Sony NEX-6 Review

Overview

Overview by Shawn Barnett and Mike Tomkins
Posted 09/12/2012

Field Test by Eamon Hickey
Posted 04/18/2013

This is the Sony we've been waiting for. Not just the camera, but the company. They are back in fighting form, and what's more they seem to be having fun. Sony wasn't sure the NEX-7 would be quite the smash hit it clearly was, even at its higher price point, but that smash hit told them there was a market for a small mirrorless camera with an electronic viewfinder and an extra dial for a slightly lower price point. Hence we have the Sony NEX-6: a camera that's about the size of an NEX-7 complete with pop-up flash and electronic viewfinder, but with a simplified interface and a 16.1-megapixel sensor instead of 24.3. It also has a real Mode dial, dog-gone it, and that's a welcome change.

Between the NEX-6 and the NEX-5R, Sony has developed two cameras that hit us just about right. Stick a hot shoe on the NEX-5R and we're happy; barring that, we're drawn to the NEX-6 with its physical Mode dial. We might even use the electronic viewfinder.

What's new. Of course, there's a whole lot more to the Sony NEX-6 than those few elements. First, Sony's added its "Fast Hybrid AF" system, which combines contrast detection with 99-point phase-detection autofocus. It's reassuring to see that 11 x 9 array of autofocus points on the screen (both EVF and LCD, of course). Next, it can shoot 10 frames per second at full 16-megapixel resolution while track-focusing, keeping moving subjects in focus. The NEX-6 also records Full HD movies at 60p -- no small feat -- and it has Sony's new Multi Interface Shoe, which not only supports standard flashes, it integrates 21 additional pins for adding accessories to the camera. Finally, Sony integrated a Wi-Fi radio for easy transfer of images either directly to social media or to tablets and cell phones for editing and uploading from there.

And because it's a Sony, it has a huge selection of extra features that users have come to expect. Things like Sweep Panorama, Auto Portrait Framing (a crazy idea that actually seems to work), Auto HDR, and Focus Peaking function, just to name a few.

Initial pricing was set at US$850 body-only, and US$1,000 with the new 16-50mm Power Zoom lens, which started to ship in November 2012.

Build and design walkthrough. Physically, the NEX-6 reminds us a lot of the NEX-7. It's almost exactly the same size, measuring 4.7 x 2.6 x 1.7 inches (120 x 67 x 43mm) and weighing 12.7 ounces (359g) with battery and card (without lens). It weighs 16.5 ounces (469g) ready to shoot with the 16-50mm kit lens.

With a more workman-like appearance, the Sony NEX-6 has less glitz and more down-home practicality than the NEX-7. It isn't homely, but it's not headed out for dinner and dancing in the city. Sony softened the corners and spatter-painted the surfaces. All the major features are right where you'd expect them, though: the infrared remote port on the grip, a good feel to the grip, an AF-assist lamp, lens release button where it should be, left and right microphone holes flanking the lens, and that relatively large APS-C sensor.

Multi Interface Shoe. Not only does the NEX-6's hot shoe now accept standard flash units, it has an additional connector tucked under the front of the shoe, for communicating with intelligent accessories.

From the top. Sony's new 16-50mm Power Zoom lens lets the NEX-6 fit more comfortably into jacket pockets and bags, and is a welcome addition to the line. The overall profile of the NEX-6 is a little thicker behind the lens mount. Whereas the NEX-7 used Minolta's old proprietary hot shoe, Sony's new Multi Interface Shoe appears on the NEX-6, making it compatible with upcoming intelligent accessories as well as standard non-dedicated strobes. The EVF's rubber eyecup is also noticeably larger on the Sony NEX-6, and it's softer so it'll do less damage to glasses. Right of the hot shoe is the pop-up flash, which springs up quickly, hanging over the Sony logo. Sony seems to have settled on putting the Power switch around the shutter button on its latest NEX cameras, and the Function button is also becoming standard. Finally, the Mode dial features PASM, fast access to Scene modes and Sweep Panorama, as well as the two Intelligent auto modes. It's stacked above the Control dial which we appreciate so much (it really does make us happy, because cameras like the NEX-5 and NEX-3 relied too much on soft controls to make important changes).

Sony's wholesale switch to the use of D-rings for camera straps is unfortunate thanks to their tendency to rattle in video recordings, but someone apparently decided it was necessary. We should also note that we found the gap between the lens and grip a little tight.

On the back. Function over form rings true again when looking at the back. Comparing this to the NEX-7 is like being introduced to the high-school jock's bookish little brother: the family resemblance is there, but the emphasis on appearance is different. Handsome as we find the NEX-7, we're happy with bookish if it gets us the photos we want in a practical way. The diopter correction dial is a little harder to activate thanks to the large rubber eyecup, but it's possible. The pop-up flash button is mechanical, not electronic, which we prefer in a camera like this. The Playback button does not power-up the camera, which makes sense considering the type of power switch employed. The AEL button is not switchable as it is on the NEX-7, but that's easy to live with; we're just happy it's there, and it is programmable. The standard soft buttons flank the top and bottom right corners of the LCD, their purpose changing with the mode or menu. Some, no doubt, are disappointed that the LCD is not a touchscreen, but we didn't miss it while shooting. It would have been very useful for entering text via the virtual keyboard, though.

Three of the four buttons integrated into the Control wheel bring up smart, fast adjustment menus on the right side of the screen, while the DISP button cycles through the various display options.

Battery and storage. The NEX-6 is powered by a 7.2-volt InfoLITHIUM rechargeable battery (part number NP-FW50) which is CIPA-rated to take 360 still images on a single charge while using the LCD screen. That's pretty good for a CSC, but battery life drops to 270 shots when using the EVF. The battery is charged in-camera via the USB port, and an AC adapter and USB cable are included in the product bundle, however a dedicated battery charger is not.

The NEX-6 accommodates several types of recordable media, including Memory Stick PRO Duo, Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo and SD/SDHC/SDXC memory cards, and is UHS-I compliant. The camera captures images in JPEG (Standard, Fine), 12-bit RAW and RAW+JPEG file formats.

Connectivity. In addition to built-in Wi-Fi and the Multi Interface Hot Shoe, connectivity options include USB 2.0 High-Speed for data transfer (and charging), and a high-definition Type-C Mini HDMI video output with CEC support. Like other recent Sonys, there is no provision for standard-definition composite video output. The Sony NEX-6 also has an infrared receiver in the grip for use with the optional RMT-DSLR1 or RMT-DSLR2 wireless remotes.

Overall impressions. All in all, the Sony NEX-6 strikes us as a just-right answer to the enthusiast's need for a more affordable mirrorless camera. It boasts improved continuous autofocus that can track a subject while firing off 10 frames per second, an electronic viewfinder, an articulating LCD screen, more physical control dials than anything but the NEX-7 -- less complexity than the NEX-7 -- and has a high-quality 16.1-megapixel APS-C sensor that does well in low light. We also appreciate the USB charging function, making it easier to charge while on the road, and you can always purchase a dedicated battery charger if you need one. Built-in Wi-Fi adds even more value to the NEX-6, allowing easy uploads direct to social media and transfers to tablets and phones. And adding the 16-50mm retractable Power Zoom lens makes the Sony NEX-6 smaller and easier to bring along as well as easier to afford.

Sony NEX-6 Field Test

By Eamon Hickey

I might be the perfect target customer for the Sony NEX-6. I've shot with advanced and professional SLR cameras (film and digital) for 20 years, but I'm ready -- more than ready -- to lighten my camera load. I put the NEX-6 through its paces over several shooting days in New York City, hoping it might be my holy grail: a serious photographer's camera in a very compact package.

Size and feel. As we already noted, the Sony NEX-6 is quite compact, and the new retractable SEL16-50mm f/3.5-5.6 OSS lens, which was included with my test unit, definitely helps keep weight and size in check. I could just slip the camera/lens combination into a large-ish coat pocket, allowing it to qualify (barely) as compact in my book. On three different days I spent 3 to 4 hours traipsing all over Manhattan with it and barely noticed its weight or bulk -- exactly what I was hoping for.

Happily, I also noticed right away how easy the camera is to hold securely, thanks to its prominent grip and tacky surface texture. I often like to walk with my camera dangling in my right hand, as opposed to hanging from a shoulder strap, and the Sony NEX-6 is among the best cameras I've ever tried for carrying this way.

Focus and overall speed. As much as I love the new compact system cameras, I've never met one that could focus well on anything capable of propelling itself, and kludgy manual focus systems are the lamentable rule with these cameras. One big promise of the Sony NEX-6 is that it might change that.

So the first thing I did with the NEX-6 was to head to the ice skating rink at Bryant Park to test out the camera's new hybrid contrast/phase detection autofocus (AF), which is designed specifically to do a better job on moving subjects. On this visit and a later one, I used the Sony NEX-6 to shoot fast and medium speed skaters coming directly at me using continuous AF in both regular continuous drive mode (about 2-3 frames per second) and in speed priority drive mode (about 7-10 frames per second, depending on whether I was shooting in the raw or jpeg file format).

I'm happy to report that the Sony NEX-6 is not at all hopeless in this scenario. I got several sequences of four to eight consecutive shots with many shots in good focus, even when using frame rates up to about 8 frames per second.

Sony NEX-6: Real world testing of the new hybrid contrast/phase-detect autofocus system

unadjusted JPEG file

JPEG adjusted in Adobe Lightroom

A special note about NEX-6 Gallery Images: I purposely shot my review gallery images underexposed, knowing that I would be able to maximize dynamic range and preserve highlights by tweaking them a bit in Adobe Lightroom. All images in this review have been adjusted by me in Lightroom, but you can click on the gallery image to see the original, unadjusted JPEG or RAW images for comparison purposes. The two images above are an example of what an underexposed, unadjusted image looks like, compared to the adjusted version.

