resembling birds. Even at full zoom, the digicam was fast to trace our topic and keep locked on for the burst length. One factor to notice is that because the buffer is not very giant, there is a good bit of ready earlier than you possibly can really evaluate your photographs, which acquired a little bit annoying typically. The touchscreen may be very responsive and it may be used to shortly change the main target space and evaluate your photos. Nevertheless, it nonetheless cannot be used for navigating the menus.
In low-light eventualities, the A6600 nonetheless focuses shortly and we solely seen 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 effectively, even when capturing from a shifting automobile. In very low gentle, we seen 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.
Low gentle panorama pattern shot with the Sony A6400: ISO 125, f/5.6, 1/125, 67mm (faucet to see resized picture)
Low-light pattern shot with the Sony A6400: ISO 32,000, f/5.6, 1/440, 135mm (faucet to see resized picture)
Video efficiency is equally good. We had been primarily capturing at 4K and had been fairly impressed with the element and colors 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 target between topics. Faces are routinely tracked however this may be disabled if wanted. It’s also possible to set the pace at which focus and monitoring are modified, relying in your capturing type.
The A6XXX sequence has typically struggled to supply nice battery life, particularly when recording video. All that adjustments with the A6600, because of its a lot beefier battery. With the digicam in Airplane mode, we seen about 25 p.c left within the battery after taking greater than a 1,000 photographs. Even capturing 4K video does not make as massive a dent within the battery stage as we have skilled with older fashions. You may cost the digicam (with the battery inside) by an influence financial institution too.
Verdict
The A6600 looks like essentially the most full APS-C mirrorless digicam up to now 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 digicam very effectively suited to vlogging. That is not saying it is good – we might nonetheless wish to see Sony improve to a USB Kind-C port and add quick charging; allow us to use the touchscreen within the menus; and possibly add help for UHS-II pace SD playing cards too.
Coming to the value, the A6600 is a little bit costly. The digicam physique and the 18-135mm equipment lens collectively are priced at Rs. 1,51,990, though you will discover them promoting for about Rs. 20,000 much less on-line. Remember the fact that the A6500, with the identical lens, can now be discovered for underneath a Rs. 1,00,000, so until you completely want the larger battery and barely faster focusing, the earlier mannequin continues to be a very good possibility.
Total, the Sony A6600 is a good possibility in the event you’re in search of a do-it-all mirrorless digicam or are merely trying to improve from an entry-level mannequin.
Worth (M.R.P)
- Physique solely: Rs. 1,17,990
- With 18-135mm lens – Rs. 1,51,990