April 10, 2017

The Sony A6000

This is a little mirrorless camera with an APS-C sensor. The crop factor is 1.5 (not 1.6 like Canon APS-C DSLR cameras). It is a 24.3 megapixel camera.

The A6000 body weighs 12.1 ounces. Adding the 7.3 ounce 18-55 lens brings the weight of the package to 19.4 ounces. Compare this to 9.5 ounces for my old Panasonic LX3. Or to 4 pounds and 7 ounces (71 ounces) for my Canon 5Dii with the 24-70 f/2.8 lens.

The sensor has 24.3 megapixels. It is 6058 by 4012 but images are saved as 6000 by 4000. The sensor itself is 23.5 by 15.6 mm (so it is APS-C with a 1.5 crop factor). Note that a micro 4/3 sensor is 17.3mm wide and has a 2.0 crop factor.

My particular interest in this camera is to have a lighter camera to carry on backpack trips that also takes excellent photographs. When weight is not an overriding consideration, I will continue to use my Canon DSLR cameras.

It is often sold with a terrible 16-50 kit lens. The 18-55 lens is much better, both optically and mechanically. The camera weights about 12 ounces and the 18-55 lens is about 7 ounces, so the combination weighs 19 ounces -- just over a pound. This makes it popular as a backpacking camera for people who are weight concious (as any intelligent backpacker should be). (You can save 3 ounces by going with the 16-50 lens). This is also the main reason I am interested in this camera.

The 18-55 has a field of view equivalent to lenses with a focal length of 27-82.5mm, which is a fair match to the 24-70 lens I enjoy on my full frame camera. The 18-55 is a design that changes f/ number from 3.5 to 5.6 as many less expensive zoom lenses do.

Videos and Propaganda

Gary Fong has a whole raft of videos on the A6000. He is so enthusiastic about the camera and lays it on so thick, it is hard to believe his claim that he is not in some kind of relationship with Sony, but that is what he says.

Batteries and Battery life

Anyone coming to a mirrorless camera like the A6000 is in for a rude shock if they are used to battery life with their DSLR camera. I can go on a week long trip with my Canon DSLR, leave the camera on day and night, and go through the week on one battery!

It is not hard at all to go through a battery each day with the A6000, even turning the camera off between exposures!

This is a real issue for a backpacking camera. Note that a battery weighs 41.8 grams (1.5 ounces). Compare this to 75.5 grams (2.7 ounces) for one of the batteries that I used in my Canon 5Dii DSLR. 6 batteries would weight 9 ounces. (along with 19 ounces for the camera and lens), which is not out of the question.

The battery is a NP-FW50 and is a 7.2 volt lithium ion battery with a 1020 mAh rating. The genuine article from Sony costs $62. I have been using aftermarket batteries by Wasabi battery that are rated 1300 mAh and have found them to be as good or better than the genuine Sony batteries for $10 each.

I have seen people say they only get half a day from a battery. I suspect they are leaving the camera on continually. And with video (which I don't do) you get maybe 30 minutes.

Shutter actuations

Run a recent version of exiftool on any jpg file:
exiftool -ImageNumber -ImageCount -ShutterCount file.jpg

I picked up mine from a friend who was upgrading to the A6300. He sold me just the body and I added an 18-55 lens purchased from Ebay. It arrived showing 1463 shutter activations, which is certainly lightly used.


Feedback? Questions? Drop me a line!

Tom's Digital Photography Info / tom@mmto.org