Sony A6000

Is Fotosense an authorised Sony retailer to claim the Sony cash back? Doesn't mention cashback on their website.
 
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OK thanks. Looked on Sony website for authorised dealers doesn't look like they are one of them.
 
Alphahoho said:
OK thanks. Looked on Sony website for authorised dealers doesn't look like they are one of them.
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No, the cameras are sourced from Europe.. they usually set prices to match or undercut any cashback offers so fine with me. Camera arrived next day, supplied with UK leads, manual & 3yr warranty card. Bought from them a few years ago and had no issues

Simon
 
Yes I too have bought from them before. I am looking at the A6000 body only so with double Sony cash back available it will be cheaper to buy elsewhere.
 
So i have seen the a6000 has £100 sony cashback at the moment so under £400 with kit lens which is very tempting BUT is there anywhere you can get e mount lenses a bit cheaper? Or are there any converters that work well? Its the only thing putting me off this camera.
 
Sony E mount lenses are generally pretty afordable, and Sony have cashback running on most lenses at the moment, but this seems to be very poorly advertised.
 
Cashback on lenses too? Cann't find the info on their website.
 
Hogboy said:
Sony E mount lenses are generally pretty afordable, and Sony have cashback running on most lenses at the moment, but this seems to be very poorly advertised.
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Really? The canon and Nikon alternatives are usually about half the price of the e mount lenses
 
I'm thinking of getting an A6000 soon. Not sure whether to take advantage of the double cashback (£339 for body after CB) or wait for a price drop when the A6100/A7000 is announced.
 
I waited long enough so with the double cash back offer pulled the trigger on camera body no doubt prices will drop once the replacement model is announced but how low can it get? £339 is fine by me.
 
I'm really undecided on whether to pick up an A6000. The cash back offer is tempting. The main thin that is putting me off though is the real lack of E mount lenses. I'm not sure I'm going to be able to get by without some kind of 300mm lens.

That's why it's got me looking at an Olympus omd em1.
 
JBrown1 said:
I'm really undecided on whether to pick up an A6000. The cash back offer is tempting. The main thin that is putting me off though is the real lack of E mount lenses. I'm not sure I'm going to be able to get by without some kind of 300mm lens.

That's why it's got me looking at an Olympus omd em1.
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Get the 70-200 f4. Will be around 300mm on the a6000. Works a treat
 
I keep looking at these and getting one to replace my MFT might make sense as I have an A7 too but one thing that puts me off is that the 35mm equiv lens, the 24mm, is no doubt very nice... but also a bit... big.

They're cheap for such a good camera though.
 
Perhaps use your little 35 f2.8 on the a6000? If you can live with the 50mm equivalent focal length.
 
These Sigma Primes are cheap and get excellent reviews too. Are the current versions the mk2? I have seen ones with EX DN markings and some with just DN on the lens.
 
The one I have is badged "19mm f2.8 DN" on the lens itself, the box also includes the "Art" designation.. initial tests suggests it's very usable wide open, little uncorrected distortion either, I might just get the 30mm too

Simon
 
Can the Sigma lenses use the full focusing ability of the A6000?
 
addicknchips said:
Perhaps use your little 35 f2.8 on the a6000? If you can live with the 50mm equivalent focal length.
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To be honest I don't think I'd bother mounting the FE 35mm f2.8 on an A6000 as they do a 35mm f1.8 which is cheap enough. Lenses around 35 and 50mm would be on my shopping list and they do both so those lengths aren't a problem. I'd also be looking for something around 24 or 18mm and of the two I'd much prefer the 24 for a 35mm-ish equiv FoV but I'm a bit put off by the size of the 24mm on the compact A6000 body. The other option would be the Sony 20mm f2.8 or a Sigma 19mm but they're f2.8 as is the slightly longer Sigma 30mm.
 
I'm sure I read that they don't use as many focus points or something, but I may be thinking about adapters instead lol
 
gman said:
I'm sure I read that they don't use as many focus points or something, but I may be thinking about adapters instead lol
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AF is restricted afaik phase only works in the very center of the frame.

To use all 179 points of phase detect, you NEED sony lenses. The sigma19/30/60mm f/2.8 only supports 5 phase detect points in the middle
 
twist said:
AF is restricted afaik phase only works in the very center of the frame.

