The potential for untrained users to miss the subject altogether is much higher. You can read more about actual performance of … The autofocus proved to be really good and I can’t say I’m surprised. I used both the smaller and expanded spots in equal measure. Adjust the tracking sensitivity and focus speed in the same way as before is still possible. The Sony A6500 is a superb APS-C mirrorless camera with an equally superb built-in electronic viewfinder (EVF). The Sony A6300 and A6500 were strange releases, considering that Sony skipped models in-between. VILTROX 85mm F1.8 Mark II Auto Focus Full Frame Lens for Sony E Mount, STM Large Aperture Medium Telephoto Portrait Fixed Focus Lens for Sony Camera A9 A7R3 A7III A7RIII A7M3 A7S2 A6500 A6300 4.5 … This was a good compromise between running out of screen to swipe and not hitting your face with your fingers. Sony's APS-C camera lineup has a new flagship model, the A6500. Sony reps did suggest that it should be very similar to the a6300 and I’m not expecting any big surprises. In a nutshell, the a6500 allows you to control autofocus in a much more natural way than before thanks to touch AF. If you’re looking for a compact mirrorless camera with innovative autofocus and killer in-body stabilization, there’s no time like the present to scoop one up for yourself. Side-by-side the Sony Alpha a6500 is significantly better (even though it overheated on me in Iceland several times, of all places!). For video that is. The problem is that in this mode you lose the ability to direct the focus with your finger after the initial selection. It all feels a lot like playing a computer game – something that younger operators will feel right at home with. For longer form stuff that is edited it is much less so. No other small 4K camera comes close for natural looking AF at the moment. Sony Alpha A6400 Mirrorless Camera: Compact APS-C Interchangeable Lens Digital Camera with Real-Time Eye Auto Focus, 4K Video, Flip Screen & 16-50mm Lens - E Mount Compatible Cameras - Ilce-6400L/B. Speaking of touchscreens, you can also double-tap the screen to zoom in on shots or swipe through images during playback. Lenses: Sony/Zeiss 35mm f1.4, Sony 70-200 f4, Sony 10-18mm f4 and Sony 18-105mm f4 Camera: Sony a6500 loan unit from Sony Lenses: Sony/Zeiss 35mm f1.4, Sony 70-200 f4, Sony 10-18mm f4 and Sony 18-105mm f4 There is a lot to like about the camera I saw this week. The a6500 uses a 425-point phase-detection system which Sony says can focus in as little as 0.05 seconds. I would personally rather have the ability to tap directly on subject in the same way that you can using the rear screen method. If the lock-on AF does lose your subject you can reacquire it with another touch. Of the lenses reviewed above, the Sigma 30mm f/1.4 is highly-rated for video. But improvements in key areas like battery life and autofocus … The main improvement of the a6500 is the inclusion of the in-body image stabilization. From demos both systems seem capable of performing a relatively smooth focus transition between objects, but having not had a chance to actually record footage for review on either camera it is too early to declare a winner in the AF department. 4K video capture; While the Sony A6500 sticks with the Alpha 6300’s 24.2MP APS-C sensor and 4D focus system (with 425 phase detect AF points), there are welcome improvements elsewhere. I’m sure that different users with differently shaped faces will have different preferences – which is presumably why Sony have the three options on the camera. Finally I feel that the manual focusing skills that I’ve been developing for 35 years have met their match – instilling in me both dread and excitement in pretty much equal measure. Dan heads up the editorial team at www.photogearnews.com. I think this is what Sony, and all the makers, need to focus their attention on most. I suspect that with time the settings will become more natural to me and frankly anything has to be better than the menu structure of the current a7 range. As for the rest of the camera its going to be a case of wait and see. Here is something curious. Having used it I see no going back, so I bought one. His career started in photography but evolved into documentary, multimedia and broadcast TV. Testing the new Zhiyun Crane version 2 with the Sony A6500 and SEL 35mm f1.8 OSS 5axis IBIS ON Soundtrack: "Don't turn out the lights" Zhiyun crane V2 and Sony A6500 autofocus test on Vimeo Join When using the rear screen it uses touch focus where you can simply tap on the point that you want and it will be brought into focus. In the end the technology will get there, and it’s doing so faster than expected. Camera: Sony a6500 loan unit from Sony Toggling between subjects on the C300 mkII isn’t the easiest thing to do and can result in missed shots and occasionally unnatural-looking focus transitions. Sony A6500 review: