Sony A6000 Review

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In our 2014 Best Mirrorless Camera for Under $1,000 article, we chose the Sony A6000 as one of our top picks. At the time it was on an incredible sale but now over two years later it's still widely available for a similar low price, making for a fantastic deal while it lasts! But for those with bigger budgets and who want 4K video capture or even more performance and features, consider the newer Sony A6300 or A6500.

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The well-received Sony NEX-6 not only gets refreshed with the NEX "de-branding" we expected, but also upgraded with some very significant performance enhancements in the new Sony Alpha 6000 (from here on out called the A6000). Looking like a blend of three cameras -- the NEX-6, NEX-7 and Alpha 7 -- the new A6000 sits squarely in Sony's compact system camera lineup aimed at step-up users, advanced hobbyists and enthusiasts looking for DSLR quality and performance in a much smaller, lighter package.

Although we're not sure of the fate of the Sony NEX-7, for which users have been aching for an update, it seems all but replaced by the introduction of the Sony A7. However, for those who aren't ready to jump to full-frame or want a smaller, lighter camera and for a significantly lower price, the A6000 offers photographers a number of improvements, inside and out, over both the NEX-6 and NEX-7 that should satisfy users just stepping up to a more advanced camera as well as seasoned photographers demanding advanced performance and control.

What's New. On the inside, the Sony A6000 features a big sensor upgrade over the NEX-6 with a newly developed 24.3-megapixel EXMOR APS HD CMOS sensor coupled with Sony's BIONZ X image processor which was borrowed from the A7/A7R lineup. This pairing increases the ISO range of 100-25,600 (up to 51,200 equivalent with Multi-Frame Noise Reduction and up to 12,800 for video), and the processor aims to increase detail and improve noise reduction performance as well as reduce the effects of diffraction when shooting at smaller apertures.

Not only does the A6000 aim for stellar image quality, but it also knocks the ball out of the park in terms of autofocus performance -- performance that Sony claims beats even mid-level DSLRs. Thanks to improvements to their Fast Hybrid AF system, the A6000 is claimed to unseat the briefly-reigning king of AF, the Fujifilm X-T1 with its 0.08 sec AF speed, with the ability to autofocus in only 0.06 seconds! (Note, though, that AF speeds cited by manufacturers often don't include actually capturing a photo, so their claims are not directly comparable to our lab measurements.) Sony says the A6000 also provides a performance boost for Fast Hybrid AF in movie recording.

The A6000 also has another trick up its proverbial sleeve that fans of fast action will enjoy: 11fps continuous shooting with AF tracking. This is a significant upgrade to the NEX-6's solid 10fps continuous shooting via the use of Speed Priority Continuous mode, which locked focus on the first frame of shooting. If your subject's distance moved at all, you may have been out of luck to get an in-focus shot during the burst.

The A6000 provides a significant increase in the AF coverage on the sensor for both contrast-detect and phase-detect AF compared to the NEX-6. Now, AF coverage spans approximately 91% of the height and 92% of the width of the sensor (up from 47% x 52% on the NEX-6). The sensor is nearly covered by AF points: there are now 179 phase-detect AF points within that coverage area as well as 25 contrast-detect points. This delivers tons of flexibility in composition by allowing you a lot of freedom to place the focus point where you need it.

The A6000 also features a variety of other AF enhancements such as lock-on AF for tracking moving subjects, Eye-AF for quick focusing on the subjects' eyes, as well as Flexible Spot AF with adjustable "spot" sizing.

Like the NEX-6, the new A6000 includes built-in Wi-Fi connectivity for use with Sony's PlayMemories Mobile app for iOS and Android devices. However, like Sony's other recent cameras, the A6000 also includes NFC support for quick and easy pairing of smartphones -- Android-only for the foreseeable future, however.

Hands-On: Design and Build. Users of the NEX-6 and NEX-7 should feel right at home with the new A6000, as Sony's kept with many of the same design concepts that advanced users enjoy such as the built-in EVF, Multi-Interface Shoe, pop-up flash, and a dedicated PASM mode dial.

In the hand, the A6000 feels noticeably chunkier and beefier than the NEX-6, though, it's actually a bit lighter at 285 grams compared to 287 grams (body-only). The A6000's solidness is very reminiscent of the Sony A7 and A7R with its more angular, sharp-edged design. In fact, the A6000 looks and feels like an A7 with the pentaprism-shaped EVF hump chopped off. The NEX-6 was comprised of a metal and polycarbonate plastic design, and the A6000 follows suit, however the new model feels more metallic, in a way, with a smooth, black paint job that lacks any sort of texture or speckled finish like the NEX-6.