To use all 179 points of phase detect, you NEED sony lenses. The sigma19/30/60mm f/2.8 only supports 5 phase detect points in the middle
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ah, that's interesting, haven't noticed any difference in focusing between the Sigma and Sony so far but I guess it might have some effect. It's the optical quality of the lens that really grabbed my attention, very impressive, seems to outperform the Sony alternatives at a great price too

Simon
 
Thinking about getting an A6000 to go alongside my 5D3 for more convenience and video. Could it be a sort of gateway drug for the A7 range? Lenses and the such?
 
This might sound daft but has anyone disliked their A6000 at first but then it's grown on them?

Reason I ask is that I had an A6000 previously for a a short while but sold it on because I didn't get on with it. But at this point I was moving from a 5Dmkiii and I don't think I gave the camera enough of a chance. I've been looking through some pics taken with it and they really are great.

I'm in the market for a mirrorless camera again (budget being a factor) and I was going to grab a fuji xt10 and 18-55 but with the for the same price I could get an A6000, kit lens and a Samyang 12mm which would cover pretty much everything I shoot and provide much better video as well.
 
EspressoJunkie said:
This might sound daft but has anyone disliked their A6000 at first but then it's grown on them?

Reason I ask is that I had an A6000 previously for a a short while but sold it on because I didn't get on with it. But at this point I was moving from a 5Dmkiii and I don't think I gave the camera enough of a chance. I've been looking through some pics taken with it and they really are great.

I'm in the market for a mirrorless camera again (budget being a factor) and I was going to grab a fuji xt10 and 18-55 but with the for the same price I could get an A6000, kit lens and a Samyang 12mm which would cover pretty much everything I shoot and provide much better video as well.
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If you need video then Fujis aren't an option. Stills only, yes.
 
EspressoJunkie said:
This might sound daft but has anyone disliked their A6000 at first but then it's grown on them?
.
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Kind of, I loved it initially then was a little frustrated with the af system as it wasn't living up to the hype but then after some experimenting I found that it me not using the correct setup for each scenario and just expecting one setup to do it all for all kinds of demanding tasks.

Once I sussed the correct setups I love it. For the size and price the image quality and abilities are great .
 
simonkit said:
ah, that's interesting, haven't noticed any difference in focusing between the Sigma and Sony so far but I guess it might have some effect. It's the optical quality of the lens that really grabbed my attention, very impressive, seems to outperform the Sony alternatives at a great price too

Simon
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The focusing is a big problem in Continuous Autofocus mode AF-C. That's when you are restricted to the centre of the frame. The Sigma 60mm is the sharpest lens on the A6000 according to DXOMark, outperforming the overpriced £600 Zeiss 55mm.

The A6000 is a nice sized camera to carry around, with the Sigma lens, but it's unreliable and difficult to use. One doesn't fully appreciate the effort Canon have put in until you compare the two systems.

I am glad I bought it, but I am surprised how head-over-heels in love with the Sony system everyone seems to be.
 
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EspressoJunkie said:
It's not for anything pro but I like having decent videos of the kids. And you're right I remember the video from my Xt1 was awful.
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Its nice to have video, I like the Fuji files straight OOC and find the Sony files need some PP to get the colour right. Other option is G7 with 4K stills, cheap, decent ISO and video is the killer feature.... also more lenses than sony.
 
Neil Pho said:
The focusing is a big problem in Continuous Autofocus mode AF-C. That's when you are restricted to the centre of the frame. The Sigma 60mm is the sharpest lens on the A6000 according to DXOMark, outperforming the overpriced £600 Zeiss 55mm.

The A6000 is a nice sized camera to carry around, with the Sigma lens, but it's unreliable and difficult to use. One doesn't fully appreciate the effort Canon have put in until you compare the two systems.

I am glad I bought it, but I am surprised how head-over-heels in love with the Sony system everyone seems to be.
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The reason you probably weren't getting decent AFC results was because you are using a Sigma lens, Sony lenses use very PDAF point (179), Sigma use like 5 so the hit rate in AFC will be worse. Try a Sony prime.
 
