CAMERAS
94 MARCH2020|COMPUTER SHOPPER|ISSUE385
SONY’SMARCHONthemirrorlesscamera
industrycontinueswiththe A 6400 ,amuch
more affordable relativetothe professional A7
and A9 models. At £1,225 it’s not exactly
entry-level, but that moneygetsyou a
lightweightwispofa24.2-megapixelcamera
that offers424 autofocuspointsand can
shoot up to aspeedy11fps, nottomention the
18-135mm kit lens. Body-only,it’s only £629.
MANY EYES
Even with this lens, the A6400 is wonderfully
compact:atjust120mm wideand 67mmtall,
thebody is barely anybigger than ahigh-end
compact camera. It’s easytohandle;the front
grip could be alittle deeper,perhaps, but it’s
comfortable and feels well balanced with the
kit lensinstalled.Asthis is an E-mount camera,
there’s no shortageofotherlenses available,
including four-figure professional glass.
Whatever lens you attach, theA6400’s
smallsize belies afantastically usable camera.
Athumbwheelonthe back, as well as adial
next to the mode dial, makes usingmanual
modesstraightforward. Prettymuch all of the
buttons can be repurposedtodothings other
than their defaults, too, which helps with
getting things setuptoyour liking.
The 3in, 921,000-dotdisplaycan be angled
up and downtoprovide easier framingwhen
shootingatlow or high angles. It doesn’t
swing outwards but it canface forwards, and
you canuse its touch capability to set the
autofocus pointwith aprod. It also acts as a
trackpad when the camera is held to your eye,
allowing youtodragthe autofocus point
around with your thumb –afantastically
intuitive system.
There’sanintegrated electronic viewfinder
positioned,unusually,onthe farleft-hand side
of the camera. Youcan opt to runitateither
50 or 100fps,withthe latter dubbed High
quality and theoreticallyoffering better motion
handling.Inpractice, we ranthe A640
modesand couldbarely tell the differe
That aside, the viewfinder is a
good one: a1cm,2,359,296-pixel
unit that’s great funtouse.Its
off-centre positioning will be
unusual to DSLRhabitués, but it’s
quick to getused to and frees up
the right side of thetouchscreen
forautofocus repositioning.
Battery life is reasonable rather
than outstanding.Rated at 360
shotsusing theviewfinder,or410
usingthe less power-hungry LCD
screen,wefound the A6400 good
foraboutaday’s worth of relatively
SONY A6400
★★★★★
£1,225•From http://www.amazon.co.uk
VERDICT
Well priced but without sacrificing quality,Sony’s
pint-sized mirrorless camera packs apunch
intensive
photograppphy.
Take amerciless
approach tttothe
power-savvvingmenu
andyou cooouldprobably
stretch it ooout to afew dayyys.
Picture qualityisexcellent.
Dynamicrangeisgood,and the A6400
returned sharp,printable images. Lefttoits
own devices, the 1,200-zone evaluative
metering system worked well and produced
nicelybalanced images, though with exposure
simulation available in the viewfinder,we
found ourselves reaching forthe A6400’s
manual mode more often than not.
PUTARING ON IT
Autofocus works well, andthe excellent
coverage of autofocuspoints, which covers
prettymuchthe entireframe,makes it easy
to set up.Those with apenchant formanual
focus will find–aswith most mirrorless
cameras–that the manual focus ring on
the lensisalittle frustratingtouse compared
withthe precise optics of aDSLR lens, but
withbothfocus pointmagnification and
focus peaking, getting asharp image
manually is simple enough.
One area in whichthe A6400 really excels
is its continuous shooting speed. At full
throttle,Sonysaysitshoots11fps and, in our
tests,itshot 44 Raw filesinalittle under
four-and-a-half seconds before pausingto
even wilder abandon:the
A6400 shot 113 top-quality
JPEGs in 10.8 secondsbefore
buffering –arateof10.5fps.
Both of these topspeed results are
with the autofocuslocked fromthe
firstframeand,,,usingggtrackingggautofocus,,,
the bestspeedwesaw in JPEGwas astill
nippy8fps. If you’re aregular actionshooter,
the A6400 willkeep up just fine.
The A6400 handles higher ISOs nicely but,
inevitably,not as wellasagood full-frame
camera. It’scompetitive up to ISO 1600,
although the higher reaches of that range
showed alittle grain. Addastop andimagesat
ISO 3200 showed significant noise,and the
stop beyond that –and everythingbeyond –
should be considered foremergency use only.
There are no issueswith shootingingood
light, however, andthe A6400’s videofeatures
and qualitywere another pleasant surprise.
XAVC 4K shooting at 25fps is possible,
providing you’ve got aUHS-I or UHS-II U3
card, while Full HD footage offersachoice
of 25, 50 or 100fps. Youcan also shoot
in-cameraproxies andinS-log,makingthe
A6400yet another very capable camera for
vloggers, or an excellent camerafor those
who want to produce high-quality,flexible
video without spendingafortune.
HOTSHOT
TheA6400 is areal crowd-pleaser of a
camera It’s smallenoughtobeproperly
butwithexcellentimage quality
gh powertokeep photographers
appywhether they’reshooting
static landscapes or ferocious
action. The lens librarycan’t be
faulted, particularly foradvanced
photographersorwould-be pros,
and the A6400 is very capable
when it comes to video.
It’snot perfect –quality at high
SOs isn’t quitethere (althoughthe
A6400isgreat in itscomfort zone),
and battery lifecould be better. Still,
or all-round performance,handling
and value, the A6400is–right now
–the camera to beat at this price.
ermotion
0 0inboth
ence.
fourandahalfsecondsbeforepausingto
buffer,for afinal speed of 10.2fps. If you’re
happytoshootJPEGs, youcan spraywith
camera.It
portable,
and enoug
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