Looking at a side-by-side top-down comparison of the A6000 and the NEX-6, you can easily see that the A6000 is quite a bit thicker than its predecessor, however it's practically the same height and length, and therefore the sheer portability isn't really affected. With the Sony 16-50mm kit lens, it's a nice, lightweight and compact package with easy to reach controls and a rubberized covering on the handgrip.

EVF & LCD. Like the NEX-6 before it, the Sony A6000 features a built-in EVF and tilting LCD screen. The specs for the EVF in the A6000, however, are different from its predecessor with a smaller, seemingly lower-resolution OLED display. Carrying the Tru-Finder branding, the 0.39-inch 1,440K-dot OLED EVF does look noticeably smaller than the 0.5-inch 2,359K-dot OLED EVF of the NEX-6 on the outside.  

However, comparing the two side-by-side, the A6000's EVF is the clear winner as it produces much more accurate colors and easy to discern details. Both cameras' EVFs provide 100% coverage, but the A6000's offers slightly lower magnification at 1.07x versus 1.09x for the NEX-6. Still, the view inside the A6000's EVF is bright and large.

The LCD, however, is a holdover from the NEX-6, with a 3-inch tilting TFT LCD display with 921,600-dot resolution and similar angles of articulation (up 90-degrees, down 45-degrees), making it easier to take shots from difficult or awkward angles. The A6000 does provide peaking for critical focus as well as zebra overlays for over-exposed areas.

Menus. With the A6000, gone are the bright, colorful, icon- and scrolling-heavy menus of the NEX line of cameras. Instead, Sony's brought over the same user interface from the A7/R and RX-series cameras. Just like with the A7 line, the A6000 provides a simpler, easier-to-navigate menu system that features all the button, dial and on-screen "Quick Navi" configuration you could want -- to help you avoid digging into said menus while you're out shooting.

Controls. Like we mentioned above, users of the NEX-6 and NEX-7 should feel right at home with the A6000's control layout. Particularly on the rear of the camera, the button layout is nearly identical to the NEX-6, but with the labeling scheme straight from the A7. The A6000 does add an additional custom function (C2) button at the lower right corner, and switches the playback button for the menu button.

Also gone are the two unlabeled buttons that change function corresponding to on-screen options. They've now been replaced by a dedicated Function (Fn) button, which brings us a table of settings and options for quick adjustments, and the playback mode button.

The top dial controls display a hybrid of NEX-6 and NEX-7 designs. The full PASM dial is carried over from the NEX-6, with the inclusion of Memory Recall and Movie Mode options. This dial feels nice and stiff, and while it's not a locking mode dial, as we've seen introduced on more cameras lately, it doesn't feel as if it could be easily bumped and rotated unintentionally.

From the NEX-7, we have a secondary label-less dial that serves as the aperture control (by default), as well as a way to scroll through menus. This dial is easier to rotate than the mode dial -- as it should be -- but resists rotation enough to avoid an accidental light bump or brush. You can also customize the function of this dial to serve as the shutter speed adjustment, with the rear 4-way scroll dial on the back of the camera being used for aperture adjustment. (As expected, this dial serves as shutter control by default in Manual Exposure mode.)

HD Video Recording. The A6000 features the same basic set of Full HD video recording features including 1,920 x 1,080 resolution video with 60p, 60i and 24p frame rate options in AVCHD format along with lower resolutions in MP4 format, and provides support for full PASM exposure modes. The dedicated video recording button allows for motion picture capture in any exposure mode for quick, one-press video recording, although there is a dedicated Movie Mode.

Despite lots of advanced video recording amenities for the image side of things like focus peaking, zebras and an adjustable AF drive speed, there are only basic stereo audio recording features such as the ability to disable audio recording, and an optional wind-cut filter. Like the NEX-6, audio levels are not adjustable, nor is there a standard 3.5mm jack for external microphones. The A6000 does however support Sony's hot-shoe-mounted ECM-XYST1M stereo mic, which includes adjustable recording directions, a low-cut filter, fuzzy windscreen cover and a mic-out jack for use with cameras that don't have Sony's proprietary Multi Interface Shoe. Thus, 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.

Power, Storage and Connectivity. Users upgrading from an NEX-series camera or looking to add the A6000 to their stable beside the A7/R will be pleased to hear that Sony has kept the same battery format for this new model. The NP-FW50 InfoLithium rechargeable battery pack is CIPA-rated to provide around 360 shots per charge when using the LCD monitor which is the same as the NEX-6, though the A6000's battery life when using the EVF is rated at 310 shots, a significant improvement over the 270 shots the NEX-6 provided with its EVF. Like its predecessor the Sony A6000's battery is charged in-camera via USB, with an AC adapter and USB cable provided in the bundle.

