Australian Camera – September-October 2019

S Both the viewfinder and monitor live view display can be configured

with a guide grid, a dual-axis level indicator and real-time histogram (but

the latter two are separate screens).

S Replay/review options include

thumbnail displays with a full set

of RGB and brightness histograms

and with both highlight and

shadow warnings.

S The menus remain extensive with
a total of 35 pages, but are logically
arranged and easy to navigate.
However, the new ‘My Menu’ can
be created to bypass a lot of this
duringeveryday shooting.

SONY A6400 ONTRIAL

has been a Sony staple for a long
time, ‘Soft Skin Effect’ which
automatically retouches portraits
and ‘Auto Object Framing’ which
crops more tightly when, for
example, you’re shooting portraits
or close-ups. In-camera panorama
stitching can be performed with
either Wide or Standard horizontal
sweeps, delivering image sizes of
12,416x1856 pixels or 8192x1856
pixels. Vertical panoramas are also
possible.
The A6400’s ‘Fast Hybrid AF’
has been given a bit of an overhaul
so it still has 425 measuring points
for phase-difference detection
autofocusing, but also the same
number for contrast-detection
measurements (up from 169).
Frame coverage is 84 percent.
Additionally, low-light sensitivity
now extends down to EV -2.0 at
ISO 100. New algorithms – and
presumably faster data processing

• enable what Sony calls ‘Real
  Time Tracking’ which has more
  advanced subject recognition
  capabilities so reliability is
  significantly improved (but it’s
  not quite in the same realm as
  Olympus’s AI-based ‘Intelligent
  Subject Detection AF’ which
  employs deep learning). As well
  as faces and eyes, ‘Real Time
  Tracking’ is able to recognise
  colour, pattern and the subject
  distance. Sony’s much-lauded ‘Eye
  AF’ – which is also being driven by
  the ‘Real Time Tracking’ – is now
  active all the time so, if the subject
  is human, it will automatically
  focus on one of their eyes and then
  track any movement accordingly.
  It will automatically switch to
  normal tracking if eye contact is
  lost – if, for example, the subject
  turns away from the camera – and
  resume ‘Eye AF’ tracking when it’s
  re-established. Coming soon via
  a firmware upgrade is the same
  facility for animals.

Topplatelayout

comprises(fromleft)a

hotshoe,built-inpop-up

flash,mainmodedialand

frontinputwheel.

Mainmodedialincludessettingpositionstodirectlyaccessthe

in-camerapanoramastitchingfunction,the‘Slow& Quick’movie

framerates(S&Q),thesubject/scenemodemenu,and‘Memory

Recall’(MR)forselectingoneofthreeuserset-upsstoredin-camera

(whileanda furtherfourcanbecard-based).

Hotshoeincorporatesthe‘MultiInterface’couplingsoit

canaccommodate(and,if necessary,power)a rangeof

accessoriesotherthananaccessoryflash.

Pop-upflashhasbothlow-speedandhigh-speed

syncmodesandcanserveasthe(optical)

commanderin a wirelessTTLset-up.

There’s the choice of manual

or automatic switching between

single-shot and continuous AF

operation plus Sony’s ‘Direct

Manual Focus’ (DMF) which allows

for manual fine-tuning along with

autofocusing. There’s a selection

of five area modes called Wide,

Zone, Centre, Flexible Spot and

Expand Flexible Spot plus Tracking:

Expand Flexible Spot when in the

continuous AF mode. The Flexible

Spot option allows the focusing

zone to be adjusted to one of three

sizes to better suit the subject. In

the Expand modes a surrounding

point is automatically selected if

the subject subsequently moves

with, obviously, full tracking with

continuous AF.

Low light/contrast assist

is provided by a built-in LED

illuminator.

Manual focus assist is provided

by a magnified view (up to 11.7x)

and a focus peaking display which

now has the option of a blue

setting along with red, yellow

or white, all with three levels of

sensitivity (high, mid or low). The

focus magnifier can be set to

operate continuously or for timed

durations of two or five seconds.

Usefully, both the enlarged view

and the focus peaking display can

be used together which makes fine

focusing adjustments a breeze.

Additionally, the focus magnifier

can be engaged in the AF modes

too.

WORKING THE LIGHT

The A6400’s metering is Sony’s

1200-points sensor-based system,

but with some additional meas-

urement patterns for taking

fully-averaged or highlight-biased

readings (as on the latest A7 series

cameras). These join the stand-

ard multi-zone, centre-weighted

average and spot measurements,

the latter now with a choice of

standard or large size zones.

Low-light sensitivity is again down

to EV -2.0 at ISO 100.

The standard set of ‘PASM’

exposure control settings is

supplemented by nine subject/

scene modes which again include

‘Anti Motion Blur’ and ‘Hand-Held

Twilight’. These both employ multi-

shot capture with the frames then

combined in-camera in order to

reduce noise. ‘Anti Motion Blur’

uses high ISOs to enable faster

shutter speeds while ‘Hand Held

Twilight’ uses higher ISOs to

allow shorter exposures than

would normally be the case when

shooting in low light conditions.

There’s also an ‘Intelligent Auto’

(iAuto) mode which performs

automatic scene mode selection

based on the analysis of subject

data from the AF and AE systems.