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About a month ago, I realized I should probably get something smaller than my 4+ lb DSLR to take pictures of my new family.  I also wanted something that would give me good enough image quality so that if I was out somewhere without my main kit I could still shoot some landscape “keepers”.  My first purchase was a Sony RX100. I purchased this neat little camera based on some great reviews, very compact size, and fast fixed lens.  The fact that it had a larger than normal sensor for a compact was what pushed me click the “buy now” button on Amazon.  Keep in mind, this was all a bit of an impulse, as I had a newborn only a few days old and not a ton of time to research.  That, and I was feeling pretty groggy 🙂  I received the camera a day later, took some images, and while the quality was good, plenty good for most, it just wasn’t going to cut it for the price I payed for that camera.  So, I came across this nice little comparison website  and after swapping cameras for a while, I came across the A6000 which I had never heard of.  As you can see, it holds its own pretty well even against my Canon 5D Mark III (only up to around ISO 400 though), and is visibly miles ahead of the RX100.  To be fair, there is always bit of focus error with these types of tests unless manual focus is used, with live view, zoomed in 10x.   Even then, some lenses either back focus (like my new Canon 24-70 f4L) or front focus.  So some softness could be due to that.  I can attest to the difference in detail between both Sonys though, because I have personally tested both.

Sony A6000 Canon 5d mark III Sony RX100

So I bought one.  Then, I read some reviews of the Sony 10-18mm F4 ultra-wide angle lens and thought I’d check one of those too.  Nice little ultra-wide zoom!  I also picked up a Sony 35mm f1.8 lens for shallow depth of field shots.  Really Right Stuff makes an L-Plate for this camera, and you can get polarizers for the lenses and a cable release for long exposures.  All together the entire kit weighs about as much as my Canon 5D Mark III and one lens!  This should be great for backpacking, or traveling.  It does feel good to get back to the DSLR after shooting with this thing for a while though.  A couple of things that could use improvement IMO are:  better high-ISO performance, the digital viewfinder image looks pretty ridiculous.  I haven’t looked into many other mirror-less cameras, but MUCH prefer seeing through the lens of my DSLR.  Also, the viewfinder/LCD, when switched to auto detect, can be really annoying-switching back and forth while composing a shot if a hand or finger sets it off.  And, build.  The build is pretty good, but the dial on the back feels a bit cheap, and slightly loose. Things that really impress me are: image quality, auto focus (amazing), speed, size, and  the image stabilization within the lenses is really good.  Actually, the lenses that Sony makes for this are pretty freaking good too, especially for their featherlight weight.

Here are some travel shots taken with the A6000.

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