Sony A6400 Mirrorless Camera with Real-time Eye Autofocus, Real-time Tracking and World's Fastest Autofocus

[SAF Admin]

Sony today introduced an exciting new addition to its E-mount mirrorless camera lineup – the Sony A6400.

The Sony A6400 brings many of Sony's most advanced technologies from their acclaimed full-frame lineup to the APS-C segment.

Sony A6400 at a glance

• World's fastest autofocus (AF) acquisition of 0.02 seconds
• New advanced "Real-time Eye AF" and "Real-time Tracking" capabilities
• High-speed shooting at up to 11 fps with AF/AE tracking
• New-generation BIONZ X image processing engine
• 4K video recording
• Fully 180-degree tiltable LCD touch screen

Sony A6400 product images

Sony press release

Quote

 

Sony Announces its Next-generation α6400 Mirrorless Camera with Real-time Eye Autofocus, Real-time Tracking and World's Fastest Autofocus

SAN DIEGO, Jan. 15, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Sony Electronics Inc. today introduced an exciting new addition to its E-mount mirrorless camera lineup – the α6400 (model ILCE-6400). 

The α6400 brings many of Sony's most advanced technologies from their acclaimed full-frame lineup to a compact, lightweight APS-C camera. The speedy new camera boasts the world's fastesti autofocus (AF) acquisition of 0.02 secondsii, while also introducing the new advanced "Real-time Eye AF" and "Real-time Tracking" capabilities. Also included are high-speed shooting at up to 11 fpsiv with AF/AE tracking, a new-generation BIONZ X image processing engine that produces excellent image quality, 4Kvi video recording, a fully 180-degree tiltable LCD touch screen and much more, making it the ultimate tool for all types of creators ranging from professionals to vloggers.

"The α6400 represents another important step in the growth of Sony's overall interchangeable lens camera lineup," said Neal Manowitz, vice president of Imaging Solutions at Sony Electronics. "By bringing so many of our latest and most advanced technologies from full-frame cameras to a brand new APS-C model, we are giving today's creators more options than ever to realize their vision."

Speedy Performance that Captures Decisive Moments
The impressive autofocus system on the new α6400 inherits many technologies from Sony's newest line-up of full-frame cameras including the α9, α7R III and α7 III models. The new a6400 features 425 phase-detection AF points and 425 contrast-detection AF points that are placed densely over the entire image area, covering approximately 84 percent of the image area. This high-speed, high-performance tracking AF system is paired with a new-generation BIONZ X image processing engine that together allow the camera to acquire focus in as little as 0.02 secondsii and maintain subject lock extremely effectively, ensuring even the fastest moving subjects can be tracked and captured with ease.

The α6400 introduces advanced "Real-time Eye AF," the latest version of Sony's acclaimed Eye AF technology. This exciting new capability employs artificial intelligence based object recognition to detect and process eye data in real time, resulting in improved accuracy, speed and tracking performance of Eye AF. In all autofocus modes, the camera now automatically detects the eyes of the subject and activates Eye AF with a half press of the shutter button, and when in AF-C or AF-A mode, the preferred eye (left or right) of your subject can be selected as the focus point. Choices include Auto / Right Eye / Left Eye, and a Switch Right / Left Eye function is able to be assigned to a custom function as well. This exciting new technology completely frees the photographer to focus solely on composition with full trust that focus will be tack sharp on the subject's eye. Eye AF support for animals[vii] will be added in summer 2019 via a system software update, ideal for wildlife photographers.

Also debuting on the α6400 is Sony's newly developed "Real-time Tracking." This mode utilizes Sony's latest algorithm including artificial intelligence (AI) based object recognition and processes color, subject distance (depth), pattern (brightness) as spatial information to ensure that all subjects can be captured with excellent accuracy. Additionally, when photographing or videographing humans or animals, face and eye position information is recognized by AI and the subject's eyevii is monitored in real time with extremely high tracking precision. This can be activated by a simple half press of the shutter button[viii], or can be assigned to a custom function as well. 