As with previous Sony models, the A6000 uses a dual-format card slot that accepts both Secure Digital cards (SD, SDHC and SDXC) and MemoryStick cards (PRO Duo, Pro-HG Duo and PRO-HG HX Duo).

As mentioned above, the A6000 features both Wi-Fi and NFC connectivity for smart device pairing and control. For wired connection, the A6000 includes an HDMI connection (Micro HDMI, Type-D) -- which can provide clean HDMI output for video recording -- and a multi-use Micro USB port for file transfer or for use with remotes, like the optional Sony RM-VPR1 controller.

Also mentioned previously is the A6000's Multi Interface Shoe which not only supports standard flashes, it integrates 21 additional pins for adding accessories to the camera, such as the aforementioned Sony ECM-XYST1M external mic.

Pricing and Availability. The Sony A6000 is a stellar upgrade to not only the NEX-6, but also the NEX-7 with its high-resolution 24.3MP sensor, blazingly-fast AF and much-improved burst shooting with AF tracking. The A6000 launched in April 2014 in both a kit configuration with the Sony 16-50mm Power Zoom lens for around US$800, and as a body-only option for around US$650, in both an all-black color and a silver version (with corresponding silver 16-50 kit lens).

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• Sony A6000 with 16-50mm lens, black: ADORAMA | AMAZON | B&H
• Sony A6000 with 16-50mm lens, silver: ADORAMA | AMAZON | B&H

Optical Zoom
A typical zoom ratio of ~3.1x for a kit lens, with decent performance.

The Sony A6000 is available bundled with the PZ 16-50mm F3.5-5.6 OSS E-mount "kit" lens. This lens possesses a typical optical zoom ratio for a kit lens of about 3.1x with a 35mm-equivalent focal range of about 24-75mm.

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 (the camera suppresses), however some flare is slightly 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 in more detail below, but extreme corners are soft at f/8. At medium focal length (32mm), the lens performs quite well at f/8 with good sharpness and contrast, though some corner softness can still be seen. At full telephoto (50mm), overall performance is quite good with very good sharpness in the center and only minor softness in the extreme corners.

The Sony A6000's 2x Clear Image digital zoom actually worked fairly well, better than just standard digital zoom (which goes up to 4x), but still produces some loss in fine detail, as well as some interpolation artifacts and more visible noise.

See sections below for comments on macro performance, geometric distortion, corner softness, performance wide open, chromatic aberration, etc.

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

As with zoom performance, the Sony A6000's macro performance will depend entirely on the lens mounted. However with the E-mount 16-50mm kit lens set to 50mm, the A6000 captures a minimum area measuring 3.62 x 2.41 inches (92 x 61 millimeters), which is slightly larger than average for a kit lens. Sharpness is quite good in the center at f/8, though the 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 minimum distance, resulting in a good exposure. The flash also had no trouble clearing the lens as there is no detectable shadow, though coverage is slightly uneven and narrow.

Geometric Distortion
Much lower than average geometric distortion at wide angle and telephoto in JPEGs, but the A6000 always applies distortion correction to JPEGs when the 16-50mm kit lens is mounted.

Barrel distortion at 16mm is ~0.2 percent

Pincushion distortion at 50mm is negligible

In-camera JPEGs taken with 16-50mm kit lens show only about 0.2 percent complex barrel distortion at wide angle, which is much lower than average and only slightly noticeable. At the telephoto end, there's hardly a pixel's worth of pincushion 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).

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

Aperture: maximum
16mm@f/3.5: Lower left C.A.: Low Softness: Quite soft	16mm@f/3.5: Center C.A.: Very low Softness: Sharp
50mm@f/5.6: Upper left C.A.: Moderately low Softness: Fairly sharp, but hazy	50mm@f/5.6: Center C.A.: Low Softness: Fairly sharp

Chromatic Aberration. Chromatic aberration in the corners with the A6000's 16-50mm kit lens at wide angle (16mm) is fairly low, 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 moderately low in the corners, though the center shows a bit more than at wide angle (possibly the result of a slight focus difference), however it's still quite low.

Corner Softness. Wide open at full wide angle, the 16-50mm lens that came with our A6000 is soft in all four corners, with the bottom left being the softest. Some softness extends fairly deep into the frame, however the center is quite sharp and contrasty. At full telephoto, resolution in the corners is actually pretty good, but they suffer from reduced contrast and haze which makes them look a bit soft. Contrast improves as you move toward the center, which is fairly sharp.

Vignetting. Moderate vignetting (corner shading) is noticeable at full wide angle, as indicated by the darker corner crop. Vignetting is not as noticeable at full telephoto.

