I loved my Sony a6000

[quietcanyon]

Hi All,  I rarely post to forums but I thought I'd see if others have the same feelings as I do.

I loved my Sony a6000.  My work has been professional video and photo, mostly in industrial markets.  After years of owning a number of Nikon cameras, both film from an FE2 and up, and then digital fro the D1 and up from there, I thought I'd try the little Sony.  I was about to go to Alaska and didn't want to lug my D2 around.   I bought the a6000 with kit lens plus a Tamron 18-200. Here are some random thoughts after a few thousand shots on several trips.

1.  It is small which is great! Easy to carry, the whole Domke camera bag filled with camera, lenses, filters, extra batteries, charger, cleaning stuff weighs less than just my D2 with a small lens.  Easy to carry all day and just forget that it's there.

2. I do like the extra pixels over my older Nikons, much more room to crop.  But that's just the nature of the  newer sensor, not Sony specific. 

4.  Focus was great with the Sony lens but I never liked the way that it focused with the Tamron .  "Fortunately" the Tamron was damaged in a drop so I decided to replace it with the Sony 18-200.  What a difference!! The Sony focused so much quicker.  I working with dozens of cameras and hundreds of lenses over the many many years I've never ever broken one, maybe it was karma.I wish I had just spent the extra on the Sony up front.

5.  The start up lag is  horrible. With my Nikons I'd flick the switch as I brought it to my eye and it was ready to shoot like NOW!  With the Sony it's wait, wait, wait, oh, now it's ready and the shot is long gone. 

6.  Battery use is horrendous. When I was shooting I always had to have a couple extra charged batteries in my pocket.  In between trips, etc., it seems that most of the time I needed it the battery was dead or nearly dead and the extras had lost charge too!  I've missed a lot of great shots because of that.  My Nikons would sit forever and be ready to shoot all the time. I could even leave the switch in the on position and it just worked.

7. I never had luck using any of my other flashes on the Sony.  I have a number of different ones, I hated to go and pop for a Sony one.  And the Sony flash seemed extra long duration. Even using flash I would get motion blur that I never got with the big Nikons. The first time I used it at night was to take photos of a group of scholarship winners that was supposed to go in the paper.  Every shot had motion blur because I didn't realize that I had to put the Sony on a tripod or hold it very very carefully. Thank goodness that I took a couple extra shots with the Nikon D2 just in case. 

8.  It always takes a while to find something in the menus.  I think there is just too much there so when I want to find something it takes a while.  Stop shooting, have a seat, explore the menus, ah, there it is!!!.  The other day I was giving one of my old Nikons to a friend to learn on and teaching them the camera. Even after not using it for a year I found that it was easy to find what I wanted to set up.

Don't get me wrong, I love the little Sony, it's a great camera, takes amazing shots.  But it and I just never got along. I'm thinking to go back to one of my smaller body DSLR Nikons for travel and sell the Sony.   Anyone else have similar thoughts on going from a Canon or Nikon to the Sony or am I just weird? 

[Pieter]

Poor battery life ans slow startup are natural to all mirrorless cameras compared to DSLR, no matter the brand. Startup time is improving with newer generations and battery life improved tremendously with the new Z100 battery (which is in the Sony A6600).

That being said, I too dislike the consistent battery draining, even when not in the camera but more so when the battery is in the camera. I keep 3 spares with me at all times. The batteries are small so this shouldn't be a burden. Just something you need to get used to.

With regard to the menus: there is indeed a lot of complaint about the Sony menus. They have improved a bit in newer generation cameras but it still takes some searching. Personally I really love the customizability of Sony cameras, and an extensive menu with gazilion of options adds to that. You can hotkey most options either to the Fn-button or to a custom button so you shouldn't need to dive through the menu while out in the field.