Exam of Sony a6400 |

We are currently filming Canon systems and we always say that the ONLY product that could influence us would be a

Sony Alpha camera

. I was really excited when Mark invited me to test the Sony a6400.

The Sony a6400 is definitely one of the most talked about cameras on the market today, along with a few other Sony models.

It can be difficult to decide which camera is right for you or whether Sony is right for you. This camera is definitely a little gem, so let's talk more about what makes it special and if it's right for you.

Strongly recommended

sony a6400

Impressive autofocus performance and image quality in a compact body.

Check the current price

I had the camera for two weeks. I have photographed a wedding, a studio portrait and used it as a travel/family camera.

My wife and business partner, Lindsay, also assisted in parts of the camera testing and modeled for the portraits. . Portland was mostly rainy (big surprise) during this time, but I managed to test it in a few lighting conditions.

Contents

Sony a6400 Review | Specifications

Look and feel

Touchscreen

Tilt/tilt screen

The Sony menu system

Focus

Sony a6400 image quality

Sony a6400 lens recommendations

Video

General advantages and disadvantages

Final words

(See as well

sony a6400 vs 6500

camera comparison.)

See more reviews

Editor's Choice

Advantages

Ultra-fast autofocus

Well built and weatherproof

Convenient size for travel

4k video

Good value for money

Disadvantages

Unresponsive touch screen

Bulky flip-up screen

Low light performance could be better

Check the current price

This is a mirrorless APS-C sensor camera. (If you don't know what an APS-C sensor is...lucky you - I made a fun little video here explaining the difference between

full frame

and cropped sensor. Useful for beginners or those who have always taken photos with a cropped sensor and are curious about full frame.)

the

sony a6400

has a whopping 24.2 megapixels. Which is perfect for enlarging your images for billboards…

It has a fairly standard frame rate of 11fps but it will continuously focus when shooting full RAW.

The buffer time can be a bit slow even when shooting with

fast SD cards

, but I never found this to be a problem with the types of images and events I photographed.

Again I shot a wedding with…not the Warriors sweeping the Trailblazers in my hometown in the NBA Finals….:(

It weighs just under a pound (body only) and measures approximately 4.5 inches wide, 2 inches thick, and just over 2.5 inches tall.

Considering these dimensions and the low weight, Lindsay and I totally agree that this is a

perfect take-along camera

…but you have to pair it with

good Sony lenses

it is… more details below.

The a6400 has a 3-inch tilting screen (we'll get to that later) and a 2,359,000-dot electronic viewfinder.

All of this is packaged in a nice weatherproof body case.

After opening up and inspecting the camera, those specs were pretty decent and I was ready to dive right in.

Which brings me to.. ..

Sony a6400 – sleek and minimalist design

I love the look of these cameras. Sony has done a great job of keeping its cameras very modern and following the minimalist trends of mirrorless cameras.

The Sony a6400 is black and sleek with smooth edges. Dials are kept to a minimum, and

the discreet buttons are well placed

for ease of use and not distracting from the overall appearance.

That said, the Sony a6400's buttons are closer together to accommodate the smaller body, and I had a problem accidentally pressing buttons I didn't want. Especially with my face pressed against the back of the camera.

More often than not, my cheeks were pushing against pimples and I didn't notice what I was doing until after that fact. It's almost like when your cat lays down on your computer keyboard and pushes all at once and it takes you a long time to put it back the way it was.

The Sony a6400 has a small body, it feels substantial in your hands. The ergonomics of the handle and the weight give the impression of holding

a professional camera

but that you can take everywhere. That's pretty much the dream these days.

A quick word on the aim effect though…

the set

sony zoom lens

sent with the a6400 was huge and really compensated for the weight distribution in a way that ruins the fact that you're holding a compact camera. I won't spend a lot of time here, but smaller compact lenses are definitely a recommendation when shooting with this camera. Discover

these Sony a6400 lenses recommended

for some examples.

The viewfinder is crisp, bright and clean. Honestly this is exactly what you expect and want from a Sony mirrorless camera

. It's comfortable against your eyes. But if you're more of a live shooter, let's talk about the flip-up screen.