Now for the caveats: For moving subjects, the Sony NEX-6 AF system still lags behind the performance of higher-end DSLR cameras from Canon and Nikon that I've used, and it's a far, far cry from those companies' pro DSLR models. Nobody is getting a staff job at Sports Illustrated with the NEX-6. For one thing, initial focus acquisition is noticeably slower than that of a good DSLR; very quick, swing-to-the-action shots are iffy at best. Equally important, my hit rate was decent but not excellent -- only about 50% of my skating test shots were sharp (though I should caution that this was by no means a complete test).

I should also add that I was shooting in bright sunlight, and the 16-50mm kit lens can't really stress test the AF system because it has deep enough depth-of-field, even when wide open, to hide some focusing errors. Shooting a basketball game in a dark gym with a 300mm f/2.8 lens would probably yield a much different, much blurrier story.

With those qualifications noted, I'd rate the ability of the Sony NEX-6's continuous AF as reasonably competent. More to the point, it's easily good enough for my style of shooting. As it does almost like clockwork, New York's endless variety of life manifested itself at the ice rink on my second visit, in the form of a white-haired gentleman skating in his business suit, and the NEX-6 had no trouble nailing a number of sharp pictures of him gliding swiftly through his lunch break. Capturing moving people moving about normally -- rather than pro athletes zooming down the court or field or ski slope -- is the kind of shot I need decent AF for, and the NEX-6 did the job.

On the other hand, the first thing I like to do on any camera that I'm using is to separate AF activation from the shutter release button. This is one of the great unsung camera features -- it simultaneously gives you most of the advantages of both auto and manual focus -- and the Sony NEX-6 doesn't have it. Not sure I could live without that.

On still subjects, I found the Sony NEX-6's AF to be both quick and decisive. After my second visit to the Bryant Park rink, I walked three blocks to Grand Central Station where I spotted a young soldier standing with a duffel bag and reading a map, clearly on his first visit to New York. These are the kinds of shots I'm by far the most interested in getting these days, and they require a fast and sure camera. The NEX-6 quickly acquired focus on the soldier in the very dim light, letting me stop, shoot and move on in the space of about a second or two. I made many similar street-style shots in low light, and the camera's AF system worked well nearly every time.

I also liked the camera's focus peaking feature, which shows you the in-focus area with a bright glimmery highlighting (you can choose from several different colors for this highlight). It worked well for me, and I'm delighted to see Sony investing R&D effort on the ancient and seemingly unsexy art of manual focusing. I wish, however, that I could toggle directly, with one button push, between auto and manual focus; it's a two-step process on the NEX-6 no matter how you set it up.

It was clear from my first few shots with the Sony NEX-6 at Bryant Park that, in addition to autofocus, the rest of the camera's overall performance is pleasingly fast. Buttons responded quickly, shutter delay was minimal, images wrote speedily to the storage card and could be played back in just a second or two. In short, on that day and later days shooting with the camera, I never had to wait for it. That's a big deal to me when I'm wandering around looking to capture fleeting moments in the life of the city.

EVF/LCD. I loved the superb versatility provided by the two high-quality viewing options on the Sony NEX-6. It's hard to overstate the benefits here.

For the skating shots, I used the eye-level XGA Tru-Finder OLED electronic viewfinder (EVF), much like I would have with a traditional DSLR. At about 2,359,000 dots, it's sharp and responsive, and I had no trouble seeing the image even when shooting bright daylight scenes. No EVF that I've used can show the nuances of light, shadow, and color that you can see through a good optical viewfinder, but I don't expect that (yet). For composing shots, I had no trouble with the EVF in the NEX-6.

For most of my walk-around people and street shooting with the camera, I used the rear, tiltable LCD display for composing my pictures. As I moved through the crowds on Fifth Avenue, it was easy to make what we used to call Hail Mary shots, holding the camera high above my head and framing with the LCD tilted down.

For most other street shots -- the travelers in Grand Central Station, subway passengers, coffee house patrons -- I used the NEX-6 more or less at waist level, composing with the LCD tilted up. In my experience, people feel a lot less threatened when you shoot this way, compared to holding the camera to your eye. I've never been punched in the nose while street shooting, and I'd love to keep it that way. Like the EVF, the LCD is sharp and responsive, and I had no trouble viewing it in bright daylight.

Controls. Overall, I was fairly happy with the enthusiast-oriented control interface of the Sony NEX-6 as I shot with it, but I have some quibbles. I feel like Sony climbed three-quarters of the way to the top of the mountain, then just stopped.

With two control wheels -- one for aperture and one for shutter speed -- and a constant, real-time exposure readout in the form of a live histogram, the NEX-6 let me quickly control the exposure basics in manual or automatic exposure modes. The ISO setting is also accessed with a dedicated button, and I could change it quickly as I moved from subway station to street to Starbucks to sunlight to shade.

So far, so good, but then Sony blew it, in my not so humble opinion. You can't directly access exposure compensation when in automatic exposure mode. You have to click a button and enter a different control mode, and when you do, the live histogram disappears, so you can't see what your adjustments are doing to the exposure as you make them. (The histogram reappears when you go back to shooting mode.) This system is just bafflingly dumb. If they let you assign exposure compensation to the rear control dial (which is just sitting there, forlornly, with no purpose in automatic exposure mode) and kept the histogram active, Sony would in one fell swoop double the usability of the NEX-6's exposure system. I lamented this every step I took with the NEX-6.

Also baffling to me was that I could not save custom sets of camera settings, which would have allowed me to have, for example, a high ISO setup for shooting in the subway and a daylight setup for shooting above ground -- and then switch between them quickly as I walked down the stairs into a train station. I honestly didn't believe any serious camera made these days could lack this feature.

The way I shoot, I use other camera functions much less often, and I think Sony struck generally a good balance between direct button access and menu diving. The company touts the Quick-Navi interface on the NEX-6 -- basically a display of functions on the LCD, enabling two-button access to all of them -- but I found no real advantage to it over the camera's other pathways for accessing the same features.

Lens. For my style of shooting, especially in and around New York, the 16-50mm focal length of Sony's new E-mount kit lens (24-75mm in 35mm equivalent terms) was perfect. The unusually wide lower end of that range let me capture buildings and public spaces in the close quarters of this crowded city, and the rest of the range was ideal for shooting people on the streets and in cafes and restaurants.

As I walked and shot, I did struggle a bit with both the power zoom and the fly-by-wire manual zoom functions on the SEL 16-50mm, sometimes finding it difficult to precisely control the focal length. I also briefly stumbled a few times when I switched to manual focus and forgot that the ring would no longer zoom the lens. But these were minor issues, and I'd almost certainly learn to avoid them with more time shooting the camera.

Wi-Fi and special features. I downloaded and installed two of Sony's PlayMemories apps for the NEX-6: Smart Remote Control (which works with PlayMemories Mobile running on a smartphone or tablet) and Direct Upload. We're definitely in the frightening land of Very Early Stage Technology here. The instructions and dialogs for creating Wi-Fi connections are barely intelligible, like throwbacks to the entertainingly cryptic Japanese instruction manuals of the 1960s. And the apps are, at this point, fairly rudimentary, with very limited features and capabilities. Still, if you can decipher them, they work, and later versions will undoubtedly offer more and better features.

Of the Sony NEX-6's many special features, I was most interested in the Sweep Panorama and Handheld Twilight modes. When using Sweep Panorama, the camera guided me through a sequence of handheld shots and then automatically stitched them together. The result was a pretty amazingly sharp and artifact-free panorama.

I tested Handheld Twilight mode one evening in my neighborhood, capturing evocative shots of the streetlights and restaurants of Second Avenue. This feature, too, works almost magically, producing colorful, sharp handheld images of night scenes -- a great boon for a guy like me, who wants to leave his tripod in the closet where it belongs.

Movies. I also shot some video test clips with the Sony NEX-6. I liked that the camera's separate record button for video let me instantly switch to shooting movie footage, and it works with most of the camera's still image shooting modes and settings. This gave me control over aperture, shutter speeds, focus mode and more -- much more control over those parameters than many cameras allow when shooting video clips.

Using the power zoom function of the SEL 16-50mm lens, I could zoom smoothly, but I couldn't feather the zoom speed effectively, a minor quibble for this type of camera. In manual focus mode, focus peaking worked beautifully for pulling focus while recording a clip.

I didn't do an exhaustive analysis of the quality of the NEX-6's video footage, but I thought my clips looked great -- very sharp, with no obvious video artifacts.

Visit our full Video page for more sample clips and movie mode details.

Sony NEX-6 HDR, DRO and Creative Effects Modes
Intelligent Auto (no effect)	HDR Auto	DRO (lv5)
Handheld Twilight	Partial Color	Retro
Creative filters and modes: Above are just a few of the Sony NEX-6's creative shooting modes. DRO (Dynamic Range Optimization) is set to level 5 and showcases just how useful that feature can be for rendering good exposure across the entire range of an image when desired. Handheld Twilight mode is great for obtaining low noise images in low light without a tripod, and Retro is useful for an aged, faded look.

Sony NEX-6 Image Quality Comparison

Below are crops comparing the Sony NEX-6, Sony NEX-7, Canon T4i, Olympus E-M5, Pentax K-5 II and Samsung NX20.

Most decent cameras produce very good results at base ISO, but the NEX-6 is interesting enough we wanted to show how it did at ISO 100 compared to similar cameras at their base ISO. We also like to see what they can do at ISO 1,600 and 3,200. And finally we'll compare high-contrast detail at base ISO, 3,200, and 6,400.

NOTE: These images are best quality JPEGs straight out of the camera, at default settings including noise reduction. All cameras in this comparison were shot with our very sharp reference lenses.

