Sony Nex-6l/B Mirrorless Digital Camera With 16-50mm Power Zoom Lens And 3-Inch Led (Black) (Old Mod

Sony NEX-6L/B Mirrorless Digital Camera with 16-50mm Power Zoom Lens and 3-Inch LED (Black) (OLD MODEL)

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• 16MP APS-C CMOS sensor
• 10 frames per second continuous shooting
• Hybrid contrast and on-sensor phase detect AF
• ISO 100-25600
• 1080/60p HD video (AVCHD format)
• 3.0 inch articulated LCD with 921,000 dots
• Built-in 2,359,000 dot OLED viewfinder

Buy Now : Sony NEX-6L/B Mirrorless Digital Camera with 16-50mm Power Zoom Lens and 3-Inch LED (Black) (OLD MODEL)

Brand : Sony
Category : Electronics,Camera & Photo,Digital Cameras,Mirrorless Cameras
Rating : 4.1
Review Count : 362

Sony NEX-6L/B Mirrorless Digital Camera with 16-50mm Power Zoom Lens and 3-Inch LED (Black) (OLD MODEL)

• This review covers my experience over the last month with the Sony NEX-6 and kit 16-50mm lens. I have taken approximately 750 exposures with the camera, but only an hour or so of video.Quick Look:16MP APS-C sensor with 1.5x crop factor provides terrific image quality. Very short shutter lag, up to 10FPS. 16-50mm (24-75mm equiv.) kit lens is quite good considering its very small size. Small body + lens, fits in jacket pocket. Clear, responsive electronic viewfinder. Articulated, bright LCD. Accepts standard SD/SDHC/SDXC memory or Sony Memory Sticks. Exposures are spot on. On camera flash is mounted high for red eye control and can be used as a bounce flash. Has a hot shoe to attach external flash. Fully automatic with many manual controls. More modes, from auto to manual, than anyone really needs. JPEG and RAW file support, RAW converter software included.Minuses: Short battery life. Battery charges in camera, external charger optional. New hot shoe still not ISO standard,with few accessories available. Lens is not fast and not super sharp (but tiny - it\'s that pesky physics thing)Overall: A great second camera for a DSLR owner, or as a step up from a compact. It does not disappoint.------------------------------------------------I have been an amateur photographer for about 30 years. For the last few years I have been looking for a lighter carry-around camera for those times that I don\'t want to, or can\'t, carry the DSLR. I have tried compacts like the Canon S100/110, the Canon G series cameras, the Panasonic GX-1, and too many others to mention. All got used for a couple of days and returned because they were fatally flawed for one reason or another. Bad exposure, no flash, no viewfinder, poor stabilization, slow focus, poor in-camera jpeg processing, etc. But with the Nex-6 I think I have found my camera. Overall, it performs nearly as well as my Canon 7D DSLR. Please note this review considers only the camera and the kit 16-50mm lens; I have not yet purchased other E mount lenses for the camera, though I expect to and may update this review at that time.UnboxingThe package includes the camera, a robust strap, a lens cap, USB charge/data cable, AC power supply, NP-50 battery, CD with RAW processor and manual, and a printed quick start guide.Body. Memory, PowerThe camera is surprisingly small considering it contains an 16MP APS-C sensor, the same size as in many DSLRs. It fits well in the hand, and is just heavy enough to be stable in use. It has a very usable electronic viewfinder. In the past I found these to be blurry, slow, and hard to use, and they were a big reason I had not purchased a mirrorless system camera. But this one is a very usable replacement for an optical viewfinder and provides clarity and immediacy that, while not up to optical viewfinder standards, is certainly good enough. And an upside is that you can see the shot in the viewfinder after exposure, something you can\'t do with a DSLR. I always use the viewfinder as it allows me to hold the camera up to my eye, which is a much more stable position than holding it out in front and looking at the LCD. Of course you can use it that way, too. The viewfinder is also very visible in very bright sun while the LCD, like most others, struggles in direct sun though it performs very well otherwise. The LCD is articulated so you can fold it out and still see it with the camera high above your head or near the ground. This allows you to get shots that others miss. It is bright, colors are good, and its response rate is fast. It has a threaded tripod mount, but like many small cameras it is not in line with the lens axis - it\'s off to the side - so taking panoramas with a tripod is more complicated. The NEX-6 has built-in Wifi for moving photos to Facebook, etc. I did not use the Wifi