Sony Alpha A6000 Black + PZ 16-50mm OSS

Bought this camera as a replacement for an old Olympus Pen E-PL1, mainly to have some more megapixels. So far very satisfied with it. Even the photos shot through an airplane window look impressive. Nice all-round camera that is easy to carry with many options for both beginners and advanced users.

I owned a compact camera - actually I've already tried several. Small and versatile so they can take them into the mountains. After every holiday I was annoyed again by the poor quality of the photos. That had to change. After a lot of research on the internet, reading reviews and consulting experienced colleagues, my choice came up - the Sony A6000 that was yet to be released at that time. I've had this camera for a few weeks now and it lives up to its expectations. What a beast! Easy to operate, the standard button for normal work and the (easy to operate) positions for the 'special cases'. The photos look really perfect. The problems with contrast (as often occurs in the mountains) become a lot less with the (auto detect) HDR mode. Autofocus functions as promised and it is also nice that a timelapse app can be downloaded for free from the Android Store. The built-in viewfinder is (unexpectedly) a big plus - especially in situations where the display is difficult to read. This is a camera that I really enjoy. After purchasing I immediately bought a very fast memory card that can keep up with the speed of this camera. I also found a small bag with which the camera can be worn on the belt. The points for improvement? Personally, I find it a lack that there is no charger (in the camera, this takes a long time and is not really useful). The manual can be called brief and could be a bit more extensive if you want to use all the possibilities of this camera. The lens also feels a bit sloppy. NFC is on it, but that's about it. The only thing NFC does is set up a WiFi connection - otherwise all communication runs via WiFi - that could have been a bit better. And indeed GPS is missing on this device. Personally, I don't think this is a loss - my previous camera had built-in GPS and I have never used it - in practice I always have a (walking) GPS device with me with which the photos can easily be synchronized.

I make nightclub videos myself. Many EDM parties and also events etc. For me it is therefore important that the camera has a good ISO performance. I wouldn't say you could compare this to a full frame ISO performance, but it's enough for me. With the f3.5 it is already enough for a pub or to record bands. I would even say that an f4 is enough. That's why I'm going to take the PZ 18-105 with this camera. It's the perfect lens for docu style videos with a constant aperture of f4. Furthermore, the camera has high versatility and very good usability. Everything is easy to find and it also has as many options as you can think of. Now you can do an update and you will be able to record XAVC-S. This means you have a lot more infarm per second of recording. This means that you can have more color detail in the image, for example, making color correction easier and better. Also, XAVC-S can withstand more artifacts in the image. Just think of walking in the forest and there are many trees with many small leaves. You would lose the detail with AVCHD. The kit lens itself is a top performer. I immediately wanted to buy an 18-105 with my α6000. But the kit lens is so small and convenient to carry everywhere. It makes the A6000 feel like a point and shoot king. It's also sharp enough for most things. If you wanted a sharper lens you should get a prime lens like the 35mm f1.8. If you're worried that the 6000 doesn't have a mic input, I'd say that Sony has a very good mic that can go on the smart hotshoe. A bit of a shame if you have a red mic or something or use a rig where something else has to be on the hotshoe. If you want much better audio you can always buy a Zoom H4n or something and your problem is solved. The viewfinder is fine. I personally like it better than an optical viewfinder on all DSLR cameras. I'd rather look at how the image will come out than what I can already see with my eyes. It is also very useful in the dark. With the optical viewfinder I always had to struggle to see something. And now no more. The focus on this camera is incredibly fast and accurate. When I did videos with my DSLR I would never have filmed with a Continuos autofocus setting. But with my α6000 I hardly ever go out AF-C. It can focus even better than me. And if you want to shoot moving subjects, it can handle it all. And now the things I don't like. Maybe it's my model or something but my a6000 gets too hot after 15min of constant 1080p 50p XAVC-S recording. He then has to rest for about 5 minutes, but then it is good to record another 15 minutes. So if you want to record for longer, you can do AVCHD in 25p. I've had no problems with that. The camera is taking way too long to start up. Before you know it, the moment will be over and you'll have lost your photo. The camera also does not feel very good in the hands. It's too small for my hands. But on the other hand, very light, so I would take it with me sooner than my nikon DSLR. The last downside is the battery runs out very quickly. The % counts down almost like a second counter. Fortunately, I have always been able to record and photograph everything with 1 battery. Coolblue gave me an extra free battery and I also bought one myself, so I now have 3 batteries. So I'm sure I could record 2 hours of 1080p 50p XAVC-S with it. And hundreds of photos, even with flash. In conclusion I would say that if you are looking for this camera for professional photos, it is definitely recommended, it does almost everything a Full frame would do and focuses better anyway. If you're looking for the camera for videos like me, there are other options around this model. I wouldn't trade mine because it's good enough for what I do. But if you would like to make long recordings or need a mic input and don't want to spend extra money on a Sony microphone, look at the α7 or the VG30 or even the Samsung NX500 (4K, better ISO performance, codec h.265).