Aperture: f/8
16mm@f/8: Lower left C.A.: Low Softness: Soft	16mm@f/8: Center C.A.: Very low Softness: Sharp
50mm@f/8: Upper left C.A.: Low Softness: Minor blurring	50mm@f/8: Center C.A.: Very low Softness: Sharp

F8. "Stopped-down" to f/8, some corners got a little sharper while others got softer at wide angle, but in general they are still on the soft side, while the center remained sharp. At full telephoto, corner sharpness and especially contrast improved compared to f/5.6, and the center became sharp. Chromatic aberration and vignetting also improved.

Lens Corrections

The Sony A6000 includes the ability to automatically compensate for geometric distortion, chromatic aberration, and lens shading (vignetting), as images are captured.

Geometric Distortion

Uncorrected barrel distortion at 16mm is ~3.1 percent

Pincushion distortion at 50mm is ~0.3 percent

Above, you can see the uncorrected geometric distortion from the 16-50mm kit lens is very high at wide angle, with about 3.1% barrel distortion. Very high barrel distortion at wide angle is common for Micro Four Thirds lenses, but the 16-50mm is the first E-mount lens we've seen with it this high, and the amount of correction required explains some of the corner softness we see at wide angle. At the telephoto end, pincushion is fairly low at 0.3%, but still higher than the corrected JPEG image.

The default Distortion Correction setting is normally Off for the A6000, but is forced to Auto when the 16-50mm lens is mounted, so we used RawDigger to convert the RAW file without corrections applied. Thus, like most Micro Four Thirds lenses, it appears that Sony designed this lens with higher geometric distortion at wide angle to make it more compact, and is 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.: High and bright
50mm@f/5.6: Upper left C.A.: Very low	50mm@f/5.6: Upper left C.A.: Very low

Above, you can see fairly high and bright lateral chromatic aberration at wide angle with Chromatic Aberration Compensation 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@f/3.5		50mm@f/5.6
Lens Shading Correction:		Auto (default)	Off

Mouse-over the links above to see the difference Lens Shading Compensation makes when wide open (the worst-case scenario for most lenses). As you can see, particularly at wide angle, corners are brightened without affecting brightness in the center when enabled, though some fall-off is still left behind in the corrected images. The default setting is also Auto. Please note that like other Sony models, the A6000 "bakes" shading correction into RAW files, so be sure to turn Lens Shading Compensation off if you plan to correct your RAW files in a converter or editor.

Overall, not a bad performance for an inexpensive kit lens. It's a good start and a great value when bought as part of a kit, but to get the most out of the Sony A6000's 24-megapixel resolution, enthusiasts will likely want to invest in some better glass. See our full review of another copy of Sony E 16-50mm PZ lens on SLRgear.com.

Coverage
Excellent accuracy from the EVF and LCD monitor.

The Sony A6000's electronic viewfinder and LCD monitor both show slightly over 100% coverage in record mode in our tests. This is excellent performance, though not a surprise given the image is derived from the main imaging sensor.

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 on the links for larger images.

Saturation. The Sony A6000's overall default color saturation is oversaturated by 11% at base ISO, which is about average these days. Saturation remains consistent up to ISO 1600, but starts falling off at higher ISOs, ending up at 98.3% at ISO 25,600. Reds and dark blues are boosted the most, but not as much as we often see. Most other colors are pushed just a bit or pretty close to ideal, though yellow, light green and cyan are slightly undersaturated. Overall, saturation levels are pleasing to our eyes at low to moderate ISOs, and you can of course tweak them more 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 A6000 does fairly well with Caucasian skin tones when using manual white balance in simulated daylight. Brighter flesh tones have a healthy pinkish tint, though darker areas are nudged toward orange. With auto white balance, results are still good, though slightly warmer. 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 A6000 shifts cyan toward blue, red toward orange, orange toward yellow and yellow toward green, however shifts are minor to fairly moderate. (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 5.72 after correction for saturation at base ISO, overall hue accuracy is about average, with accuracy only moderately changing at higher ISOs. Hue is "what color" the color is.

Saturation Adjustment
The Sony A6000 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 has almost no effect on contrast, which is how it should work, but not always a given.

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.

Exposure and White Balance

Indoors, incandescent lighting
Warm cast with Auto, good with Manual, but too cool with Kelvin white balance settings. Average exposure compensation required.

