Reviewed in the United States on March 17, 2016
This is a fantastic "jack of all trades" camera. In some respects, it may be the best camera under $1,000, but it is far from perfect.
In general, it is a nice compact size, but feels well built in the hand. It is fast and responsive, with an amazing autofocus system. Just a few years ago, mirrorless cameras had the true reputation of being significantly behind dSLRs in auto focus systems. That day is over. The autofocus system, in most respects, surpasses most dSLR autofocus systems. Being mirrorless, the camera has an exceptional live view/LCD for videos and stills. It has an EVF instead of Optical viewfinder. It may be one of the best EVFs on the market, and is superior to an OVF in most respects. The image quality is very very good. I shoot primarily full frame with the Nikon D750. This is an APS-C camera. No, it's not as good as full frame, but it seems to be as good as any other APS-C camera out there. But there is an important caveat -- Sony's jpeg processing leaves a lot to be desired. While they may be good enough for a casual shooter, an enthusiast will want to process RAW files to maximize the image quality. There are lots of other nice features you don't necessarily see in most dSLRs -- A tilting LCD, well-implemented wifi, very good in-camera HDR and Panorama modes.
Anyway, let's get into specific pros and cons, starting with the negatives:
Ergonomic/design negatives:
- The hard eyecup over the EVF. It makes it nearly impossible to use the EVF while wearing glasses. Yes, it's a spectacular EVF, but I need to lift up my glasses to use it.
- The memory card slot, located in the battery compartment, flush and parallel to the battery compartment door. I feel like I am performing surgery every time I need to remove the memory card. It is not easy to slide in and out due to this positioning.
- Continued lack of an easy way to move the AF point. It's not a touch screen. There is no good thumb stick to move the AF point. You need to use the control dial, and I found myself often accidentally pushing it to the side, to the ISO or drive function, when I was trying to move the AF point. For an enthusiast level camera, there should be simpler and faster methods to move the AF point.
- Cramped buttons and lack of some direct controls in general. This is largely a tradeoff of being a small camera. But in this price range, when compared to other dSLRs in this price range, you get dual control dials, you get more direct function buttons. While the camera has many assignable customizable buttons, still not enough for all the functions I need. I shouldn't have to dive into the menu system, for example, to change the focus point mode.
- Horrible battery life. But this is to be expected for mirrorless, and Sony has given it a small battery to keep the size and weight down.
- Placement of the movie record button. It is in a very unnatural position, and it forces me to shift the camera just as I start to take video. (but I rarely use video and will not be commenting much on it, in this review).
- Menu system. Poorly organized, difficult to find necessary functions at times. (But there is a good customizable FN menu, see below).
Image quality negatives:
- Poor jpeg compression. I'm not sure if it's the noise reduction (which I reduced to low), the default sharpening, or the jpeg compression scheme, but even at moderate level ISO, my jpegs were looking pretty ugly when examined closely.
- Inconsistent indoor artificial light AWB. Often in artificial light, my portraits take on very unnatural yellow colors. Be ready to fix white balance in post processing.
Operations/AF negatives:
- Difficulty moving AF point, see above.
- Mediocre buffer in continuous shooting.
- Very slow write speed, locking up the buffer. Unable to view images while they are being written to the memory card.
Now the long list of strengths and pros:
Design/Ergonomics:
- Lots of customizable buttons and a good FN menu. Instead of digging through the entire menu system, it is helpful to assign your most common functions to the FN menu.
- With a prime lens or kit lens, the entire camera is very compact. Won't fit in a pocket, but won't weigh you down at all.
- Feels solid, some weather sealing.
- Except for the difficulty in viewing with glasses, exceptional EVF.
- A true level display in EVF and LCD. A huge benefit for keeping your image horizon straight.
- A fairly versatile tilting LCD. Live view on my Nikon dSLR is so slow, that if I want to take a picture low to the ground, I need to get low to the ground and look through the viewfinder. With the A6300, I can just tilt the LCD and lower the camera, while looking at it from above.
-Dedicated memory recall functions.
- Greatly improved auto-ISO implementation. Not only can you select minimum and maximum ISO, you can also set a minimum shutter speed, or set whether you want the camera to default to slower or faster shutter speeds. This allows the shooter to use Aperture or P priority modes, without fearing that the camera will set the shutter speed too low.
- Wifi is well implemented, including the ability to add apps to the camera functions.
Operations/AF positives:
- The autofocus system is the biggest selling point of this camera. It is simply fantastic. AF points are densely packed over the whole frame. Many different AF modes to choose from, but they all seem to work very well. Even more than great lenses, getting sharp photos is about getting proper focus. This system focuses fast and accurately, anywhere on the screen. If you need to AF on a very small point, you can even change the size of your AF point. I haven't done much with the lock-on tracking offered by the camera, but I have followed birds in flight with zone-AF and with expanded flexible spot AF, and they work very well.
