It’s designed to be an entry-point to Sony’s mirrorless digicam lineup, and whereas it’s principally focused at informal shooters, it packs in sufficient superior tech to maintain even lovers comfortable. Priced at a slight premium over the A6000, is the A6100 price shopping for as a starter mirrorless digicam? Let’s put it to the check and discover out.
Sony A6100 design
The Sony A6100 has a smaller footprint than the A6600 and is lighter too, at 396g. That’s due to the usage of plastic for the physique quite than steel. It nonetheless feels sturdy and properly put-together however the barely shiny end does choose up fingerprints and smudges quite simply. The handgrip space has ample rubber cladding however the grip itself doesn’t protrude an excessive amount of, so holding this digicam comfortably with giant arms is usually a little difficult.
The Sony A6100 has a light-weight and compact physique, even with the 16-50mm equipment lens
On the highest, the A6100 presents a hot-shoe for exterior flashes in addition to a built-in pop-up Xenon flash, a mode dial, and a management dial. The shutter button and energy toggle change sit up-front on the appropriate, together with a customisable (C1) button.
On the again, you get an digital viewfinder (EVF) however the A6100 is fitted with a decrease, 1.44 million dot decision one, in comparison with the two.35 million dot decision EVF within the A6600. You continue to get a proximity sensor to robotically flip the EVF on or off whenever you deliver the digicam near your face. Now we have some familiar-looking buttons on the again, together with a jog dial. The operate of the buttons, together with the labeled ones, could be remapped to fit your taking pictures fashion. The buttons have a barely mushy really feel, particularly the directional ones. We’d have appreciated higher tactile suggestions.
There’s a flap on the left which covers a Micro-HDMI port, Micro-USB port, and three.5mm microphone enter. There’s no headphone jack right here, such as you get with the A6600. The rear 3-inch TFT LCD show has a 921K dot decision and could be tilted downwards by 74 levels or flipped a full 180 levels from the highest for taking selfies. The show itself has good contact response and will get adequately vivid open air.
The battery compartment on the underside homes the NP-FW50 battery which we’ve seen in most different A-series cameras. Presently, the A6600 is the one mannequin within the collection to make use of the higher-capacity Z-series battery. The A6100 has a single reminiscence card slot and solely helps SD playing cards at as much as UHS-I speeds.
The ports on the Sony A6100 are lined by a flap on the left facet
Sony is promoting the A6100 physique by itself or as a equipment with a 16-50mm zoom lens, which is the one we’ll be testing the digicam with. It’s a compact lens which retracts when the digicam is off and likewise includes a power-zoom toggle change for easily zooming out and in. There’s no change to toggle between auto and handbook focus, and also you solely get one controllable ring. This can be utilized for zooming in too, nonetheless in handbook focus mode, the ring is used to regulate focus. The lens doesn’t have a really massive zoom vary, and the aperture vary isn’t very large both, going from f/3.5 to f/5.6 on the telephoto finish.
General, the A6100 has first rate ergonomics and is constructed properly for an entry-level mirrorless digicam. In comparison with the A6600, it does really feel much less rugged, however that’s okay and shouldn’t be a giant situation for most individuals.
Sony A6100 specs and options
The cool factor concerning the A6100 is that regardless of it being an entry-level mannequin, it shares a number of the traits of its costlier siblings, the A6400 and the A6600. It makes use of a 24.2-megapixel APS-C CMOS sensor with 425 section detection autofocus (PDAF) factors and the identical variety of distinction detection autofocus factors. This offers it a claimed focus-acquisition time of simply 0.02 seconds. The A6100 can shoot 11fps bursts with AE/AF monitoring. You additionally get real-time eye autofocus for people and animals, 4K video recording with none pixel binning, and built-in Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and NFC.
One of many ways in which the A6100 differs from the A6600 is the dearth of 5-axis, in-body stabilisation, which suggests you’ll need to depend on the stabilisation of the lens when taking pictures. The native ISO vary is identical, which is 100-32,000, nonetheless that may be prolonged solely until ISO 51,200, in comparison with 102,400 with the A6600. The A6100 additionally lacks superior image profiles corresponding to S-Log2, S-Log3 and HLG for HDR workflows. The buffer for burst taking pictures is a bit smaller too, because it’s able to holding simply 77 JPEGs or 33 RAW information.
The rear LCD show on the Sony A6100 can flip outwards or upwards by 180 levels
The software program of the A6100 is kind of an identical to what we simply noticed in our A6600 assessment. Settings for pictures, movies, and community are grouped in tabs. You may add your most incessantly used features to a separate menu so that they’re simple to get to. The touchscreen nonetheless can’t be used within the menus, however you should utilize it when previewing pictures. It may also be used as a touchpad for shifting the main target level whenever you’re utilizing the EVF. The A6100 can be utilized with the Imaging Edge app on Android or iOS, for transferring pictures or controlling the digicam remotely.
