Sony A6600 Review

Sony A6600 Review -- Now Shooting!

by Jeremy Gray
Preview updated: 09/05/2019

Updates:
08/30/2019: Gallery Images added
04/05/2021: Field Test and additional gallery images added

Click here to read our in-depth Sony A6600 Product Overview.

Sony A6600 Field Test

The A6600 sacrifices usability for compactness but delivers solid all-around performance

by Jeremy Gray | Posted 04/09/2021

The Sony A6600 has been available since autumn 2019, but we hadn't yet had an opportunity to get in-depth hands-on time with the camera beyond only a few days at a Sony-organized press event in New York City prior to the camera's announcement. I recently had the chance to shoot with the A6600 alongside the Tamron 17-70mm f/2.8 lens for Sony APS-C mirrorless cameras. With the A6600 still being the last APS-C camera Sony announced, and a popular choice at that, we felt it would still be worthwhile to test it in the field. While it's not a 'new' camera, the A6600 is still a great choice for photographers looking for a compact interchangeable lens mirrorless camera, so let's dive in and check out the A6600.

Sony A6600 Key Features and Specs

• Sony's flagship APS-C E-mount mirrorless camera
• 24.2-megapixel Exmor CMOS image sensor
• Native ISO range of 100-32,000, expandable to 50-102,400
• Weather-resistant body
• Tilting 3" touchscreen
• XGA OLED electronic viewfinder
• Shoots at up to 11 frames per second
• Hybrid autofocus system with 425 phase-detect autofocus points
• Real-time eye-AF and real-time AF tracking
• 5-axis in-body image stabilization
• 4K/30p video recording
• Built-in microphone and headphone jacks
• Improved battery life compared to A6500
• Available as body-only for around $1,400 USD

Sony A6600 body and design: Compact camera has acceptable ergonomics

The A6600 looks very similar to the A6400 and A6500, but there are some key differences. The A6600 adds a fourth custom button, which replaces the older flash button since the A6600 ditches the built-in flash of the A6500. The A6600 also includes a redesigned, larger front grip, which allows the A6600 to use the larger NP-FZ100 battery from the A7 series. The grip feels good in my hands, and the A6600 feels less cramped in this regard than other A6XXX-series cameras I've used over the years.

The camera includes a pair of command dials, although they're both located on the rear of the camera. I would like to have seen a front command dial. The ergonomics aren't quite up to par with Sony's full-frame offerings, and a big part of that is the lack of direct control options.

The button layout is okay, although the A6600's compact body results in everything feeling a bit cramped. This is most evident when considering the dedicated movie record button. It's located on a small protrusion near the thumb rest and can be difficult to press. The rear control cluster centers around a 4-way directional button that doubles as a command dial. That command dial surrounding the 'OK' button is a bit fussy and feels loose during rotation.

Much of the A6600's rear panel is taken up by the tilting touchscreen. The 3" display has only 921k dots, and it results in the display looking a bit less sharp and crisp than displays on similarly-priced cameras. While I prefer tilt/swivel displays, the tilting range on the A6600's display is good. It tilts 180° upward and about 90° downward, making the tilt functionality useful when shooting.

Unlike the rear display, the EVF is sharp with plenty of resolution. The EVF is an XGA OLED with 2.36M dots and 0.7x magnification. While the eyecup isn't super comfortable during extended use, it's still a solid viewfinder experience overall.

Although the compactness of the A6600 has negative implications for the overall control layout, the smallness of the camera is a benefit when it comes to keeping the weight down. The A6600 is built using a lightweight magnesium alloy, and the camera weighs a mere 1.1 lbs. (503g). The A6600 is also a bit more robust than many other APS-C cameras, boasting weather resistance in its construction.

While there are a number of positives about the design of the A6600, it comes up a bit short in some key areas. While the camera delivers good speed and performance, as we'll see later in this Field Test, the body feels cramped, and the control layout can slow you down while shooting. The larger front grip is an improvement, but it's just not that comfortable of a camera to hold and use.

