As I read various review of the A6000, it seems an ‘upgrade’ to the A6000 may not be worth the money. I would appreciate your opinion on this. Switching to Speed Priority continuous, with the AF set to single the NEX-6 managed a burst of 12 frames at exactly 10fps, thereafter the frame rate dropped to around 3.5fps. That’s the same speed as the NEX-7, but a shorter burst – the NEX-7 can fire a burst of 17 large Fine JPEGs.

The NEX-6 offers two different continuous shooting modes: standard (3 fps) and speed priority (10 fps). As its name suggests, speed priority mode shoots faster than regular continuous, but for a much shorter duration. As with all NEX cameras, physical controls are somewhat sparse, and many of the buttons sit flush to the body, which makes pressing them a little bit fiddlier than need be. Another issue is the memory card slot, which is positioned right on the edge next to the battery compartment door, which makes card removal more difficult that it needs to be. Other than these minor grips however there’s little to fault with the rest of the camera’s design. As with the system Canon has implemented in the EOS M, the on-sensor phase detection isn't used as a standalone system (it's unlikely to have the fidelity that the dedicated sensors used in DSLRs have), so it's used in combination with conventional contrast detection. As such the phase detection information is used to drive the lens near to the in-focus position, then contrast detection is used to scan for the optimal focus point, to fine-tune the focus. But the whole point of it is, of course to take the shot using your phone or tablet and again, that’s pretty straightforward, on the iPhone or iPad you simply tap the camera button, and the NEX-6 meters, focuses and takes the shot, exactly as if you’d pressed the shutter release on the camera.The supplied Sony E PZ 16-50mm f/3.5-5.6 OSS power zoom lens has a tendency for vignetting, particularly at the extremes of its focal range; but that aside its performance is better than expected. The NEX-6's pop-up flash might be weak, with a rather meagre guide number of 6 at ISO 100/21°; but as long as the subject is within range it tends to produce spot-on exposures with no noticeable red-eye. The in-camera HDR exposure blending feature works very well in contrasty light. It only works for JPEGs and for still subjects, but does produce some very effective results. This tripod-mounted video shows outdoor sound quality (with wind filter on) and some artifacting on the water. You'll also see the focus system 'hunting' momentarily, for no apparent reason.

x 1080(50p, 28M, PS), 1920 x 1080(50i, 24M FX), 1920 x 1080(50i, 17M FH), 1920 x 1080(24p, 24M, FX), 1920 x 1080(24p, 17M, FH), 1440 x 1080 (25fps), 640 x 480 (25fps) The rear four-way control wheel is flanked top and bottom by two buttons. As on the NEX-7, Sony refers to these as ‘soft buttons’, (but only the lower soft button B is programmable). The four cardinal points on the controller are now hard wired to Display overlays, ISO, exposure compensation and drive modes. The EVF was something I really wondered if I was going to get one with because I’ve always thought that it would be poor compared to an optical viewfinder. Well having now used one for a few days I can say that I’m sold. I worried that the image would be dark and grainy in low light and although that is true to a certain extend, it’s nothing like as bad as I imagined it would be. Also the additional information which is overlaid on the image is extremely useful. For example, a lot of the images above are taken with a Jupiter 8 50mm f/2.0 lens which is fitted to an old Zorki 4 camera which my Dad gave me. In the EVF it’s possible to turn on focus peaking which makes this manual focus lens really easy to use. Also the addition of the level indicator is great for keeping the camera level for landscapes etc. Picture Effect+ provides enhanced versions of some existing Picture Effects filters with additional controls. For example, the Toy Camera+ effect is similar to the existing Toy Camera effect but provides the choice of three vignette effects. Miniature+ expands on the existing Miniature effect, letting you combine it with either Toy Camera or Retro Photo effect. The Picture Effect+ app also adds the watercolour and illustration effects shown below.

The Sony NEX-6 has a Sweep Panorama mode allowing you to take panoramic images very easily by 'sweeping' with the camera while keeping the shutter release depressed. The camera does all the processing and stitching automatically. The main catch is that the resulting image is of fairly low resolution – this is something you need to be aware of if you are looking to print your panoramas. The Sony NEX-6 has a rich set of in-camera features that can be useful for everyday photography. The “Lens Compensation” feature found in the “Setup” menu allows fixing len-specific issues like vignetting, chromatic aberration and distortion. Obviously, the amount of lens correction depends on each lens, so Sony included current lens profiles in its camera firmware. New lenses that come out in the future will also be supported via firmware upgrades. The front of the camera looks very simple, just like all other NEX cameras. The hand grip is very convenient to use and makes the camera very comfortable to hand hold. Sony did an excellent job with the protruding grip – something I wish all other mirrorless camera manufacturers did as well. Whereas the NEX-7 employs a 24.3MP sensor, the NEX 6 houses the same 16.1MP APS-C CMOS sensor that is found in other current NEX models, including the NEX-5R/5N and NEX-F3. Still images can be captured in either JPEG or lossless Raw (.ARW) format with a maximum resolution of 4912 x 3264 pixels when used at full resolution in the default 3:2 aspect. You can, of course, lower the resolution if required (say, for example, when shooting non-critical photos destined solely for web use) and the NEX-6 also offers an alternative 16:9 aspect should you want to shoot widescreen images. There are 9 ISO settings available on the Sony NEX-6. Here are some 100% crops which show the noise levels for each ISO setting: JPEG

