Sony A6500 review at Dpreview: “most powerful and usable Sony APS-C camera to date”
Dpreview published the full A6500 test and the conclusion is:
For the money, you get a light-weight, weather-sealed body with excellent still image quality, excellent 4K video quality, a degree of in-body stabilization and the ability to photograph high speed action with ease. And if you take the time to fully customize the camera, you can really make it sing. Simply put, as an all-arounder, its pretty hard to beat what the a6500 offers, but as an engaging artistic tool, the a6500 may still leave some wanting more.
A6500 at BHphoto, Amazon, Adorama, Focuscamera. In EU at Amazon.de, Fotomundus, Calumet.de. WexUK. PCHstore.
And this is their PROS and CONS list:
Pros:
- Excellent stills image quality in both JPEG and Raw
- Impressive buffer depth with buffer countdown
- In-body image stablization averages 2.5 stops of added stability
- One of the best APS-C cameras at high ISO
- Flexible Raw files with plenty of dynamic range
- Impressive autofocus performance and frame coverage
- Superb video quality
- Extensive video support features
- Solid construction
- Good degree of customization
- USB charging is convenient
- 14-bit Raw in most shooting modes
- 3rd party lens support for phase-detect AF
- New menus are less cluttered than previous generations’
- New highlight-weighted metering mode
- Eye sensor disengages when the screen is pulled out, EVF won’t switch on
- Redesigned eyecup slides on and locks in place, no longer prone to falling off
Cons:
- Touchscreen operation is laggy, feels unrefined
- Still no “My Menu” option for clustering most-used menu options
- Only one top plate control dial
- Rolling shutter when shooting 4K in both 24/30p
- No Lock-on AF area modes when shooting video
- Lock-on AF can be erratic (failing to distinguish chosen target)
- ‘Live View’ in 8 fps mode shows only static image between captures
- No in-camera Raw conversion option
- Lack of headphone socket for audio monitoring
- Drops to 12-bit mode in various modes inc. continuous shooting and silent shutter
- Risk of overheating limits use for extended recording periods
- Screen automatically dims when shooting 4K video
- Lack of included charger makes it hard to keep a spare battery charged
- Lossy compression of Raw risks occasional artifacts