Image quality: Good APS-C image quality

The A6600 uses the same 24.2-megapixel APS-C Exmor CMOS image sensor as the Sony A6500. However, the inclusion of a newer Bionz X image processor and improved LSI -- the same pairing that first debuted in the original Sony A9 -- slightly changes the sensor's behavior. The native ISO range is 100-32,000 for the A6600, rather than 100-25,600 for the A6500. Further, the increased processing power results in the A6600 processing RAW images in 16-bit before outputting a 14-bit RAW file. Sony promises that this results in improved texture detail, shadow detail and tonal gradation.

In terms of real-world performance, the A6600 produces good image quality across a wide range of ISO settings. Particularly at low ISO settings, the A6600 produces crisp images with good fine detail, impressive color and good tonal gradation.

While the image quality can't quite match that of a full-frame camera, the APS-C sensor in the A6600 from 2019 holds up well, even now in 2021. This continues as you increase the ISO, and the camera captures good images at ISO up to ISO 2500 and a bit beyond. While the native ISO range is higher than the A6500, I'm not convinced that this results in significantly improved high ISO performance.

The A6600 offers good dynamic range performance as well, especially when you process the RAW files. The RAW files are quite flexible during editing, and you can push and pull shadow and highlight detail extensively without degrading the overall image quality.

Overall, image quality is a strong point for the Sony A6600. The image sensor may not be 'new' anymore, but that doesn't mean it doesn't capture good images with impressive detail, dynamic range and colors, particularly at low ISO settings.

Autofocus and performance: Excellent autofocus held back slightly by middling performance

Autofocus

Sony has doubled down on speed and performance with the A6600, thanks to the upgraded Bionz X processor. The A6600 uses Sony's 4D Focus Hybrid autofocus system, which includes 425 phase-detect autofocus points and 425 contrast-detect AF points. These PDAF and CDAF points cover about 84 percent of the image area. In practical use, the autofocus coverage is good and makes it quite easy to focus on a subject almost anywhere in the frame.

The autofocus coverage is also helpful when tracking a subject through the frame. Sony's Real-time tracking is impressive, and I found it to be quick and accurate. Autofocus performance, in general, is impressive with the A6600. It's fast, accurate and works well in challenging situations, even in low light. The A6600 includes numerous autofocus features, such as real-time Eye AF for humans and some non-human animals, like cats and dogs.

Overall, autofocus is one of the best aspects of the A6600. It's an essential component of a camera's overall performance, so for Sony to have nailed it with the A6600 is great news. There are other parts of the camera's performance that come up a bit short, as we'll see in the next section, but for most photographers, autofocus is critically important and the A6600 scores high marks here.

Performance

In addition to good autofocus, the A6600 also performs well with respect to continuous shooting speeds. The A6600 shoots at up to 11 frames per second with continuous AF. Granted, at 11 fps, there isn't live view. To use a real-time viewfinder, you must slow the camera down to 8 fps. The A6600 is also held back slightly by its UHS-I SD card slot, which is quite a bit less capable than the newer, faster UHS-II standard.

Nonetheless, the A6600 is a quick enough camera for most action and is roughly on par with the Nikon Z50, which also shoots at 11 fps. The Fujifilm X-T4 is a little faster at 15 fps, but the X-T4 is larger than the A6600 and costs a bit more. This is not exactly a like-for-like comparison, although they are certainly competitors. The issue with the A6600's performance isn't so much its shooting speed, but how slow the camera is when processing images and clearing its buffer. You also can't access many settings or menus when the camera is buffering, which is a major usability flaw.

An area of performance where the A6600 excels is battery life. Thanks to the larger grip, which is more comfortable to hold, the A6600 also fits a larger battery than prior models. The camera is rated for 810 shots, which is great for a mirrorless camera. In real-world use, the battery performs even better than that.

The A6600 also includes five-axis in-body image stabilization, which works well. The combination of the APS-C sensor and IBIS system makes it quite easy to capture sharp shots even at slower shutter speeds.

Overall, the A6600 delivers strong performance. The camera is plenty quick for a lot of action. The real star of the show is the higher-capacity battery, which is excellent and is one of the best aspects of the A6600 relative to its competition.

Video

The A6600 includes a wide variety of video modes and features, although video performance is lacking in some respects. The A6600 records 4K UHD video at up to 30 frames per second. When recording using the full image area, the 4K footage is decent although unspectacular, coming out a bit lacking in fine detail. You can see a compilation of 4K clips shots at 29.97 frames per second in the video below.

