I am researching what the Sony a6000 and its’ derivatives the a6300 and a6500 are like at street photography. Not so long ago (well 60 years ago) you purchased a Leica and set forth into the streets of New York. (See Joel Meyerwitz), Now street photography is everywhere and there are lots of alternatives to a Leica, including the mirrorless Sony, Fuji, Panasonic and Canon cameras.
So concentrating on the Sony a6000s here are some views from street photography bloggers:
The big advantages of the A6000 for street photography are as follows:
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It’s really fast in operation. The camera responds quickly and you are never left waiting for it to catch up, which can be an issue with some older mirrorless cameras, especially in this price range.
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The flip up screen is great for shooting from the hip. It’s great for being stealthy when shooting on the street.
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The autofocus is superb. It’s still one of the better autofocus systems that I’ve used on a mirrorless camera. I find it better than my X-Pro 2 for autofocusing (send your hate mail to….) especially when shooting street photography. It’s very fast and it locks on really quickly. Also, the face detection works well, and is a really useful option when shooting street shots.
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It’s really small and discrete. When coupled with a small lens it’s not much bigger than a compact camera.
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You can adapt it to an incredibly wide range of lenses (pretty much anything). While it doesn’t autofocus with adaptors as well as the newer A6500, if you’re willing to manual focus, and have old glass, there is more than likely an adaptor for it. And some of these adaptors are pretty cheap too.
There are MANY reviews on the A6000 focusing on features & performance, so I won’t try to do one myself. I would recommend if you are looking at an ILC for street then check out the online reviews, blogs and go to your local camera store to get the feel of the Sony A6000.
However, I did want to highlight what I liked about the camera. They are:
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Lighting fast focus,
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Easy to use menus & menu layout,
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Fine lineup of Sony lenses and readily available adapters for non Sony lenses,
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Focus tracking is awesome,
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Burst rate is stupid fast,
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OK (but, not great) low light performance,
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Feels good in my hand (very sticky),
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APS-C sensor,
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Good video,
The main benefit of the a6000 is its portable size. The ability to put a camera in a coat pocket and take it out everywhere with you is not to be underestimated. Especially with street photography where you may want to be discreet.
But apart from the portability, we are just amazed by the image quality that a camera of this size can produce. The a6000s sensor is incredible and is widely regarded as being one of the best in this “size class” of cameras. It picks up colors well and the processor that powers the whole product can accurately adjust the balance on auto mode.
Some other cameras without a digital viewfinder can struggle in bright lighting conditions making the shot reasonably difficult (or impossible) to take. The OLED viewfinder on the a6000 makes it well suited to shooting in bright conditions. It is perfect for the street where you never know when the next shot might arise.
Why Mirrorless Cameras Are Great for Street, Candid, and Shy Photographers
For street photography, this matters. As someone who’s always been a bit shy when it comes to pointing a camera in people’s faces, a smaller and more discreet camera allowed me to get closer and push myself further than an SLR ever has. The amazing thing is that modern mirrorless cameras don’t require you to sacrifice image quality — I’ve been shooting 24.2 megapixel images in RAW format images in RAW format and the excellent low-light performance and 425 points of autofocus on the A6300 allowed me to trust the camera completely.
Aforementioned street photographer Eric Kim notes that “ultimately capturing the moment, emotion, and feeling of a scene is more important than how many pixels or how sharp it is.” This could apply to a whole manner of photographic applications, but it’s especially true for street photographers and anyone who wants to get into candid photography. Kim’s top pick for a dedicated street camera is the Richoh GR-II, a compact camera with a fixed lens and an APS-C sensor that retails for around $700.
Considering the flexibility offered by an interchangeable system, Sony’s A6000 is cheaper and ultimately more versatile. The newer A6300 has a groundbreaking autofocus system and full silent shooting for around $1,150 with a kit lens. These are easily two of the best mirrorless cameras on the market in terms of value for money, raw performance, and overall size — so be sure to check them out if you’re planning your next move as a photographer.
In many ways the Sony a6300 is an excellent camera. Great image quality, very versatile RAW files, a small size, great autofocus, and more. What more could you possibly ask for? My qualms with it have to do with the fact that the high ISO output is starting to fall behind the competitor and that I genuinely feel like the ergonomics need to take a step up at this point. Otherwise, it’s a very solid camera.
It is interesting gaining the views of actual users. The Sony a6xxx have fantastic autofocus, good IQ and are small and discrete, ideal for street work. May also have to invest in some primes. the Sigma 30mm 1.4 looks a good option very highly rated by DPReview.
Plus a top tip, if the 30mm is too tight then take a few pictures and stitch together in Lightroom