Sony NEX-6 versus Sony NEX-7 at ISO 100

Sony NEX-6 at ISO 100	Sony NEX-7 at ISO 100
The NEX-7 produces larger, more detailed images across the subject, but with a higher resolution sensor (24 vs 16 megapixels) and a higher price tag this is what we would expect. The NEX-6 still looks quite good in comparison, actually showing better definition in the shoulders of the bottles.

Sony NEX-6 versus Canon T4i at ISO 100

Sony NEX-6 at ISO 100	Canon T4i at ISO 100
The NEX-6 wins the bout here against the Canon T4i despite the latter's slightly higher resolution, returning a sharper pattern on the mosaic and a more detailed and lifelike image of the red and pink swatches. The NEX-6 also does a slightly better job with the curved edge of the Mas Portell bottle.

Sony NEX-6 versus Olympus EM-5 at base ISO

Sony NEX-6 at ISO 100	Olympus E-M5 at ISO 200
Mixed results here, as the EM-5 clearly shines on our bottle and mosaic, loses clarity when comparing the red swatch, but wins again in in the pink and the other red fabric. Some of the "pop" in the EM-5's image is due to heavier sharpening, producing visible halos in the Mas Portell label, but bringing out thread detail nicely in the pink fabric.

Sony NEX-6 versus Pentax K-5 II at ISO 100

Sony NEX-6 at ISO 100	Pentax K-5 II at ISO 100
The NEX-6 produces a clearer, more accurate image across the board, with the K-5 II pumping the yellows of the mosaic and the pinks from the fabric swatch, shifting the pink strongly towards magenta. Interestingly, this comparison reveals that the NEX-6 does over-sharpen its images slightly, as there are slight halos visible in the Mas Portell label not present in the K-5 II's shot. (Note that the slight mottling in the background behind the bottles in the K-5 II's image is the texture of the paint on the backdrop rather than image noise. The K-5 II actually brings out real detail there that the NEX-6 misses.) It's a close contest, but we give the nod to the NEX-6 here, for its better handling of the pink and upper red swatch.

Sony NEX-6 versus Samsung NX20 at ISO 100

Sony NEX-6 at ISO 100	Samsung NX20 at ISO 100
Note how crisp the NX20 images are until you come to the red swatch. With that one exception, it's the clear winner at base ISO.

Most digital SLRs and CSCs will produce an excellent ISO 100 shot, so we like to push them and see what they can do compared to other cameras at ISO 1,600, 3,200, and 6,400. Recent advances in sensor technology have made ISO 1,600 look a lot more like ISO 100, but there are still cameras whose quality starts to fall apart at this setting. We also choose 1,600 because we like to be able to shoot at least at this level when indoors and at night.

Sony NEX-6 versus Sony NEX-7 at ISO 1,600

Sony NEX-6 at ISO 1,600	Sony NEX-7 at ISO 1,600
A close call here, which is no surprise given the same manufacturer. The NEX-6 certainly holds its own against its higher resolution big brother, the NEX-7. The NEX-7 struggles some due to its smaller pixels, but having more of them somewhat makes up the difference. Pretty much a toss-up, perhaps a slight edge to the NEX-7.

Sony NEX-6 versus Canon T4i at ISO 1,600

Sony NEX-6 at ISO 1,600	Canon T4i at ISO 1,600
The T4i clearly shows more noise in the shadow behind the bottle, and is generally less clear in the other two crops as well. A nice ISO 1,600 image from the NEX-6 overall.

Sony NEX-6 versus Olympus E-M5 at ISO 1,600

Sony NEX-6 at ISO 1,600	Olympus E-M5 at ISO 1,600
Again, a fairly close call here. The EM5 produces a grainy pattern around the edge of the bottle, but creates a crisper image of the mosaic. It loses almost all detail in the red swatch but still gives a good rendering of the pink one.

Sony NEX-6 versus Pentax K-5 II at ISO 1,600

Sony NEX-6 at ISO 1,600	Pentax K-5 II at ISO 1,600
The K-5 II again over-saturates the dark yellow in the mosaic and the (now magenta) pink swatch, and loses the red swatch entirely.

Sony NEX-6 versus Samsung NX20 at ISO 1,600

Sony NEX-6 at ISO 1,600	Samsung NX20 at ISO 1,600
A big nod to the NEX-6 here, as the NX20 produces colored blotches and odd "grains" in the background behind the bottle, as well as a somewhat water-colored rendition of the mosaic and red swatch.

These days, ISO 3,200 is a very viable shooting option for many cameras, so let's take a look at some comparisons there.

Sony NEX-6 versus Sony NEX-7 at ISO 3,200

Sony NEX-6 at ISO 3,200	Sony NEX-7 at ISO 3,200
Obviously ISO 3200 is traditional water-color territory, but each of these Sonys produces a reasonable image, with a slight nod to the NEX-7

Sony NEX-6 versus Canon T4i at ISO 3,200

Sony NEX-6 at ISO 3,200	Canon T4i at ISO 3,200
The NEX-6 is yet again clearly superior to the T4i at higher ISOs, with more detail and less apparent noise and artifacts. Good work, Sony.

Sony NEX-6 versus Olympus E-M5 at ISO 3,200

Sony NEX-6 at ISO 3,200	Olympus E-M5 at ISO 3,200
As before, the EM5 is sharper in the first two crops as well as in the pink swatch, but as with so many cameras it entirely loses detail in our tricky red swatch.

Sony NEX-6 versus Pentax K-5 II at ISO 3,200

Sony NEX-6 at ISO 3,200	Pentax K-5 II at ISO 3,200
Another close call between these two cameras, again noting the obvious pumping of the dark yellows and pinks from the K-5 II, and slightly more noise in the shadowed areas behind the bottle. The increased noise trades off favorably with the better resolving of the bottles' edges, but the K-5 II totally loses detail in the red swatch. We like the better definition of the K-5 II in the first two crops to give it the nod, but its handling of the red and pink fabric swatches tips us back in favor of the NEX-6.

Sony NEX-6 versus Samsung NX20 at ISO 3,200

Sony NEX-6 at ISO 3,200	Samsung NX20 at ISO 3,200
Odd artifacts and false color interpretations become entirely too obtrusive here in the NX20, while the NEX-6 remains fairly consistent in comparison.

Detail: Sony NEX-6 versus Sony NEX-7, Canon T4i, Olympus E-M5, Pentax K-5 II and Samsung NX20.

Sony NEX-6 ISO 100 ISO 3,200 ISO 6,400	Sony NEX-7 ISO 100 ISO 3,200 ISO 6,400	Canon T4i ISO 100 ISO 3,200 ISO 6,400	Olympus E-M5 ISO 200 ISO 3,200 ISO 6,400	Pentax K-5 II ISO 100 ISO 3,200 ISO 6,400	Samsung NX20 ISO 100 ISO 3,200 ISO 6,400
Detail comparison. High-contrast details often remain sharper as ISO rises, so they're worth a look as well. The EM5 and NX20 certainly stand out at base ISO here, but that's largely due to the extent of their over-sharpening; the NX-20 is particularly bad in this respect. The NEX-6 and NEX-7 show a remarkable consistency across ISOs, while the K5II, T4i and NX20 lose the most ground as ISO rises. Interestingly, what was too much sharpening from the EM-5 at base ISO stands it in good stead at ISO 6,400, helping hold onto the inner detail in the large letters.

Sony NEX-6 Print Quality

A terrific range of excellent printed images for the price. ISO 100 good at 24 x 36, but hung on a wall and viewed from 5 or 6 feet away, even 40 x 60s look fantastic! A good 13 x 19 inch print at ISO 1600, and a good 5 x 7 at ISO 12,800.

ISO 100 prints look quite good at 24 x 36, with 20 x 30s excellent - crisp detail and rich, vibrant colors. And as mentioned above, with the exception of minor softening and some slight pixilation in a few areas, these are suitable for wall display up to 40 x 60. Really remarkable for this class of camera.

ISO 200 is a carbon copy of ISO 100, with just the slightest softening in our target red swatch. Still quite good here at 24 x 36.

ISO 400 again shows only minor added softening in a few areas, but otherwise exceptional image quality. Detail and color are terrific at 20 x 30 with good wall prints possible up to 30 x 40.

ISO 800 16 x 20s look quite good here also, with 20 x 30s suitable for wall display.

ISO 1,600 shows more softening in some areas and luminance noise in the shadows, as is common at this ISO, but we'd still rate 16 x 20s as very good, and 20 x 30s fine for wall display.

ISO 3,200 produces very nice 13 x 19s and excellent 11 x 14 inch prints, again with only minor noise in the shadows and mild softening in a few areas.

ISO 6,400 11 x 14s would be suitable for most uses, and 8 x 10's look very good, with similar minor issues as mentioned above.

ISO 12,800 shots show a lot more blurring and blotchiness in many of the colored fabrics, but prints are good at 5 x 7.

ISO 25,600 prints are good at 4 x 6 and usable at 5 x 7.

For a camera at this price point to be capable of shooting images that print this well is amazing. Please remember, however, that we shoot these tests with our sharp reference lens and not the supplied kit lens, so your own results with a kit lens may vary somewhat. But the body of this camera is certainly capable of producing superb printed images for the price.