features so I can\'t comment on how effective it is. Power is provided by a NP-50 battery and this is a minor downside - battery life is relatively short, so buy an extra if you plan to do a day of shooting. Another minor nit is that Sony does not include an external charger, so the battery must be charged in-camera which means that you can\'t use the camera while the second battery is charging. Sony sells an external charger, but it is very slow (8.2V @ 280 mA, ~4 hours). I purchased the cheaper Pearstone NP-FW50 (about $20, AC or 12V DC power, 8.2V @ 500 mA) which charges the battery about twice as fast. The camera takes standard SD/SDHC/SDXC memory cards, and it also accepts Sony Memory Stick cards.ControlsThe controls are easy to get to, and while the camera lacks the touch screen of the NEX-7 I do not view this as any sort of deficit. Most controls you use on a regular basis are physical knobs or buttons, or are easily accessed via the Function menu and its 5 way controller. The camera has two multi-purpose dials, one on the back of the camera which also serves as a 5-way control switch, and one under the mode switch on the top of the camera. These allow simultaneous access to, for example, Aperture and Shutter settings in manual mode. The flash, ISO, and exposure adjustment controls are all easily accessible, and there is a dedicated button to start and stop video regardless of whatever other mode you happen to be in. There are also two \"soft\" buttons next to the LCD whose function changes, with the current function displayed on the LCD next to each button. The on-off switch is under the shutter release, and the camera powers up quickly.FlashThe built in flash is rated ~GN20 (feet, ISO100). Its power is more typical of a DSLR pop-up flash than a compact one. It performs in excess of what you might expect, in part due to the camera\'s good low light performance. It is articulated and spring loaded so it pops up when you press the flash release button on the back of the camera, and when you are done you push it down and it locks in place. This mechanism looks robust and reliable, and it positions the flash center well above the center of the lens which prevents red-eye at typical portrait distances. Also, since it is spring loaded you can pull it back and use it as a bounce flash at any angle from horizontal to well beyond horizontal (pointing at the ceiling). If you have a neutral ceiling to bounce off of, bounce flash provides evenly lit, well balanced exposures without that deer-in-the-headlights look. This is possibly the feature that most separates this camera from its rivals, since it is difficult-to-impossible to get quality images from most built in flashes. The camera also has a hot shoe for mounting an external flash. It is a new ISO-sized (but not standard) hot shoe called a \"multi-interface shoe\". It is supposed to replace the zoo of non-standard and confusing flash, light, and microphone mounts Sony has used on its cameras and camcorders in the past. It has a row of pins under the front of the shoe that will eventually allow the connection of on-camera microphones, on-camera lights, flashes, and other accessories via this hot shoe. So far the only accessories that are compatible with the new shoe is a $550 combo flash/video light and an $800 dual XLR microphone adapter that are both designed for the new Alpha a99 DSLR but will work with this camera. Sony does offer a hot shoe adapter, part ADP-MAA ($25), which allows you to mount any Sony Alpha-compabile flash designed for the auto lock shoe used on its DSLR cameras. However, unless you need to throw light more than 3-5m, the on-camera flash is adequate.ModesToo many to list. Seriously. It has face detect, panorama, portrait, sports, auto HDR, you name it. The smart auto mode does everything for you, and does it pretty well. It also has the creative modes more typical of a DSLR - PASM (Program, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, Manual). Whether you want automation or control, it\'s available. The camera is usable for capturing moving items as well, something that compacts can\'t do. It will fire at 3FPS for 10-15 frames depending on settings. It also has a \"Speed Priority\" mode that locks exposure and focus, which can take 10 frames per second.Focus and StabilizationWith the kit lens, the camera focuses insanely fast for a non-DSLR, and it even performs well in low light. I have not yet had it hunt for focus in normal room light. As far as I can tell, the lens focuses where it is supposed to, though the slowness of the lens allows a lot of wiggle room for the focus point. The stabilizer also works