The camera's impressive autofocus during still photography carries over to video recording. As does the excellent battery life. Plus, with the headphone and mic ports and tilting display, there's a quite bit to like here. Unfortunately, the record button is oddly placed, and the camera doesn't keep the photo and video exposure settings separate, which is difficult when swapping back and forth between shooting stills and video.

Shooting Experience

The overall experience of using the Sony A6600 is a mixed bag, although it's more positive than negative. On the plus side, the redesigned front grip is larger and more comfortable. Plus, the larger grip allows for the higher-capacity Z battery, which results in excellent battery life. The electronic viewfinder is also quite good. The tilting and front-facing touchscreen display is useful, especially for vlogging applications.

The compact camera body is a good thing, overall, as it makes the A6600 a small, lightweight APS-C camera. On the other hand, the small camera body leaves less room for physical buttons and controls, resulting in the camera feeling a bit cramped in use. The overall menu system is not well-optimized, and the camera feels a bit clunky.

The camera has a very capable 24.2-megapixel APS-C image sensor, and image quality is a strong suit of the A6600. Capturing good images is made easier thanks to the very good autofocus system, which works well during both stills shooting and video recording.

The lack of UHS-II compatibility hurts performance a bit, resulting in the A6600 being slower than some of the competition. Further, when the camera's buffer is clearing, which takes a bit of time, you're significantly limited in what you can adjust on the camera and which menus you can navigate. The overall user experience lacks a bit of refinement and polish.

The A6600 is certainly not a perfect camera, but it is a solid APS-C camera. Ultimately, image quality and autofocus are fundamental aspects of a camera, and the A6600 receives high marks in both of these areas.

Looking forward, I genuinely hope to see another high-end APS-C camera from Sony. Ideally, it would be one which utilizes the overall body design of the A7 series of cameras. Of course, the image sensor in the A6600 is getting a bit long in the tooth. A new enthusiast-oriented APS-C camera would excel with a new and improved image sensor. It may be a bit pie in the sky, but I believe in the APS-C format and think that Sony could do a lot more to push the format ahead.

Sony A6600 Field Test Summary

A solid APS-C camera with some inconveniences

What I like most about the A6600

• Compact, rugged camera body
• Improved larger front grip design
• Good image quality
• Impressive autofocus performance
• Excellent battery life

What I dislike about the A6600

• The overall button layout feels cramped
• Not quite as fast as similarly priced APS-C cameras
• UHS-I SD slot holds the camera back a bit
• Clunky menus and you can't access certain settings when the buffer is clearing
• 4K video is just okay

The Sony A6600 is a good APS-C mirrorless camera. Its compact form factor keeps the overall size and weight of the A6600 down, which is nice, but the camera has cramped controls. Its overall usability doesn't quite keep pace with its good image quality and impressive autofocus performance. However, the ultimate takeaway is that the A6600 delivers good performance essentially across the board.

• • •

Sony A6600 Product Overview

by Jeremy Gray
Preview originally published: 09/05/2019

Sony has long been saying that they will continue to support their APS-C mirrorless cameras and at an event last week in New York City, the company showcased their commitment to the format. Sony announced two new APS-C cameras, including the flagship A6600 camera. Plus, a pair of new APS-C lenses, a 16-55mm f/2.8 standard zoom and a 70-350mm telephoto zoom lens, were also announced.

The Sony A6600 blends many aspects of the Sony A6400 and A6500 cameras while also adding some new features. At the core of its imaging pipeline, the A6600 includes a 24.2-megapixel CMOS image sensor and Sony's latest Bionz X image processor. This allows for improved image processing, speed and overall performance. The A6600 also incorporates Sony's latest real-time eye AF and real-time tracking autofocus features. Let's take a closer look at the A6600 and see what it offers.

