Sony A6000 Lounge

As I am about to become a new owner and i couldnt see a thread like this i thought i would start one.
I used to be a Canon fanboy and have had: (in order)
350D
700D
1D Mark IIN,
1D Mark III,
5D Mark II
1D Mark III (couldnt get used to being with out it.)

Now I have just sold my 1D Mark III and am getting the A6000!
I have been reading SOOOO many reviews and watched far too many videos and ended up that the 18-105 G series is going to be my lens of choice (for now) untill i can get myself a faster prime like a 35mm 1.8.
I used to do a lot of motorsport photography but i'm now pulling back from that and moving back to my roots of street photography and night exposures. I will still be doing the odd car show and also starting to do a bit of equine shooting too. My work can be seen at www.urbanfreestyle.org

What are you shooting with and what is your main target? what were you shooting kit wise before and why did you move?

Good to see a lounge thread for the A6000!

I was also a Canon guy.

60D
T4i
6D

I loved my 6D and my lenses, but I was often leaving my kit at home because it was too much to juggle with two toddlers in tow. I wanted to go light without sacrificing IQ, and the A6000 came highly recommended by a trusted childhood friend. Also, many on this forum raved about it. So far, so great! I shoot a bit of everything with it, with the exception of sports so far. When I do shoot basketball in the near future, I have no doubt it will be a stellar performer.

But, I mostly shoot my kids with some random political and non-profit events thrown in. Paired with the 43M flash, the a6000/PZ16-50 combo becomes an event workhorse. Paired with the FE55, it is a portrait machine. It is truly the little camera that could.

I have seen so many good reviews, I was VERY tempted to go with the A7 but i just cant risk the slower AF and from what i heard the IQ isn't THAT much different to the A6000.

My canon kit worked out to weigh about 9 1/2 lbs and i definately feel it after a whole day shooting.

One thing i am going to miss is the 2200 shots per battery i get with my 1D :-/

What kind of battery life are you getting?

So this just happened...

The AF on the A6000 is as good as you read about, very impressive. The way the AF locks onto the subject's eyes is uncanny.

The IQ is so good that I feel bad about buying an A7R as a portrait/landscape body. Both have their place, but the A6000 is certainly very good at portrait/landscape as well.

I thought I would miss the LP-E6 battery life but it hasn't been a factor for me so far. I get 500-600 shots on a battery by turning it off during times I know I probably baby why be snapping off pics. I also keep my image review times at 2 seconds. With the A6000, I shoot using live view 80-85% of the time.

Buying spare batteries is a great idea for sure. I have four that the A6000 and A7R share/rotate. So far, I use the A6000 over 2x as much as the A7R and that was the plan.

i have been hesitating over clicking the buy button for a while now but i think it is just the fear of the unknown. It's a completely different system for me!.

I can provide a lot of info on this using the a6000. I have been a Nikon shooter for many years and Canon before that.
I am making a switch to Sony now to but it is not a easy move as their is many problems to over come based on what you are shooting.

I have two a6000 bodys now and have shot a good amount with one of them just got the second.

The problems are focus in low light the a6000 it quite good in good light but still not as good as my older Nikons as far as how many dead sharp keepers you get but as the light starts to get low to very low the a6000 with start hunting a lot and locking on but you get some soft not 100% in focus images but my Nikons can still nail every shot with no problem, then in real low light like at a wedding reception at night outside the a6000 will not focus at all may times you will miss every shot unless you are shooting something not moving and you have time to let it hunt over an over till it might get it but my Nikon will still nail every shot in that low of light instant.
So in low light you should bring a small led light to hit your subject with so the a6000 can focus. I had to do that back when i shot Canon as even my last Canon the Mark III could not focus well in low light VS the Nikons i switched to.

Next problem reviews seems to not talk about in reallity is the a6000 is very bad with high iso the images are not clean at all VS any of my older cameras even iso 800 i feel is very bad full of noise.
Even iso 400 you will find is not as clean as your Canons at lest it is not as clean as my 6 year old Nikons. I have to spend a lot more time editing the images playing with noise reduction and even at iso 800 the images starts to have some quality loss i just do not see in my Nikon files. I shoot all raw all the time

I can shoot at iso 5000 with my Nikons but in that iso range on the a6000 the images are just useless very bad no details left and tons of noise. I would not go past iso 800 to 1000 on the a6000 if you want to keep in a good quality image range but on my Nikons i can go up to 3200 and still be good. I am talking about a image that can be printed at 16x20 and not be full of noise and still have great details for web size images people post from high iso shots you are not seeing the real amount of noise that is really in the image and it is a lot VS other cameras.

On the good side i find skin tones to be better on the a6000 then my Nikons so it can be a great portrait camera and landscape camera.

What i am doing is buying low light lens. I have the Sony adapter that lets me use the Older Minolta lens on the a6000 and they are low cost and some are very good outstanding lens.
So for shooting at F2.8 at iso 400 and a 60th of a second with flash for events i think i will be good as long as it will focus but with the better low light lens it dose let if focus a little better in lowlight.

So at 2.8 i am letting in good background light in and at st 60 of a second good amount of light then at iso 400 it keeps the images clean but i may go up a little more as well just not past 800 for anything i would ever give to a paying customer.
Or you can drop it to F1.8 or 1.4 based on the lens. I would shoot brides getting ready with my Nikon at iso 640 in a well lit bathroom and the noise is so clean on the A6000 iso 500 looks like iso 1200 on my Nikon.