Indoors, under normal incandescent lighting, color balance is a bit warm and orange with the Auto white balance setting, though results here are better than average. Results with the Incandescent setting are better but still a touch warm. The Manual setting is quite accurate, just slightly on the cool side. The 2,600 Kelvin setting which should roughly match the color temperature of our lights is too cool and bluish. The Sony A6000 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 A6000 performed very well. +0.3 EV exposure compensation was required to keep the mannequin's face bright in our "Sunlit" Portrait shot, which is better than average among the cameras we've tested. (Most cameras require about +0.7 EV here.) Contrast is a little high as you might expect under such harsh lighting, but despite the bright appearance, only a few highlights were blown, even without the help of DRO (see below). Shadow detail is quite good except in very deep shadows were they exhibit noise and posterization, but that's to be expected and shouldn't be a problem unless trying to recover a severely underexposed image. Both Auto and Manual white balance produced decent skintones, but we preferred Manual for its slightly pinker response. Default exposure is quite good for our Far-field shot, just a touch underexposed but with almost no highlights blown (just specular highlights) or shadows lost, again with DRO disabled. The Far-field shot with Auto white balance has very good color, just a touch on the cool side. 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, ~2,800 to 2,900 lines of strong detail from both JPEGs and RAW files.

In-camera JPEGs of our laboratory resolution chart reveal sharp, distinct line patterns down to about 2,900 lines per picture height in the horizontal direction, and about 2,800 lines in the vertical direction. 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 3,500 to 3,600 lines. Some color moiré is evident in JPEGs, though that's not uncommon. Adobe Camera Raw wasn't really able to extract more lines of resolution here from a matching RAW file, and it generated stronger color moiré (different colors as well), so the Sony A6000 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.

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

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

Sharpness. The Sony A6000 captures very sharp, crisp images at lower ISOs, with few visible edge enhancement artifacts. We normally see some fairly bright sharpening halos around high-contrast elements such the lettering and lines in our bottle labels, but the A6000's sharpening algorithm is very good at making details pop without obvious sharpening artifacts. Excellent results here, at least at low ISOs. Edge enhancement creates the illusion of sharpness by enhancing colors and tones right at the edge of a rapid transition in color or tone.

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

RAW vs In-Camera JPEGs
As noted above, the Sony A6000 produces in-camera JPEGs with lots of crisp detail and few sharpening artifacts, at least at low ISOs. Additional detail can often be obtained from carefully processing RAW files with a good converter, though. Let's see how base ISO compares here:

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

In the table above, we compare an in-camera JPEG taken at base ISO using default noise reduction and sharpening (on the left) to the matching RAW file converted with Adobe Camera Raw 8.3 using default noise reduction with some strong but tight unsharp masking applied in Photoshop (250%, radius of 0.3 pixels, and a threshold of 0).

Looking closely at the images, ACR extracts additional detail that isn't present in the JPEG from the camera, particularly in the red-leaf swatch where the thread pattern is likely treated as noise by the JPEG engine. The fine detail in the mosaic is also slightly improved, but as is often the case, more noise can be seen in the bottle crop. You can of course apply stronger noise reduction (default ACR NR used here) to arrive at your ideal noise versus detail tradeoff. That being said, the Sony A6000's in-camera JPEG processing (at least at low ISOs) is very good with generally excellent detail and very few sharpening artifacts, though default noise reduction is a touch heavy-handed particularly in the red channel here.

ISO & Noise Performance
Very good noise versus detail performance at low to moderately high ISOs, but high ISOs look noisy and overprocessed.

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 A6000's JPEG images are very clean up to ISO 400, though as mentioned, fine detail in the hair is already a little smudged at base ISO. There are minor demosaicing errors in the hair above the mannequin's forehead, though that's pretty common these days, especially with a sharp lens. We start to see some minor softening at ISO 400 where stronger noise reduction kicks in, but fine detail is very good and chroma noise very low. ISO 800 is a bit softer, but fine detail is still very good. ISO 1,600 is slightly softer and although fine detail is still good, flatter areas start to look a bit overprocessed with a somewhat painted look to them, and high contrast edges start to become a little rough or indistinct. ISO 3,200 shows even more of the processed look with almost an almost hammered look to flat areas, but the image still has some good detail left. Image quality falls off rapidly from there, though. ISO 6,400 shows a sudden increase in luminance noise long with significant blurring of fine detail, as well as some chroma noise in the form of purple and yellow tinted patches. Noise and the effects of noise processing are stronger still at ISO 12,800 as you'd expect, and ISO 25,600 is very noisy with lots of noise reduction and sharpening artifacts, as well as strong chroma blotching in shadows and midtones. Overall, though, these are pretty good results especially considering the A6000's price point and resolution, though advanced users will likely turn to RAW capture to avoid the overprocessed look at higher ISOs.

