Sony A6500 review: A mini mirrorless powerhouse

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Sony A6500 review: A mini mirrorless powerhouse

The Sony A6500 is the company’s 2017 flagship mirrorless camera with a crop sensor, sitting below the Sony A7 full-frame line-up.

The A6500 joins an already bustling series across the wider A6000 range, with several cameras at different specifications available at different price points. But if you want the latest and greatest then you’ll have to pay for the pleasure. A now three-year-old A6000 costs around £400, an 18-month-old A6300 is around £680, while the A6500 is around £1,150 (down from its £1,500 launch price).

You’re probably wondering why the A6500 is so much more expensive than the A6300. Well, for the extra cash you will get in-body-image-stabilisation (thumbs up), touchscreen control (hallelujah), a faster processor (thank you) and a slightly deeper grip (hand over the long lens). That’s a fair specification for the money – so is the A6500 worth it?

Sony A6500 review: New touchscreen

3-inch, 921k-dot, tilt-angle LCD touchscreen
0.39-inch, 2,359k-dot, 0.7x (equiv) electronic viewfinder

Review after review of Sony A-series cameras has asked the question: “why no touchscreen?” Well, the A6500 finally answers, featuring a tilt-angle LCD touchscreen for the first time.

So has it been worth the wait? Well, yes and no. It’s not the largest, brightest, sharpest or most comprehensive touchscreen around. But it’s a step forward.

In shooting mode, the touchscreen is used only to select the AF point (Touch Panel). You cannot fire the shutter or select menus and shooting settings using the touchscreen like you can with, say, an Olympus or Panasonic mirrorless camera. You can swipe a finger to navigate and double tap to zoom, a bit like using a smartphone. The touch focus works well, it’s just not as in-depth as some other systems.

In addition to touch focus, the screen offers Touch Pad AF. This mode caters for those using the built-in electronic viewfinder (EVF), as a means of selecting the AF point through the viewfinder display. That way, the touchscreen can still be used to select the AF point with EVF in use. There are three options for Touch Pad AF operation: the whole screen, right half and right quarter area. Limiting the Touch Pad AF area to the right-hand-side areas reduces the likelihood of accidentally moving the AF point. It’s a fun idea, but doesn’t work so well for left-eyed users.

Sony A6500 review: Durable build, solid performance

Body weighs 453g
11fps burst mode
425-point phase-detection autofocus system

As one of the smaller mirrorless cameras on the market, the A6500 is a toughie. It’s made from a weather-sealed and durable magnesium alloy and features a deep grip for a solid hold.

There’s no thumbwheel on the front of the camera, however, which we feel would complement the one on the top of the camera and its control wheel to the rear. Making quick changes to aperture and exposure compensation is less fluid than they could be in our view.

It’s a different story when it comes to speed of operation. The A6500 is ultra-fast across the board.

Although the maximum burst rate of 11 frames per second (11fps) remains at the same impressive level of its A6000 series cousins, the number of images that can be captured in a sequence is greater. In real-world use, the Alpha A6500 maxes out at 269 JPEGs, which is around 25 seconds of non-stop shooting. That’s a whole lot of images – plus it’s possible to carry on shooting or immediately go into a 100 per cent view in image playback without hesitation.

The high-speed performance is not just restricted to picture taking either. The A6500 has a fast start-up time and a claimed world’s fastest 0.05 second auto-focus speed.

Sure, plenty of camera makers claim to have the fastest autofocus on the planet, but in this Sony it’s believable. You would struggle to find a mirrorless camera at this level with quicker autofocus. And it’s not just the initial focus in single-AF mode. The A6500’s 425-point phase detection AF system is very capable of obtaining a sharp focus for fast-moving action, too.