In the Box

The Sony Alpha NEX-6 retail kit package (as reviewed) contains the following items:

• Sony Alpha NEX-6 camera body
• 16-50mm SELP-1650 E-mount Power Zoom Lens
• Shoulder strap
• Micro USB cable
• NP-FW50 rechargeable Li-ion battery
• Body cap
• CD-ROM
• AC-UB10 AC adaptor
• Eyepiece cup

Recommended Accessories

• Large capacity SDHC/SDXC memory card. 16GB Class 10 should be a minimum.
• NEX-6 Leather Body Case and Lens Jacket (~US$100)
• AC-CHDFW Alpha NEX Camera Accessory Kit (spare battery, mini HDMI cable) (~US$95)
• BC-VW1 Dedicated Battery Charger (~US$60)
• HVL-F60M External Flash/Video Light (~US$550)
• ECM-XYST1M External Stereo Microphone (~US$160)
• LA-EA2 Alpha NEX Camera Mount Adapter (~US$350)

Sony NEX-6 Conclusion

When adding up the pros and cons to the Sony NEX-6, it's pretty clear that there's not much to dislike about this compact system camera. The NEX-6 truly carves out its own space in Sony's CSC lineup, and even though its resolution has been scaled down to 16 megapixels (compared to the NEX-7's 24 megapixels), it still delivers image quality that rivals other APS-C cameras at a very affordable price. (Just go back and check out the comparison crops above if you want certain proof.) The NEX-6 delivers sharp, detailed photos in most shooting situations, with a strong balance of noise and detail up to ISO 1,600 and good handling of color, contrast and exposure. Print quality proved to be stellar, as well, with ISO 100 images looking great at sizes up to 24 x 36 inches.

And what's more, the NEX-6 makes a high-performing, lightweight CSC even more approachable for consumers. While it's no dumbed-down or crippled model, the NEX-6 features revamped controls and menu system that make it easier to use while also providing a raft of advanced photographic features, including a real Mode dial (with PASM!), focus peaking and more. The camera's built-in flash and Multi Interface Shoe gives it added flexibility, as does the new, compact 16-50mm kit lens which almost makes the camera pocketable.

Sony has touted the NEX-6's "Fast Hybrid AF" system, and for the most part, it performs admirably, delivering speedy and decisive AF on stationary subjects, and reasonably fast AF on normal moving subjects -- just don't expect it to keep up while photographing fast-moving sports. Our reviewer found that the 99-point phase-detect autofocus still lags behind higher-end DSLRs in terms of speed and accuracy, with just 50% of his field gallery shots winding up in focus when he shot in continuous AF mode. Additionally, our reviewer was dismayed that the NEX-6 doesn't provide the "Memory Recall" function found on other models, such as the RX100 and A77, which allows you to toggle between groups of settings for different shooting situations.

Despite these small disappointments and a few other minor quibbles, the NEX-6 proves that Sony continues to listen to its customers and make excellent cameras for a wide variety of users. In truth, both serious enthusiasts and those new to interchangeable lens cameras should find the camera to be just what they need in terms of photo quality, speed, size and overall convenience -- especially at such a reasonable cost. Of course, we made it a Dave's Pick.

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Optics

Below are the results of our optical tests with the Sony NEX-6 and the bundled E 16-50mm f/3.5-5.6 OSS kit lens. The test images shown on most other pages of this review were taken with very sharp references lenses, so we use this page to explore kit lens quality.

Lens Test Results

Zoom
Wider than most zoom kit lenses, with decent far-field performance.

The Sony NEX-6 is available bundled with a 16-50mm f/3.5-5.6 OSS "kit" lens. This optically stabilized lens possesses a fairly typical optical zoom ratio of about 3.1x with a 35mm equivalent focal range of about 24-75mm. That's significantly wider than most kit lenses without losing much reach at the telephoto end. (A more common focal length for an APS-C camera kit zoom lens is 18-55mm.)

Sharpness and contrast at full wide angle (16mm) are decent at f/8 over most of the frame, and chromatic aberration isn't an issue since the camera suppresses it (see below), however some flare is visible around the building's white surfaces. It's difficult to judge corner performance here because of the depth in this scene, so we'll do that below. Performance at 32mm is also not bad at f/8, just slightly soft. At full telephoto (50mm), the lens performs fairly well, better than many kit lenses we've seen.

Overall, a very useful focal length range with decent far-field optical performance at f/8 for a kit lens, and the built-in optical image stabilization will come in handy for low light and tele shots. See sections below for comments on macro, geometric distortion, corner softness, performance wide open, chromatic aberration, etc.

Digital Zoom
The NEX-6 offers three types of digital zoom. Sony's new "Clear Image" digital zoom is available at 2x magnification, standard digital zoom up to 4x, and Smart Zoom is available where the camera crops away the unused portion of the image when a lower resolution is selected. You can combine the various digital zooms as well, but maximum total digital zoom is 4x at full resolution, increasing to 8x at the small image size (~4 megapixels).

Clear Image Zoom does a decent job at 2x magnification, though there's still a noticeable loss of fine detail and some visible aliasing artifacts, despite Sony's claim of being "nearly equivalent" to optical zoom. 2x Clear Image Zoom combined with 2x standard digital zoom shows fewer aliasing artifacts than just 4x standard digital zoom, but results are also a bit softer. It's difficult to tell given the lack of fine detail in this scene at these zoom levels, but it's probably best to avoid using digital zoom altogether and instead crop, upsize and sharpen as required during post processing.

Macro
Slightly larger than average minimum coverage area, with good detail. Flash throttled down well.

As with zoom performance, the Sony NEX-6's macro performance will depend entirely on the lens mounted. However with the E-mount 16-50mm kit lens set to 50mm, the NEX-6 captures a minimum area measuring 3.65 x 2.43 inches (93 x 62 millimeters), which is slightly larger than average for a kit lens. Detail is good in the center at f/8, just a touch soft, though corners and edges of the frame are softer. (Most lenses have some softening in the corners at macro distances.) Some corner shading is also noticeable. The flash did a very good job throttling down at minium distance, resulting in a good exposure. The flash also had no trouble clearing the lens as there is no detectable shadow.

Geometric Distortion
Lower than average geometric distortion at wide angle and telephoto, but the NEX-6 always applies distortion correction when the 16-50mm is mounted.

Barrel distortion at 16mm is ~0.4 percent

Distortion at 50mm is negligible

With the 16-50mm kit lens, the NEX-6 produces JPEGs with about 0.4 percent complex barrel distortion at wide angle, which is lower than average and hardly noticeable. At the telephoto end, there's only about one pixel's worth of wavy distortion. This is the tendency for the lens to bend straight lines outward (like a barrel -- usually at wide-angle) or inward (like a pincushion -- usually at telephoto).

See below for uncorrected distortion from this lens.

Chromatic Aberration, Corner Sharpness & Vignetting
Low levels of C.A. (the camera suppresses it). The lens produces some pretty soft corners.

Aperture: maximum
16mm@f/3.5: Lower right C.A.: Low Softness: Moderately strong blurring	16mm@f/3.5: Center C.A.: Very low Softness: Sharp
50mm@f/5.6: Lower right C.A.: Low Softness: Moderately soft	50mm@f/5.6: Center C.A.: Low Softness: Fairly sharp, but lower contrast

Chromatic Aberration. Chromatic aberration in the corners with the NEX-6's 16-50mm kit lens at wide angle (16mm) is low with just minor magenta fringing, and the center of the image shows very little C.A. The camera does a pretty good job at suppressing much of the lateral C.A. produced by the lens (see below). At full telephoto (50mm), C.A. is also low with blue fringing that's quite muted.

Corner Softness. Wide open at full wide angle, the 16-50mm lens that came with our NEX-6 is soft in all four corners, with the lower-right and top-left corners being the softest. Softness extends pretty far into the frame as well, though the center has good sharpness and contrast. At full telephoto corner sharpness is better but still quite soft, though the center isn't quite as sharp as wide angle, with lower contrast.

Vignetting. Moderate vignetting (corner shading) is noticeable at full wide angle, as indicated by the darker corner crops, even with automatic vignetting correction enabled (see below). Vignetting is milder at full telephoto, but still noticeable.

Aperture: f/8
16mm@f/8: Lower right C.A.: Low Softness: Strong blurring	16mm@f/8: Center C.A.: Very low Softness: Sharp
50mm@f/8: Upper right C.A.: Low Softness: Slightly soft	50mm@f/8: Center C.A.: Very low Softness: Sharp

"Stopped-down" to f/8, corner sharpness at wide angle is actually worse than wide open at f/3.5 in our lab shot. That's a curious result, so we retook these shots but got the same results. We suspect focus shifted between between the two apertures, keeping the center sharp with the extra depth-of-field provided by stopping down while focusing less optimally for the corners. We'll look into this further when we do a full suite of tests on this lens for SLRgear.com. At full telephoto, corner sharpness is markedly improved at f/8 versus wide open at f/5.6, and performance in the center is also improved. Although improved compared to wide open, vignetting is still visible at f/8, particularly at wide angle.

Lens Corrections

When shooting in JPEG mode, the Sony NEX-6 includes the ability to automatically correct for geometric distortion, chromatic aberration, and lens shading (vignetting), as images are captured. Only E-mount lenses are supported, and raw files are not corrected.

Geometric Distortion

Barrel distortion at 16mm is ~3.3 percent

Pincushion distortion at 50mm is ~0.2 percent

Above, you can see the uncorrected geometric distortion from the 16-50mm kit lens is very high at wide angle, with about 3.3% barrel distortion. Very high barrel distortion at wide angle is common for Micro Four Thirds lenses, but this is the first time we've seen it this high from a Sony E-mount lens, and the amount of correction required explains some of the corner softness we see at wide angle. At the telephoto end, pincushion is relatively low at 0.2%, but still higher than the corrected JPEG image.

The default Distortion Correction setting is normally Off for the NEX-6, but is forced to Auto when the 16-50mm lens is mounted, so we used dcraw to convert the raw file without corrections applied. Thus, it appears that Sony is taking a page from the Micro Four Thirds' playbook by allowing higher geometric distortion in this lens to make it more compact, and correcting it in firmware.

Chromatic Aberration

CA Correction Auto	CA Correction Off
16mm@f/3.5: Upper left C.A.: Low	16mm@f/3.5: Upper left C.A.: Much higher and brighter
50mm@f/5.6: Upper left C.A.: Very low	50mm@f/5.6: Upper left C.A.: Moderately low

Above, you can see significantly higher lateral Chromatic Aberration at wide angle with Chromatic Aberration Correction disabled, though the difference at telephoto is minimal because C.A. is low at telephoto to begin with. The default for this setting is Auto.