well. I have successfully taken acceptably sharp handheld shots in normal room light at shutter speeds as low as 1/8 with the lens set around 25mm (40mm equiv). I am not a particular stable handheld photographer, so this represents about 2-1/2 stops slower than what i can do without the stabilizer. Of course, your determination of \"acceptably sharp\" may vary from mine, as will your stability.Kit LensThough the 16-50mm (24-75 equiv) 3.5-5.6 kit pancake lens is not critically sharp nor particularly fast, it is surprising how good it is given its size. Its pocketability makes these issues a reasonable tradeoff, I think. It far exceeds the sharpness of the Panasonic G X VARIO PZ 14-42 lens I previously tried on a Panasonic GX1. And the size of this lens means the camera fits in a jacket pocket or a small belt pack, something that can\'t be done with any DSLR or even most other mirrorless cameras with similar focal length zoom lenses. This lens does suffer from fairly severe vignetting, but this is entirely and satisfactorily corrected in-camera for jpegs, and also by Sony\'s (and Adobe\'s) RAW processors. And the zoom range, 24-75mm equiv., is just about perfect for the work that I do, much of it indoors in cramped spaces. One downside of the Sony system is that there are few E mount lenses available, and fewer good ones. 4/3 system camera owners have a far better choice of lenses. I am hoping this will change over time, as the NEX line fills out.Image QualityOverall, image quality is extremely good, with results that can easily be printed to Super-B (13\"x19\"). The jpeg engine does a good job with exposure, color correction, and removing many of the lens artifacts such as vignetting. RAW files are also great, and as with all cameras I am able to get better results from the RAW files. Unfortunately, if you are an Adobe user you will need Lightroom 4 or Photoshop CS6 to be able to manage these RAW files - the versions of Camera Raw that work with CS5 and Lightroom 3 (and earlier) won\'t support this camera. Low light performance is extremely good. Jpegs up to ISO 800 look great direct out of camera, and even ISO1600 jpegs are usable, depending on what \"usable\" means to you. If you process the images RAW, you can get very usable images to ISO3200, or even ISO6400 for smaller non-critical images (think Facebook).VideoI have not taken a lot of video with this camera, so take this with a grain of salt. Image quality is about what you would expect with this lens, which is to say it\'s OK but not much better than a midrange consumer camcorder. Both autofocus and power zoom work while recording video, and while the zoom is quiet, you can hear it in the recording. The camera records in full HD 1920x1080 at 60 fps and 24 fps. It also records HD 1440x1080 at 30 fps with rectangular pixels, compatible with older (ie, tape based HDV) systems. For web and DVD use you can record in SD as well, 640x480 at 30 fps. The camera has built in stereo microphones which do a reasonably good job, but Sony elected to leave out the external mic jack that is on the NEX-7. That is a pity, since it is hard to get decent video at any distance with the built in mics, nor can you add wind shields and such. The camera has a wind noise filter but like most, it affects the audio you want, not just the wind noise you don\'t want. The hot shoe has contacts for an external mic, but so far none are available. The only existing option is the $800 adapter that brings out two XLR mic jacks, which is obviously overkill for this camera. A hot shoe to stereo 1/8\" mini-jack adapter would be a great thing. Are you listening, Sony?In ClosingIf you are looking for a pocketable mirrorless interchangeable lens camera, my opinion is that you can\'t go wrong with the NEX-6. It\'s not perfect, but the inevitable tradeoffs required to build a high quality camera that fits in your pocket were, I think, mostly the right ones.Edit 5/16/2013: In my original review I claimed the camera has GPS, which is does not. I\'m not sure how that error crept in, but in any case, I\'m sorry for any confusion. Also, the review claimed there was no compatible external mic available for the NEX-6. That has changed and you can now get the ECM-XYST1M which attaches via the new hot shoe. I bought one about two weeks ago. It is a stereo microphone with positionable mic elements that can be set at 120 degrees for wide coverage, or 0 degrees for tighter coverage. It is not as good as a shotgun (ie, Rode Videomic) for recording far away sounds such as a stage performance, but it is still a significant upgrade over the built-in mics. It is available now, for about $150.