Durable build, solid performance. You can assign one of the custom buttons to have the lens switch between AF and manual focus at will. I do think that a more radical overhaul of the Sony mirrorless menu system wouldn’t be a bad thing. The a6500 uses a 425-point phase-detection system which Sony says can focus in as little as 0.05 seconds. The a6500’s touch autofocus system is a killer feature. Here is my review of the Sony a6300. It has proven to be an awesome camera and a pleasure to use. Engaging the touch or swipe feature requires a light press of the screen in normal conditions, after which it stays engaged for as long as you swipe. The majority of errors somehow seem to be quite natural though, and not unlike how human focus errors appear. The A6500’s autofocus system is powerful and advanced. Discover the α6500 Premium E-mount APS-C Camera from Sony & explore all the Cameras features. That means there is still no headphone jack in the camera itself, but there is a 3.5 stereo mic input. It uses a combination of 425 phase-detect AF points over the entire image area and 169 contrast-detect AF points. When using the EVF the rear screen’s touch surface acts as a kind of trackpad allowing the user to choose where the camera focuses. For the price it is available, this Sony A6500 is the best in the market. Buffer. If you have been following Newsshooter then you will already know that I tested Sony’s claims that the camera’s recording time is uninterrupted by overheating up to the 29 minute 50 seconds limit. This means that Sony A6500 provides 4K (Ultra-HD) video. 607g. I’ve discussed AF for video on Newsshooter many times before. The two share very similar body designs and many of the same specifications, but the a6500 is a more versatile and usable camera, both for video and stills, thanks to an additional front-end LSI (processor), a touchscreen and a stabilized sensor. For anything live I think this is still a deal breaker. This week I’ve seen the future of run-and-gun shooting, and it’s autofocus. The core video capabilities on the Sony a6500 vs a6400 are the same: Both cameras include 4k/30p video recording, and both cameras use the full sensor width to do it. When the Canon C300 mkII came out I shot a short video only using autofocus. The point is this: the a6000 was a nice HD camera. The autofocus is so fast and reliable in both photo and video modes that I can not recall when was the last time I used manual focus with the Sony a6500 and since I use it for traveling which often times, require me to capture a moment spontaneously, I have to rely on autofocus most of the time, and the Sony a6500 doesn't disappoint. Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linkedin. And I’ll discuss this for both photography and video. a6500, 1/800, f/5.6, ISO 160 – FE 70-300mm. I own and use one of these. This can be very annoying. What I can give you at the moment are my impressions, and some shots of the back of the a6500 screen to show how it works. All with continuous autofocus as you please too. The A6500 uses a hybrid system which includes 425 phase and 169 contrast detection points. Then came the oddball A6400, which in some ways was better than the higher model A6500. Both cameras use the same sensor and processor, so the image quality is the same. Focal Length: 30mm. To do this you’ll need one of Sony’s newer E-mount lenses (some older ones don’t seem to offer all the functions). The Sony a7ii is a less expensive body but the lenses that go with it are more expensive. That’s pretty much all I know about the a6500 so far. So the a6500 AF system is not totally infallible and I would still choose to use it selectively. The Sony a6100 is the best Sony mirrorless camera for most people. The M5 system works the same way with EF lenses and their EF to EOS M adapter as it does with a native EOS M mount lens. Both … When setting up you have the option to have the whole screen, half the screen, or just the right quarter of the screen as the active swipe area. Overall it is hard to tell the a6500 apart from the a6300. Another nice touch is that if you have peaking set up it will automatically come on when you switch into manual focus. Looks like there are still some uses for my manual focussing skills – for this generation of cameras at least. The focus motor moves the lens in order to autofocus. Part of the solution to this is to combine phase detection or Dual Pixel AF technology with a touch screen. This A6500 adds in-body stabilization and a primitive touch screen for an additional $400 over the otherwise mostly identical A6300.. The autofocus is very good, but doesn’t have an intuitive way to select your focus point. Both … Sadly, the odd really bad error does give the game away. Maximum aperture: f/1.4. This week I was invited to spend some time playing with a pre-production Sony a6500 at a Sony Europe press event near London. The