Sony A6000 First Shots posted! See how the NEX-6 successor stacks up against the rest of the pack

posted Tuesday, April 1, 2014 at 1:51 PM EDT

Sony's doing a lot of talking these days, and you camera fans out there are listening. Take a quick glance at the "Most Popular Digital Cameras" section of our homepage and you'll see the Sony Alpha 6000 sitting securely in the pole position. With a body-only pre-order price of just US$648 and a storied pedigree, this is not surprising.

The latest top-shelf model in the Sony Alpha APS-C world (formerly known as NEX) and logical successor to the NEX-6 from 2012, the Sony A6000 sports a 24.3 megapixel sensor giving it resolution similar to the flagship Sony NEX-7. It also sports the same Bionz X processor found in the award-winning Sony A7/A7R full frame mirrorless models from 2013.

And this is where the real fun begins, as Sony is calling the A6000 the "Fastest Focusing Camera in the World." Indeed, the Fujifilm X-T1 (also hugely popular) held that distinguished honor for but a nanosecond it seemed, until the A6000 stole the proverbial thunder. But remember that these are marketing figures and neither camera has yet to complete the rigorous trek through our test lab nor had the data scrutinized by our senior technical editor, Zig Weidelich, who leaves no stone nor sensor unturned.

While you're waiting for the lab test results and our shooting experiences, we present to you our test lab First Shots, a standard series of Still Life shots that allow you to compare the image quality of the Sony A6000 to any camera we've ever tested in our Comparometer.

To whet your appetite, below is quick comparison with the NEX-7 at ISO 1600. And should you find anything interesting while comparing the A6000 to other models, please come back to this page and report your findings in the comments section below.