Lens Shading

16mm @ f3.5
Auto	Off

Mouse-over the links above to see the difference Lens Shading correction makes at wide angle when wide open at f/3.5 (the worst-case scenario for most lenses). As you can see, corners are brightened without affecting brightness at the center, though some fall-off is still left behind in the corrected image. The default setting is also Auto.

Sony NEX-6 Viewfinder Accuracy

Viewfinder Test Results

Coverage
Excellent accuracy from the EVF and LCD monitor.

The Sony NEX-6's OLED electronic viewfinder and LCD monitor both showed essentially 100% coverage with our Sigma 70mm f/2.8 prime lens. This is excellent performance, though not a surprise given its image is derived from the main imaging sensor.

The images above were taken from our standardized test shots. For a collection of more pictorial photos, see our Sony Alpha NEX-6 Photo Gallery .

Exposure

Color

Saturation & Hue Accuracy
Typical saturation levels and hue accuracy.

ISO Sensitivity
100	200	400	800	1600
3200	6400	12800	25600
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 for larger versions.

Saturation. The Sony NEX-6's overall default color saturation is oversaturated by 10.3% at base ISO, which is about average these days. Saturation remains fairly consistent across the ISO range, except at very high ISOs where it increases slightly. Reds and dark blues are boosted the most, but not as much as we often see. Most other colors are pushed just a bit, though yellow and cyan are slightly undersaturated which is quite common. Overall, saturation levels are quite pleasing to our eyes, and you can of course tweak them to your liking. 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 NEX-6 does fairly well with Caucasian skin tones when white balance is adjusted to match the lighting. Brighter flesh tones have a healthy pinkish tint, though darker areas are nudged toward orange. Still, pretty good results here. 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. Like many cameras, the Sony NEX-6 pushes cyan toward blue, red toward orange, orange toward yellow and yellow toward green, but shifts are relatively minor. (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.) With an average "delta-C" color error of 5.23 after correction for saturation at base ISO, overall hue accuracy is about average, with accuracy only moderately lower at higher ISOs. Hue is "what color" the color is.

Saturation Adjustment
The Sony NEX-6 has a total of seven saturation settings available, three above and three below the default saturation. This covers a pretty wide range of saturation levels. Saturation also had little effect on contrast, which is how it should work.

Saturation Adjustment Examples
-3	-1	0	+1	+3

The table above shows results with five of the seven saturation settings, including the default and the two extremes. Click on any thumbnail above, then click again to see the full-sized image.

Sensor

Exposure and White Balance

Indoors, incandescent lighting
Warm casts with Auto and Incandescent, good with Manual, and a touch cool with Kelvin white balance settings. Average exposure compensation required.

Indoors, under normal incandescent lighting, color balance is a bit too warm and orange with the Auto white balance setting, though results here are slightly better than average. Results with the Incandescent setting are a bit better but still somewhat warm and orange/yellow. The Manual setting is quite accurate, just slightly on the cool side. The 2,600 Kelvin setting which should match the color temperature of our lights is too cool and bluish. The Sony NEX-6 required +0.3 EV positive exposure compensation here, 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
Very good results under harsh lighting, with good handling of contrast, color, and exposure.

Outdoors, the Sony NEX-6 performed very well. +0.7 EV exposure compensation was required to keep the mannequin's face bright in our "Sunlit" Portrait shot, which is average among the cameras we've tested. (Actually, in fully automatic mode, exposure is bright without any compensation so the NEX-6 performs better than average here in full auto mode.) Contrast is a little high as you might expect under such harsh lighting, but the camera does a great job of holding onto detail in both the shadows and bright highlights, even without the help of DRO. We preferred Manual color balance for the "Portrait" shot though, as Auto white balance produced skintones that were a little too warm and yellow. Default exposure is quite good for our Far-field shot, with very few highlights blown again with DRO disabled. Only very dark shadows are a little noisy and posterized, but that's not usually an issue as we're talking *very* dark shadows. The Far-field shot with Auto white balance has very good color, just a touch cool. Overall, a very good 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
Very high resolution, ~ 2,200 lines of strong detail from JPEGs, up to 2,300 lines from raw files.

In-camera JPEGs of our laboratory resolution chart reveal sharp, distinct line patterns down to about 2,200 lines per picture height in both the horizontal and vertical directions. Some may argue for higher numbers, but aliasing artifacts start to interfere at this resolution. Complete extinction of the pattern doesn't occur until about 2,800 to 3,000 lines. Adobe Camera Raw was able to extract perhaps 100 lines more of resolution here from matching raw files, but the Sony NEX-6 does a good job holding on to high contrast detail at base ISO in its JPEGs. 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. The NEX-6 does seem to be a little prone to color moiré when using a sharp lens, though, as can be seen in the crops above and in some other test shots.

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

Sharpness & Detail
Good default sharpness, though fine detail is a little soft. Mild to moderate noise suppression visible in the shadows and areas of low contrast.

Sharpness. The Sony NEX-6 captures sharp, detailed images overall, though results are a touch soft at default settings, despite using the very sharp Carl Zeiss 24-70mm F/2.8 SSM lens at f/8 for the shot above left. There are some minor edge enhancement artifacts seen around high-contrast elements such as sharpening halos around the larger tree branches and pine cones, but they're not excessive and quite normal. Fine detail such as the smaller branches and pine needles show very little edge enhancement, but appear a little mushy. 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 model's hair. A number of low-contrast strands are smudged together, though higher contrast strands are still distinct. We saw similar results with fine detail in the pine needles being smudged. Still, pretty good results here. 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.

Aliasing Artifacts. As mentioned previously the Sony NEX-6 captures fairly sharp, detailed images, but it also seems a little more susceptible to moiré and other aliasing artifacts than most cameras when used with a sharp lens because of what appears to be a weak optical low pass filter.

As you can see in the crop on the right, color moiré is quite visible in the window shades of our Far Field shot. (Click on the crop to access the full resolution image.) We've also seen aliasing artifacts in some of our studio shots. We don't think it's a deal-breaker as quite a few cameras produce similar artifacts these days, but it is something to be aware of especially if you shoot a lot of man-made subjects with repeating patterns, such as buildings, fabrics, etc. Techniques than can be used to reduce or avoid false colors and moiré patterns include shooting at a smaller aperture so that lens diffraction acts as an anti-alias filter, defocusing slightly, shooting at higher ISOs, and post-processing particularly with raw files.

Raw vs In-Camera JPEGs
As noted above, the Sony NEX-6 produces in-camera JPEGs with very good detail, though fine, low-contrast detail is a touch soft. Quite a bit more detail can often be obtained from carefully processing raw files with a good converter, as can be seen below.

In-camera Fine JPEG, (Defaults)	Raw via Sony IDC (Defaults)	Raw via Sony IDC (Sharpened)	Raw via ACR (Sharpened)

In the table above, mousing over a link at the bottom will load the corresponding crop in the area above, and clicking on the link will load the full resolution image. Examples include (from left to right): an in-camera Fine JPEG, the matching raw file processed through Sony's bundled Image Data Converter 4.2 software at default settings, another conversion processed with IDC's sharpening turned up to +50, and finally the same raw file converted with Adobe Camera Raw 7.3, then sharpened in Photoshop using unsharp mask at 300% with radius 0.3.

As you can see, the Sony IDC version at default settings is somewhat softer than the in-camera JPEG. Increasing the sharpening settings gave the image a crisper look, though noise reduction is still blurring fine detail. The Adobe Camera Raw conversion shows the most detail, but also reveals a bit more noise. You can always turn up the luminance noise reduction (default of zero was used here), or process the files in your favorite noise reduction program or plugin if you want cleaner images. Bottom line: as is usually the case, the Sony NEX-6 rewards raw shooters with better detail than JPEGs when processed with a good raw converter.

ISO & Noise Performance
Very good noise versus detail performance up to ISO 1,600.

Default High ISO Noise Reduction
ISO 100	ISO 200	ISO 400
ISO 800	ISO 1,600	ISO 3,200
ISO 6,400	ISO 12,800	ISO 25,600

The Sony NEX-6's JPEG images are quite clean at ISO 100 and 200, though as mentioned previously some very fine, mostly low-contrast detail is lost to noise reduction already at base ISO. There are demosaicing errors in the hair above the mannequin's forehead and color moiré in the jacket, though that's pretty common these days, especially with a sharp lens. ISO 400 is similar, with just a slight increase in smudging thanks to noise reduction. ISO 800 is slightly softer though detail is still very good, and the aliasing artifacts have practically vanished. ISO 1,600 appears progressively noisier as well as a bit softer, as you'd expect, but there's still lots of fine detail left and chroma noise is still not an issue. ISO 3,200 shows a larger hit to fine detail with stronger blurring, more visible luma noise as well as some minor chroma noise, though results here are still pretty good for the sensitivity. Image quality rapidly drops off at ISO 6,400 and above, with much stronger blurring and more noticeable luma noise accentuated by the camera's sharpening. Chroma noise is also stronger, but doesn't become too bad until ISO 25,600. Overall though, these are great results considering the class of the camera and the resolution offered. Our only real complaint is that the Sony NEX-6 doesn't offer much flexibility in noise reduction (only two levels: Normal and Low). As always, see the Print Quality section below for maximum recommended print sizes at each ISO.

