The Sony A6000. By some peoples definition, an obsolete camera. Yet it is also a foundational mirrorless camera and I own one.

A couple of years ago, I became interested in mirrorless cameras. Mostly for their smaller size and form factor. So, I shopped around a little bit looking at just about everything on the market and one day while walking around in my local  Best Buy, I picked up a Sony A6000 that was on display and fooled around with it a bit.

What I liked was its small size, but more importantly, its heft, especially in relation to its size. It was a solid feeling camera which is somewhat unusual at this kind of price point in today’s “plastic fantastic” era where light weight is prized but often seems to come at the expense of build quality. The first tactile impression was of a solid, well built, and serious camera in a small form factor.

Of course, at the time the photo world was raving over Sony cameras and Sony seemed to be releasing a new model every month.

Then, it was being offered at Best Buy and several online retailers for generally around $550.00 USD with a battery, USB cable/wall charger, and 16-50mm power zoom kit lens. 

It took me a couple of months or so to decide that I really wanted one so, I sold a Canon lens that I didn’t use much and began to really consider buying one.

Then, one Saturday morning after dropping my wife off at her favorite local fabric store to do some shopping, I decided to visit one of my favorite local pawn shops to do a little shopping myself. Well you can guess what happened next – they had a Sony A6000 in nearly new condition with the extras, but no box or manual, for $450.00 USD.  After a little haggling, I walked out with it for a total of $427.00 USD including tax. I know that prices have dropped since then, but at the time it was a pretty good deal on a nearly new camera.

So being a “Canon guy” and trusting my DSLRs implicitly, it took me a while to begin shooting this little camera seriously. I soon came to accept that Sony’s lens ecosystem is not as developed or, as budget friendly as I would have liked. So after a little shopping around I found some legacy lenses in Minolta and Pentax mounts, bought some adapters on Amazon and began shooting, but always as a second camera, trusting my more serious results to one of my DSLRs. Recently, I’ve also purchased a first generation Commlite adapter that allows me to sort of use some of my EF lenses as well.

I have since begun to use this camera with confidence and more often. 

Recently, when my wife and I went on  a weekend trip to the Dallas-Ft. Worth metroplex, I took the Sony and I finally made the commitment to it as a primary camera. Of course I brought a selection of lenses and extra batteries plus chargers etc…

We went to the downtown Dallas historic district on a cold and gloomy Sunday morning.

Starting in Deep Ellum – lots of live music and art venues.

Then took a look around the historic downtown.

Great architectural details almost everywhere.

Of course the Giant Eyeball statue.

Then we met  some folks on the street who offered us a mini-tour of their art deco apartment building including a trip to the roof. I won’t mention their names or the building, but the lobby has a wonderful Art Deco ceiling.

Also a pretty spectacular rooftop that was a cool blend of modern style and Art Deco.

You got a pretty good view of the neon Pegasus on top of the Magnolia building too.

Like I said, a dreary day but, well, a great view!

So, as it turns out the only lens that I used was the 16-50mm PZ kit lens and it seemed to hold up pretty well. Unfortunately, I did  shoot RAW and edit without thinking that it might be nice to post some straight out of camera JPEGs. Rest assured, the edits are minimal – warmed slightly as it was an incredibly dreary day, slightly straightened and, that’s about it except for maybe tuning up the vibrance and contrast a bit.

The accessories that I used were minimal, I attached a Meike battery grip to help the ergonomics a little and extend the camera’s notoriously short battery life. I also used an adapted metal lens hood and a simple strap.

All in all I think the camera performed quite well and the kit lens seems to be beyond acceptable. I am fairly certain that I will be using this camera more in the future as I begin to purchase more lenses and perhaps even ween myself from DSLRs.

Do you own or shoot any of Sony’s aps-c mirrorless cameras? If so what do you think about them?

Comments and questions are always welcome.

Thanks for reading!

“Essentially what photography is, is life lit up”

– Sam Abell