Sony A6300 Review

Overview

Last edited: 02/09/2017

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UPDATE: 02/09/2017:
Want some added confidence that you're onto a winner? The A6300 earned itself a Camera of Distinction award in the Enthusiast Mirrorless category of our 2016 Camera of the Year awards!

Need more buffer depth? Consider the Sony A6500 instead, which is largely similar to this camera but with a much deeper buffer, a touch-screen display, and some tweaks in other areas.

Videographers: Want to see what's possible with the A6300? Watch this cool video which was predominantly shot with the A6300 and a 20mm f/2.8 lens!

We've updated our pricing info for the A6300, which had grown rather out of date.

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In mid-2014, Sony launched a product with spectacular appeal. The Alpha A6000, says its maker, is not only the best-selling mirrorless camera to date, but also the best-selling interchangeable-lens camera with a pricetag at or above US$600. Now, it follows up with the A6300, a camera which has one very tough act to follow -- but it looks to be more than up to the task.

The A6300 keeps most everything which made its predecessor so popular, but makes some very worthwhile changes. Key among these are a new image sensor and updated image processing algorithms which, together, bring lower noise levels and much-improved autofocus. There's also a brand-new, higher-resolution electronic viewfinder, and its made all the more useful by the ability to shoot with a live-view feed at rates of up to an impressively-swift eight frames per second. Add in some great refinements to the camera's video capture capabilities, and the A6300 looks to be a very promising product indeed.

The A6300's body is very familiar, but with a couple of control tweaks

If you've shot with its predecessor, the A6300's magnesium-alloy body will look very familiar indeed. Its height and width are identical to those of the earlier camera, while its depth has increased by a scant 0.14 inches (3.6mm), a change that comes accompanied by a slight 2.12 ounce (60g) increase in weight. Almost all of the external controls and design elements remain right where they were in the previous model. In fact, there are only a couple of control changes with which you'll need to familiarize yourself.

The first of these can be found on the top deck, where the mode dial no longer has separate iAuto and Superior Auto (iAuto+) positions. Both modes are still there, but they're now grouped beneath a single Auto position on the dial, a change which frees up space for a second Memory Recall mode instead.

That tweak will surely please more experienced photographers, as will the other significant control change: a new switch with central button on the rear deck, replacing the earlier camera's autoexposure lock button. With the switch at the bottom of its throw, the button will still provide AE lock capability, but if the switch is flicked upwards, you'll instead be able to toggle focus between automatic and manual control.

The A6300 is rugged, but a question mark on weather-sealing

The new body of the A6300 should also prove more rugged than that of its predecessor, according to Sony. Look beneath the surface -- which, we noted in our hands-on with the camera, has a more matte finish than in the past -- and you'll find a newly reinforced lens mount structure.

Sony also notes that it has improved the A6300's dust and moisture-resistance compared to the earlier camera, although there's something of a question mark in this area. In its press materials, Sony notes that while the A6300 "is designed for optimal dust and moisture resistance," it is "not waterproof or splashproof". What precisely merits consideration as a splash versus just moisture isn't really clear, but we wouldn't recommend using the A6300 in more than a light sprinkle of rain.

Still, that's more than enough for many photographers, even if we'd like to see clearer guidance from the company as to just what level of moisture the A6300 should be able to handle.

The A6300 gets a new high-performance sensor; same high resolution

At the heart of the A6300, you'll find the same pairing of a 24-megapixel CMOS image sensor and BIONZ X image processor that formed the foundation of the A6000. It's not the same sensor as before, though. The newly-designed chip has the exact same output resolution of 6,000 x 4,000 pixels, but it now uses copper wiring for improved readout performance and a better signal-to-noise ratio. It also sports almost 2.4 times as many on-chip phase-detect autofocus pixels as in the earlier camera, a change we'll be discussing in more depth momentarily.

Although the standard sensitivity range of ISO 100 to 25,600-equivalents remains unchanged from the A6000, there's now an ISO expansion function which will raise the upper limit to ISO 51,200-equivalent without resorting to Multi-frame Noise Reduction (though MFNR is still supported), and the camera also shows lower noise levels from the new imaging pipeline in the A6300.

Although performance has clearly been a design goal for Sony during development of the A6300, its maximum burst capture rate remains unchanged at 11 frames per second. Burst depth at this maximum speed is also as near as makes no difference unchanged, with a predicted 44 large / extra fine JPEG frames or 21 RAW / RAW+JPEG frames in a burst (which we confirmed in our performance lab tests). However, you now have a choice of more burst capture frame rates -- 11, eight, six or three fps -- and that second-from-top option is much more usable than ever before.

The A6300 delivers a much more satisfying burst capture experience

The reason for the improvement is that Sony has worked to resolve one of the main bugbears of the electronic viewfinder. Traditionally, EVFs are frowned on by sports shooters because what you're seeing between frames captured in a high-speed burst isn't a live view of your subject, but rather the image that was just captured. That means there's a lag between the action in the real world and what you see through the viewfinder. That remains true for the A6300 at its maximum burst capture rate, but not when you drop the rate to eight fps.

At this somewhat-reduced rate, the camera shows a real live view feed, punctuated by a series of brief blackouts as each frame is captured. This is akin to what you'd see with a traditional DSLR, which must also have a viewfinder blackout every time the mirror is raised to allow light to reach the image sensor, and so it makes shooting with the A6300 much more DSLR-like. And our reviewer found this new function really did make it much easier to track moving subjects.

The Sony 6300 viewfinder is much sharper and (optionally) faster, too

This improved method of burst shooting with a live view feed comes predominantly thanks to the new, faster readout of the image sensor. The overall experience is also aided by improvements to the viewfinder itself, though.

Although the electronic finder in the A6300 has the same 0.39-inch OLED panel size as before, along with the same manufacturer-rated 100% coverage, 1.07x magnification (35mm equivalent: 0.7x), 23mm eyepoint and -4 to +3m^-1 diopter adjustment, it now bests that in the earlier camera in two key ways.

Firstly, total resolution has increased by 63%, with a dot count of 2,359,296 dots instead of the 1,440,000 dots in the earlier camera. Secondly, you can now adjust the viewfinder frame rate for smoother motion. As well as the standard rate of 60 frames per second, the viewfinder refresh can now be boosted to a swift 120 fps.

Record-setting autofocus (in more ways than one!)

Another major area of improvement in the A6300 can be found in its autofocus system. We already touched on this very briefly in our discussion of the new image sensor, but there's a whole lot more to this particular story.

Still branded as "4D Focus", the AF system in the A6300 now has vastly more focus points to choose from than before, and helpfully, these cover almost the entire field of view. Sony tells us that with a total of 425 phase-detect autofocus points on offer, the A6300 has the most PDAF points of any mirrorless camera to date. Add in a further 169 contrast-detect points, and there truly is spectacular AF point density. (Compare those numbers to "just" 179 PDAF and 25 CDAF points in the earlier camera.)

This high point density pays dividends when it comes to autofocus tracking, as the camera has much more information to work with than ever before. As your subject moves, the A6300 can now follow it around the frame much more accurately. And as an added bonus, you'll also be able to use the PDAF points with adapted Sony Alpha-mount lenses, just as you can in recent Sony A7-series full-frame cameras. That's a first for one of the company's APS-C sensor-shod cameras.

And nor is that all. Sony is also claiming that the autofocus system in the A6300 is just fractionally faster than the record-setting system in the A6000, taking just 0.05 seconds to determine a focus lock. (Of course, you'd be hard-pressed to notice a difference in the real world, as the earlier camera could lock focus in 0.06 seconds, but we'd imagine shaving off yet another hundredth of a second was no small task.) And yes, that AF performance merits yet another world's first, according to Sony.

Other AF improvements include the availability of Eye AF when shooting with continuous autofocus, just as seen in recent A7-series cameras, along with the ability to combine the focus magnifier function with autofocus, and an expanded flexible spot AF function. There are also some improvements for movie capture specifically, as we'll see in a moment.

Silent shooting and better bracketing

In most respects, the A6300's exposure capabilities mirror those of the earlier camera. A couple of points stood out to us on inspecting the new model's specifications, however. For one thing, there's now a silent shooting mode, which should make this a much better option for nature photography, weddings, or anything else where shutter noise might startle or distract your subjects. There's also a more generous exposure bracketing function. Previously, the A6000 limited you to just five frames in a bracketed set, or three frames if your step size was 1EV or greater. Now, the A6300 will shoot as many as five frames with a 3EV step size, or nine frames with a step size up to 1EV.

The A6300 is a much more capable video shooter

Sony has made quite a few improvements to the video feature set of the A6300. We already hinted at one of these a moment ago in our discussion of autofocus: The company claims that the new camera can focus twice as fast during movie capture, when compared to the earlier model. Of course, swift autofocus isn't always a good thing for movies, so you can also now adjust autofocus speed and tracking sensitivity, if you want to dial things back for less jarring transitions.

The A6300 is also the company's first APS-C camera with Super 35mm-format, 4K video capture capability. Recorded using XAVC S compression -- itself a new addition -- the A6300's 4K video is downsampled from a full 6K of data read off the image sensor, with no pixel binning taking place. And if you'd prefer to favor frame rate over resolution, another first for Sony's APS-C lineup is the ability to capture Full HD video at 120 frames per second with a 100 Mbps bitrate.