A note about focus for this shot: We shoot this image at f/4, usually using one of three very sharp reference lenses (70mm Sigma f/2.8 macro for most cameras, 60mm f/2.8 Nikkor macro for Nikon bodies without a drive motor, and Olympus Zuiko 50mm f/2.0 for Four Thirds and Micro Four Thirds bodies). To insure that the hair detail we use for making critical judgements about camera noise processing and detail rendering is in sharp focus at the relatively wide aperture we're shooting at, the focus target at the center of the scene is on a movable stand. This lets us compensate for front- or back-focus by different camera bodies, even those that lack micro-focus adjustments. This does mean, though, that the focus target itself may appear soft or slightly out of focus for bodies that front- or back-focused with the reference lens. We know this; if you click to view the full-size image for one of these shots and notice that the focus target is fuzzy, you don't need to email and tell us. :-) The focus target position will have been adjusted to insure that the rest of the scene is focused properly.

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

Sunlight. The Sony NEX-6 handled the deliberately harsh lighting in the test above very well. We preferred the +0.7 EV exposure here, as the +0.3 EV exposure is a touch dim in the face while the +1.0 EV exposure is a bit too bright. Contrast is a little high, but shadow and highlight detail are both very good. Despite the bright appearance, few highlights were blown in the model's shirt and face at +0.7 EV, though the red channel is clipped in some of the flowers as is often the case, and in specular highlights where you'd expect clipping. Even fewer highlights were clipped with DRO enabled (see below). There are virtually no lost shadows, which is also very good, though very deep shadows are posterized. However, that's not really an issue except perhaps for those trying to recover a severely underexposed image.

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.)

Dynamic Range Analysis
A key parameter in a digital camera is its Dynamic Range, the range of brightness that can be faithfully recorded. At the upper end of the tonal scale, dynamic range is dictated by the point at which the RGB data "saturates" at values of 255, 255, 255. At the lower end of the tonal scale, dynamic range is determined by the point at which there ceases to be any useful difference between adjacent tonal steps. Note the use of the qualifier "useful" in there: While it's tempting to evaluate dynamic range as the maximum number of tonal steps that can be discerned at all, that measure of dynamic range has very little relevance to real-world photography. What we care about as photographers is how much detail we can pull out of the shadows before image noise becomes too objectionable. This, of course, is a very subjective matter, and will vary with the application and even the subject matter in question. (Noise will be much more visible in subjects with large areas of flat tints and subtle shading than it would in subjects with strong, highly contrasting surface texture.)

What makes most sense then, is to specify useful dynamic range in terms of the point at which image noise reaches some agreed-upon threshold. To this end, Imatest computes a number of different dynamic range measurements, based on a variety of image noise thresholds. The noise thresholds are specified in terms of f-stops of equivalent luminance variation in the final image file, and dynamic range is computed for noise thresholds of 1.0 (low image quality), 0.5 (medium image quality), 0.25 (medium-high image quality) and 0.1 (high image quality). For most photographers and most applications, the noise thresholds of 0.5 and 0.25 f-stops are probably the most relevant to the production of acceptable-quality finished images, but many noise-sensitive shooters will insist on the 0.1 f-stop limit for their most critical work.

JPEG. The graph at right (click for a larger version) was generated using Imatest's dynamic range analysis for an in-camera Sony NEX-6 JPEG file with a nominally-exposed density step target (Stouffer 4110). At the base ISO of 100 (the optimal ISO) with DRO and HDR settings turned off, the graph shows 10.5 f-stops of total dynamic range, with 7.83 f-stops at the "High" Quality level. Roll-off at the highlight end of the curve is gradual, and the low end extends fairly linearly towards zero, but the steps get rather spread out, indicative of a tendency of the deepest shadows to break up into discrete levels (posterization) if you try to brighten them too much. These are are very good results, in the same ballpark as the best APS-C performers to date. Compared to its closest predecessor the NEX-5N, the NEX-6 scored slightly lower at the High Quality level (7.83 vs 8.02), but significantly higher in total dynamic range (10.5 vs 9.6 f-stops). Note though that this measurement has a margin of error of about 1/3 f-stop, so differences of less than 0.33 can be ignored.

Raw. The graph at right is from the same Stouffer 4110 stepchart image captured as a raw (.ARW) file, processed with Adobe Camera Raw using the Auto setting. (Slightly better results are likely possible with manually tweaking, but we weren't able to do much better.) As can be seen, the score at the highest quality increased by over two stops from 7.83 to 9.92 f-stops compared to the JPEG, while total dynamic range also increased more than two f-stops from 10.5 to 12.7. Again, these dynamic range scores are very good, and in the same ballpark as the best APS-C sensors at similar resolutions. Results here are essentially identical to the NEX-5N at the high quality level (9.92 vs 9.95 f-stops), though total dynamic range is slightly improved (12.7 vs 12.3 f-stops).

Contrast Adjustment
We really like it when a camera gives us the ability to adjust contrast and saturation to our liking. It's even better when those adjustments cover a useful range, in steps small enough to allow for precise tweaks. Just as with its saturation adjustment, the Sony NEX-6's contrast setting meets both challenges.

Minimum Contrast
Contrast set to lowest, +0.7 EV	Contrast set to lowest, 0 EV

At its lowest contrast setting, the NEX-6 does a really excellent job of toning down highlights and opening up shadows while maintaining natural-looking skin tones. Very good results here.

Contrast Adjustment Examples
-3	-1	0	+1	+3

The table above shows five of the seven contrast setting, including the default and two extremes. It's pretty hard to evaluate small differences in contrast on small thumbnails like these, so click on any thumbnail to go to the full-size image.

One very nice feature of Sony's contrast adjustment is that it has very little effect on color saturation. Contrast and saturation are actually fairly closely coupled, it's a good trick to be able to vary one with out the other changing as well. Sony did a good job here.

Outdoor Portrait DRO Comparison
	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 image processing parameters accordingly to make the best use of the available dynamic range. Auto DRO is enabled by default on the Sony NEX-6. You can also set the level manually, from 1 ("weak") to 5 ("strong"), or turn it off. As one would expect, DRO is only available for JPEG files.

The above thumbnails and histograms show the effects of the various levels of DRO on our "Sunlit" Portrait shot with +0.7 EV 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 associated histograms, the Auto DRO setting did a good job boosting shadows and mid-tones without blowing additional highlights, and the five manual levels give quite a bit of control over the effect.

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

Above, you can see the effect of DRO settings on our Far-field shot. The default Auto setting produced a very good exposure overall, despite the harsh lighting. Nice.

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

High Dynamic Range. The Sony NEX-6'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. Lighter areas from the underexposed image are combined in-camera with darker areas from the overexposed image to produce an image with compressed dynamic 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 pretty good job, similar to the 4 EV manual setting. The higher the manual setting, the more highlights were toned-down and shadows opened up, but higher settings can produce flat and unnatural results with this scene.

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

Above, you can see the effect of HDR settings on our Far-field shot. Watch out for ghost images from subject movement during the capture sequence, though, as can be seen in some of the shots above.

	1 fc 11 lux	1/2 fc 5.5 lux	1/4 fc 2.7 lux	1/8 fc 1.3 lux	1/16 fc 0.67 lux	1/16fc No NR
ISO 100	1.6 s f2.8	3.2 s f2.8	6 s f2.8	13 s f2.8	25 s f2.8	25 s f2.8
ISO 200	0.8 s f2.8	1.6 s f2.8	3.2 s f2.8	6 s f2.8	13 s f2.8	13 s f2.8
ISO 400	0.4 s f2.8	0.8 s f2.8	1.6 s f2.8	3.2 s f2.8	6 s f2.8	6 s f2.8
ISO 800	1/5 s f2.8	0.4 s f2.8	0.8 s f2.8	1.6 s f2.8	3.2 s f2.8	3.2 s f2.8
ISO 1600	1/10 s f2.8	1/5 s f2.8	0.4 s f2.8	0.8 s f2.8	1.6 s f2.8	1.6 s f2.8
ISO 3200	1/20 s f2.8	1/10 s f2.8	1/5 s f2.8	0.4 s f2.8	0.8 s f2.8	0.8 s f2.8
ISO 6400	1/40 s f2.8	1/20 s f2.8	1/10 s f2.8	1/5 s f2.8	0.4 s f2.8	0.4 s f2.8
ISO 12800	1/80 s f2.8	1/40 s f2.8	1/20 s f2.8	1/10 s f2.8	1/5 s f2.8	1/5 s f2.8
ISO 25600	1/160 s f2.8	1/80 s f2.8	1/40 s f2.8	1/20 s f2.8	1/10 s f2.8	1/10 s f2.8

Low Light. The Sony NEX-6 performed well in our low light test, producing bright images down to the lowest light level we test at (1/16 fc) at all ISO settings. Noise is very well controlled up to ISO 3,200, though as expected, at higher ISOs there are moderate to high amounts of fine luminance noise and some blotchy chroma noise. Auto white balance did a very good job here, producing a fairly neutral, just slightly cool color balance. A few hot pixels can be seen with long exposure noise reduction turned off (the right-most column), but nothing out of the ordinary. We didn't detect any significant banding or heat blooming issues, perhaps just a hint of horizontal banding at the highest ISO where it's not usual.

The camera's autofocus system was able to focus on the subject down to just above the 1/16 foot-candle light level unassisted with an f/2.8 lens, and the NEX-6 was able to focus in complete darkness with its built-in focus assist lamp enabled. Very good results.

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 sensors, compact system cameras like the Sony NEX-6 tend to do 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 NEX-6 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 NEX-6 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

Video

High-definition video recording capabilities have become a fairly standard feature on the cameras being released nowadays and the Sony NEX-6 is no exception. In fact, similar to its bigger brother, the NEX-7, this CSC (Compact System Camera) offers a healthy array of HD video capabilities that both beginner and enthusiast shooters will find pleasing.

On the image side of things, the video specs are pretty nice, with full 1080p resolution at up to 60 frames per second. There is no 720p choice, however. It features much-welcomed full-time video autofocus, but it does offer manual focusing with the option for live focus peaking to indicate which area of the frame is in focus - a very nice feature not normally seen on cameras at this price point. Unlike more consumer-oriented cameras, the NEX-6 does give you full, adjustable exposure controls both before and during recording. Where the NEX-6 drops the ball, however, is in the audio department. You don't have any level adjustment for audio recording, nor is there a standard 3.5mm external microphone jack, although Sony does offer a hot-shoe-mounted stereo mic as an optional add-on. Other than these small caveats, the NEX-6 packs a great number of video features into a small, lightweight package.