In terms of overall shooting speeds, the new camera can shoot at up to 11 fpsiv with full AF/AE tracking while utilizing the mechanical shutter, and up to 8 fpsv with full AF/AE tracking while silent shooting. It can shoot at each of these speeds for up to 116 frames JPEG Standard / 46 frames RAW compressed, greatly increasing the chances of capturing the perfect moment. 

All-around Advancements in Image Quality
Sony's new α6400 is equipped with a 24.2 MPiii APS-C sized image sensor with that is paired with an upgraded BIONZ X processor to deliver incredible advancements in image quality and color reproduction in all types of shooting conditions. Standard ISO ranges up to ISO 32000 for both still and movie, and is expandable up to ISO 102400 for still images, with excellent noise reduction at medium and high sensitivities. 

The camera also inherits many of the image processing algorithms from Sony's newest full-frame cameras, greatly suppressing noise while preserving resolution and improving texture depiction. 

Advanced High-resolution 4Kvi Movie Recording with Fast Hybrid Autofocus
The versatile α6400 is an exceptional video camera, offering  internal 4K (QFHD: 3840 x 2160) movie recording with full pixel readout and no pixel binning to collect about 2.4x the amount of data required for 4K movies, and then oversamples it to produce high quality 4K footage with exceptional detail and depth. Focusing during movie shooting is fast and stable thanks to upgraded Fast Hybrid AF technology, which keeps the subject in constant smooth focus no matter the scene, and even if an object crosses in front of the camera. This advanced AF plus touch focus functionality make it an ideal camera choice for many vloggers and video creators that are regularly creating and uploading content online.

For time-lapse movie creationix, the new camera features built-in interval recording that can be set anywhere between 1 and 60 seconds, with a total number of shots from 1 to 9999.  AE tracking sensitivity can be adjusted to "High", "Mid" or "Low" during interval shooting, allowing for reduced changes in exposure over the shooting interval.

Additionally, for the first time in Sony APS-C mirrorless camera, the new model includes an HLG (Hybrid Log-Gamma) picture profile, which supports an Instant HDR workflow, allowing HDR (HLG) compatible TV's to playback beautiful, true-to-life 4K HDRx imagery. Further, both S-Log2 and S-Log3xi are available for increased color grading flexibility, as well as Zebra functionality, Gamma Display assist and proxy recording. The camera can also record Full HD at 120 fpsxii at up to 100 Mbps, allowing footage to be reviewed and eventually edited into 4x or 5x slow-motion video files in Full HD resolution with AF tracking.

Upgraded Build to Maximize Versatility
The new camera is designed to offer a high level of functionality and customization to maximize shooting freedom. New on the α6400 is a fully 180-degree tiltable, 3.0-type LCD flip screen with 921k-dots of resolution that allows for simple and effective framing of selfie-style shooting for both still and video capture.  Utilizing this capability, vloggers will be able to check and monitor composition throughout their entire creative process. The LCD screen is also equipped with touch functionality, with options for Touch Pad, Touch Focus, Touch Shutter and new Touch Tracking which quickly activates "Real-time Tracking" through the touch screen.  

The camera features a high-quality XGA OLED Tru-finder™ viewfinder, extensive customization with 89 functions that are assignable to eight custom keys, the new My Dial and My Menu functionality, enhanced overall menu usability, a help screen for menus, star rating for images, and many other features that allow for a seamless shooting experience. It is also built with a tough magnesium alloy design and has an extremely durable shutter that is rated for approximately 200,000 cyclesxiii. It also is capable of seamlessly transferring files to a smartphone or tablet when connected to the brand new Imaging Edge Mobile applicationxiv.

