Hey everyone, I'm John Sison and today we're taking a look at the Sony A6500.
Now the A6500 is Sony's flagship crop sensor camera and sits above the A6300 which was
released last year.
Now with this new camera that are quite a few new hardware updates that a lot of people
have been asking for but there are also quite a few new software updates that people may
or may not find useful.
Now in this video stay tuned because I'm going to take you through a quick tour of the camera
and at the end of the video I'll let you know what I personally think of so stay tuned.
The A6500 has a whether resistant magnesium alloy body wrapped in a plastic shell.
On the front of the camera you have an AF illuminator to allow the camera to focus in
dim lighting situations.
On the top there is a hot shoe to attach different accessories like flashes and microphones,
a pop-up flash, mode dial, jog dial, two custom buttons and a shutter button which is shared
with the on and off switch.
On the side of the camera that is an NFC tag for one touch pairing and on the other side
is a door with three ports.
The one on the top is to connect a cord to transfer images and charge your camera internally.
The middle is a mini HDMI port to view photos and videos on a HD TV.
And lastly a microphone input.
On the back of the camera there is a viewfinder and a simple button layout like Sony's other
A6000 cameras.
Plus there is an LCD touchscreen which I'll get into a bit of detail later on and it can
also tilt up and down for different angled shooting.
Finally on the bottom there is a tripod mount and a little door which houses a W type battery
and an SD card slot.
Now the camera weighs approximately 453 grams and that's with the battery included so while
its a bit heavier than the A6300 what's noticeable is that you're going to have a larger recessed
grip which is going to make the camera easier to hold for long periods of time, especially
if you have longer lenses.
After much feedback from consumers, Sony has decided to redesign its menu system.
It's more streamlined with headings on each page which makes it a lot easier to navigate
and understand.
Let's not forget, there are a bunch of buttons on the camera that you can customise for different
settings and features.
Now I was very excited to see the touchscreen feature on the A6500.
Since its announcement, I was hoping that it was going to be better than the A5100's
touchscreen and if you've seen my first impressions video, it was quite disappointing.
It's a resistive touchscreen which means you have to apply more pressure to it and its
not as responsive compared to a capacitive touchscreen.
In fact, it feels rather laggy.
You can use it in stills and videos and you won't be able to use it to navigate through
the menu but one thing that it does allow you to do is easily input your details if
you're logging in onto playmemories.
Now one of the features of this touchscreen is that you can change the focus point if
you have your eye to the viewfinder by dragging your finger across the screen to get what
you want in focus.
Pretty cool!
The A6500 is the first APSC sensor camera from Sony to offer 5-axis stabilisation which
is a big plus for anyone who shoots at slow shutter speeds and for those that adapt lenses
but don't have stabilisation built into the lens.
While having stabilisation is better than not having it at all, I found this more of
a benefit for stills rather than for video and its nowhere as close to replacing a gimbal
and its nowhere near as good as the Panasonic and Olympus mirrorless cameras.
Although, they have a smaller sized sensor which is easier to stabilise.
A feature that makes its debut on Sony's mirrorless cameras is slow and quick motion video, otherwise
known as S&Q.
This allows you to film in a variety of frame rates from 1 frame a second to 120 frames
per second depending if you're shooting in NTSC or PAL and create a movie without the
need for post processing so you can see the video straight away in camera.
Just a quick note, this is only available in full HD.
The A6500 uses the same autofocusing system as the A6300.
So what does that mean?
You're going to get quick and accurate autofocusing whether that be in stills or videos and while
I'm doing it in video now, the continuous autofocusing system can keep up with my movements.
So whether I'm moving from side to side or back and forth, the camera can keep up.
So that's a really impressive thing I love showing on these cameras.
The A6500 can shoot at 11 frames per second but what's impressive about it now is that
is has an LSI processor that allows you to shoot for a very long time in continuous shooting.
In fact, it can shoot up to 300 frames per second in JPEG or 100 frames per second when
shooting in RAW and JPEG and that's a very long time for one burst.
You can also see the buffer clearing on the LCD scree which can be pretty handy.
Now there are so many features that this camera has and I can't cover them all because the
video would just be too long but to quickly skim over a few of them you have picture effects,
sweep panorama, Wi-Fi, NFC, playmemories apps, smile detection, hand-held twilight, peaking,
silent shooting and a whole lot more.
The camera is actually pretty slow to start up taking about two and a half seconds from
switching it on and being able to take a photo.
As for battery life, I was able to get about 300 to 350 shots on a full charge.
In terms of image quality, its similar to the A6300.
So shooting up to ISO 12800 is what I would be comfortable shooting up to when in low
light situations.
But I wouldn't hesitate to go up to 25600 as a last resort.
However, images do lose their detail.
I would say its one of the best APSC sized sensor cameras on the market showing a lot
of detail and good colour reproduction with a great amount of dynamic range.
As for video, the camera can shoot full HD, slow motion video up to 120 frames per second
in full HD and it also has improved 4K video.
In terms of overheating, I haven't encountered that at all and I actually managed to shoot
about 29 mins of 4K video and I guess the amount of time you can really film just depends
on the ambient temperature that you're shooting in.
Although, you now have an Auto Power off temperature to control whether you want the camera to
shut down when it overheats at a specific temperature or at a higher temperature.
Although, the camera may get a bit hot if you set it to high.
Of course with video features, you have SLOG 2 and SLOG 3, zebra, dual video recording
and a few other settings which will make shooting video easier.
The A6500 is a fantastic camera.
Sony have managed to cram in a boatload of features and technologies into it while still
keeping to a reasonably small form factor.
However, I can't help but think this is what the A6300 should have been.
In terms of its autofocusing performance and image quality, while still being top notch,
its virtually identical to the A6300.
So what you're really more for are the software and the hardware updates.
While that's not necessarily a bad thing, I feel like Sony should have implemented things
like the touchscreen a lot better, especially when you compare it to other manufacturers.
Adding 5-axis stabilisation, an LSI processor for better buffer depth and a refined menu
system are all clear indications that Sony are listening to its consumers to improve
the user experience.
Now I'd highly recommend this for wildlife and sports photographers, mainly because I
feel like they'd get more out of the 5-axis stabilisation and the longer buffer depth
but if you other things like macro photography, landscapes and want the latest tech from Sony,
the A6500 is no slouch.
Now if you have any questions please feel free to leave a comment below and if you already
own one, let me know what you think of it and remember to like this video if you found
it helpful and subscribe to my channel for more Sony camera reviews and tutorials.
You can also follow me on Facebook and Instagram for more photo updates and sample photos and
be sure to check the description below for more information about this camera.
Now until then, happy shooting and thanks for watching.
And sits above the A6300.
Now this camera sports a few new hardware new.
Also has quite a few new features that Sony..
Sony.
*tsk* The Sony a6500 is Sony's newest top of the line APSC side sensor.
*Pop pop pop pop* It also sports quite a few new features that a lot of people have been
asking for but there are also a few new