There's also a new 3.5mm external microphone jack on the A6300, which allows you to use an external mic without any proprietary accessories. (Previously, you'd have needed one of Sony's Multi Interface Shoe mics or adapters.) And the maximum sensitivity in movie mode has now been raised from ISO 12,800 to 25,600-equivalent.

Sony has added a Gamma Display Assist function which makes it easier to keep tabs on focus and framing when shooting S-Log movies. S-Gamut is also available, and the A6300's zebra striping function has been improved too. You can now use picture profiles and capture time code / user bit data as well.

Significantly better battery life, too

One last change which really stood out to us is the impressive improvement Sony has made in the A6300's battery life. The earlier A6000 was limited to 360 shots on a charge with the LCD monitor, or just 310 frames when shooting using the electronic viewfinder. The A6300 boosts this to an impressive 400 frames on the LCD, which represents an 11% improvement -- and that's when using the exact same NP-FW50 battery packs as in the earlier camera. When using the EVF, there's an even greater 13% gain, with a total of 350 shots now possible on a charge. That's almost as many frames with the A6300's finder as the A6000 was able to manage on the LCD panel!

In other respects, the A6300's features are similar to the A6000

All of this represents a lot of improvement in areas which will really benefit A6300 owners. On paper at least, the new model is otherwise quite similar to its predecessor. The A6300 still natively-accepts Sony E-mount lenses as well as a wide range of first- and third-party glass using adapters, and relies on the attached lens for image stabilization.

The rear-panel display is still a 3.0-inch LCD with 921,600-dot resolution, and shutter speeds from 1/4,000 to 30 seconds plus bulb are still possible. X-sync remains at 1/160 second, and there are still both a popup flash and Sony's proprietary Multi Interface Shoe for external strobes.

Connectivity still includes both USB data and HDMI video outputs, and there's still Wi-Fi wireless networking connectivity plus an NFC radio for easy pairing with Android devices. And as you'd expect in a modern Sony camera, you can supplement the basic features with the company's PlayMemories Camera Apps -- some free, some available for a small cost -- to enable features like remote camera control, time lapse photography and a whole lot more besides.

Pricing and availability

The A6300 began shipping in the US market from March 2016. List price is around US$1,000 body-only, or US$1,150 when bundled with Sony's SELP1650 kit lens, a retractable 16-50mm f/3.5-5.6 optic with power zoom and Optical SteadyShot image stabilization.

In the Box

The Sony A6300 retail kit package (as reviewed) contains the following items:

• Sony Alpha ILCE-6300 camera body
• SELP-1650 16-50mm E-mount Power Zoom lens
• NP-FW50 rechargeable Li-ion battery
• Shoulder strap
• Micro USB cable
• Accessory Shoe cap
• Body cap
• Lens cap
• Eyepiece cup

Recommended Accessories

• Large capacity SDHC/SDXC memory card. 32GB Class 10 should be a minimum; UHS Speed Class U3 designation is required for recording video bitrates of 100Mbps or more.
• Spare NP-FW50 battery pack (~US$50)
• BC-TRW Dedicated Battery Charger (~US$35)
• HVL-F60M External Flash/Video Light (~US$450)
• Additional lenses

Optics

The Sony A6300 is available body-only, or bundled with the compact Sony E 16-50mm f/3.5-5.6 PZ OSS kit lens for only US$150 more. Optical performance isn't great, but it's not bad for a very compact and inexpensive kit lens. It's a good start and a great value when bought as part of the kit, but to get the most out of the Sony A6300's 24-megapixel resolution, enthusiasts will likely want to invest in some better glass. Click here for a full review of this lens, and see below for our Sony A6300 viewfinder coverage test results.

Viewfinder Test Results

Coverage
Excellent coverage from the EVF and LCD monitor.

The Sony A6300's electronic viewfinder and LCD monitor both showed essentially 100% coverage in record mode in our tests. This is excellent performance, though expected given the preview is derived from the imaging sensor.

The images above were taken from our standardized test shots. For a collection of more pictorial photos, see our Sony Alpha ILCE-A6300 Photo Gallery .

Exposure

Color

Saturation & Hue Accuracy
Lower-than-average saturation levels, with average hue accuracy.

ISO Sensitivity
100	200	400	800
1600	3200	6400	12800
25600	51200
In the diagram above, the squares show the original color, and the circles show the color that the camera captured. More saturated colors are located toward the periphery of the graph. Hue changes as you travel around the center. Thus, hue-accurate, highly saturated colors appear as lines radiating from the center. Mouse over the links to compare ISOs and click on links for larger images.

Saturation. The Sony A6300's mean default color saturation is only oversaturated by 5.2% at base ISO, which is a lower than average these days. Mean saturation is stable as sensitivity rises up to ISO 6400, then falls off as sensitivity is increased further to a minimum of only 92.1% (undersaturated by 7.9%) at ISO 51,200. Reds and dark blues are boosted moderately, but not as much as we often see. Most other colors are pushed just a bit or pretty close to ideal, though yellow and light greens are undersaturated at base ISO, and become quite muted at ISO 12,800 and above. Most consumer digital cameras produce color that's more highly saturated (more intense) than found in the original subjects. This is simply because most people like their color a bit brighter than life.

Skin tones. The Sony A6300 does fairly well with Caucasian skin tones when using either Auto or Manual white balance in simulated daylight. Brighter flesh tones have a healthy pinkish tint but are not overly pink, though darker areas are nudged toward orange. Where oversaturation is most problematic is on Caucasian skin tones, as it's very easy for these "memory colors" to be seen as too bright, too pink, too yellow, etc.

Hue. The Sony A6300 shifts cyan toward blue and red toward orange moderately, but shifts in orange toward yellow and yellow to toward green are more pronounced than most cameras. (The cyan to blue shift is very common among the digital cameras we test; we think it's a deliberate choice by camera engineers to produce better-looking sky colors.) The yellow to green shift is unfortunate, as it is also desaturated, which leads to dingy-looking yellows. With an average "delta-C" color error of 5.97 after correction for saturation at base ISO, overall hue accuracy is about average, with minor to moderate fluctuations across the ISO range. Hue is "what color" the color is.

Sensor

Exposure and White Balance

Indoors, incandescent lighting
Warm, reddish cast with Auto, but good color with Incandescent and Manual white balance. No exposure compensation required.

Indoors, under normal incandescent lighting, color balance was too warm and reddish with the Auto white balance setting. Results with the Incandescent setting were better, though a bit yellow. The Manual setting was quite accurate, just slightly on the cool side. The Sony A6300 required no exposure compensation here, while +0.3 EV is about average for this shot. (Our test lighting for this shot is a mixture of 60 and 100 watt household incandescent bulbs, a pretty yellow light source, but a very common one in typical home settings here in the U.S.)

Outdoors, daylight
Excellent results under harsh lighting, with good handling of contrast, color, along with above average exposure accuracy.

Outdoors, the Sony A6300 performed very well. +0.3 EV exposure compensation was required to keep the mannequin's face bright in our "Sunlit" Portrait shot, which is better than average among the cameras we've tested. (Most cameras require about +0.7 EV here.) Contrast is a little high as you might expect under such harsh lighting, but despite the bright appearance, very few highlights were blown, even without the help of Dynamic Range Optimization DRO -- see below. Both Auto and Manual white balance produced decent skin tones under simulated daylight, however some of the yellow flowers look a bit green. Default exposure for our Far-field shot (above right) looks a touch underexposed, but as a result almost no highlights were blown (just a few specular highlights) and no shadows were lost, again with DRO disabled. The Far-field shot with Auto white balance has good color balance, just a touch on the cool side, but colors aren't as pumped as most cameras. Still, excellent overall performance in harsh lighting, especially considering DRO was off for these shots.

See full set of test images with explanations
See thumbnails of all test and gallery images

Resolution
~2,750 to ~2,850 lines of strong detail from both JPEGs and RAW files.

In-camera JPEGs of our laboratory resolution chart reveal sharp, distinct line patterns up to about 2,850 lines per picture height in the horizontal direction, and to about 2,750 lines in the vertical direction. Some may argue for higher numbers, but lines begin to merge at these resolutions, and aliasing artifacts actually start to appear as low as about 2,400 lines. Complete extinction of the pattern doesn't occur until about 3,700 to 3,800 lines. Some color moiré is evident in JPEGs, though that's not uncommon. Adobe Camera Raw wasn't really able to extract more lines of resolution here from a matching RAW file, but it generated much stronger color moiré (different colors as well). Use these numbers to compare with other cameras of similar resolution, or use them to see just what higher resolution can mean in terms of potential detail.

See full set of test images with explanations
See thumbnails of all test and gallery images

Sharpness & Detail
Excellent default sharpness, with minimal sharpening artifacts. Mild to moderate noise suppression visible in the shadows and areas of low contrast.

Sharpness. The Sony A6300 captures sharp, crisp images at lower ISOs, with few visible edge enhancement artifacts. We often see some fairly bright or thick sharpening halos around high-contrast elements such as the lettering and lines in our bottle labels (above left), but the A6300's sharpening algorithm is adept at making details pop without introducing strong sharpening artifacts. Excellent results here, at least at low ISOs. Edge enhancement creates the illusion of sharpness by enhancing colors and tones right at the edge of a rapid transition in color or tone.

Detail. The crop above right shows mild to moderate noise suppression in the darker areas of the mannequin's hair. A number of low-contrast strands are smudged together, though higher contrast strands are still distinct. Overall, though, very good results here for a 24-megapixel APS-C camera. Noise-suppression systems in digital cameras tend to flatten-out detail in areas of subtle contrast. The effects can often be seen in shots of human hair, where the individual strands are lost and an almost "watercolor" look appears.