• First off I want to preface this by saying that I\'m an amateur photographer who\'s looking to get better but understands what a good picture looks like. But at the end of the day I get more satisfaction in capturing a good moment, an image that I can look at later and remember that moment and not worry about having CA or higher levels of noise, or even if the image is slightly under/over exposed. I\'m not a pixel peeper and could honestly care less if there\'s a little noise when there\'s a 100% crop. I don\'t go around looking at my images at 100% crop often, do you? So if you\'re looking for a review that you can relate to on my level, then read on.I remember reading somewhere where a camera is only as good as the one you have with you. Like most men do it seems, when I got an itch to buy a camera, my journey started. When it\'s something that we don\'t really care about like clothes, we just buy the color and size we want. But if something that interests us, the whole doctorate research project starts. I had experience with a dSLR in the past so naturally I looked there. After many weeks of reading countless forums, reviews, rumor sites, etc I had decided on the Nikon D600. Was it overkill for my needs? Of course but I naturally needed the biggest, most shiny new toy and if it was expensive, so be it and I rationalized my purchase. I ended up receiving a camera that was a returned item and not new like I thought it was. I had the chance to go more reasonble this time but I even went a step farther and added another couple of bucks and went for the Canon 5D MarkIII. Don\'t get me wrong it was a fantastic camera and I really enjoyed it. But I am a professional photographer who makes his living off taking pictures? No, and I started having a hard time justifying having a close to $4,000 camera that I would shoot on the weekends and maybe a handful more times a month. So back to square one.It was at this time that I received the most exciting news of my life. We were expecting our first child. So even more so I felt the need to act financially responsible. And the thought of having to juggle a heavy dSLR body, a zoom lens, a few prime lenses, etc with a baby and all the gear that a baby comes with made be worry. So it was almost by accident that I re-stumbled upon the whole mirrorless setup. I had remembered seeing them in a magazine once but I put them off as just another gimmick or a larger P&S. I was actually at the store going to hold a few more dSLRs and trying to decide which one to try next. Again like I seem to always do, I walked right over to the most expensive mirrorless camera there (NEX-7) and convinced myself and my wife that this was it, I was going to get the NEX-7. I played with it at the store, asked questions, took some shots, messed around with it for another 30 minutes or so and left convinced that I was set. I thought to myself \'This is my next camera\'. I thought that I could shoot huge 24mp files, crop out what I didn\'t need. That the Tri-Navi setup was essential to my future success of taking good pictures. Funny thing though I got home, read some more posts, reviews, etc, and while all the reviews were generally positive, there were some other things that came up. First came the posts saying that maybe the 24mp sensor was overkill or not as sharp. That the dials shifted too easily. That it had focusing issues and was not good in low light. That it was a hassle to change modes. So for all the complaints that appeared it seemed like Sony listened to all of these \'issues\', correct them, and put out the NEX-6.So onto my thoughts of the NEX-6.What I like- Nice solid feel, really good grip. I had looked at the Canon EOS-M and the absence of a quality grip was a huge turnoff. Nevermind the fact that it just looks like a P&S.- Love the mode dial. Doesn\'t have a lock but doesn\'t need one. You have to apply just the right amount of force to turn it.- Love the dial underneath, makes changing aperture in A mode easy.- Really love the EVF. Is it grainy at times? Sure, but I really like seeing how my image is going to turn out ahead of time with the changes in exposure prior to hitting the shutter.- Really love that the Fn button actually only needs one press to bring up the 6 sub-menus that you assign. I noticed with the NEX-7 you have to repeatedly press the Fn button to scroll through your customized sub-menus.- Very well thought out built-in flash. It allows you to manually bounce the flash. I found it perfectly acceptable for indoor use. Instead of a harsh flash hitting the subject and getting the dreaded P&S type image, you can pull back the flash with your index finger, press the shutter with your middle finger, and get a really nice image.- Smaller file size works out well. Again going back to my buying overkill I bought a 32GB SD card. I can store over 1,300 RAW+JPEGs on it.- Pancake zoom performs better than I thought. You read many complaints about shooting at the widest. I haven\'t noticed it, but if I do start to notice it I\'ll just shoot at 18 instead of 16 and take two steps back.