Key Features and Specs

• Sony's new flagship APS-C E-mount mirrorless camera
• Weather-resistant construction
• Improved ergonomics, including a larger front grip
• Tilting 3-inch touchscreen
• XGA OLED electronic viewfinder
• 24.2-megapixel Exmor CMOS APS-C image sensor
• Latest-generation Bionz X image processor
• 14-bit raw file output
• Native ISO range of 100-32,000
• Extended ISO range of 50-102,400
• Up to 11 frames per second continuous shooting
• Hybrid autofocus system
• 425 phase-detect autofocus points covering around 84 percent of the image area
• Real-time eye-AF and real-time AF tracking
• 4K/30p video recording with eye-AF, HLD HDR recording and more
• 5-axis image stabilization
• Built-in microphone and headphone jacks
• High-capacity Z battery for up to 2.2x more battery life than A6500

Camera Body and Design: Weather-resistant camera body with improved ergonomics

As Sony's flagship APS-C camera, the A6600 offers quite a few physical controls and customizable buttons. While it may look very similar to the A6400 and A6500, the new A6600 does add a fourth custom button to the camera body. Further, it offers improved ergonomics via a larger front grip. Having gone hands-on with the A6600 in New York, the front grip does feel better and more comfortable.

On the top of the camera, there are a pair of custom buttons, a dedicated mode dial (with two custom mode slots) and a rear command dial. There is no front command dial, so when shooting in manual mode, the rear control wheel acts as a command dial in conjunction with the traditional dial above the thumb grip. The A6600 has Sony's Multi Interface hot shoe on the top as well, but it does not include the digital audio interface found on the A7R Mark IV. Notice that the A6600 no longer has a built-in flash, a first for Sony's 6000-series.

The rear of the camera looks quite similar to the A6400 and A6500, including a variety of buttons, control dial and select button. The 3-inch touchscreen, which has only 921k dots, has an increased tilting range. It tilts 180 degrees upward and 74 degrees downward. Like prior tilting Sony displays, the A6600's display does not tilt to the side. When using it as a selfie display, there is a slight bit of the display which is obscured by the top plate of the camera, but it's a very small portion of the screen. As for the viewfinder, it is an XGA OLED EVF with 2.36M dots and 0.7x magnification.

The A6600 is dust- and moisture-resistant, and the top cover, front cover, internal frame and rear cover are all constructed using lightweight magnesium alloy. In total, the A6600 weighs 1.11 pounds (503 grams) with the larger Z battery inserted (more on that later) and with an SD memory card. The A6600 has a single SD/MSDuo card slot, which supports UHS-I. The camera is 4.72 inches (120 millimeters) wide, 2.63 in. (66.9mm) tall and has a maximum depth of 2.73 in. (69.3mm). In terms of shutter reliability, Sony states that the A6600's shutter is rated for 200,000 cycles.

Image Sensor and Shooting Features: 24.2-megapixel APS-S sensor with improved processing

While the A6600's 24.2-megapixel APS-C Exmor CMOS image sensor is not new, with their latest Bionz X image processor and additional improvements, the sensor behaves a bit differently in the A6600. For starters, the native ISO range is now 100-32,000, whereas the A6500's native range topped out at ISO 25,600. Further, the A6600 processes images in 16-bit before outputting a final 14-bit raw file, which Sony states results in improved texture detail, shadow detail and tonal gradation. The image processor and improved LSI were first seen in the Sony A9, so it's interesting to see how Sony's latest and greatest tech improvements trickle down to their more affordable, and in this case smaller-sensored, cameras.

In terms of additional shooting features, the A6600 retains its predecessors' same 1/160s maximum flash sync. The camera also includes touch focus and touch shutter functionality. For stabilization, the A6600 includes SteadyShot Inside 5-axis in-body image stabilization, a feature present in the A6500 but missing from the A6400. The stabilization is rated for up to five stops of shake correction. When you are using an OSS-equipped lens, the lens handles two axes of correction while the camera corrects shake on the other three.

The A6600 now includes a built-in intervalometer, but it drops Sony's in-camera Sweep Panorama support.

Autofocus and Performance: Real-time tracking, 84 percent frame coverage and more

The Sony A6600 is built around the concept of speed and that is evident when considering the camera's autofocus and overall performance. The A6600 utilizes a 4D Focus hybrid autofocus system, which incorporates 425 phase-detect autofocus points and 425 contrast-detect AF points. Further, the autofocus points cover about 84 percent of the image area, which should make it easier to track moving subjects throughout the frame. With its Fast Hybrid AF, Sony claims that the A6600 can achieve focus in as little as 0.02 seconds. When shooting in low light, the A6600 is rated to focus from around -2 EV to 20 EV (ISO 100 at f/2.0), so it should prove fairly capable in low light.