Limited touchscreen functionality on the Sony a6400 (left) compared to the Canon 6D mark II (right). p>

My biggest gripes with Sony cameras (and most mirrorless cameras) are the flip-up touchscreens.

They nailed the resolution on them. The picture looks fantastic. But I think they surprisingly lack everything a touchscreen should offer.

Sony calls the a6400 a touchscreen camera. In fact, most of Sony's alpha series are "touchscreens". I wrote about the touchscreen problem in

my review of the sony ar7iii

also.

When using a touchscreen, I want to be able to quickly choose the options menu, focus my shot, zoom, swipe, and have touch shutter capability, and the Sony a6400 failed me in this area. I completely gave up testing the camera.

In summary, the touchscreen is

terrible

. Responsiveness is way too slow. Half the time I would tap on it and nothing would happen.

I know some photographers don't think this is a big deal, but for me it is. We live in the touchscreen world. This greatly facilitates complicated composition and choice of focus. That's why you'll hear a lot of photographers say their go-to travel camera is…

their iPhone

.

Business Insider reported that 1.2 trillion (TRILLION!) smartphone photos were captured in 2017. It's all because of their easy touchscreen format.

This number is enough for me. Mirrorless cameras should have flawless touchscreen capability.

Ergonomics and awkward handling of the folding screen.

The tilting/tilting screen is just as bad. It's quite clumsy to open it. It flips over so you can take selfies and film yourself (vlogging style), but even then you have to do a weird little maneuver to flip it over.

It's just annoying and there is a much needed design improvement to be made. If you're looking for a really nice flip-up touchscreen – look no further than the Canon 6D MarkII – check out our review here.

[Editor: Many vloggers have also complained that the flip-up screen is blocked by any mic mounted on the a6400. Many "devices" seem to shift the location of the mic (and other hot shoe accessories)–this one being affordable.]

Just like Sony's other alpha cameras, they're not known for their ease of use. Similar to my previous review of the a7RIII, the menu options were completely overwhelming and far too many. You have to use their custom menu option, it makes the menu system less intimidating.

It's such a shame as the technology inside the camera has evolved but the ease of use and overall user interface has not. Sony must meet these needs in order to be at the top of the market for everyday amateur photographers.

check out my other

Sony a7RIII review

where I go more in depth on how to add your most used menu functions to your custom menu. Everything in this review also applies to the Sony a6400.

Sony a6400 Eye AF is fast… AF!

the

sony a6400

(Still, I still managed to lose focus...ugh. I need to drink less coffee maybe.)

Huge bonus: Sony's Eye AF is always on. So when you focus it will always try to lock focus on the eye. Rather sweet. We tested it several times and it was great.

Combine that with... real-time focus tracking. Works like a charm and definitely one of our favorite aspects to test.

Sony a6400+E 18-135mm F3.5-5.6@26mm | 1/200th, f/8.0, ISO 200

Sony a6400+E 18-135mm F3.5-5.6@18mm | 1/4000th, f/5.0, ISO 500

The Sony a6400 shoots on a 24.2-megapixel APS-C sensor. It is exactly the same sensor as the a6300.

The quality of the images is good. It's not stunning like Sony's a7Riii (which was recently heavily discounted - see here), but it's definitely

incredible quality for a travel or family camera

.

Sony claims it has excellent dynamic range. I haven't found that to always be the case. I felt that certain lighting conditions struggled to retain information in shadows and highlights.

It lacks low light performance. The a6400 has an ISO range of 100-32000, which can be extended to 102400 just about anything, but above ISO 2000 starts to feel a bit rough.

There was an entire indoor sequence at the wedding that I shot where I was disappointed with the poor lighting capability. That said, I've crafted a pretty impressive image of the couple next to some light bulbs so…forget what I just said. LOL. I think I just got lucky.

Sony a6400+E 18-135mm F3.5-5.6@18mm | 1/80th, f/4.5, ISO 800

I don't think you can't walk around in low light or a dimly lit room and expect this camera to respond to you.