- Continuing the AF, a HUGE feature for portraits is eye-AF. (slight negative that you need to program it into a customizable button, and you need to hold down the button for it to operate). Traditionally, photographers will lock onto the nearest eye with the center AF point, and then re-compose the image. With the A6300, compose the image, press the eye-AF button, and the camera will reliably focus on the nearest eye at a very high percentage hit rate. It makes taking portraits easier, and more accurate than a traditional dSLR. (and even without eye-AF, the face detect system is excellent, better than most dSLRs).
- Fast 8/11 fps. The A6300, like the A6000, is capable of 11 fps. This is basically faster than any other dSLR for $1,000 or less. But, this 11 fps was rather limited. When using the 11 fps, and looking through the viewfinder or LCD, you didn't have a live feed of the image. Instead, the camera repeatedly displayed the last image taken. Thus, you didn't really have a live view, and it was difficult to track a moving object, which is the entire point of a fast burst speed. So the bad news, I won't be using 11 fps on the A6300. But the great news, the camera can provide a truly live stream at 8 fps, which is still faster than almost any comparable dSLR. Older Sony mirrorless cameras could only provide a live stream at around 3 fps. So 8 fps is a huge step up, and it makes it much much easier to follow action when continuously shooting.
- Video. I don't use video much, so I won't say much. But it does offer 4k. Even better for me, it has HFR -- high frame rate -- video modes. It is fun and simple to capture super slow motion video. I look forward to my kids' next Tae Kwon Do board breaking, it will be fun to watch them splinter those boards in slow motion.
Image quality:
- For casual shooters, the jpegs will be very good. The great AF system will insure a high number of keeper pics.
- For more serious shooters, use RAW. The files have very good dynamic range. The noise quality is very good for APS-C files. I suspect I can print 8x10's from ISO 6400 and 12,800 in most cases. And I can get web quality images even at ISO 25,600. It won't replace full frame for the most critical low light work, but it will produce excellent results. (with the caveat that you may need to fine tune the AWB. And as a further footnote, it is actually very easy to set customizable AWB, which you may want to do anytime you are shooting in artificial light).
Some thoughts on the Sony system:
Sony's mirrorless system has been advancing rapidly. They finally have a decent selection of lenses, but remain behind Canon and Nikon. For most types of shooting, Sony has what you will need. But the thing is, why do people buy a top level APS-C camera, like the Canon 7dii or the Nikon D500? They buy it largely for sports and wildlife. Sports and wildlife require a great AF system, and long telephoto lenses. The A6300 has a great AF system. But Sony doesn't have ANY long telephoto lenses. The longest native lenses are the 70-200/2.8 (not yet released), the 70-200/4 (a very good lens), and the 24-240 (an ok full frame superzoom). If the A6300 wants to be taken seriously for sports and wildlife, Sony needs longer lenses.
(Addendum: Sony has announced a 70-300 lens. So Sony is quickly addressing the lens deficiency I noted. The 70-300 should be a natural fit for sports and wildlife on the a6300)
Some price/value thoughts:
If the camera body was priced around $750, I would probably say it was the best value on the market. Overall, it feels superior in build, quality and performance to most entry and mid-level dSLRs. But the camera is priced at $1,000. Similar in pricing to the enthusiast level Nikon D7200, Sony A77ii (a dSLR), Canon 70d/80d. Does the camera belong at this price level? I'm not sure. It definitely has advantages over those cameras, like 4k video, 8/11 fps. But those cameras and systems have key features for enthusiast photographers. They have more lens options including telephoto. Their bodies have better button layouts for better direct controls of functions. If you are shooting wildlife, you may need to change AF points very quickly, which is harder to do on the A6300. So when comparing this camera to the more traditional options in the price range, there is no clear cut winner. But the A6300 will be more compact than those other cameras, it will pack a huge punch in a small body, with great image quality, super fast AF, and fast performance.
Overall, I recommend the camera. And the A6000 remains an even better value. Half the price, but far more than half the value.
In quick summary, what's this camera very good at:
As a jack of all trades:
- Great candids.
- Very good image quality and flexibility of using the LCD makes it great for landscapes.
- Fast AF and 8/11 fps is very good for sports/wildlife, but not at extreme distances due to lack of telephoto lenses.
- Eye-AF is a great feature enabling excellent portraits, though I would invest in a prime lens like the 50/1.8, if you want to shoot portraits.
- The size makes it a great travel camera.