RAW vs In-Camera JPEGs
As noted above, the Sony A6300 produces sharp in-camera JPEGs with very good detail and few sharpening artifacts, at least at low ISOs. Additional detail can often be obtained from carefully processing RAW files with a good converter, though. Let's see how base ISO compares here:

Base ISO (100)
Camera JPEG, defaults	RAW via Adobe Camera Raw

In the table above, we compare a best quality in-camera JPEG taken at base ISO using default noise reduction and sharpening (on the left) to the matching RAW file converted with Adobe Camera Raw 9.1 via DNG Converter 9.5 using default noise reduction with some moderate but tight unsharp masking applied in Photoshop (250%, radius of 0.3 pixels, and a threshold of 0).

Looking closely at the images, we can see that ACR extracts additional detail that isn't present in the JPEG from the camera, particularly in the red-leaf swatch where the fine thread pattern is likely treated as noise by the JPEG engine. Fine detail in the mosaic is also a bit better and more refined looking, but as is often the case, more luminance noise can be seen, though the in-camera JPEG shows more chroma noise in the shadows. You can of course apply stronger noise reduction (default ACR NR used here) to arrive at your ideal noise versus detail tradeoff. Also notice that the ACR conversion does not show the yellow-to-green shift in the olive oil bottle that the in-camera JPEG does, and colors are generally more pleasing.

Apart from some issues with color, the Sony A6300's in-camera JPEG processing (at least at low ISOs) is very good with generally excellent detail and very few sharpening artifacts.

ISO & Noise Performance
Very good high ISO performance for an APS-C camera.

Default High ISO Noise Reduction
ISO 100	ISO 200	ISO 400
ISO 800	ISO 1600	ISO 3200
ISO 6400	ISO 12,800	ISO 25,600
	ISO 51,200

Image quality is excellent at ISOs 100 through 800, with a nice, gradual drop in image quality as sensitivity rises. ISO 1600 is noticeably noisier, but fine detail is still very good for this sensitivity and sensor size. At ISO 3200, image quality takes a larger hit due to stronger noise reduction, but a surprising amount of fine detail is still intact, however flatter areas start to take on a slightly hammered look. Fine detail is still pretty good at ISO 6400, but image quality rapidly deteriorates at higher ISOs, with progressively stronger noise "grain", more conspicuous noise reduction artifacts, and some blotchy yellow or purple chroma noise at the highest ISOs.

Overall, though, high ISO performance in JPEGs is noticeably improved over its predecessor, with a much less heavy-handed approach at higher ISOs, and high ISO RAW files also look improved. As always, see the Print Quality section below for maximum recommended print sizes at each ISO, as printed performance often doesn't correlate well to what's seen on-screen at 100%, and check out our Comparometer to see how the Sony A6300's JPEGs compare to other cameras we've tested.

Note that we now shoot this series at f/8 instead of f/4, for increased depth of field (at f/4, it was very difficult to focus for maximum sharpness in the crop area while maintaining consistent focus between models).

Extremes: Sunlit, dynamic range and low light tests
Excellent highlight and shadow detail. Very good low-light performance, capable of focusing and capturing bright images in near darkness.

Sunlight. The Sony A6300 handled the deliberately harsh lighting in the test above very well. We preferred the +0.3 EV exposure here as the mannequin's face is bright while very few highlights were clipped in the white shirt. The default (0 EV) exposure is just a tad dim in the face, while the +0.7 EV exposure is definitely too bright. As mentioned previously, contrast is a little high, but both highlight and shadow detail is very good at +0.3 EV. Overall, very good results here.

For best results, be sure to use fill flash in situations like the one shown above; it's better to shoot in the shade when possible. See below for results with Dynamic Range Optimization and High Dynamic Range features enabled.

Because digital cameras are more like slide film than negative film (in that they tend to have a more limited tonal range), we test them in the harshest situations to see how they handle scenes with bright highlights and dark shadows, as well as what kind of sensitivity they have in low light. The shot above is designed to mimic the very harsh, contrasty effect of direct noonday sunlight, a very tough challenge for most digital cameras. (You can read details of this test here. In actual shooting conditions, be sure to use fill flash in situations like the one shown here; it's better to shoot in open shade whenever possible.)

Outdoor Portrait DRO Comparison (0 EV)
	DRO Setting: Auto (Default) Off Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5

Dynamic Range Optimization is Sony's name for their dynamic range enhancement technology. DRO divides the image into small areas, analyzes the range of brightness of each area, and adjusts the camera's tone curve and other processing parameters accordingly to make the best use of the available dynamic range. DRO does not boost ISO for the entire image like some systems, so increased noise is less of an issue, though existing noise may be more visible in raised shadows. Auto DRO is enabled by default on the Sony A6300. You can also set the level manually, from 1 ("weak") to 5 ("strong"), or turn it off. As one would expect, DRO is only applied to JPEG files however RAW files are tagged for similar processing by compatible software.

The above thumbnails and histograms show the effects of the available levels of DRO on our "Sunlit" Portrait shot with no exposure compensation. Mouse over the links to load the associated thumbnail and histogram, and click on the links to visit the full resolution image. As you can see from the thumbnails and histograms, DRO worked as expected, boosting shadows and mid-tones without blowing additional highlights, yielding more balance exposures. The Auto DRO setting did a good job here, and the five manual levels give quite a bit of control over the effect.

Far-field DRO Comparison (0 EV)
Auto (default)	Off	Level 1	Level 2
Level 3	Level 4	Level 5

Above, you can see the effects of DRO settings on our Far-field shot. The default Auto setting produced a nicely balanced exposure, despite the harsh lighting. A useful feature. (Apologies for the change in framing for the Off setting.)

Outdoor Portrait HDR Comparison (0 EV)
	HDR Setting: Off (Default) Auto 1 EV 2 EV 3 EV 4 EV 5 EV 6 EV

High Dynamic Range. The Sony A6300's HDR mode takes three images in rapid succession, one nominally exposed , one underexposed, and one overexposed, then combines them into one high dynamic range JPEG automatically (RAW images are not supported). Lighter areas from the underexposed image are combined with darker areas from the overexposed image to produce an image with compressed tonal range. The camera then saves a single composite image, as well as the nominally exposed image. The overlaid images are micro-aligned by the camera, but it can only correct for so much movement. If it can't micro-align successfully, an icon indicating HDR capture failed will appear. For best results, the subject should not move or blink, so it's not really intended for portraits. There is also a manual mode where you can select 1 EV ("weak") to 6 EV ("strong") difference in exposures.

Mouse over the links to load the associated thumbnail and histogram, and click on the links to visit the full resolution image. As you can see, the Auto setting did a decent job boosting shadows and mid-tones while reigning back highlights, however we prefer the lower manual settings for this subject. The higher the manual setting, the more highlights are toned-down and shadows opened up, but higher settings can produce flat and unnatural results with this scene. Still, it's nice that Sony provides six manual levels, giving quite a bit of control over the effect.

Far-field HDR Comparison (0 EV)
Off (Default)	Auto	1 EV	2 EV
3 EV	4 EV	5 EV	6 EV

Above, you can see the effects of HDR settings on our Far-field shot. Watch out for ghost and double images caused by movement within the scene during the capture sequence, though, as can be seen in the flag and leaves of some of the shots above.

Sony has one of the more flexible in-camera HDR implementations we've seen making it a useful feature for those that don't want to bracket and combine images in post.

Dynamic Range Analysis (RAW mode)
While we once performed our own dynamic range measurements based on in-camera JPEGs as well as converted RAW images (when the camera was supported by Adobe Camera Raw), we've switched to using DxO Labs' results from their DxOMark website. As technology advanced, the dynamic range of modern high-end cameras in some cases exceeded the range of the Stouffer T4110 density scale that we used for our own measurements. DxO's approach based on RAW data before demosaicing is also more revealing, because it measures the fundamental dynamic range of the sensor, irrespective of whatever processing is applied to JPEGs, or to RAW data by off-the-shelf conversion software.

In the following, we use DxO's "Print" dynamic range results, which are scaled based on camera resolution. As the name suggests, this scaling corresponds to the situation in which you print at a given size, regardless of how many megapixels the camera might have. (In other words, if you've decided to make a 13x19 inch print, that's the size you're printing, whether the camera's resolution is 16 or 300 megapixels.) For the technically-minded, you can find a discussion of the reasoning behind this here on the DxOMark website. Also note that DxO Labs uses a signal-to-noise (SNR) threshold of 1 when defining the lower boundary of acceptable luminance noise in their dynamic range measurements, which corresponds to the "Low Quality" threshold of the Imatest software we used to use for this measurement.

Here, we decided to compare the Sony A6300's dynamic range to its predecessor, the A6000, and also to one of the best performing APS-C cameras to date, the Nikon D7200. You can always compare other models on DxOMark.com.

As you can see from the above graph (click for a larger version), the Sony A6300's dynamic range (shown in orange) is significantly improved over the A6000 (yellow) at most ISOs, with a peak of about 13.7 versus 13.1 EV at base ISO. Dynamic range has improved even more at ISO 1600 and above, with up to almost a full stop advantage, however at the ISO 400 setting it's only marginally improved.

The Sony A6300's dynamic range still lags behind the class-leading Nikon D7200 (red) at lower ISOs, with the D7200 managing an impressive 14.6 EV at base ISO. But the A6300 catches up between ISO 800 and 1600 and actually bests the D7200 significantly at ISO 25,600, with a score 7.7 vs 6.5 EV.

