Sony A6000 owners thoughts ?

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Currently use an Olympus EM-5.1 and considering switching to a Sony A6000.

Mostly do 'street' style photography, and whilst the EM5 is good enough I feel like I'm missing a few things. IBIS isn't perhaps as useful as it could be as I'm mostly shooting at higher shutter speeds and thus need better performance at higher ISOs. I also miss the ability to specify minimum shutter speeds on auto ISO, which I believe the A6000 has. Autofocus on the EM5 is generally good enough, but sometimes misses faces. How is the A6000 in that regard ?
The higher res on the A6000 will also be useful when I crop on some of the photos

Thanks, would like to hear from a6000 owners, especially those who've used it for street
 
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I'm not completely up to date with the sony and olympus offerings, but from what I do know that sounds like much more of a sidestep to me.
 
I don't have an A6000 any more, but as far as I remember you can't set a minimum shutter speed with auto ISO. The camera defaults to a 'safe' shutter speed according to the lens mounted, more often than not 1/60th. I think the A6500 I've got now allows you to set minimum shutter speed but I don't have it with me to confirm.
 
I had the Sony A6000 and used it mainly with the Sigma 30mm f/1.4 (not the fastest to focus but lovely image quality) and also the Sony 50mm f/1.8.

It's a great camera, especially for its time. Small enough to put in your jacket pocket with the kit lens and a good quality APC-C sensor. Eye auto focus is clever and there's a good range of settings. But, as I later found out the AF-C is not great and this also effects eye auto focus if the subject moves too quickly. If your subject is not moving very quickly then it's absolutely fine but forget anything with speed (especially if coming towards or moving away from your), although it does have very good coverage with the af points which can be beneficial if using Wide AF and doing a fast grab shot. There's quite a lot of varieties and adjustments available with the af system

Ideally, you need to be shooting at f/4 to allow for any lag with the AF-C and fast subjects and for very demanding subjects I found manually pre-focusing on a spot that the subject would pass through would give me more keepers due to the very high fps rate.

For street photography it has many strengths, some of which your Olympus share:

- Good low light performance with it's APS-C sensor
- Wide AF coverage for quick snapshots
- Small form factor so it's discreet
- Tilting screen
- High fps
- It's a light camera
- Eye AF (and face detect) is handy

But

- AF-C is wanting
- Lenses, especially good ones, are expensive with limited used stock availability
- I don't think it's weather sealed? Can't remember
- Not the fastest at focusing in low-light, but it would always lock on after a second or two.


Personally, I'd agree with Craig in that it's more of a side-step, perhaps at great expense as well. I think if I was going to shift brands then it would really have to be worth it for the investment, such as moving to the Sony A7 ii for full frame low light performance or the mk iii for the excellent af system. I'm assuming DSLRs are not an option.
 
Since ISO performance and crop-ability seem to be high on your list of needs, I'd agree with gman, probably better looking to FF - what about the A7 original? It'll be much better for both, and not all that much more expensive. Ok, it's £200 or so more used, but if ISO is your main priority it might be worth waiting and saving the extra
 
I have no real experience of the A6000, I've used one a couple of times and I always want one :D but just wanted to add a general thought on minimum shutter speeds with auto ISO.

I normally use aperture priority until the light level drops to the point that the shutter speed becomes too slow and at that point I switch to manual and dial in the aperture and shutter speed I want and leave the ISO to float up and down as needed. This works well enough for me and could be a working alternative if there's no option to dial in a minimum shutter speed.

Also, street photography would be my idea of hell and I don't know if the original A7 would be up to fast shooting, if that's what street photography involves. It would be perfectly fine for fast hyperfocal and zone focus shooting and the face detect could be useful when AF is used but I think that anyone wanting a blisteringly fast responsive AF beast should maybe give the A7 a road test before committing.
 
Since ISO performance and crop-ability seem to be high on your list of needs, I'd agree with gman, probably better looking to FF - what about the A7 original? It'll be much better for both, and not all that much more expensive. Ok, it's £200 or so more used, but if ISO is your main priority it might be worth waiting and saving the extra

The A6000 AF is generally better than the A7i (I moved from the A6000 to the A7i and have just gone to an A6500) although they both slow down in lower light. I'd say the difference in general rendering of the scene is better with the A7 FF sensor, especially at wider apertures. However, one of the basic features I missed when I had my A7 was the built in popup flash for some basic bounce (not direct). I could never be bothered carrying a speedlight, so it meant that lighting could be a challenge sometimes with the A7, although higher ISO is probably slightly better.
 
I think the af system was improved somewhat in the A72 which is why I avoided mentioning the A71. But the A73 is apparently a huge jump in AF performance, but obviously costs a fair bit more.

It's been a long time since I did any street photography but I would assume that reasonable af performance would be necessary for many shots?
 
I think the af system was improved somewhat in the A72 which is why I avoided mentioning the A71. But the A73 is apparently a huge jump in AF performance, but obviously costs a fair bit more.

It's been a long time since I did any street photography but I would assume that reasonable af performance would be necessary for many shots?

I'm not into modern street photography with zero DoF and blown to high heaven highlights, it means nothing to me at all but of course good luck to those who like it, but I do like looking at older photographs of a different time and age and those were manual focus hyperfocal or zone which of course just about any camera can do. Some modern stuff seems to be done by selecting the main scene and waiting for someone interesting to enter it and again that would be possible with just about anything. I suppose the only challenging stuff will be the AF shallow DoF quickfire stuff, possibly done with wide area focus / face / eye detect??