It is not purely about specs when thinking about autofocus, features matter too. The A6600 includes persistent real-time tracking and real-time eye AF. In addition to the usual eye AF for humans, you can also enable eye AF for animals in the camera's menus, which is designed for photographing typical pets, like dogs and cats, but can work for some wildlife as well. The camera also allows you to select between prioritizing the left or right eye.

Turning our attention toward continuous shooting performance, powered by the latest-generation Bionz X image processor, the A6600 is about 1.9 times faster at processing data than the A6500. The A6600, like the A6XXX series cameras, can shoot at up to 11 frames per second continuously with full AF/AE. At this continuous high shooting mode, the camera does not offer live view, but instead shows the most recently-shot image. If you'd like a real-time viewfinder, you can slow the camera down to 8 frames per second.

In terms of buffer depths, Sony rates the camera for 46 raw images at 11 fps and 116 JPEG images before the buffer fills, but we will verify these specs in our lab testing. With respect to the camera's operability while writing to the card, which has long been a sore spot with Sony cameras, the A6600 promises improved performance here, although during our hands-on time with the camera there were still some issues, which we will investigate further when we get extended time with the camera.

Video Features: 4K UHD video, HDR support, slow and quick motion recording and more

The A6600 includes quite a few video features for its class, including 4K/30p video recording plus support for HLG (Hybrid Log-Gamma) video. The camera's 4K UHD video recording derives from a 6K oversampled recording for improved quality. The A6600 can record at up to 100 Mbps bit rates in the XAVC S format. Internal video is recorded at 4:2:0, although 4:2:2 video recording is possible via clean HDMI output.

In terms of high speed video recording, the A6600 can record Full HD video at up to 120 frames per second and also includes a "Slow & Quick Motion" mode. This allows the user to capture Full HD video at 24, 30 or 60 fps but change the playback speed ranging from 1 frame per second to 120 fps, which results in up to a 60x quick motion effect or down to a 5x slow motion effect.

When considering features, the A6600 includes both microphone and headphone jacks, a first for Sony's A6XXX series. Further, the camera includes real-time tracking and real-time eye AF during video recording. For customizing the autofocus performance, the user can adjust the AF drive speed and AF tracking sensitivity for recording video. The A6600 includes focus peaking, time code, user bit (user-selectable data, such as date, time and scene number, which helps when editing video from multiple cameras) and zebra functionality as well, which should please more serious video users.

Ports and Power: Larger battery offers much improved battery life

The A6600 includes a single SD/MSDuo card slot, which supports UHS-I rather than UHS-II. In addition to the aforementioned mic and headphone jacks, the camera also includes Micro HDMI (Type D) and USB 2.0 (Micro-B) ports. In terms of wireless connectivity, the camera includes Wi-Fi , NFC and Bluetooth. Considering its power supply, the A6600 uses a different type of battery than its predecessors, Sony's NP-FZ100 rechargeable lithium-ion battery. This larger battery offers up to approximately 810 shots, which is about 2.2x better than the battery life of the A6400 and A6500 cameras, which use Sony's smaller W-type battery.

Sony A6600 versus A6500 and A6400

At this point it's reasonable to wonder how much of the A6600 is really new, as many features are shared between the A6400, A6500 and A6600 cameras. When compared to the A6500, the A6600 includes a higher extended ISO (102,400 versus 51,200). Further, its autofocus system is improved, with the A6600 offering 425 PDAF and 425 CDAF points compared to the A6500's 425 PDAF and only 169 CDAF points. Further, the A6600 includes real-time tracking focus functionality, including real-time eye AF and real-time animal eye AF. Considering video features, the A6600 offers HLG video, whereas the A6500 does not. In terms of body design, the A6600 has an extended tilting range for its touchscreen and includes a headphone jack.

Sony A6600 Pricing and Availability

The new Sony A6600 will go on sale in November and will be sold both body-only and as a kit with the Sony E 18-135mm lens. The body-only price is set at $1,400 US ($1,900 CAD), while the kit configuration is priced at $1,800 US ($2,400 CAD).

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