Sony NEX-6 Basic Video Specs

• 1,920 x 1,080 (Full HD), 1,440 x 1,080 (Anamorphic HD) and 640 x 480 (VGA) recording
• MPEG-4 AVC/ H.264 compression, either High Profile (AVCHD) for Full HD, or Main Profile for lower-res video
• AVCHD recorded at 60p, 60i or 24p on NTSC models; 50p, 50i or 25p on PAL models
• MPEG-4 1,440 x 1,080 recorded at 30p on NTSC models, 25p on PAL models; VGA is 30p regardless of region
• Autofocus functions during movie recording, with any NEX-series lenses
• Manual focusing with focus peaking feature
• Auto, shutter/aperture-priority or full manual exposure, set before or during recording
• EV adjustment is available in all auto and semi-auto recording modes
• Stereo audio recording via built-in microphones, with optional Sony ECM-XYST1M external hot-shoe-mounted stereo microphone
• Compatible with a wide range of Sony Alpha-mount lenses, via an accessory adapter (Depending on adapter and lens in use, autofocus may be possible, but is likely to produce audible noise and perhaps untoward focus changes in captured video.)
• Some scene modes carry over into video recording, adjusting parameters for color and tone to match specific subject types
  
  

Sony NEX-6 Video: Image Size, Frame Rate, and Encoding

The Sony NEX-6 records at three different video resolutions, with a choice of three frame rates and a choice of quality levels at the higher resolutions. Full HD (1,920 x 1,080 pixels) movies are recorded in AVCHD format, while lower resolutions are recorded with MPEG-4 compression, but using the Main rather than High profile setting. The NEX-6 eschews the lower 720p HD video resolution in both AVCHD or MP4 formats. The 1,440 x 1,080 MP4 video resolution still comes out to be in 16:9 aspect ratio due to the use of rectangular pixels. This anamorphic HD format is a carryover from HDV camcorders days.

The table below shows the specs for various video recording options.

As stated above, the Sony NEX-6 offers the choice of three video recording formats, although the choice of encoding is made for you, depending on whether you're shooting at Full HD, or a lower resolution. The NEX-6's Full HD video is recorded using the newer AVCHD format, which is based upon MPEG-4 AVC / H.264 High Profile compression. At 1,440 x 1,080 pixels or below, the NEX-6 still uses MPEG-4 AVC / H.264 compression, but abiding by the Main Profile type. The High Profile compression scheme produces better video quality than Main Profile. Note that 1,440 x 1,080 mode uses rectangular pixels (1.33:1), so movies are 16:9 aspect ratio, despite the lower horizontal resolution in the file.

Compared to AVCHD, the regular MPEG-4 files are a bit less efficient in their use of memory card space for a given image quality level, but are more widely supported, and seem to be a bit easier for older computers to process. Continuous movie recording is limited to approximately 29 minutes regardless of file format, and maximum MP4 movie file size is 2GB. Sony recommends use of at least a Class 4 Secure Digital card, or a Memory Stick Pro Duo Mark 2 / Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo card to avoid issues with write speeds during video capture.

Here are some sample videos shot with the NEX-6:

Sony NEX-6 Video: Image Quality

The video image quality from the NEX-6 was pretty good -- in good lighting. In our standard frisbee video, there was very little appearance of compression artifacts, and areas of lower contrast and fine detail remained sharp and detailed. There were significant amounts of moiré interference and aliasing effects seen on typical culprits like mesh window screens and roof shingles.

In our night time tests, video noise was quite apparent, particularly at ISO 6400, where there was a lot of noise in the shadow areas. The ISO 3200 video appeared much cleaner, although understandably more underexposed than at ISO 6400. Nevertheless, at both high ISO settings, a decent amount of detail could still be seen in the shots.

Sony NEX-6 Video: Focusing

Like the NEX-7 and many other video-capable stills cameras, the NEX-6 offers full-time autofocus capabilities during video recording. The NEX-6 also offers full manual focusing during video recording. Although professional and advanced videographers and cinematographers tend to utilize manual focusing (also called "pulling focus") while filming, many beginners and consumers will enjoy the addition of full-time autofocus. Manually focusing in video, particularly with moving subjects, is a difficult skill to master, and many consumers will welcome the ability to simply point the camera and take video without worrying if their videos are out of focus.

The NEX-6's two autofocus modes, AF-S (single-point AF) and AF-C (continuous AF) function identically in video mode, providing continuous autofocus during recording. The AF system seemed to do a nice job of quickly and silently racking focusing between near and far subjects, as well as keeping subjects in focus as the shooter moved around. You can keep the camera from refocusing by simply half-pressing and holding the shutter button, then recomposing or panning as desired.

The NEX-6 does feature an AF tracking option during video recording, called Object Tracking. This is enabled after video recording has begun by pressing the button next to the lower right of the LCD screen, then pressing the OK/center button after placing the center AF point on the subject you want to track, and the camera will lock on to that object. The camera will track that object for as long as it stays in the frame.

The NEX-6 did not seem to take into account the use of Spot AF. For instance, if using a focus point near the edge of the frame, the camera would still autofocus on subjects in the center of the frame during video recording. For more creative compositions, you would not want to use a Spot AF point to keep your off-center subject in focus. It would be better to use the focus-and-recompose method or manually focus.

Focus Peaking. With this enabled, parts of the image that are in focus will be highlighted with a color overlay. Note: manual focus mode only.

In manual focus mode, the NEX-6 automatically toggles into a magnification view (of either 4.8x or 9.6x zoom) to check your focus accuracy whenever you adjust the focus ring on your lens. This only works before video recording as begun. Another very helpful feature, and one that is usually reserved for more expensive cameras and camcorders, is focus peaking. This option, which can be turned on and off in the menu system, displays a colored overlay on the surfaces and edges of the part of your shot that is in focus. This feature makes it much easier to manually focus quickly and more accurately. Note that Sony's Direct Manual Focus (DMF) mode does not work during video recording.

Sony NEX-6 Video: Exposure Control

Shooting some stills and suddenly feel like recording some video? That's no problem on the NEX-6 thanks to its dedicated video record button and ability to record in any still-image exposure mode. The NEX-6 lets you shoot video in Program auto mode, Aperture- and Shutter-priority modes as well as full manual exposure mode. You are also given the ability to change all exposure settings, such as aperture, ISO and shutter speed, both before and during recording in all exposure modes except Program auto mode. In Program auto mode, the shutter speed and aperture are not adjustable during video recording, but you do have the option of changing the ISO sensitivity and exposure compensation.

There are few small caveats to video exposure settings. For one, the ISO range is limited to a maximum of ISO 6400 (which is a bump up from the ISO 3200 limit on the NEX-7), vs the 25,600 available in stills mode. Also, Auto ISO isn't available in Manual exposure mode, but as mentioned, you are still able to manually change the ISO sensitivity during recording.

The NEX-6 does throw out a curveball in terms of the slowest shutter speed available during video recording. In other cameras, typically, the slowest allowable shutter speed is limited by the video frame rate. For example, with video set to 30 frames per second, the camera will limit the shutter speed to 1/30th of a second, and similarly, 1/60th for 60 fps video. On the NEX-6 however, we found that you can shoot video with shutter speeds much slower than the frame rate, all the way down to 1/4th of a second. The upside to this is that in low-light scenes, it allows you to use a lower ISO and thus have less noise in your video. There is a big downside however. The extremely slow shutter speed will make any movement in the shot blurry. If you are handholding the camera, any camera shake will be noticeable and will blur the shot severely. Any moving objects, like cars or people walking by, will be blurred. It's interesting that Sony gave this camera this ability, but for non-moving scenes or perhaps for artistic effect, the use of a slow shutter speed in video could come in handy in special occasions.

Be warned that the small noises from rotating dials or pressing buttons may get picked up by the internal microphone, as well as any handling noise from changing hand positions to adjust various settings. However, the ability to change multiple exposure settings during video recording trumps the small noises that might be picked up in the audio. Just be mindful of this.

Lastly, white balance settings and the various tone and color adjustments from the NEX-6's multiple scene modes will carry over into video mode.

Sony NEX-6 Video: Image Stabilization

Some Sony cameras have sensor-based image stabilization technology, others have a lens-based stabilization system. The small size of the NEX bodies mean that the NEX-6 is one of the latter. The combination of small body and large sensor means there's no room for a sensor-based IS system. This means that rather than having image stabilization regardless of what lens you mount to the camera, you only get Sony's SteadyShot system if you're using an OIS-equipped lens. In Sony's lineup of E-mount lenses, all zoom lenses include Optical SteadyShot technology, as well as the 50mm f/1.8 and 35mm f/1.8 lenses. With that selection you can have image stabilization at focal lengths ranging from 10mm all the way to 210mm. In our tests with the 16-50mm f/3.5-5.6 OSS lens, the image stabilization was practically silent, and no noise could be heard on our sample videos.

Sony NEX-6 Video: Audio Recording

The NEX-6 has very similar audio recording capabilities to the NEX-7, with one large exception: no standard external mic jack. The NEX-6 has an internal stereo microphone system comprised of two separate mics on the top front of the camera, on either side of the lens mount. In theory, this greater separation between the left and right channels of the audio should provide a better stereo effect, although we have no way of objectively testing this.

As mentioned, the main disadvantage of the NEX-6 versus the NEX-7 in the audio department is the lack of a standard 3.5mm external microphone jack. However, Sony does offer an external hot-shoe-mounted stereo mic (shown on the right - Sony ECM-XYST1M), which includes variable recording directions, a low-cut filter, fuzzy windscreen cover and a mic-out jack for connecting to cameras that don't have a multi-interface shoe.