While the new powered zoom kit lens proves flexible in use, we did find that it was a little soft when used at its maximum aperture. Nudging it down a couple of stops visibly improves sharpness and fine detail. Distortion at 16mm is pronounced, although the in-camera processing does manage to rectify this to a reasonable degree. Some chromatic aberration is also visible in both Raw and JPEG images. As with the other apps, Picture Effect+ is accessed via the Applications button on the main menu. This doesn’t mean there are now two places to go to for Picture Effects though, as all the existing ones are added to the new App’s list. But it does highlight the separateness of apps from the core camera functions. To return to ‘normal’ operation, you need to quit the app. This is inevitable really, given the specialist functions that apps provide, but it does limit them to providing bolt-on feature additions, rather than extensions to the camera’s functionality in the way a firmware upgrade would. I think it’s unlikely that we’ll see, for example, extended ISO sensitivity, or enhanced continuous shooting from an app. Likewise it seems unlikely that an integral feature like focus peaking will be migrated to an app. And the pc method when on the go is practical as well. Nevertheless, total control over the screeen makes sense nowadays. Odd artifacts and false color interpretations become entirely too obtrusive here in the NX20, while the NEX-6 remains fairly consistent in comparison.

Sony NEX-6 Conclusion

The NEX-6 has a new 16.1 Megapixel CMOS sensor with built in phase detect AF sensors. It has a sensitivity range of 100 – 25,600 ISO. Images can be saved as RAW files in Sony’s ARW RAW format or as JPEGs using one of two compression settings, Fine and Standard. There’s also a RAW+JPEG mode which saves a fine quality JPEG in addition to the RAW file. Fine quality JPEG compressed files are around 4 to 6MB in size. The shutter speed range is 1/4000 to 30 seconds plus Bulb. The Sony NEX-6 has a little pop-up flash with a guide number of 6 in metres at ISO 100/21°. The flash settings are Autoflash, Fill-flash, Slow sync and Rear flash sync, with Red-eye reduction available in the Setup menu. In the best Sony/Minolta tradition, flash exposures are generally excellent as long as the subject is within range. The NEX-6 can also trigger wirelessly slaved system flashes but you need a hotshoe-mounted commander unit for this as the built-in flash cannot act as a master. While the preset options are great to have, the custom setting provides the most control (though you can, in fact, change the settings for any of the presets). Firstly, you can choose between 24p and 30p HD encoding, then you select the shooting interval and the number of shots. If you don’t want your shots automatically compiled into a movie you can choose to save the individual still frames to the card, in which case you can also choose size and quality settings including RAW. This handheld video shows how the NEX-6 performs in relatively low light. While you'll spot some moiré here, you won't see any noise.

I prefer to shoot panoramas hand-held, one exposure at a time in RAW, then stitch it in Photoshop, as explained in my Panorama Tutorial.Switch the camera to MF mode and this same ring automatically controls focus instead, with zoom control operated by the slider. After extended use we much prefer Sony's ring/slider design over the dual lever approach in the Panasonic 14-42 power zoom, where we can never tell by feel whether we're about to zoom or focus the lens. While the Sony lens is of a focus-by-wire design, the action is dampened just enough to approximate a 'feel' of connection to the lens elements with responsive operation. And with MF assist enabled, an initial turn of the control ring brings up a magnified scene view for focus confirmation. Next, is the dedicated movie record button. In response to criticism about the ease with which the NEX-7’s button could be accidentally pressed, Sony has moved it ’round the corner’ on the NEX-6 and recessed it. It’s now quite difficult to start movie recording, even when you want to, I’m not sure whether that counts as an improvement, but there you are. Like earlier NEX models the NEX-6 takes the Sony NP-FW50 Info-Lithium battery which provides enough power on a full charge for 360 shots if using the LCD screen, dropping to 270 if you exclusively use the EVF. That’s down considerably from the 430/350 shots quoted for the NEX-7, doubtless mainly due to the power zoom. As it’s an Info Lithium battery as well as the four-segment graphic power remaining indicator you also get a percentage readout. The battery is charged in the camera, an approach which has its pros and cons. The pros are that you can charge the battery in the camera either by connecting it the supplied USB mains charger, or simply by connecting it to the USB port of your computer, so if you’re travelling with a laptop you don’t need a separate charger. The downside is you can’t use the camera and charge a spare battery a the same time. You can however buy an optional mains recharger for the battery if preferred.