Sony A6100 efficiency and battery life
We had been anticipating the Sony A6100’s ISO efficiency to be just like what we acquired from the A6600, contemplating that they’ve the identical sensor and ISO vary. Particulars are sharp, colors are vibrant, and there’s barely any seen noise even at a 100% crop, until about ISO 800. We start to see slight degradation intimately as we strategy ISO 6,400, with some noise beginning to seem on the colored parts of the pencils.
Sony A6100 ISO check
At ISO 25,600, particulars get a little bit fuzzy, edges aren’t very distinct anymore, and there’s seen grain within the picture. On the most native ISO of 32,000, particulars are even fuzzier, and it’s the identical look that we acquired from the A6600. For those who completely should go larger, you should utilize the prolonged ISO vary, however picture high quality takes an enormous hit.
The Sony A6100 is simple to deal with due to its low weight, and it doesn’t require a lot effort to get good photographs. Focus is correct due to the always-on face and eye autofocus programs, that are fast to recognise and lock on to human faces. In order for you the system use eye AF for animals, then this must be modified manually within the system settings. Identical to the A6600, the AI monitoring AF works brilliantly and we managed to get some good photographs of small transferring topics, like birds, even at a excessive zoom stage. We primarily used the equipment lens with the A6100, but in addition shot a few of our samples with an 18-135mm zoom lens that we had.
Pattern shot with the Sony A6100: ISO 100, f/5.6, 1/64, 135mm (faucet to see resized picture)
Pattern shot with the Sony A6100: ISO 160, f/5.6, 1/80, 75mm (faucet to see resized picture)
Landscapes and close-up photographs, underneath pure gentle, seemed superb. We managed to get superb particulars even in JPEGs, with vibrant and correct colors in addition to superb pure depth. The A6100 is able to taking some actually good burst photographs too, though for the reason that buffer isn’t very massive and the digicam solely helps UHS-I pace SD playing cards, there’s a good bit of ready time earlier than you’ll be able to assessment your pictures. The show will get adequately vivid when taking pictures indoors, however open air, underneath daylight, we discovered it finest to make use of the EVF.
In low gentle, the A6100 does hunt a bit for focus however that’s partially the fault of the lenses we used, which don’t have very large apertures. With a vivid sufficient gentle supply round, the digicam nonetheless manages to lock focus rapidly. Darkish areas of a body can look a little bit noisy, particularly when taking pictures with a excessive ISO worth, and this could’t be prevented should you want a quick shutter in low gentle.
Pattern shot with the Sony A6100: ISO 6,400, f/5, 1/30, 75mm (faucet to see resized picture)
Pattern shot with the Sony A6100: ISO 32,000, f/4.5, 1/40, 48mm (faucet to see resized picture)
The A6100 may be very competent for movies too. 4K movies look nice, with wonderful element and colors. Focusing is fast and the touchscreen allows you to easily transition focus between your topics with ease. The S&Q (gradual and fast) mode is nice for slow-motion and hyperlapse movies. The decision is restricted to 1080p, however you’ll be able to go as excessive as 120fps (in NTSC mode). Autofocus is slower in low gentle, and we seen a little bit of searching when attempting to modify topics, however we guess this could possibly be improved by utilizing a wider aperture lens.
Capturing numerous video or burst photographs does take a toll on the battery. Identical to most earlier A6xxx collection cameras (except the A6600), battery life is pretty common. The rated output is about 360 frames per cost, and with precise utilization, we managed to common a barely larger variety of round 400 photographs per cost, which continues to be not nice. Fortunately, the battery could be charged utilizing an influence financial institution and you’ll proceed to make use of the digicam whereas it’s being powered by an exterior supply. It additionally nonetheless takes some time for the battery to cost, and as soon as once more, it’s disappointing to not have a USB Sort-C port.
Verdict
Sony has priced the A6100 quite properly, in comparison with the costlier A6400 and A6600 fashions. The equipment that Sony despatched us with the 16-50mm lens formally prices Rs. 75,990, though it’s obtainable for nearer to Rs. 68,000 should you look on-line. With this, you get a number of the better of Sony’s mirrorless know-how with out having to spend upwards of 1 lakh Rupees, which is an excellent worth proposition. The one stuff you actually lose out on, when in comparison with the higher-end fashions, are the in-body stabilisation, longer battery life, superior image profiles, and high-resolution EVF. For many informal shooters, whom this digicam is focused at, none of this stuff ought to actually be a deal-breaker.
We’d have appreciated a much bigger buffer for burst photographs, help for quicker reminiscence playing cards, a Sort-C port, quick charging, and higher battery life. Nonetheless, contemplating the core options on provide, the A6100 continues to be superb worth because it brings a few of Sony’s flagship-level know-how to a extra approachable worth level.
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