Overall, very good dynamic range with a nice improvement over the A6000 especially at higher ISOs. Click here to visit the DxOMark page for the Sony A6300 for more of their test results and additional comparisons.

	1 fc 11 lux	1/16 fc 0.67 lux	1/16 fc No NR
ISO 100	2s, f2.8	30s, f2.8	30s, f2.8
ISO 3200	1/15s, f2.8	1s, f2.8	1s, f2.8
ISO 51200	1/250s, f2.8	1/15s, f2.8	1/15s, f2.8

Low Light. The Sony A6300 was able to capture bright images down to the lowest light level we test at (1/16 foot-candle) even at base ISO. Noise is very low at base ISO and well-controlled at ISO 3200, though as expected noise and noise reduction artifacts are quite high and objectional at the highest ISO setting of 51,200.

Auto white balance did a very good job here, producing a fairly neutral, just slightly cool color balance across tested ISOs and light levels.

We didn't detect any significant banding (pattern noise) or heat blooming, though we did spot a few hot pixels at base ISO where noise reduction didn't blur them out. That's nothing to be overly concerned about, though.

The Sony A6300's autofocus system was able to focus on our low-contrast AF target down to between 1/8 and 1/16 foot-candles (-1.4 EV) unassisted with an f/2.8 lens, which is pretty good. And the A6300 was able to focus in complete darkness with its focus assist lamp enabled.

How bright is this? The one foot-candle light level that this test begins at roughly corresponds to the brightness of typical city street-lighting at night. Cameras performing well at that level should be able to snap good-looking photos of street-lit scenes.

NOTE: This low light test is conducted with a stationary subject, and the camera mounted on a sturdy tripod. Most digital cameras will fail miserably when faced with a moving subject in dim lighting. (For example, a child's ballet recital or a holiday pageant in a gymnasium.) Thanks to their larger pixels and in the case of the A6300, its Hybrid AF system, compact system cameras like the Sony A6300 tend to do much better than point & shoots, but you still shouldn't expect a quick autofocus lock with moving subjects. (A useful trick is to just prop the camera on a convenient surface, and use its self-timer to release the shutter. This avoids any jiggling from your finger pressing the shutter button, and can work quite well when you don't have a tripod handy.)

The images above were taken from our standardized test shots. For a collection of more pictorial photos, see our Sony Alpha ILCE-A6300 Photo Gallery .

Not sure which camera to buy? Let your eyes be the ultimate judge! Visit our Comparometer(tm) to compare images from the Sony Alpha ILCE-A6300 with those from other cameras you may be considering. The proof is in the pictures, so let your own eyes decide which you like best!

Performance

Image Quality

Below are crops from our laboratory Still Life target comparing Sony A6300 image quality to its predecessor, the A6000, as well as against several enthusiast ILC models at similar price points or in similar categories: the Fuji X-T1, Nikon D7200, Panasonic GX8 and Sony A7. We realize the Sony A7 isn't in the same league as the A6300 in terms of performance (and frankly, very few cameras are), but it's available for about the same body-only price at the time of writing so we thought including a full-frame model would be an interesting comparison to some of our readers.

NOTE: These images are from best quality JPEGs straight out of the camera, at default settings including noise reduction and using the camera's actual base ISO (not extended ISO settings). All cameras in this comparison were shot with our very sharp reference lenses. Clicking any crop will take you to a carrier page where you can click once again to access the full resolution image as delivered straight from the camera. For those interested in working with the RAW files involved, click these links to visit each camera's respective sample image thumbnail page: Sony A6300, Sony A6000, Fuji X-T1, Nikon D7200, Panasonic GX8, and Sony A7 -- links to the RAW files appear beneath those for the JPEG images, wherever we have them. And remember, you can always go to our world-renowned Comparometer to compare the Sony A6300 to any camera we've ever tested!

Sony A6300 vs Sony A6000 at Base ISO

Sony A6300 at ISO 100	Sony A6000 at ISO 100
Here we compare the Sony A6300 to its predecessor, the A6000, at base ISO. As expected, image quality is very similar, but the A6300's image is a bit sharper and crisper, though it does however show stronger moiré patterns in our red-leaf swatch. It's possible Sony has reduced the strength of the A6000's already weak AA-filter for the A6300, or even removed it entirely. Also notice the stronger shift from yellow to green in the olive oil bottle, and slightly reduced saturation as well.

Sony A6300 vs Fujifilm X-T1 at Base ISO

Sony A6300 at ISO 100	Fujifilm X-T1 at ISO 200
The 24-megapixel APS-C A6300 clearly out-resolves the 16-megapixel APS-C Fuji X-T1, and it produces a sharper image, too. However chroma noise is lower from the Fuji despite the higher base ISO, and the X-T1's colors are in general more pleasing. Thanks to its X-Trans sensor we don't see any aliasing in our tricky red-leaf swatch like we do from the Sony, however the Fuji struggles to render certain types of fine detail accurately, like the small red text in our Samuel Smith bottle label. The Sony somewhat exaggerates the offset printing coloration in the mosaic bottle label which the Fuji entirely eliminates.

Sony A6300 vs Nikon D7200 at Base ISO

Sony A6300 at ISO 100	Nikon D7200 at ISO 100
The Sony A6300 closely matches the 24-megapixel APS-C Nikon D7200 in terms of resolution, though there are plenty of differences otherwise. The D7200 image has lower chrominance noise which is perhaps why the red-leaf swatch isn't as detailed, while the A6300 image has lower luminance noise. The Nikon image contains much more obvious sharpening halos as seen in the olive oil bottle crop at the top, but the Sony exaggerates the offset printing coloration in the mosaic label which the Nikon attenuates, perhaps also treating it as chroma noise. Overall, colors are more pleasing and vibrant from the Nikon, with much less of a shift to green in its yellows.

Sony A6300 vs Panasonic GX8 at Base ISO

Sony A6300 at ISO 100	Panasonic GX8 at ISO 200
The 20-megapixel Panasonic GX8 is actually fairly closely matched in terms of resolution here, because its 4/3" sensor has only 112 fewer pixels than the 3:2 A6300 on the vertical axis and we frame this shot vertically. Still, its smaller sensor and higher base ISO means noise is higher from the Panasonic, which does impact fine detail. Sony's default processing also produces a sharper, crisper image with higher contrast, giving its image much more "pop." Overall, we prefer the Sony's colors here, even though the yellow to green shift is stronger than the Panasonic's. The GX8 does not however generate the moiré patterns produced by the A6300 in the red-leaf fabric.

Sony A6300 vs Sony A7 at Base ISO

Sony A6300 at ISO 100	Sony A7 at ISO 100
Here we compare the 24-megapixel APS-C A6300 to a full-frame sibling with the same pixel count, the Sony A7. As mentioned in the intro, the A7 can be purchased for roughly the same price these days, so that's something to consider if you don't need the speed and other advanced features the A6300 offers. Here at base ISO, we see very similar image quality from the two siblings, though noise is a bit higher from the A6300, and colors aren't quite as good. Both show obvious moiré patterns in the red-leaf fabric thanks to weak or absent AA filters, however the A7's are more prominent.

Sony A6300 vs Sony A6000 at ISO 1600

Sony A6300 at ISO 1600	Sony A6000 at ISO 1600
It's evident that Sony has tweaked its default noise reduction algorithm since the A6000, as fine detail in the mosaic and in the red-leaf swatch has improved. Noise appears just a touch higher from the A6300 so it seems as if Sony has backed-off a bit on its heavy-handed approach to noise reduction, but when comparing RAW files without noise reduction applied, it does look like the A6300's sensor has improved high ISO noise characteristics as well.

Sony A6300 vs Fujifilm X-T1 at ISO 1600

Sony A6300 at ISO 1600	Fujifilm X-T1 at ISO 1600
At ISO 1600, the A6300 is still able to resolve noticeably more detail than the X-T1 in most areas of our Still Life target, however the Fuji produces a cleaner image with a finer, more consistent "grain" pattern, and it continues to render the subtle, low-contrast detail in the red-leaf fabric much more faithfully than the Sony. The Fuji's image is however slightly soft looking compared to the Sony's, but continues to display better colors.

Sony A6300 vs Nikon D7200 at ISO 1600

Sony A6300 at ISO 1600	Nikon D7200 at ISO 1600
The D7200's fairly strong blurring of the red-leaf fabric jumps out in this comparison, and its rendering in the mosaic crop appears softer as well, but its noise "grain" is much more natural and film-like than the A6300's. Colors from the Nikon continue to be warmer and more pleasing than from the Sony.

Sony A6300 vs Panasonic GX8 at ISO 1600

Sony A6300 at ISO 1600	Panasonic GX8 at ISO 1600
The Panasonic GX8's higher noise means its noise reduction has to work even harder now at ISO 1600, and it shows. Fine detail suffers more than from the Sony especially in the red-leaf fabric, and Panasonic's area-specific noise reduction starts to generate some unwanted artifacts along edges and at transitions between differing subject matter. The A6300 produces a more pleasing, crisper, and more vibrant image, but its noise grain is coarser and more obtrusive than the GX8's.