Therefore, videographers wanting more professional-level audio quality have the option of going with the Sony external mic or must resort to external audio recorders and synchronize the audio in post production.

One big drawback to having only on-board microphones, like we mentioned earlier, is noises from handling, pressing buttons or twisting dials. There is also a big issue with zoom noise, particularly on the lens we tried, the 16-50mm f/3.5-5.6 OSS lens. This lens features Power Zoom technology, allowing you to electronically zoom the lens in and out, like a camcorder. Of course, you can also manually zoom the lens just like you would on regular interchangeable zoom lenses, but rather than a purely mechanical zoom system, the zoom function on this lens is electronic. On some sample videos we shot, the zoom noise from this lens was picked up severely by the on-board microphones, and this comes as no surprise, given the fact that the microphones are place right next to the lens mount. The zoom noise was picked up by the mics while using both Power Zoom and manual zoom.

Detailed specifications on the audio recording capabilities of the NEX-6 are fairly limited, with Sony only stating that audio is recorded in Dolby Digital (AC-3) / MPEG-4 AAC-LC in two-channel stereo. In our sample videos, media player applications state that audio is recorded at a 48 KHz sample rate for both AVCHD and MPEG-4 clips. We also found that AVCHD clips had a bit rate of 256 kbps, but no information was discovered for bit rate for MPEG-4 clips.

Another limitation in terms of audio control is the lack of audio level adjustment. While this might not deter the target audience of the NEX-6, it's disappointing to find this feature omitted given the NEX-6's high level of adjustability and control in the image department. It is, however, possible to disable audio recording altogether as well as enable an optional Wind Noise Reduction audio filter.

Sony NEX-6 Video: Recording/Playback User Interface

As mentioned earlier, the NEX-6 allows you to start recording video immediately from any shooting mode. Simply press the red Movie Record button near the thumb hold area, and the camera will start recording video. As such, there really isn't a specific movie interface or menu system that we can show you. In fact, the only menu items exclusively related to video recording are the choice of file format (AVCHD or MP4), image size (1,920 x 1,080, 1,440 x 1,080, or 640 x 480 pixels), and frame rate / compression level (if recording at the higher resolution), as well as options to disable audio recording, and to enable the wind noise reduction filter.

A nice addition to the NEX-6 is the ability to use the electronic viewfinder during video recording. There is a sensor in the EVF that enables the EVF (and disables the LCD screen) for video recording giving you a similar experience to a camcorder. This can come in very handy in bright, sunny scenarios where the glare on the LCD can be pretty severe.

Image and video playback on the NEX-6 is a strange beast. We saw this setup in the NEX-7 as well. Simply put, you can't view images and video in sequential order; you can either view photos or video, but not both. So, for example, let's say you took a few photos, then a video, followed by a few more photos. Since a photo was the last file recorded, when you playback the images, you'll scroll through just still images. It will appear to have skipped right over the video file you just took. In order to see the video, press down on the 5-way controller while in Playback Mode to get an index display, then arrow over to the far left, then press the OK/center button and this will open the Still/Movie Select options to playback the appropriate media type. Even the video formats are in separate folders/categories that must be selected individually in order to review and playback.

Sony NEX-6 Video: Rolling Shutter Artifacts ("Jello Effect")

Almost every video capable digital SLR and mirrorless interchangeable lens camera currently available experience some amount of motion-related distortion called rolling shutter artifacts, also known as the "Jello Effect." The cause of this distortion is the way the information is read from the cameras' sensors; data from the image sensor is read in rows rather than from the entire sensor all at once. With the NEX-6, for a given video frame rate, such as 24 fps or 60 fps, data from last row is being read from the sensor at 1/24th to 1/60th of a second after the top row, respectively. This causes the image, particularly vertical lines like edges of buildings or trees, to appear to bend left or right in a Jello-like manner if you pan or spin the camera quickly.

The NEX-6 does a decent job of handling rolling shutter artifacts, although they are definitely noticeable if you pan quickly or use a slower frame rate like 24p or 30p. This effect is simply a fact of life for this type of camera. Users just need to be aware of this effect and plan shots and camera movements accordingly.

Computer Requirements for Viewing HD Video

A typical computer these days has little trouble dealing with still images, but high-definition video can be another matter. Depending on the file format involved, it can take a pretty beefy computer to handle HD-resolution video playback without stuttering or dropping frames. The AVCHD image compression used by the Sony NEX-6 is one of the more compute-intensive formats, and its high maximum resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 pixels resolution means there's a lot of data in each frame to deal with. The net result is that you'll need a reasonably recent computer to play the Sony NEX-6's Full HD video files smoothly, and will want a pretty powerful machine for Full HD video editing.

You can of course view your movies on a high definition TV via the Mini HDMI (Type C) output. If you're still on a standard-def TV, though, you're out of luck, as the NEX-6 doesn't offer any form of standard-def video output connectivity.

Flash

Sony NEX-6 Flash

Flash Test Results

Coverage and Range
Limited flash range, with narrow, uneven coverage at wide angle. Our standard indoor portrait shot required above average exposure compensation.

Coverage. Flash coverage is quite narrow and uneven at wide angle (16mm), leaving very dark corners in our flash coverage test image, though keep in mind the 16-50mm is wider than most kit lenses. Coverage is more uniform at full telephoto (50mm), but some fall-off in the corners is still visible.

Exposure. Our Indoor Portrait test scene is a touch dim even with +1.0 EV flash exposure compensation at ISO 200. The average amount of flash exposure compensation required for this scene is +0.7 EV, so the NEX-6's flash struggled a bit here. The camera's Auto white balance also rendered the scene too warm. The camera's Slow-Sync flash mode produced very bright results with no flash exposure compensation, though with a stronger orange cast from the ambient room lighting.

Flash Range: Wide Angle
6 ft	7 ft	8 ft	9 ft	10 ft	11 ft
1/60 sec f3.5 ISO 200	1/60 sec f3.5 ISO 200	1/60 sec f3.5 ISO 200	1/60 sec f3.5 ISO 200	1/60 sec f3.5 ISO 200	1/60 sec f3.5 ISO 200
12 ft	13 ft	14 ft	15 ft	16 ft
1/60 sec f3.5 ISO 200	1/60 sec f3.5 ISO 200	1/60 sec f3.5 ISO 200	1/60 sec f3.5 ISO 200	1/60 sec f3.5 ISO 200

Flash Range: Telephoto
6 ft	7 ft	8 ft	9 ft	10 ft	11 ft
1/60 sec f5.6 ISO 200	1/60 sec f5.6 ISO 200	1/60 sec f5.6 ISO 200	1/60 sec f5.6 ISO 200	1/60 sec f5.6 ISO 200	1/60 sec f5.6 ISO 200
12 ft	13 ft	14 ft	15 ft	16 ft
1/60 sec f5.6 ISO 200	1/60 sec f5.6 ISO 200	1/60 sec f5.6 ISO 200	1/60 sec f5.6 ISO 200	1/60 sec f5.6 ISO 200

ISO 200 Range. With the 16-50mm kit lens, flash exposures at wide angle are bright to about 10 feet, falling off gradually from there. At full telephoto, flash exposures start out a bit dim at 6 feet and decrease in brightness fairly rapidly with distance.

Manufacturer-Specified Flash Range
Wide Angle	Telephoto
5.6 feet ISO 100	3.5 feet ISO 100

Manufacturer Specified Flash Test. The Sony NEX-6's built-in flash is rated with a Guide Number of 6m or 19.8 feet at ISO 100. That works out to about 5.6 feet at f/3.5 and 3.5 feet at f/5.6 and ISO 100, the maximum apertures of the kit zoom lens. In the test shots above, the NEX-6 performs as Sony says it will, producing bright flash exposures at the rated distances with ISO set to 100.

Our standard test method for flash range uses a fixed setting of ISO 100, to provide a fair basis of comparison between cameras. We've now also begun shooting two shots using the manufacturer-specified camera settings, at the range the company claims for the camera, to assess the validity of the specific claims.

High ISO Noise Reduction

Sony NEX-6 High ISO Noise Reduction

The Sony NEX-6 offers only two high ISO noise reduction settings for JPEGs: Low and Normal (default). The NEX-6 user manual does not say at what ISO noise reduction kicks in, so we've included crops starting from the base ISO of 100. We've also include Adobe Camera Raw conversions with noise reduction disabled so that you can see how images with no noise reduction (or sharpening) compare.

See for yourself how the two noise reduction settings work under daylight-balanced lighting. Click on any of the crops below to see the corresponding full-sized image.

High ISO Noise Reduction Comparison Daylight-balanced illumination
	Normal	Low	Raw (no NR)
I S O 1 0 0
	Normal	Low	Raw (no NR)
I S O 2 0 0
	Normal	Low	Raw (no NR)
I S O 4 0 0
	Normal	Low	Raw (no NR)
I S O 8 0 0
	Normal	Low	Raw (no NR)
I S O 1 6 0 0
	Normal	Low	Raw (no NR)
I S O 3 2 0 0
	Normal	Low	Raw (no NR)
I S O 6 4 0 0
	Normal	Low	Raw (no NR)
I S O 1 2 8 0 0
	Normal	Low	Raw (no NR)
I S O 2 5 6 0 0

It appears that the NEX-6 already applies "High ISO Noise Reduction" at the base ISO, as there are subtle differences in fine detail and chroma noise between the settings already at ISO 100. As you'd expect, the Normal setting produces the cleanest looking images, and you can see just how hard both settings work at moderate to high ISOs when you compare them to the converted raw files.

Pricing and availability

The Sony NEX-6 began shipping in the U.S. market in November 2012, priced at US$850 body only and US$1,000 with the 16-50mm kit lens.