Sony A6500 Flash

Coverage and Range
A fairly weak flash with very narrow and uneven coverage at wide angle. Our standard indoor portrait shot required more than average exposure compensation and still came out a bit dim.

Coverage. The Sony A6500 isn't normally sold bundled with a kit lens, but flash coverage is unchanged from its predecessor and is still rated at 16mm, so above we show a flash coverage image from our A6300 test. As you can see, flash coverage is very narrow and uneven at 16mm, leaving very dark corners in our test image.

Exposure. Our Indoor Portrait test scene came out a little underexposed even with +1.0 EV flash exposure compensation at ISO 200, and positive flash exposure compensation had no effect above +0.3 EV in this test. The average amount of flash exposure compensation required for this scene is +0.7 EV, so the A6500's built-in flash performed a bit below average here. Be prepared to boost ISO to make up for the weak flash.

Manufacturer Specified Flash Test. The Sony A6500's built-in flash is rated with a Guide Number of 6 meters or 19.7 feet at ISO 100. That works out to about 7 feet at f/2.8. In the test shot above, the A6500's flash produced an acceptable flash exposure at those parameters, just slightly dim at about 1/6 EV lower than ideal.