Sony A6500 Announced

For Alpha owners already familiar with the specification os the A6300 features of interest will be:

• In-body 5-axis image stabilisation (this brings the camera in line with the second generation of A7 full-frame cameras).
• Huge buffer for up to 307 images (over 35 seconds) in continuous shooting mode. The A6300 has lightening fast AF tracking but the buffer would quickly fill and then take several seconds to write the images to the card before you could shoot additional images. This feature alone will render the A6500 very attractive to sports photographers.
• Intuitive Touch Focus LCD screen which works even with your are using the EVF
• Extra Custom button and redesigned grip: The A6300 acquired the AF/MF AEL switch which improved the functionality of photographers wanting to customise their shooting experience. The addition of an extra Custom Button should complete the picture.
• New User Interface in the Menus: I am not sure whether this will be minor ‘tidy up’ or a major overhaul. I would certainly like to see some current menu items that should logically be together grouped on a single tab.
• Two new metering modes: The one that sounds interesting is a Highlight Metering Mode that looks at the brightest area of the frame – could this be useful for photographers wanting to avoid clipping bright highlights. This would potentially be very useful to Raw shooters who are prepared to restore shadow values in post-production.

For A6000 users who did not upgrade to the A6300 this camera will offer a significant improvement over the feature set of the A6000. Most noticeable would be the ease of tracking moving subjects and the 4K movie capability.

I am looking forward to putting this camera through its paces.

For more information go to: Sony Alpha A6500