Sony A6300 vs Sony A7 at ISO 1600

Sony A6300 at ISO 1600	Sony A7 at ISO 1600
Here at ISO 1600, the A6300 compares surprisingly well to the full-frame A7. The A7 does produce a cleaner image with slightly better detail, but the advantage isn't as much as we anticipated. Both still however show signs of moiré patterns in our tricky red-leaf fabric, however the A7 produces a much smoother rendering which may look less detailed, but much of the apparent detail from the A6300 is false. Still, the A6300 performs well at this sensitivity.

Sony A6300 vs Sony A6000 at ISO 3200

Sony A6300 at ISO 3200	Sony A6000 at ISO 3200
The A6300 continues to retain better detail than the A6000 at ISO 3200, with less blurring due to default noise reduction. We believe some of the improvement is from cleaner output from the newer sensor as well, giving the processor less noise and therefore more detail to work with.

Sony A6300 vs Fujifilm X-T1 at ISO 3200

Sony A6300 at ISO 3200	Fujifilm X-T1 at ISO 3200
Similar to what we saw at ISO 1600, the A6300 continues to resolve more detail at ISO 3200, but the X-T1 produces a cleaner albeit softer image with fewer noise reduction artifacts. It is however amazing that the Fuji is still able to reproduce the fine pattern in the red-leaf swatch so well while the Sony produces just a rough facsimile.

Sony A6300 vs Nikon D7200 at ISO 3200

Sony A6300 at ISO 3200	Nikon D7200 at ISO 3200
Once again, the A6300 and D7200 retain similar levels of detail in most areas, however the Sony produces a slightly crisper image overall. The Nikon's noise pattern is more natural and film-like, though, and its colors are warmer and more accurate. And while the A6300 seems to do better in the red-leaf fabric, much of the apparent detail is heavily distorted at this ISO, as mentioned previously.

Sony A6300 vs Panasonic GX8 at ISO 3200

Sony A6300 at ISO 3200	Panasonic GX8 at ISO 3200
The Sony A6300 pulls further ahead of the Panasonic GX8 at ISO 3200. While the GX8's image looks cleaner, stronger noise reduction has smeared away more fine detail, and smooth edges have become more distorted as well. Overall, the Panasonic's image looks dull and drab compared to the Sony's, though it still has less of a yellow to green shift.

Sony A6300 vs Sony A7 at ISO 3200

Sony A6300 at ISO 3200	Sony A7 at ISO 3200
The advantages of a full-frame sensor are usually more evident at ISO 3200 in terms of detail retention and noise, however advances in sensor technology and processing since the A7 came out do appear to mitigate them, allowing the A6300 to produce an image that is at least in the same ballpark in terms of detail and noise. Still, the A7 does produce a cleaner image with better detail (particularly in the red-leaf fabric), but perhaps not by as much as one would expect.

Sony A6300 vs. Sony A6000, Fujifilm X-T1, Nikon D7200, Panasonic GX8, Sony A7

Sony A6300 ISO 100 ISO 3200 ISO 6400	Sony A6000 ISO 100 ISO 3200 ISO 6400	Fujifilm X-T1 ISO 200 ISO 3200 ISO 6400	Nikon D7200 ISO 100 ISO 3200 ISO 6400	Panasonic GX8 ISO 200 ISO 3200 ISO 6400	Sony A7 ISO 100 ISO 3200 ISO 6400
Detail comparison. High-contrast detail is also important, pushing the camera in different ways, so we like to look at it, too. The Sony A6300 performs similarly in this regard to its predecessor at base ISO, but as you can see, it does better at ISO 3200 and especially at ISO 6400. As expected the full-frame Sony A7 comes out on top in this group, with very little degradation as ISO climbs. The Nikon D7200 does very well at base ISO, though with the most obvious sharpening halos, however it doesn't do quite as well as the A6300 at higher ISOs. The Panasonic's contrast is lower than the others, but it does quite well otherwise at base ISO, however image quality drops off more quickly than the other Bayer-filtered models. The Fuji X-T1's lower resolution coupled with its unique X-Trans color filter puts it at a distinct disadvantage in this comparison, producing the lowest image quality of the group.

Excellent 30 x 40 inch prints at ISO 100/200/400; a nice 16 x 20 at ISO 1600; a good 5 x 7 at ISO 12,800.

ISO 100 and 200 prints are excellent at 30 x 40 inches and higher, until you run out of resolution and begin to see individual pixels. Images are both rich and superb in depth and fine detail, with good color overall.

ISO 400 images also hold up quite well at 30 x 40 inches here, with crisp detail, good color and no signs of any unwanted artifacts. Most APS-C cameras have historically required a print size reduction at this ISO, so this is a welcome sign indeed.

ISO 800 yields 20 x 30 inch prints with very nice fine detail, full colors, and only mild apparent noise in flatter areas of our test target. There is a typical slight loss in contrast detail in our tricky red-leaf swatch as well, but virtually all cameras we test begin to succumb to this issue by about ISO 800 or even sooner.

ISO 1600 shots are quite good at 16 x 20 inches, which is a fairly nice-sized print for this sensitivity. 20 x 30's may be usable here for less critical applications depending on your subject matter, but display a bit too much noise in the flatter areas of our test target to merit our good seal.

ISO 3200 prints are worthwhile at 13 x 19 inches, with only mild issues similar to the 16 x 20 inch prints described at ISO 1600. We're still in fairly large territory for this print size, so unless you're moving to really large prints, this is an ISO you can safely depend on for most displaying situations.

ISO 6400 tends to be the southward turn for many a crop-sensor camera, and the Sony A6300 is no exception. 11 x 14 inch prints here aren't bad, and will likely be fine for less critical applications, but the 8 x 10's tighten up quite nicely here and receive our full seal of approval.

ISO 12,800 produces quite a nice 5 x 7 given how high this ISO sensitivity is. Nice detail and good color are still present, with little in the way of apparent noise at this print size.

ISO 25,600 delivers a good 4 x 6 inch print. As with the A6000, this is a nice feat for an APS-C camera to be able to yield, and is not "scorched" looking like so many APS-C cameras by this setting.

ISO 51,200 yields 4 x 6 inch prints that almost pass our good seal. You can get away with it for lesser applications, but for anything important you're best to avoid this gain setting.

The Sony A6300 excels in the print quality department for an APS-C camera. Not only does it deliver exceptional prints at base ISO and ISO 200, but it bests its predecessor the A6000 at ISO 400 and 800 with one available print size larger. For the remaining ISO's the A6300 scored a similar print size, but tended to look to our eyes just a bit sharper at each of these settings. It's too bad it can't produce a quality print at the new high ISO of 51,200, but that's not a big deal since the A6000 didn't even offer it. We can say without hesitation that the Sony A6300 does indeed best the A6000 in the print quality department, though certainly not in a radical way as the A6000 was already quite good.

Field Test

Faster, more powerful but still light on its feet

By Jeremy Gray · 04/26/2016

The Sony A6300 has big shoes to fill after the wildly popular A6000

2014's Sony A6000 was a wildly popular camera. In fact, it's been the best-selling mirrorless camera overall and also the best-selling interchangeable lens camera priced over $600, according to Sony's data from NPD Group. It is no easy task to follow up on something so popular, but the A6300 looks up to the challenge by delivering excellent performance and important improvements.

Key Features

• New 24.2-megapixel APS-C CMOS sensor
• Relatively compact camera body
• 425 phase-detect autofocus points and 169 contrast-detect autofocus points
• 11.1 frames per second continuous shooting
• Native ISO range of 100-25,600 (expandable to ISO 51,200)
• 4K video at up to 30fps (downsampled from 6K with no pixel binning)
• Built-in Wi-Fi and NFC

Similar body to its predecessor, but the A6300's new EVF is top-notch

There are a lot of similarities between the Sony A6300 and A6000 on the outside. The A6300 is slightly deeper and also slightly heavier, but the controls are mostly unchanged. There is a second memory recall option on the mode dial and the rear of the camera has a new switch surrounding the AE-L button to quickly toggle between automatic and manual focus. While the two cameras look similar, the Sony A6300 comes with a more rugged construction. Also, dust and moisture-resistance has been improved according to Sony, although the body is still not splash-proof.

Despite being compact, there are still lots of controls and features on the Sony A6300's body. In general, the control layout is nice, although the dedicated movie record button can be difficult to press until you get used to it. I'd have preferred it to be located on the top deck of the camera, personally. I also found many of the camera's buttons to be slightly too small. Regarding the camera's control dials, the one on the top deck doesn't provide much tactile feedback and the rotating dial surrounding the navigation buttons on the rear of the camera doesn't offer a lot of precision.

A key area of improvement over the A6000 is with regard to the electronic viewfinder. The OLED EVF is still 0.39 inches with 1.07x magnification (35mm equivalent 0.7x magnification), but it now has 2,359,296 dots compared to the 1,440,000 dots found in the A6000's EVF, a ~63% improvement. Further, the viewfinder can now refresh at 120fps rather than 60fps. Both of these changes are very nice and the Sony A6300's electronic viewfinder is superb. There is also a new EVF feature for an improved high-speed shooting experience, but more on that later.

While not vastly changed, the body has definitely seen improvements and it continues to be a comfortable, compact mirrorless body that generally works well and feels good to use.

The Sony A6300's kit lens is capable, but nothing to write home about

The A6300 can be purchased with a Sony E 16-50mm f/3.5-5.6 PZ OSS kit lens. This lens is interesting in that you can zoom the lens using the zoom ring or by flicking a switch on the barrel, like you might use on an all-in-one camera.