As always, see the Print Quality section below for maximum recommended print sizes at each ISO, as printed performance often doesn't correlate well to what's seen on-screen at 100%, and check out our Comparometer to see how the Sony A6000's JPEGs compare to other cameras we've tested.

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 A6000 handled the deliberately harsh lighting in the test above very well. We preferred the +0.3 EV exposure here as the face is bright while almost no highlights were clipped in the white shirt. The default exposure is a tad dim in the face, while the +0.7 EV exposure is definitely too bright. As mentioned previously, contrast is a little high, but both highlight and shadow detail is very good at +0.3 EV.

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.)

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 A6000's contrast setting meets both challenges.

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

At its lowest contrast setting, the A6000 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. As usual, 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 tone curve and other processing parameters accordingly to make the best use of the available dynamic range. DRO does not boost ISO for the entire image like some systems, so increased noise is less of an issue, though existing noise may be more visible in raised shadows. Auto DRO is enabled by default on the Sony A6000. You can also set the level manually, from 1 ("weak") to 5 ("strong"), or turn it off. As one would expect, DRO is only applied to JPEG files however RAW files are tagged for similar processing by Sony's IDC software.

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

Far-field DRO Comparison
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 nicely balanced exposure, despite the harsh lighting. A useful feature.

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 A6000's HDR mode takes three images in rapid succession, one nominally exposed , one underexposed, and one overexposed, then combines them into one high dynamic range JPEG automatically (RAW images are not supported). Lighter areas from the underexposed image are combined with darker areas from the overexposed image to produce an image with compressed tonal range. The camera then saves a single composite image, as well as the nominally exposed image. The overlaid images are micro-aligned by the camera, but it can only correct for so much movement. If it can't micro-align successfully, an icon indicating HDR capture failed will appear. For best results, the subject should not move or blink, so it's not really intended for portraits. There is also a manual mode where you can select 1 EV ("weak") to 6 EV ("strong") difference in exposures.

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

Far-field HDR Comparison
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 (or remnants from anti-ghost image processing) from subject movement during the capture sequence, though, as can be seen in some of the shots above. Still, Sony has one of the better in-camera HDR implementations we've seen.

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

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

Here, we decided to compare the Sony A6000's dynamic range to its 16-megapixel predecessor, the NEX-6, and also to the 24-megapixel NEX-7 since it shares the same resolution (but not the same sensor). You can always compare other models on DxOMark.com.

As you can see from the above graph (click for a larger image), at low ISOs the Sony A6000's dynamic range is very similar to the NEX-6 (13.1 EV), however the NEX-7 performs very slightly better (13.4 EV). As sensitivity increases, though, the A6000 begins to pull ahead at ISO 400, however all three cameras perform similarly up to ISO 6,400. At ISOs 12,800 and 25,600, the A6000's dynamic range is about 3/4 EV higher than the NEX-6, and it performs a little better than the NEX-7 as well (which tops out at ISO 16,000). Overall, very good dynamic range performance from the Sony A6000. Click here to visit the DxOMark page for the Sony A6000 for more of their test results and additional comparisons.

	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	2 s f2.8	4 s f2.8	8 s f2.8	15 s f2.8	30 s f2.8	30 s f2.8
ISO 200	1 s f2.8	2 s f2.8	4 s f2.8	8 s f2.8	15 s f2.8	15 s f2.8
ISO 400	0.5 s f2.8	1 s f2.8	2 s f2.8	4 s f2.8	8 s f2.8	8 s f2.8
ISO 800	1/4 s f2.8	0.5 s f2.8	1 s f2.8	2 s f2.8	4 s f2.8	4 s f2.8
ISO 1600	1/8 s f2.8	1/4 s f2.8	0.5 s f2.8	1 s f2.8	2 s f2.8	2 s f2.8
ISO 3200	1/15 s f2.8	1/8 s f2.8	1/4 s f2.8	0.5 s f2.8	1 s f2.8	1 s f2.8
ISO 6400	1/30 s f2.8	1/15 s f2.8	1/8 s f2.8	1/4 s f2.8	0.5 s f2.8	0.5 s f2.8
ISO 12800	1/60 s f2.8	1/30 s f2.8	1/15 s f2.8	1/8 s f2.8	1/4 s f2.8	1/4 s f2.8
ISO 25600	1/125 s f2.8	1/60 s f2.8	1/30 s f2.8	1/15 s f2.8	1/8 s f2.8	1/8 s f2.8

Low Light. The Sony A6000 was able to capture bright images down to the lowest light level we test at (1/16 fc) at all ISO settings. Noise is well-controlled up to ISO 3,200, though as expected, at higher ISOs images look overprocessed except when noise reduction is turned down to a minimum (far right column), but both luminance and chrominance noise are high and start to become objectional at ISO 6,400 at the lowest NR setting.