Neil Pho said:
The A6000 is a nice sized camera to carry around, with the Sigma lens, but it's unreliable and difficult to use. One doesn't fully appreciate the effort Canon have put in until you compare the two systems.
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In what way do you find the A6000 unreliable? I've just taken mine to Florida for 2 weeks with a 16-50, Sigma 60 and Samyang 12 and it was the ideal system. If I still had my Canon gear I would have left it at home instead of lugging it around in 30 degree heat and on rides. I used a Capture Clip instead of a strap and put the spare lenses into a pocket on the rucksack I was carrying for drinks/jackets etc. I also used a Manfrotto Pixi tripod for the couple of night time shots I got chance to take and was happy with the results.

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I've also just used it at my daughters' 6th birthday party today and it was ideal.
 
I love my a6000. after few months of ownership just realized how cool is "multi frame noise reduction" feature. providing that your subject keeps still you get very clear shots.
this one was something like iso3200 but my sister was moving so not the best effort.
 

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stevelmx5 said:
In what way do you find the A6000 unreliable?
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Flash exposures are completely unreliable. It sometime massively overexposes when set to auto ISO: it chooses the maximum possible ISO.

If you fill the buffer it completely locks for 20 seconds or so. I've also had this happen when I didn't think I had filled the buffer.

It doesn't always auto-power down, so the battery goes flat. The battery goes flat very easily anyway. No easy way to turn the VF/Screen off.

It's buggy: it doesn't show the frame number in playback mode, but instead shows the date twice.

The menus are very bad. It's difficult to find things as they are not grouped at all. So you waste time in the menus and miss shots. Not everything can be put onto custom buttons, though I would prefer that they were in the right place to start with.

Most of this is fixable in software, but it's unlikely Sony will bother.
 

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I guess we're all different but I've found the A6K to be pretty consistent on the whole. I agree the auto-ISO is pretty keen to bump it up but that can be restricted in the standard ISO setting to reduce the max ISO it can use. If it hits the limit it will extend the shutter speed instead or increase flash power.

I agree about the buffer taking a little too long to clear but I've only seen that when I've shot a few stills then try to record video straight away but a faster card would help with that. I don't tend to machine gun shots so I haven't hit the buffer limit itself. With regards to the auto power down I never use it as the camera starts up quickly so I find it's easier to just switch it off between uses. When I was I was in Florida I carried a spare battery but only actually needed to use it on one day because I'd shot more video. I was surprised how long the battery actually lasted!

The frame number/date issue is a software glitch and I agree that Sony probably won't rush out a firmware fix but it doesn't actually have any negative affect on the camera/use so I'm not sure it's a critical fix and all camera menus are subjective. I've shot Canon/Fuji as well as Sony and no camera is perfect but now I've got my A6K setup how I like it I only actually use the menu to format the card so I'm happy as it is. I also use the tile menu instead of the standard list view so I can jump straight to the section I want.
 
Camera menus have a small amount of subjectivity, but it's wrong to say "all camera menus are subjective". People would not spend money on designing user interfaces if this were so. The Sony menus are objectively bad; it's often like having some of the controls for your cooker inside your fridge. You can remember where they are, but it would be a lot better if they were on the outside of the cooker, with the other cooker controls.

I find the frame number essential. It's a step back given all film cameras had one. Canon go to the trouble of providing a dedicated frame number LCD on the 1D, so they, like me, find it useful.
 
I understand that we have different viewpoints and having used Canon and Fuji kit as well I see there are differences. Maybe it's because I used an NEX5 before the A6K but I personally don't find a major problem with the menu layout. I very rarely use anything within the menus anyway so maybe that's why.

With regards to the frame number, I also still shoot film so understand the requirement for the counter when I only have 12 shots on the roll but with digital I've generally got several thousand remaining shots so it's less critical :0) It is a software glitch that could be fixed pretty easily through firmware but I guess it's low on Sony's priorities.
 
I've swapped around brands a bit in my time.. Samsung, Pentax, Canon, now the Nikon D800.. not really found the menu system on the A6000 a problem, ok some things could be better placed but I customised the FN items displayed on the LCD and find I know have quick access to pretty much everything I need. I think they could have swapped the control wheels around so that changing aperture etc was more comfortable but I'll get used it

Simon
 
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