While soft in the corners when shooting at 16mm (24mm equivalent), its performance is decent for what is an inexpensive and compact kit lens. It tries to be a jack-of-all-trades and ends up being a master of none; its performance is sub-par at the wide end, mediocre in the middle, and mediocre at 50mm. The biggest issue I had with the lens is severe distortion at 16mm in uncorrected RAW files, though that's pretty common in compact wide-angle lenses for mirrorless cameras. In JPEGs, distortion is well-corrected. If you can spring for better glass though, I'd recommend it, because the Sony A6300 deserves to be paired with excellent lenses.

The Sony A6300's sensor is brand new, but still 24MP

You would be forgiven for thinking that the Sony A6300 is packing the same APS-C sensor as its predecessor. After all, they're both 24-megapixel sensors, right? While the two cameras have the same resolution, the A6300's sensor is new and offers up improved performance in multiple ways. The sensor in the A6300 uses copper wiring to provide both better readout performance and also an improved signal-to-noise ratio. With this improved signal-to-noise ratio, the Sony A6300 can now extend its ISO range to 51,200. Besides this increased range, noise performance is improved across the entire ISO range.

I found the Sony A6300 produces very good JPEGs files with lots of crisp detail straight from the camera. It's unclear if the sensor has a different AA filter (or maybe no AA filter at all), but the camera is capable of capturing lots of detail when viewing files at full resolution. Ultimately, the Sony A6300's sensor delivers really good image quality across a wide range of conditions. While still not offering uncompressed RAW files like its A7-series bigger brothers, the new A6300 now records 14-bit RAW files instead of 12-bit RAW like the A6000. The A6300 does drop down to 12-bit RAWs when shooting in continuous mode, however in my shooting experience, I did not observe any noticeable degradation in image quality between 14-bit and 12-bit RAW files.

The A6300 offers solid user experience with a few shortcomings

There are numerous key improvements to the Sony A6300 that help make it an excellent camera to use out in the field. However, there are also a handful of downsides to the A6300's user experience.

First, this camera is in desperate need of a touchscreen display. Changing autofocus points using the buttons is slow, especially considering just how dense the autofocus points are and how much of the frame is covered. The menu system is not intuitive and is a bit cluttered; navigating it using the buttons on the rear of the camera takes too long. This may sound nit picky, but I found it odd that the menu system is stretched to fit the A6300's relatively wide display. If you've used other Sony cameras, it looks strange and may take some getting used to. The LCD screen itself handled well in bright, outdoor settings, and I didn't have any issues with glare. The added "Sunny LCD" brightness setting helped even further to avoid readability issues in glaring, sunny conditions.

Viewfinder experience

The electronic viewfinder, which I touched on above, is very good and is one of the best EVFs I've used (despite a frustratingly sensitive eye sensor). One issue that I've had with EVFs is that they don't work very well for high-speed shooting (something the Sony A6300 is well-equipped to do) because you're constantly seeing previously captured images rather than a real-time view of the scene which makes framing fast-moving subjects really difficult in burst mode.

The Sony A6300 addresses this weak area by utilizing its improved technology to deliver a viewfinder experience very similar to that found with an optical viewfinder. When shooting in 'High' mode, you can capture images at up to 8fps and get a real-time view of the scene through the viewfinder with a brief blackout after each capture, such as you would get when using an SLR camera. Honestly, this feature works so well that I found myself very rarely opting for the faster 11fps Hi+ shooting mode that offers typical EVF behavior.

Speed and performance

When shooting at high speeds, the A6300 offers solid buffer depths at around 44-46 frames for best quality JPEGs or 21-24 shots for RAW+ JPEG, which great considering the camera's fast burst rate and image resolution. However, its buffer clearing performance is weak. While single-shot cycling times are very good and continuous shooting speeds are excellent as well, buffer clearing is slow and the camera doesn't allow you to do anything while the camera is clearing the buffer. Clearing an 11.1fps burst of 21 RAW+JPEG files takes 22 seconds, which is quite slow. It is also worth noting that you can't capture 'Extra Fine' quality JPEG images when also recording RAW files, as has been the case on a number of other Sony cameras.

In Continuous High mode (the one with the excellent viewfinder experience), speeds drop down to 8.3fps but buffer depths and clearing times remain essentially the same. If you don't want to record RAW files, 'Extra Fine' JPEG files can be recorded at the same speeds for just over twice as many frames with a buffer clearing of 36 seconds. And as mentioned previously, RAW files drop from 14-bit to 12-bit when shooting continuously.

Buffer clearing is the main disappointment here; a disappointment that might have been avoided if Sony had equipped the A6300 with UHS-II support in addition to the UHS-I support it has. The buffer depth is fine, but it takes too long to clear a full buffer and not being able to playback images or access the menu while the camera is processing the data is frustrating. Twenty-two seconds feels like an eternity when you don't know if you need to change settings for the next burst and while action is taking place in front of you.

Overall, the Sony A6300 is a very fast camera as cycle times and max speeds are very impressive. But ultimately, its high-speed capabilities are offset somewhat by the buffer bottleneck and the lack of control the camera provides to the user while it's clearing the buffer.

Metering

I was impressed with the Sony A6300's metering ability. I found it to deliver expected results in most situations, and it allows for easy exposure compensation in the instances when you need some adjustment. The A6300 includes a 1200-zone evaluative metering mode as well as center-weighted and spot metering. Spot metering unfortunately does not follow the active AF area, but is instead locked to the center of the frame. White balance metering is good as well, although I found that images captured in the shade often came out just a bit on the cooler side.

Shooting modes

One of the handful of changes to the Sony A6300's body is the removal of an automatic shooting mode from the mode dial, instead consolidating the SR and SR+ modes to one spot. This opens up a second memory recall mode on the dial, which is a move that should please many enthusiasts. So how do the automatic shooting modes work? They work well, thanks in large part to the camera's good metering performance.

With that said, the other shooting modes will be far more exciting for enthusiasts. All of the standard modes are here, including program auto, aperture priority, shutter speed priority, and manual. These modes all work as expected, but since the Sony A6300 doesn't offer dual command dials in the same way that an A7-series camera does, you have to use the rotating control dial that encompasses the navigation buttons on the rear of the camera to make shutter speed changes when shooting in manual mode. This works okay, but the dial is not as precise as the camera's dedicated command dial.

The Sony A6300 is aimed at serious photographers so you won't find the same level of special effects and filters that you might find on more consumer-oriented cameras, but you will find a panorama mode on the mode dial. This function works well enough, but it is better to stitch your own panoramas if you want a massive file resolution as the A6300's panoramas are only about 2,000 pixels tall. The camera offers both a Standard- and Wide-format panorama mode, captured with a simple continuous sweeping motion. Standard panoramas are 8,192 x 1,856 pixels and Wide panoramas are 12,416 x 1,856 for horizontal panoramas. You can also shoot vertical-orientation panoramas in either Standard or Wide modes at 3,872 x 2,160 or 5,536 x 2,160, respectively.

Overall, the user experience of the Sony A6300 is very good. However, there are a few weak spots, including the camera's clunky menus, the lack of a touchscreen display, and the frustrating buffer clearing performance. An additional weak area that I haven't mentioned is the camera's battery life, which at 400 shots is okay when using the monitor. However, when using the electronic viewfinder, battery life drops down to 300 shots. It is worth noting that the battery life is markedly improved over the A6000's despite the A6300 using the same battery. In my opinion, these few negatives are outweighed by the excellent viewfinder, dependable metering performance, and enthusiast-oriented controls and features.

The Sony A6300 is an AF breakthrough, with 425 PDAF & 169 CDAF points

If you thought that the A6000 had a lot of autofocus points with 179 PDAF and 25 CDAF points, you'll be pleased to hear that the A6300 has a whopping 425 PDAF and 169 CDAF points. While that number of points may be overkill when shooting stationary subjects, it helps the camera immensely when shooting a moving subject. Subject tracking performance with the A6300 is highly impressive. Not only is the continuous autofocus performance really good, but it works well even when shooting at 11fps. Even if your subject gets near the edge of the frame, the number and density of the autofocus points helps keep your subject in focus.

I've yet to use a camera that perfectly tracks subjects, but the Sony A6300 worked as well as any other mirrorless camera I've used. When your subject contrasts your scene well and there aren't any high-contrast or bright elements in the background, the camera does a great job staying with the subject, even when the subject is moving at high speeds.

AF-S autofocus performance is good. There are numerous autofocus modes to select from, including wide, zone, center, flexible spot (small, medium, and large), expand flexible spot (S/M/L), and lock-on AF: expand flexible spot. My go-to autofocus mode is flexible spot. Without a touchscreen display, moving this autofocus point can be slightly tedious. The Sony A6300 gives you the option to press the center button on the back of the camera to activate the AF point (or zone depending on the mode), and you then either use the directional buttons, or a combination of the rear dial and top-deck control wheel, to move the focusing area around the frame.

The fully-automatic "wide" area autofocus also works well, provided that your subject is relatively large and contrasts its surroundings well. If you have a general sense of where your subject will be in your frame, then the zone option works very well, too.

You may recall that at the time of its release, the A6000 boasted a very fast autofocus system capable of locking focus in 0.06s. Not that you'd notice it when using the camera, but Sony claims the A6300 is even faster, capable of locking focus in 0.05s. According to Sony, this makes the A6300 the world's fastest autofocusing camera. In addition to being a fraction of a second faster, the A6300 also includes Eye AF when shooting with continuous autofocus. You can now also use the focus magnifier when using autofocus, which is greater for precisely focusing still life images.