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

We didn't detect any significant banding (pattern noise), heat blooming or hot pixel issues, even at the highest ISOs.

The Sony A6000's autofocus system was able to focus on our test subject down to just below the 1/8 foot-candle light level unassisted with an f/2.8 lens, which is good. And the A6000 was able to focus in complete darkness with its built-in focus assist lamp enabled (with the subject in range).

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

NOTE: This low light test is conducted with a stationary subject, and the camera mounted on a sturdy tripod. Most digital cameras will fail miserably when faced with a moving subject in dim lighting. (For example, a child's ballet recital or a holiday pageant in a gymnasium.) Thanks to their larger pixels and in the case of the A6000, its Hybrid AF system, compact system cameras like the Sony A6000 tend to do much better than point & shoots, but you still shouldn't expect a quick autofocus lock with moving subjects. (A useful trick is to just prop the camera on a convenient surface, and use its self-timer to release the shutter. This avoids any jiggling from your finger pressing the shutter button, and can work quite well when you don't have a tripod handy.)

Low Light (1 foot-candle) Multi-frame NR
Default NR, 1/125s, ISO 25,600	Multi-frame NR, 1/125s, ISO 25,600

Multi-frame Noise Reduction. This feature is similar to Sony's Hand-held Twilight mode which shoots a burst of four images with a single press of the shutter button and combines all four images into one composite image with reduced noise. But unlike Hand-held Twilight, Multi-frame NR gives you control over the ISO, aperture and shutter speed used, so you may still need to use a tripod depending on the exposure parameters you select. (We frankly don't see the value to this mode when using a tripod, as selecting a lower ISO and longer shutter speed will produce a cleaner image as well.) As you can see, the image captured with Multi-frame Noise Reduction (right) is cleaner than the standard image (left) despite both being shot at ISO 25,600. An added bonus is that ISO 51,200 equivalent is available with MF NR. As with HDR mode, though, static subjects are recommended for obvious reasons.

Print Quality

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

ISOs 100 and 200 deliver excellent 30 x 40 inch prints with superb detail, contrast and color. Wall display prints look great up to a whopping 40 x 60 inches.

ISO 400 prints are quite good at 24 x 36 inches, again showing nice detail with the exception of typical softening in our difficult red swatch. Wall display prints are possible here up to 36 x 48 inches.

ISO 800 images look good at 16 x 20 inches. 20 x 30s aren't bad, and are definitely usable for less critical applications, but are a bit on the soft side to merit our "good" print standard.

ISO 1600 yields a good 16 x 20 inch print as well. There is a hint of luminance noise in flatter areas, but it's not bad at all. This is a great size to achieve at ISO 1600.

ISO 3200 prints a similar 13 x 19 as the 16 x 20 at ISO 1600, with only minor noise in the shadows behind our test target.

ISO 6400 is where the A6000 starts to show strain from noise processing, requiring a reduction in print size to 8 x 10 for a good overall print.

ISO 12,800 makes a nice 5 x 7 inch print, which is still a capable feat at this ISO.

ISO 25,600 prints a nice 4 x 6, which good color reproduction for such a high ISO.

The Sony A6000 succeeds the popular NEX-6 but sports a sensor with 24-megapixel resolution more in line with the flagship NEX-7. This resolution bump allows for excellent 30 x 40 inch prints at the lowest ISOs, something not achievable with sensors in the 16MP range due to the actual pixels becoming apparent beyond 24 x 36 inch prints. It also slightly outperforms the NEX-6 at ISO 400, but after that the recommended max print sizes are the same from ISO 800 through the rest of the range to ISO 25,600, indicating not much in the way of improvement in high ISO shooting performance over the NEX-6. However, two thumbs up to Sony for the ability to yet again achieve a good print at the highest ISO setting, as this is something not all manufacturers can claim due to the over-marketing of a camera's high-ISO capabilities (but we're not complaining because this is one of the reasons you count on us!).

Generally excellent performance, though startup is sluggish.

The Sony A6000's startup time (power on to first shot) was slower than most CSCs, and much slower than most DSLRs. Switching from Play to Record mode and taking a shot was pretty fast, though.

The Sony A6000's full-autofocus shutter lag (with the subject at a fixed distance) was only about 0.15 second in both Single-area (Center) and Multi-area (Wide) AF modes with the 16-50mm kit lens at a medium focal length. That's significantly faster than the NEX-6 (~0.26s) and even faster than most DSLRs, though not as fast as Sony's 0.06 second claim. We may look into AF performance a bit more to see if we can verify Sony's claim in a separate article, but the above results conform to how we test all our cameras.