- Built-in wifi and apps. I don\'t think I\'ll be using too many of the apps (outside of the picture style), but good to know that it\'s there.What I don\'t like- First I don\'t like that the pancake zoom lens uses a 40.5mm filter. Why? Because on the 2nd day of shooting I lost the cap while shooting in the park. Silly me I thought I\'ll just buy a replacement one. But since it appears that Sony isn\'t releasing this lens by itself until January there are no OEM caps available now. So I had a choice of getting a Nikon cap to put on my Sony lens or get a generic $0.95 one, guess which way I went?- The inability to apply all settings to all modes. Auto ISO doesn\'t work in M mode. That\'s fine. Picture styles will only apply to JPEG\'s, that\'s fine. But I don\'t like having to change from RAW+JPEG to just JPEG mode if I want to apply a picture style. I would\'ve liked being able to stay in RAW+JPEG mode and only have the effect applied to the JPEG file while being able to capture the RAW file.- Shutter button is grey.Wow, if the 3rd thing that I don\'t like is that the shutter is grey, what does that tell you about how little that I have to nitpick about the camera? Could the camera be better with a longer lasting battery? Sure why not, but it\'s not just Sony that has a shorter life on the battery. Every manufacturer seems to have a 200-400 shot duration on a single battery. Which makes me wonder with all the advancements in technology, why not have a camera/cell phone battery that lasts for more than a day between charges? All the reviews that I\'ve read seem to agree with me. Everything is mostly positive, I read one reviewer that listed the cons as not having a touchscreen and not having a fully 180 degree articulating screen. Yes, but we knew going in that the camera didn\'t have these features. So the con isn\'t performance related but spec related. But that\'s like saying this Honda Accord doesn\'t have a 400hp engine so it\'s a con and you\'re disappointed that it doesn\'t. But you knew before you bought the car what the specsheet said it had and didn\'t have. So there wasn\'t a con about the lack of speed in the autofocus (EOS-M). Another complaint is the lack of lenses in the NEX lineup right now. Even if you don\'t want to buy adapters and get older MF lenses, the ones that are out right now are pretty solid. You have a 10-18 wide angle zoom, a 16 f/2.8, a standard 50mm, you have a great Zeiss lens, you have a pancake zoom, and you have the upcoming 35 f/1.8, a 55-210 zoom, and a all-in-one 18-200. The only glaring hole is a 85 or so prime. And you have Zeiss committing to at least 3 new lenses next year, and Sony with a solid roadmap of upcoming lenses. I actually like that there aren\'t 100\'s of lenses out there, it makes me buying one at a time easier on my wallet.After shooting with the camera for the better part of a week I\'ll be honest and I had a little bit of buyer\'s remorse. I thought to myself \'Why didn\'t I pay the extra few hundred for the NEX-7?\' So I just came back from the store where I held the NEX-7, shot with it, etc, and did all the things that I did a few weeks ago. But for some reason it didn\'t feel the same. I didn\'t have the same sense of \'Wow this is my next camera\'. I liked having all the submenus come up when I pressed the Fn once and not have to repeatedly press it. I liked having the mode dials that stuck in place instead of having the dials that may move freely on it\'s own. And I liked having a movie record button that was a little less easy to tap and being able to use it when I wanted to and not having to fully disable it like the new firmware addressed. And I liked having the new kid on the block rather than a camera that\'s been out a year and seems destined to be replaced in the next 6 months or so. The mirrorless camera segment seems to be moving much quicker than the dSLR market. Whereas it seems like some dSLRs have been out for years with no replacement announced (Canon 7D since 2009, Nikon D7000 since 2010), it seems like the cycle on the mirrorless segment is every year to play catchup with the big brother on the block. So will I look at the NEX-7n or whatever it\'s called when it\'s realized? Of course. Will I contemplate getting it or not getting it over and over again and drive my wife crazy asking for her opinion? You bet. But at least now I can sleep easy knowing that for my needs RIGHT NOW that I have the best camera for me. I enjoy not having to think about framing each individual shot like I\'m trying to create a masterpiece. I enjoy knowing that I can go out there with a camera that\'s easy to carry around and I can take 20 shots, 50 shots, or even 200 and I have confidence that I\'ll have some quality images in there. Because at the end of the day, a camera is only as good as the one you have with you.

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