Low light autofocus performance is good, although not great. During my time with the camera, I experienced a bit more hunting in low light than I expected, and I would say that it felt a bit slower in dim conditions than some other mirrorless cameras I've used.

To sum up the autofocus performance of the Sony A6300…: it's great. The number of PDAF and CDAF points is impressive, but it is the speed and consistency of the autofocus system that impressed me the most. Subject tracking works well overall, provided that you have enough light.

Shooting low-light? The Sony A6300 delivers!

The new sensor design pays dividends when shooting at high ISOs. For an APS-C camera, the results are very good and definitely better than its predecessor's -- although not by a huge margin because the A6000 was an already an impressive performer at high ISOs.

Sony A6300 ISO Range Noise Comparison 100% crops from RAW images (click images for full-size files). RAW files processed, cropped, and exported as JPEGs in Photoshop with default sharpening and noise reduction disabled.
ISO 100 Full Scene
ISO 100	ISO 200
ISO 400	ISO 800
ISO 1600	ISO 3200
ISO 6400	ISO 12800
ISO 25600	ISO 51200

When looking at RAW files, they are quite good up through ISO 1600. Even at ISO 3200, noise levels are entirely manageable. Noise becomes pretty heavy at ISO 6400, and I personally wouldn't use anything past this setting.

JPEG files are really impressive even at ISO 6400. In-camera noise reduction is really well balanced between reducing noise and preserving detail. ISO 6400 images contain a lot of fine detail that I typically expect to be lost. And yet, the images aren't terribly noisy either. Beyond ISO 6400, the noise reduction has to kick it up a notch and images take on a soft appearance.

The built-in flash isn't powerful, but it has a nice mechanical flip-up design and numerous options. The flash guide number (ISO 100) is 19.7 feet (6.0 meters) although of course its range depends on the lens in use. The max flash sync is 1/160s, and you have access to up to 3 EV of flash compensation. When you need more power, you can utilize the camera's built in multi interface shoe with an optional external flash.

A very capable video camera with lots of features

I'm primarily a stills photographer, but even I can appreciate the sheer number of video features and modes that the A6300 offers, including full PASM exposure controls for video, high-bitrate internal 4K recording, High Frame Rate video, Dual Recording (which is like RAW+JPEG for video, in a sense), and S-Log Picture Profiles for enhanced controls for color grading and editing for advanced videographers. Its features list is extensive, and its performance delivers on all fronts.

The A6300 has the ability to record 4K video in Super 35mm format -- a first for a Sony APS-C camera -- though it depends on the frame rate selected. The A6300 can record full-width Super 35mm-format video for 4K/24p as well as Full HD in 60p, 30p and 24p (and for for PAL-format 4K/25p and 1080/50p/25p). For other framerates, the video crop factor varies slightly with a narrower field of view for 4K/30p and 1080/120p (and PAL-region 100p), as well as in High Frame Rate movie modes.

The A6300's 4K video is actually downsampled from 6K data recorded from the camera's sensor, with no pixel binning. To my eyes, 4K video from the A6300 looks really good. 4K video, even at higher ISOs, looks great, with lots of fine detail and good dynamic range. When you're looking for something at a higher frame rate, you can use one of Sony's HFR modes for in-camera slow-motion videos, which captures Full HD at 120p or 100p, but plays back at a selectable 30, 25 or 24fps for up to a 5x slowdown effect, without sound. Or just record 1080p video at up to 120fps and tweak later in post-production. You can also record 1080/60p video if that's more your speed.

For videographers who use different picture profiles, such as an S-Log profile (the A6300 offers the new S-Log3 profile with 14-stops of dynamic range), the A6300 now includes a gamma display assist function, making it easier to see what you're recording while using these flat profiles. The Sony A6300 also includes an external mic jack as well, something that was missing on the A6000. For more advanced functionality, the A6300 offers clean HDMI output, even up to 4K resolution while still having the option of simultaneously recording 4K internally to the SD card. You can also record directly out from the HDMI connection to an external recorder, up to 4K resolution, without recording to the SD card.

The Sony A6300 uses XAVC S-format video for both 4K recording as well as Full HD video. 4K video is recorded in either 30p or 24p (or PAL-specific 25p) with a choice of bitrates: 100Mbps or 60Mbps. Full HD is offered in 60p, 30p, 24p and 120p. Bitrates for Full HD XAVC S video are 50Mbps for 24-60p (25/50p PAL) or 100Mbps for 120p. The A6300 also offers AVCHD (.MTS format) and MP4 video formats in a handful of lower bitrate settings, for a variety of Full HD options (and 720p for MP4 mode). 4K is only offered in XAVC S format, however.

Like a number of other Sony cameras, the A6300 requires a certain caliber of memory card in order to record video in certain formats and bitrates. SDXC-category cards at 64GB and larger, are perhaps the most widely compatible for all formats and bitrates offered on the A6300, including 4K and High Frame Rate options, but for both SDHC and SDXC cards, a UHS Speed Class U3 designation is required for video bitrates of 100Mbps or more. MemoryStick PRO-HG Duo memory cards are also compatible for certain videos, but cannot be used for 100Mbps video or higher.

Similar to a number of recent A7-series cameras, the Sony A6300 has a neat Dual Record video function that allows you to record a higher quality video and a small, lower-quality one simultaneously. For instance, you can have a high quality video ready for editing, as well as a smaller, easier-to-handle video for transferring and social sharing. You can dual-record XAVC S + MP4 together or choose AVCHD + MP4. There are some limitations though. You can't use Dual Record with 1080/60p or 120p XAVC S, 60p AVCHD, or when the File Format is set to MP4. You can use Dual Record with 4K video, however, which is great, though you are provided with a 720p MP4 sidecar video rather than a 1080p one.

Given sufficient space on your memory card, the Sony A6300 can record video continuously for approximately 29 minutes, after which you'll need to manually restart recording. There are some additional limitations, depending on specific video modes. HFR videos are limited to seven minutes of continuous shooting at 30/25p @ 16Mbps or approximately 5min, 30sec at 24p @ 12Mbps. Also, when using MP4 video format, the 28Mbps option is limited to approximately 20 minutes due to the 4GB file size limitation.

On a concerning note, we have come across comments about overheating with the A6300 when recording video for an extended period of time, however I have not experienced this phenomenon personally. While attending the Sony A6300 press trip in Miami, a few of my colleagues experienced overheating issues, but I did not. And during my main Field Test shooting here in Maine, the temperatures here were quite chilly, which probably helped avoid overheating problems. The instruction manual does warn of the risk of overheating while recording for extending lengths of time, which can be affected by the camera's temperature prior to video recording or the ambient temperature itself.

Sony's wireless connectivity setup in the A6300 needs some work

The Sony A6300 features built-in Wi-Fi and NFC connectivity, and part of the wireless functionality comes from apps installed on the camera itself as well as the companion PlayMemories Mobile smartphone app. The camera itself ships with a very basic remote app installed: mainly just remote shutter release and exposure compensation adjustment. Thankfully, Sony's updated the pre-packaged "Smart Remote Embedded" in-camera app to a more full-functioned "Smart Remote Control" app. If you want a better remote with more functionality, you'll need to install this updated app through the camera itself (via its own built-in "app store" interface), or by connecting the A6300 to your computer with Sony software installed. For whatever reason, no matter how many times I delete and reinstall the Sony software, it always crashes on my Mac.

Sony PlayMemories application screenshots

This means that I have to connect to a Wi-Fi network on the camera, enter my password, and connect to Sony's store in the camera. Despite the app you need to download being free (though there are additional paid apps which offer more functionality and features), you still have to sign into a Sony Entertainment Network account to install apps (once installed, you don't need to sign-in to actually use the app thankfully). I don't know why it's set up this way, but having to enter your email and password information using the navigation buttons on the camera makes this entire process quite tedious. Another strange issue I had is that the A6300 wasn't picking up my Wi-Fi signal as well as my other devices. Even with a strong signal, the in-camera store loads very slowly. Ultimately, going through these steps is not that big of a deal, but it is something I've never had to deal with on any other kinds of cameras.

Once you've got everything set up, you can connect to the camera via the PlayMemories Mobile app on your smartphone or tablet. The new, updated Smart Remote Control app works well enough and now offers additional, much-needed functionality, such as tap-to-focus, touch shutter and full exposure adjustments.

Sony A6300 Field Test Summary

An excellent successor to an already very good camera

What I like:

• Relatively compact camera body that feels comfortable to use
• Sensor delivers great results
• Fantastic electronic viewfinder & helpful live viewfinder burst mode
• Impressive number of PDAF and CDAF points
• Good subject tracking autofocus performance
• Very good low light image quality
• Extensive video features, including high quality 4K video

What I dislike:

• Clunky menus
• No touchscreen display
• Changing AF points on the fly isn't fast enough
• Slow buffer clearing
• Despite improvements, battery life still isn't great

It is never easy to follow up a camera as popular and as beloved as the A6000, but Sony has really hit it out of the park with the A6300. The A6300 is small and light, but it doesn't skimp on controls. Its new APS-C sensor delivers excellent image quality across a wide range of ISO sensitivities. The improved electronic viewfinder is fantastic and offers the best high-speed shooting experience of any EVF I've used. Video shooters should be pleased with the wide array of features and the great performance that the A6300 offers. Overall, the Sony A6300 is a very good APS-C mirrorless camera and with the continued expansion of Sony E-mount lenses, it's hard to find many reasons to not be excited by this camera.