Pricing and Availability
The α6400 will ship in February 2019 for a suggested retail price of $900 USD and $1,250 CAD. It will also be offered as a kit with the 16-50mm F3.5 – 5.6 lens for a suggested retail price of $1,000 USD and $1,350 CAD, or in a kit with the 18-135mm F3.5 – 5.6 lens for a suggested retail price of $1,300 USD and $1,750 CAD. The camera and kits will be sold at a variety of Sony authorized dealers throughout North America.

 

 

 

 

[Cycledoc]

A few nice tweaks.  But is this is worth buying if you own a previous crop frame Sony?  Maybe an upgrade for the 6000 albeit at a several hundred dollar price.  No in-body stabilization so not worth moving to from my a6300.  Overall a downgrade from the 6500.

[Pieter]

Most boring E-mount camera since ever. It's just an a6300 with a flippy touchscreen and some minor updates. They didn't even use the a6500 (or an even newer) body. One thing Sony did right this time is the price point though. Starting price in Europe will be €200 cheaper than that of the a6300. Hope some of this new Eye-AF functionality will be added to my a6500 via firmware but knowing Sony it won't.

[2xbass]

For general shooting this was a huge disappointment after all these rumours about a mini A9 coming. However it’s definitely a big deal for vloggers as it’s the first camera that has a flip-out screen AND, from what I can see, an external mic input.

Edited January 17, 2019 by 2xbass

[Pieter]

The a6300 and a6500 have an external mic input and the a5100 had a flipscreen. From what I can tell this is sort of a 'cleanup model' to replace the a5100, a6000 and a6300 all at once. To do so it had to be competitively priced so IBIS had to be omitted.

[tinplater]

I view the new AF real time tracking as a very important feature, along with animal eye autofocus.  Latter coming to the A7III, I keep my fingers crossed a future update may include the new AF system.

[lamontcranston]

What, no weather-proofing??

[tinplater]

On 1/22/2019 at 10:01 AM, lamontcranston said:

What, no weather-proofing??

Only the shadow knows...

[lamontcranston]

2 hours ago, tinplater said:

Only the shadow knows...

Shhhhhhh!

 

[Bill Kauffman]

Hey! I got my new a6400 yesterday. So far I'm in love.

Can anyone give me a step by step on how to assign toggling from viewfinder to monitor to a button? I keep reading the manual and it looks like I have found the answer. Then I hit a dead end.

Thank you so much!

 

Bill.

[Pieter]

Think it's about time to unpin this thread as it has become totally irrelevant.

[mirrorlessNY(youtuber)]

good camera just did a review on it,,,,,,,,,wish it had IBIS

[Pieter]

It does, only then it's called a6600.

[Matthew Jeschke]

I switched from a6500 to the a6400. I didn't like IBIS for video as it fought against my gimbal and made jerky footage. Plus the HLG video profiles were a huge selling point for me.

Which leads me to my questions, Real Time Eye Autofocus. I cannot get it to work. I watched a TON of tutorials on youtube. I see people are getting it to track in video mode real time. However, I cannot. How in the H.E. double hockey stick do you get this thing to do real time face and eye auto focus in video mode?

Thanks,

[DesMast]

14 months later the camera is malfunctioning. I never owned a Sony camera and was looking forward to years of photography with a brand new Sony a6400. After reading all the information last winter I pre-ordered the camera and eagerly awaiting it's arrival.Since last April I had taken over 10,000 photographs. Then on May 1, the camera froze. Then it would take a photo but I could not change the dials.  Cleaned it, took out battery, cleaned it some more, changed lenses. It worked for a few photos then viewing button froze. Then I could not focus, etc.  I tried calling Sony, they said they are closed. I spent my birthday in tears. What has happened to my beautiful camera after only a year? (I have always taken good care of my Sony, cleaning it after each use, never using it in bad weather, keeping it secure in a case)

[tinplater]

Things break.  Take it into a Tucson camera repair site and see what they think.  I have owned half a dozen Sony cameras, both full and cropped frame and have not had a single malfunction in more than 250,000 images.  If Tucson doesn't have a good repair shop, drive up to Phoenix and try Tempe Camera.  They are superb.