recently launched Canon EOS M5 also has touch focus when using the EVF, but this time combined with the company’s excellent Dual pixel CMOS AF. Sony's 24.2-megapixel A6400 APS-C camera was a surprise, filling a gap between the A6300 and A6500 that didn't really need to be filled. Sony A6500 is clearly the smaller of the two cameras. All details aside, it is fair to say that the Fujifilm X-H1 and Sony a6500 are actually quite similar, at least as far as the image quality, autofocus and video capabilities are concerned. My video setup (AF area and focus modes) The A6500 is a fantastic video camera with a great 4k video mode, slow motion 120fps, with face detection during recording and tons of other amazing settings. The operator still needs to learn what setting to use and making it work to full effect takes some getting used to. Settings: 4K 25P and 1080P 100P, Cine 1, Colour mode Pro For video users this means that the most commonly used menu items are now grouped together in a more logical manner. Its body is 4mm narrower, 4mm shorter and 7mm thinner than Sony A7c. When you put the camera to your eye and use the EVF then the touchpad behaviour changes. A step up from the A6300 camera, the Sony A6500 is suitable for hobbyists and amateur photographers who want a compact camera for day-to-day use with a steady handheld video. As I wasn’t able to make recordings to test I can’t say how good the a6500 system is in comparison, but from my hands-on it did seem pretty much the same to my eye. Unlike the Olympus OMD EM-1 II I am currently testing, you can still toggle between these while recording too. So there you have it. Its a little like a computer game. For whatever reason it seemed to be harder to engage while outside shooting the skate park video in cold conditions (just how the girl in the video kept warm in her t-shirt I have no idea). The Sony a6500 touch AF works with the EVF I’ve discussed AF for video on Newsshooter many times before. There are no manually focused shots in this video. Sony also seem to have solved the overheating issue with the new settings – although I still want to test this more. The a6500 is practically the same as the a6300 in audio terms. As I wasn’t able to actually record footage there is very little I can say about the image quality at this stage. Problems with Continuous Autofocus on Sony A6000 in video mode. The Sony A6600 is more evolution than revolution, offering a feature set that is largely unchanged since 2016's A6500. 110 product ratings - # Sony Alpha a6500 24.2MP Digital Camera "2638 cut" S/N 4975964 When using the EVF the position of the AF target is all relative to your swipe and not a fixed point on the screen. The rolling shutter performance also looked to be very similar to the a6300, although again this need further verification. Autofocus: 4D autofocus performed accurately on the Sony a6500 for both wide-angle and macro. I would much prefer to have the option to set the touch AF to be in absolute positions on the rear screen when using the EVF – I believe this is what Canon do on the M5, although I need to verify this. So how else could this system be improved? The Sony A6500 is a superb APS-C mirrorless camera with an equally superb built-in electronic viewfinder (EVF). To add insult to injury, I wasn’t beaten by a cinema camera costing thousands of dollars, but the tiny Sony a6500. Aliasing and moire were evident and unless Sony have done something they aren’t telling me, I would expect the a6500 to be similar. One major difference between the a6500 and the previous a6300 is the addition of touch control for autofocus, both when viewing via the rear screen or the electronic viewfinder (EVF). Read more: • The best mirrorless cameras • The best Sony cameras in 2019. The touchscreen make it a little easier to select points, though it is not nearly as responsive as we'd hoped. The a6500 has an improved menu structure similar to that on the new a99 II. Keywords: Sony a6400, Sony Alpha, a6400 Review, Sony, a6400, Review, Dustin Abbott, a6500, a6400 vs a6500, Hands On, Video Test, Sharpness, Autofocus, CA, Video AF, Autofocus, Eye AF, Lens, Comparison, Test, Dustinabbott.net, Sample Images, Sample Video, Normal, Portrait, Travel, Canada, Myrtle Beach, Niagara Falls . ... What you get is 1.56x oversampling in each dimension, resulting in very crisp video footage. When using the rear screen you simply tap on the area that you want to select and the camera rapidly brings it into focus. When using the electronic viewfinder (EVF) you touch and then drag the focus point around the screen to bring whatever you want into focus. Sony also seem to have solved the overheating issue with the new settings – although I still want to test this more. Slower focus pulls I instead picked standard sensitivity and focus speed in the video, Adorama, ’... 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