Sorry to take this slightly off topic :D
 
As others have already said, the A6000 does not have a minimum shutter speed in Aperture priority and Auto ISO.
But it does have 'Manual' with auto ISO - which means you can simply set the shutter to whatever you want as your minimum, then use it just like Aperture priority by just changing the aperture - the downside is that if the light picks up, it won't up your shutter speed and you'll end up potentially over-exposed, but as you have 2 dials it's fairly easy to bump up the shutter speed quickly if you need to..
 
I'm not into modern street photography with zero DoF and blown to high heaven highlights, it means nothing to me at all but of course good luck to those who like it

What is this new style you're talking about? I don't seem to be able to remember seeing this trend anywhere?
 
You haven't? Lucky you.

I seem to have seen endless examples, especially of the f1.2/f1.4 lens used wide open sort and from that you easily get the blown highlights.

One of my problems is that I can appreciate this style and I see why some like it but I'm just not all that interested in pictures of strangers taken in public places as I see these things all the time. Go forward 25 or 50 years and if I'm still alive I'll probably like them as theyll have some historical and memory value for the places and styles, but today, no thanks.

Anyway, this wasn't the point of the thread so that's enough from me :D
 
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Fair enough, I think I know what you mean about the wide aperture shots, but I wouldn't class snapshots of people looking at their phones and walking about the shops as 'photography' even if that is what people think they're doing. Flickr and other places are awash with them, but they have no thought of subject, framing, colour, composition etc. That is probably another matter though... and sure to offend some people.
 
The A6000 AF is generally better than the A7i (I moved from the A6000 to the A7i and have just gone to an A6500) although they both slow down in lower light. I'd say the difference in general rendering of the scene is better with the A7 FF sensor, especially at wider apertures. However, one of the basic features I missed when I had my A7 was the built in popup flash for some basic bounce (not direct). I could never be bothered carrying a speedlight, so it meant that lighting could be a challenge sometimes with the A7, although higher ISO is probably slightly better.

The A7 will perform much better in low light and you get the extra crop-ability. 2 things the OP prioritizes - I would have said the A7II but that's another jump in price and he didn't give a budget.

For street MF is the way to go, I agree with woof on that, lightening fast AF was never a necessity for anyone outside of wildlife and sports photographers up until very recently. Now it's all people seem to harp on about, we're gone so needy as shooters these days, want these camera to have the image processed at our desktop before we even consider proper framing!
 
Can you go to manual mode, set the shutter sped you want, the aperture you want and set ISO to automatic? Would that work?
 
The A7 will perform much better in low light and you get the extra crop-ability. 2 things the OP prioritizes - I would have said the A7II but that's another jump in price and he didn't give a budget.

For street MF is the way to go, I agree with woof on that, lightening fast AF was never a necessity for anyone outside of wildlife and sports photographers up until very recently. Now it's all people seem to harp on about, we're gone so needy as shooters these days, want these camera to have the image processed at our desktop before we even consider proper framing!
Coming to Image quality I didnt find the A7II Much better than the A6000 though I didnt do low light. And it didnt feel as good in the hand being heavier tending to twist your hand when holding it one handed. I was very close to buying it but Didnt feel It was worth it all things considered and actually it did disapoint me I thought it would have been much more. I still have and Im still amazed by that little A6000.
 
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Coming to Image quality I didnt find the A7II Much better than the A6000 though I didnt do low light. And it didnt feel as good in the hand being heavier tending to twist your hand when holding it one handed. I was very close to buying it but Didnt feel It was worth it all things considered and actually it did disapoint me I thought it would have been much more. I still have and Im still amazed by that little A6000.


Depends what you're used to I guess, I personally prefer more of a grip on a camera. I like them neat and not overly heavy, but a decent deep grip is high up on my list when it comes to preferences. It is the one thing I didn't like about the Fuji cameras I've owned, the shallow grip. It's also one reason I opted for Panasonic over Olympus when I decided to try the M43 system

To me, the A7 looks pretty neat and tidy for a full frame, it must be one of the smallest in fact?
 
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Can you go to manual mode, set the shutter sped you want, the aperture you want and set ISO to automatic? Would that work?

Yep and with live histogram it's easy enough to check the exposure as you shoot in real time. I can't remember but I'm also sure that if you are in aperture priory it won't let the shutter speed drop below the safe level for the focal length of the lens attached, someone may already have mentioned this.
 
As others have already said, the A6000 does not have a minimum shutter speed in Aperture priority and Auto ISO.
But it does have 'Manual' with auto ISO - which means you can simply set the shutter to whatever you want as your minimum, then use it just like Aperture priority by just changing the aperture - the downside is that if the light picks up, it won't up your shutter speed and you'll end up potentially over-exposed, but as you have 2 dials it's fairly easy to bump up the shutter speed quickly if you need to..

I had the same problem with the RX1 which uses a minimum shutter of 1/80 on auto iso which is too high for the 35mm focal length, I found the same advice to use manual mode which works perfectly as I stick it to 1/40 and carry on choosing the aperture as I would in aperture priority. The risk as you say is not to get caught out when it's brighter but the display usually shows straight away the show is going to be massively over exposed so I know to flick the dial back round to A.

John
 
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