Flash

Sony A6300 Flash

Built-in Flash Test Results

Coverage and Range
A fairly weak flash with very narrow and uneven coverage at wide angle. Our standard indoor portrait shot required more than average exposure compensation and still came out dim.

Coverage. Flash coverage is very narrow and uneven at wide angle (16mm), leaving very dark corners in our flash coverage test image. We no longer test at full telephoto is coverage is invariably better, making wide angle the worst case.

Exposure. Our Indoor Portrait test scene came out a little underexposed even with +1.0 EV flash exposure compensation at ISO 200, and positive flash exposure compensation had no effect in our tests. The average amount of flash exposure compensation required for this scene is +0.7 EV, so the A6300's built-in flash performed a bit below average here. The camera's Slow-Sync flash mode produced very bright results with no flash exposure compensation, though with a strong orange cast from the ambient room lighting because of the slow shutter speed.

Manufacturer-Specified Flash Range
7.0 feet, ISO 100, f/2.8

Manufacturer Specified Flash Test. The Sony A6300's built-in flash is rated with a Guide Number of 6 meters or 19.7 feet at ISO 100. That works out to about 7 feet at f/2.8. In the test shot above, the A6300's flash produced a good flash exposure at those parameters, which confirms Sony's flash power rating is credible.

High ISO Noise Reduction

Sony A6300 High ISO Noise Reduction

The Sony A6300 offers only three High ISO Noise Reduction settings: "Off", "Low" and "Normal" (default). The user manual doesn't say at what sensitivity High ISO Noise Reduction begins to be applied, so we've included crops from ISO 100 on up to find out.

See for yourself how the the default and lowest noise reduction settings compare to RAW files with no noise reduction or sharpening applied. Click on any of the crops below to see the corresponding full-sized image.

High ISO Noise Reduction Comparison In-Camera JPEGs vs RAW Simulated Daylight
	Normal	Off	RAW (No NR)
I S O 1 0 0
	Normal	Off	RAW (No NR)
I S O 2 0 0
	Normal	Off	RAW (No NR)
I S O 4 0 0
	Normal	Off	RAW (No NR)
I S O 8 0 0
	Normal	Off	RAW (No NR)
I S O 1 6 0 0
	Normal	Off	RAW (No NR)
I S O 3 2 0 0
	Normal	Off	RAW (No NR)
I S O 6 4 0 0
	Normal	Off	RAW (No NR)
I S O 1 2 8 0 0
	Normal	Off	RAW (No NR)
I S O 2 5 6 0 0
	Normal	Off	RAW (No NR)
I S O 5 1 2 0 0

As you can see, the Sony A6300's High ISO Noise Reduction already has a noticeable effect at sensitivities as low as ISO 100, and the "Off" setting really isn't off (which is often the case), as the A6300 still applies obvious noise reduction.

Overall, the Sony A6300's noise reduction algorithm is less heavy-handed than the A6000, leaving more detail intact rather than smudging it away to produce a slightly cleaner image.

Conclusion

The Sony A6000, predecessor to the A6300, has been a runaway success for Sony, taking the top-selling spot for not only all mirrorless cameras, but also all interchangeable lens cameras priced over $600 put together. And for good reason. The A6000 is a fantastic camera in many ways: a compact, comfortable design with built-in EVF; superb, high-resolution image quality at both low and higher ISOs; blazing-fast hybrid autofocus and burst mode performance; and all at a substantial value (especially once the price dropped a bit). Needless to say, the Sony A6000 was looking to be a hard camera for the folks at Sony to top, but the new Sony A6300 is much more than just a minor refresh some two years later.

Familiar exterior, but the Sony A6300 has better build quality

We say, "more than a minor refresh," but at first glance, the A6300's external design is exactly that. It maintains a nearly identical body design and control layout, though we do find a few small changes to its buttons and dials. Like the A6000, this updated camera is very light and comfortable to hold with a contoured handgrip and a nice array of physical controls. There's not much to complain about with the Sony A6300's physical design and controls, although an additional front-facing control dial like on the A7-series cameras would have been nice.

While the exterior might be very similar, beneath the surface, the A6300's body construction is much beefier than the A6000, with an all-magnesium alloy chassis and supposedly better dust- and moisture-resistance. We're not truly certain about the extent of the weather sealing, as Sony doesn't mention "splashproof" protection, so we're hesitant to recommend using the A6300 in any weather conditions heavier than a light mist or sprinkle of rain.

Clunky menus, no touchscreen highlight quirks of A6300's usability

As we've seen with other recent Sony cameras, the menu system on the A6300 feels rather clunky and at times confusing. After using the camera for a while, you start to get the hang of it, but the organization doesn't feel very intuitive. One feature that's still unfortunately missing is a touchscreen. More and more cameras these days are sporting touchscreen functionality in one form or another, yet oddly enough Sony seems to get avoiding this rather handy feature on the A6300 and other mirrorless models, which if for nothing else could allow for very handy tap-to-focus adjustments.

The Sony A6300 offers impressive image quality performance

Though it keeps the same 24-megapixel resolution, the Sony A6300's APS-C sensor is completely new, with a similar copper wiring-based design that we saw on the Sony A7R II. Not only does this help the camera's performance with faster sensor readout, it also improves the signal-to-noise ratio, which results in better noise performance. Based on our testing both in and out of the lab, we found that the Sony A6300 produces excellent, highly detailed images at lower ISOs, as well as shows improved high ISO performance compared to its already well-regarded A6000 predecessor. In terms of dynamic range, the A6300 is improved over its predecessor especially at higher ISOs, which already offered very good performance for its class.

In the past, Sony's JPEGs have been pretty good, but could look a bit over-processed, especially with regards to heavy-handed noise reduction at higher ISOs. We're happy to see that Sony has tweaked their in-camera JPEG processing with the A6300 for a crisper, cleaner look with less sharpening artifacts and a lighter touch on noise reduction. Looking at RAW performance, we also see image quality improvements compared to the A6000, and we like that Sony has upped the RAW bit depth from 12 to 14 bits in single-shot mode, although the A6300 still uses lossy compression (and you still get 12-bit compressed RAWs in continuous modes, Silent Shooting, Bulb mode, or when Long Exposure NR is applied).

While Sony doesn't explicitly state one way or the other as to the presence of an optical low-pass filter on the sensor, the A6300 must either have a very weak filter or none at all. Images are very crisp with lots of fine detail, but caution should be taken when photographing certain subjects, such as fabrics and various architectural subjects with fine repeating patterns, as moiré and other aliasing artifacts can be difficult to remove in editing software.

The name of the game for the Sony A6300 is speed. Plain & simple.

Though the compact A6300 looks quite a bit different than your typical high-performance DSLR, don't underestimate this little mirrorless camera. The Sony A6300 is built for speed, especially in terms of autofocus as well as burst shooting capabilities.

Its autofocus system, for starters, gets a major upgrade with a whopping 425 phase-detect AF points and 169 contrast-detect AF points. AF speed is excellent for both still subjects and fast-moving ones under most conditions. Low-light AF is very good, but the speed can drop somewhat and there's a potential for more hunting. Continuous AF is very good and the sheer coverage area of AF points makes it much easier to keep a moving subject in focus as it moves across the frame. Subject tracking isn't perfect, but no camera's is. With good lighting and good subject contrast, the Sony A6300 does a good job at keeping fast-moving subjects in focus.

Unlike a number of mirrorless cameras, the A6300's continuous AF works even at the fastest 11 fps burst rate -- in other words, you don't have to compromise with a slower burst rate in order to have continuous AF between each frame. Therefore, the Sony A6300 is quite a good option for action sports and other fast-moving subjects. While the Sony A6300 is capable of a very healthy 11fps burst rate, a new 8fps mode with a real-time display in both the EVF and LCD makes it much easier to track moving subjects, which has typically been problematic for EVFs and mirrorless cameras in the past.

To coincide with the A6300's blazing burst speeds, the camera, thankfully, sports a healthy buffer capacity similar to its predecessor. Buffer depths with best quality JPEGs averaged a little over 40 frames or so, but dropped quite a bit to a still-respectable 21-24 frames for RAW+JPEG. Buffer clearing, on the other hand, was a bit disappointing and rather slow. The Sony A6300 would have really benefited from faster UHS-II memory card support.

Advanced video features makes A6300 appealing to videographers

The A6300 also gets numerous improvements in the video arena, including high quality, internally-recorded XAVC S 4K video. Video quality is very good, as we'd expected, given Sony's long expertise with video. The Sony A6300 also gets improvements to Full HD, with up to 120fps capture for excellent slow-motion effects. Experienced videographers will also appreciate a number of advanced features such as adjustable focus and tracking sensitivity, the addition of a standard 3.5mm external microphone jack and S-Log picture profile support.

Tons of improvements make Sony A6300 a worthy A6000 successor

All in all, the Sony A6300 features a number of significant improvements across the board, while maintaining most of the qualities that made its predecessor so popular, including its lightweight and compact design. It was a tall order to improve upon the A6000, but Sony managed to pull it off. Build quality is better, image quality is better, video quality is better, and performance is better. Sure, there are some downsides, such as a still-limited selection of native crop-sensor E-mount lenses, no touchscreen and clunky menus, but the positives far outweigh the negatives in our eyes. At just under US$1,000 body-only, the Sony A6300 represents an exceptional value for a camera which offers so much in such a compact package. It packs one heck of a punch in both features and performance, and undoubtedly gets two thumbs up as a Dave's Pick.

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