Sony A6500 Field Test

Earlier this year, my colleague Jeremy Gray published his review of the Sony A6300, a followup to 2014's amazingly popular A6000. Now in double-quick time that camera, too, has a successor in the form of the Sony A6500. Recently, I was fortunate to shoot with the A6500 on a press experiential in Austin, Texas.

In all, I had three cameras on hand to shoot with during the week: The aforementioned A6500, the Translucent Mirror-based Sony A99 II and the pocket-friendly Sony RX100 V compact. With the A99 II in short supply, though, and the RX100 V perhaps not the most ideally-suited to the subjects on hand thanks to a relatively short lens, it was the A6500 with which I did the most shooting.

As is typical on a press experiential, Sony had plenty of great shooting subjects lined up to give all three cameras a good workout. After my first week with the A6500, I have to say that it acquitted itself might well, turning out a whole bunch of shots that I'm absolutely thrilled with!

Late last year, I started my review of the Sony A6500 mirrorless camera with my first Field Test, packed with great action shots from a press experiential in Austin, Texas. The second part of my report has been a little while coming thanks to the holiday season, flu bugs, tradeshows and more, but the good news is that it's here now!

In this Field Test, I'll be looking at two main areas for which I didn't have enough content from the press experiential: Low-light shooting, and video capture. First of all, a quick recap of my earlier Field Test would probably be helpful for those of you who've not already read it, or who read it at the time but don't remember all of the details. (If you've not read it yet, though, I highly recommend going back and starting from the start.)

Recapping my first Field Test

In my first real-world shoot with the Sony A6500 back in Austin, I came away pretty impressed by this camera and its capabilities. In terms of handling I had few complaints. I found the A6500's body to be pretty comfortable in-hand, even with my larger-than-average hands. Really, about all I'd change on the ergonomic front is the poorly-positioned movie button (something that we'll come back to in a bit), and the lack of a front control dial.