The Sony a6300 A Mirrorless Beast
May Be The Best APS-C Mirrorless Camera on the Market
You’ll find a great technical review over at Camera Labs and on DPreview. The scope of this review is not a deep dive into the technical minutia. But rather a real-world review with an emphasis on the Sony a6300’s insane ability to follow focus {aka continuous auto focus}, with its 169 contrast-detect areas, a staggering 425 phase detect points spread over the entire sensor area, edge-to-edge; it’s color rendition; the a6300’s “wide area” focus ability to quickly identify a subject and nail the focus, its snappy autofocus 0.05 of a second; its ability to capture 4k video with no pixel binning; its brisk frame rate of 11 frames per second; upgrading the pixel count {by doubling} the EVF from the a6000 of 1.4 million dots to 2.4 million dots in the a6300; face detection; eye focus; silent shutter and so much more. A welcomed upgrade is the camera aesthetics too. Sony has done away with the shiny finish of the a6000 and used the finish reminiscent of the a7rii’s outer body matt construction. All at a price point of $998 dollars, and in a palm-sized mirrorless camera. Read on for my Sony a6300, a mirrorless beast review. IMHO this is the best in class camera.
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Sony FE 16-35mm f/4.0 ZA OSS = 24-52.5mm
Sony FE 55mm f/1.8 ZA = 82.5mm
Batis 85mm f/1.8 = 127.5mm
Sony FE 90mm Macro f/2.8 G OSS = 135mm
Sony FE 70-200mm f/4.0 G OSS = 105-300mm
“For me it was a leap of faith to simply trust the a6300 to perfom autofocus traking with fast moving action. And perform it did.”
Who’s the a6300 perfect for?
The a6300 doesn’t fall squarely into a single category. I see the a6300 as a camera that fits nicely into the family camera category and a full use professional camera. It’s the perfect travel camera. Small enough to put into a backpack, perfect for family vacations. And you’re not limited to one lens. Due to the continuous autofocus algorithms, this is a top-notch family sports camera, for both moms and dads wanting to photograph their children at soccer, baseball, and football league practices and games. Surf and sports photographers will take comfort in the 1.5x crop factor {allowing them greater telephoto reach}, the ability to follow focus with the a6300 focus tracking, and the ability to use native FE glass and legacy lenses with a wide range of adapters. Bonus for surf photographers: the a6300’s dust and moisture resistant magnesium-alloy body. There is a large community of professional real estate photographers who use the a6000 for their craft, the a6300 would be a welcomed upgrade and ships with the ability to shoot 4k video too. Wedding photographers: Yes I said it. I see no reason why wedding photographers couldn’t use a pair of a6300’s for a daytime wedding. As I mentioned the a6300 accepts all FE lenses and legacy glass via adapters. Wedding photographers need to choose the right tool for the right job. I’d personally be very comfortable photographing a wedding with a pair of a6300’s. My only caveat would be to photograph the group portraits with my a7rii or RX1Rii. While you can print a double-page spread of the wedding party or extended family from an a6300 file, these images warrant a full-frame 42.4 mp file. Street photographers: The a6300 is an unassuming, non-intimidating, palm-sized powerhouse of a camera. Add the Sony FE 35mm f/2.8 ZA to the front of the camera and you have a low profile highly capable 52.5mm lens ready for street with blazing fast autofocus and killer follow focus. Senior Portrait photographers: With eye focus…when invoked, the a6300 will focus in on the eye closest to the camera. Pair the a6300 with the 90mm Macro or the Batis 85mm and you’ve got a portrait making machine. Journalists: It’s no secret that budgets are constantly being slashed. A small mirrorless camera that comes in at a third of the cost of a comparable DSLR, the a6300 is a no-nonsense, journalist dream camera. With its ability to capture high frame rates, low profile, featherweight status, Wifi transfer capabilities, and 4k video capability, a pair of a6300’s, with 3 lenses can easily fit into a small bag and be a highly capable journalist’s trusted media asset creator on the campaign trail or for local news stories.
“…The a6300’s ability fo autofocus track, fast moving subjects is uncanny.”
Shooting in Burst Mode at 11fps | Wide Area Focus | Autofocus Tracking
Putting the camera to the test I had to find out how well burst mode worked in follow focus mode with Wide Area focus, with fast-moving action. Here’s a video to see a sample of how autofocus tracking works in live view mode. For me, it was a leap of faith to simply trust the camera to perform autofocus tracking with fast-moving action. And perform it did. When I was a Canon shooter, I was always miffed at Canon’s inability to autofocus track my subjects and I was using some of their flagship cameras. The a6300 while not perfect, performed admirably. I found two glitches. 1} The autofocus tracking algorithm seeks the nearest subject in the field of view, 2} At times, randomly, the camera had a tough time finding focus at all only while using Wide Area focus. To be fair this happened 3-4 times in several hours of shooting. The EVF viewfinder would just go blurry. Taking my finger off the shutter button and then a simple half-press of the shutter button would clear that up right away and it would find focus just fine. Other than these glitches, which were temporary and easily remedied, the a6300’s ability fo autofocus track, fast-moving subjects is uncanny.
Color Rendition and Detail
Images below photographed at the Laguna Beach farmers market. Auto ISO all with the FE 55mm f/1.8 ZA.
Single Frames Around Town and At The Beach
Autofocus Using Wide Area Focus To Freeze and Capture Fast Moving Subjects
As my shoot progressed I became more and more comfortable with the idea of simply trusting the a6300’s autofocus coupled with its Wide Area focus. The results are spectacular. The camera’s ability to follow the focus of a quickly moving subject, like a child playing in the waves, volleyball players hitting it hard and digging on the sand courts, and, dunking basketball players. All perfectly frozen and tack sharp. I don’t have any of out of focus sequenced shots to share. As I mentioned earlier, there were a couple of times that the camera got confused and the entire field was blurry. I simply took my finger off the shutter and half-pressed again to engage the autofocus. Drive mode was in Hi at a rate of 11fps. The was no noticeable EVF blackout. And even though I was leaning pretty hard on the shutter release button the buffer never filled up to the point where I was unable to shoot. However, there were definitely times I was unable to view the images I’d just captured or access the camera menu while the images were still buffering.
Conclusion
The Sony a6300 may be the best interchangeable lens, the mirrorless camera on the market today for $1000. With its uncanny ability to capture fast-moving action with autofocus at 11fps, in-camera 4k video, silent shutter, eye-focus, and more, it’s a no-brainer for the casual user, photo hobbyist, and seasoned professional photographer.
In part 2 I’ll go over how I’ve set up my camera with custom functions and menu sets.