Lens to look at that are super sharp from a lot of research i have been doing are are the Minolta 50mm 1.4 i just got one that is on the way for $105.
Minolta 100mm 2,8 macro from the revives i had read this was one of the sharpest lens ever tested even VS newer lens out today and is 100% the same lens glass Sony now sells except Sony put it in a less quality lens body the Minolta is full sharp at 2.8 from edge to edge i just ordered one from Japan for $199 it is also a Macro lens this will be a fun lens to shoot with.
Check out the photos shot with it here https://www.flickr.com …=Minolta%20100m​m%20people

The Minolta 85 1,4 lens has fantastic reviews i plan to get one at some point to they are going for $550 to $600 used.
Also the 70-200 2,8 is such a better price.

I will be buying a Sony A77II as well just so i can use the Minolta lens with out needing the adapter for portrait sessions and fun shooting.

For the A6000 i also have the Sony 18-105 F4 its i good lens just F4 not going to help you focus better in low light. i also have the Sigma 60mm 2.8 that is very sharp and fast to focus. will be buying the Sony 35 1.8 soon to.

I picked up a Nikon to Sony E mount adapter and i can use my Nikon 35mm F2 and 24mm 2.8 and a 300mm F4 lens i have all in manual focus that is very easy to do with the the Sony focus peaking.

But be warned as many people will post things like = I use manual focus lens and can focus in any lighting.. that is not true. As once the light is low to the point that the AF is not working good the focus peaking also dose not work for any manual focus only it makes sense.

Things i love are the live viewfinder and how super lite the camera is even with lens on it is that is just amazing. I plan to shoot weddings with one A77II and two a6000 camera on me at all times with prime lens on them and all off camera lighting.

Getting used to the camera i have been shooting at lot with it and in low light it dose miss photos i would get with no problem with my Nikons so i need to be ready for this so much so i think i will still be using my Nikon for things like brides maids and the bride walking down the isle in low lit churches to make sure i get the shots my fear would be i would miss every shot as the camera just hunts and hunts with a Sony. I will keep my Nikon on hand at all times till i am 100% sure i can go all Sony i may not be able to. Even the new A7RII has low light focus problem if you watch some of the review videos out on it VS a DSLR.

By the way the A77II has a updated focus system over the a6000 making it focus a little better then the a6000 but then you are fighting the A mount lens and E mount. I wish everything was A mount so all the camera would use the great Minolta lens with no adapter needed.

Hope this helps some you may want tokeep some of your better Canons just in case for any low light shooting on paid gigs.

Here is one from the a6000 and 18-105 with off camera flash

fair bit of information there! one thing i have heard elsewhere is the high iso is actually really good :-/ One of the reasons for getting the cam is for using it at a car show at the Birmingham NEC arena. indoors and not easy to use flash.

Well i have bought it now so will just have to wait and see what results i get.

The noise is on par with the 2008 EOS-1Ds Mark III maybe a little better but not by much as the iso is higher it shows a lot of red and green specks that is why i say the old Canon Mark III i had that and the red and green specks at even iso 800 was very noticeable that stand out - but the a6000 is only $400 or less and super fun to shoot with.

To be able to shoot fast with it you need to set the back screen to image review off or after each shot you can not shoot till it displays the image on the back making it very slow shooting after it is set to off you can blast away and just press the button and review your image in the finder a great feature when shooting outside in bright sunlight.


This is iso 800 from the other night at F2.8 with a lot of noise reduction in lightroom.

most of my low light stuff is at iso 100 with long exposures, have a few high around the 2k mark but few and faw between.
i know this is a daytime shot but this was a high iso on my 1D Mk3

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/yCpk​7R

I'll agree that the A6000 isn't ever going to be confused with the A7S, or even a 6D, but it doesn't exactly embarrass itself at ISO 1600 to 3200 IMO with careful PP. It just depends on what you are going to do with the file, in terms of web use vs blowing it up to A3 or beyond.

Below was taken while walking in Vegas after a few cocktails. I don't think I ever broke stride, and you can tell by the composition and blur, but I thought it handled noise pretty OK here. Sure, blow it up beyond 8x11 on the screen and the noise starts to become real apparent but I guess it depends on what you can live with out of your run-and-gun setup.

PZ16-50, ISO3200 1/60 f3.5 16mm, with PP in PS5

IMAGE LINK: https://www.flickr.com …/album-72157662400332032/

lv7515

So finally bought it and here is the 3rd picture i took with the camera. This is in my lounge with curtains closed at night with just the lamp and TV for lighting, shot handheld!.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/Bvof​L9

Santa brought me an a6000 today I cannot wait to use it after its done charging

Hey Lore!
Long time no speak, you're gonna love it! from what I have seen from mine so far it took a bit of getting used to as it is so different to my Canon 1DIII but once you get the hang of it and map out those Custom function buttons etc it'll fit right in.

What lenses did you get with it?

urbanfreestyle wrote in post #17833413
Hey Lore!
Long time no speak, you're gonna love it! from what I have seen from mine so far it took a bit of getting used to as it is so different to my Canon 1DIII but once you get the hang of it and map out those Custom function buttons etc it'll fit right in.

What lenses did you get with it?

Bundled 16-50 & 55-210
Definitely took some time navigating through the menu system to adjust settings. Actually had to crack open a manual
Dimly lit living room pictures of my cats seemed impressive. I look forward to taking it for a real spin