Enabling the flash added significant delay for preflash metering, increasing lag to about 0.42s. When manually focused, the Sony A6000's shutter lag was about 0.14s, which is pretty good, though not as fast as some competitors. The A6000's prefocused shutter lag was only 22 milliseconds, much faster than most CSCs and faster than any DSLR -- we have the camera's lack of a mirror and electronic front curtain shutter (enabled by default) to thank for that.

To minimize the effect of different lens' focusing speed, we test AF-active shutter lag with the lens already set to the correct focal distance.

Single-shot cycle times were very good for a mirrorless ILC camera, at 0.51 second for large/fine JPEGs, 0.48 second for RAW files and oddly 0.44 second for RAW+JPEG frames.

Continuous Hi burst mode performance was excellent, at just over 11 frames per second regardless of file type, easily meeting Sony's 11 fps specification. And thanks to the A6000's Hybrid AF, continuous AF is available at this speed, though don't expect focus to track as well as a pro DSLR at that rate! There are also Mid (6 fps) and Lo (2.5 fps) settings, however we did not test those options.

Buffer depth for large/fine JPEGs in Continuous Hi mode was also excellent, at 47 frames before the camera slowed. Note that our test target for this was designed to be difficult to compress, so burst lengths should be longer with typical subjects. When shooting RAW files, buffer depth dropped to 22 frames, and to 21 frames with RAW+L/F JPEG files, which is still pretty generous. Buffer clearing after max-length bursts took some time even with a fast card, though, ranging between 14 seconds after a max-length burst of RAW files, to 22 seconds after a burst of large/fine JPEGs.

The built-in flash was able to recycle from a full discharge in 2.3 seconds on average, which is fast.

Download speeds were very good, fast enough that you likely won't feel the need for a separate card reader, even with large memory cards. (Note that this test was performed with a SanDisk Pro 95MB/sec UHS-I SDHC card: Slower cards would likely show slower transfer times.)

Bottom line, the Sony A6000's performance was generally excellent in our tests, with blazing fast AF speeds, extremely quick prefocused shutter lag and a very fast burst mode that supports continuous autofocus. Startup time was sluggish, though, and while buffer depths were quite good, clearing after a max-length burst of 24-megapixel images can take some time even with a fast SD card.

Battery Life
Good battery life with the LCD for a Compact System Camera, though using the EVF reduces battery life.

The Sony A6000 uses a custom NP-FW50 rechargeable lithium-ion battery pack for power, and comes with both a single battery and an AC adapter for charging in-camera via USB. Battery life is rated for 310 shots per charge when using the EVF, which is a bit low, especially when compared to DSLRs with optical viewfinders. Battery life when using the LCD is slightly above average for a mirrorless camera, though, at 360 shots. As is usually the case, we recommend getting a second battery for your A6000 if you plan any extended outings.

The table above shows the number of shots the camera is capable of (on a fully-charged rechargeable battery), based on CIPA battery-life and/or manufacturer standard test conditions.

(Interested readers can find an English translation of the CIPA DC-002 standards document here. (180K PDF document))

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

Coverage. Flash coverage is very narrow and uneven at wide angle (16mm), leaving very dark corners in our flash coverage test image. Coverage is more uniform at full telephoto (50mm), with less fall-off in the corners (though quite dim here at ISO 200).

Exposure. Our Indoor Portrait test scene came out dim even with +1.0 EV flash exposure compensation at ISO 200, and flash exposure compensation didn't make much difference. The average amount of flash exposure compensation required for this scene is +0.7 EV, so the A6000's flash system performed below average here. The camera's Slow-Sync flash mode produced very bright results with no flash exposure compensation, though with a strong orange cast from the ambient room lighting.

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 started out bright at 6 feet, and exposure was good out to about 9 feet, falling off from there. At full telephoto, flash exposures started out dim at 6 feet and became dark quite quickly.

Manufacturer-Specified Flash Range
Wide Angle	Telephoto
8.0 feet ISO 200	5.0 feet ISO 200

Manufacturer Specified Flash Test. The Sony A6000's built-in flash is rated with a Guide Number of 6 meters or 19.7 feet at ISO 100. At ISO 200, that works out to about 8 feet at f/3.5 and 5.0 feet at f/5.6, the maximum apertures of the kit zoom lens. In the test shots above taken at those distances, the A6000's flash produced bright flash exposures (even slightly overexposed at wide angle), which confirms Sony's flash power rating is credible.

Our standard test method for flash range uses a fixed setting of ISO 200, to provide a fair basis of comparison between cameras. We also shoot 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.