For the bulb portrait above, I worked on it for a while. I stayed slow and still and knew what I wanted in my head. Otherwise, the Sony could have blown it for me...which I had a problem with, especially if you're shooting with their kit lens that only goes down to f/4.0.

Sony FE (full frame) can also be used on the Sony a6400.

[Editor: Since testers were only supplied with the base kit lens and a zoom when writing this review of the Sony a6400, I thought I should include some additional information on the performance of this camera with other lenses.]

While there's nothing inherently wrong with slower lenses such as the Sony 18-135mm F3.5-5.6 (which has been lent to reviews), the maximum an aperture of "only" f/3 .5 is limited in low light. Zooming the lens to 135mm and having to deal with f/5.6 can also be tricky.

Of course, in good light, or if you're using strobes, maximum aperture is no longer an issue. , other than you don't have as much ability to produce shallow depth of field, of course. What I'm trying to say is this:

There is a comprehensive guide to

lenses for the sony a6400

elsewhere on Shotkit, but my personal lens of choice when reviewing the camera for an article on travel cameras was the Sony FE 28mm f/2.

It's a small lens by full-frame standards, relatively affordable, and pairs well with the a6400's compact body, delivering excellent images at a versatile focal length, with pleasing bokeh to boot (see below ).

Sony a6400 + Sony 28mm f/2 | 1/4000 f/2 IS0100

Another fun option is the Sony FE 35mm f/2.8 Zeiss lens (

see comparison

), which is so small and light that it makes the a6400 feel like it forgot to attach a lens. With the APS-C multiplication factor, you get a versatile 50mm equivalent for shooting a wide range of subjects.

Then you have the choice between the more exotic f/2.8 G Master zooms. – this wouldn't normally be my preference on a body as small as the a6400, but if you don't mind the weight/lag balance, or you're using a tripod, I highly recommend whatever Sony has to offer in this series .

Sony a6400 + Sony FE 24-70mm f/2.8 @70mm | 1/160 f/2.8 IS0100

So to wrap up my little hiatus from the main review, I just want to say that I really enjoyed my time reviewing the Sony a6400 - maybe more than Daniel & Lindsay, just because I was testing it with more lenses fast. I advise you to do the same!

the

sony a6400

can shoot in 4K video resolution - 3840 x 2160 and has a frame rate of up to 120 FPS so you can get smooth, smooth slow motion. Yeah baby.

However

, there is no headphone jack and only a microphone port. There's no in-camera image stabilization either. Two major disappointments for video, but check out this guide to the

best camera stabilizer

who can help you.

[Editor: YouTube clip above delves into the pros and cons of the a6400 for video capture. In order to use a shoe mic (on camera) with the a6400's front display, a small rig such as this is recommended, to mount the mic away from the display.]

Advantages:

Perfect travel size, everyday camera

Weatherproof and robust body

Focus is absolutely amazing - especially with the new Eye AF constant autofocus implementation

Decent image quality

Built-in pop-up flash

Disadvantages:

The flip-out screen is a bit bulky, and the touchscreen (like all of Sony's) is next to useless.

Noticeable noise in low light conditions above ISO 2000

No image stabilization.

Battery life isn't great...big surprise.

great travel camera

– especially with the f/POP attached

For travel, family and everyday adventures - this is a great camera for the price. The combination of a

excellent image quality, sharp focus and a nice lightweight body

makes it perfect to carry over your shoulder during vacations and during weekend activities.

I took pictures of my kids so I could potentially use it as a family photographer, but overall I don't generally recommend this camera for professional use.

There are simply better systems out there that perform much better in low light and offer a faster interface for the constant on the go, all day shooting that professional photographers do.

At the time of review, the Sony a6400 retails for around $900 body-only. I think that's fair for what you get. The price is affordable for Sony photographers who want to afford an upgraded mirrorless camera that will be fun for everyday shooting and gaming.

In summary:

If you are buying your first mirrorless camera

never

for most recreational and personal photography...consider testing other camera models first to see what best suits your needs.

If you shoot Fuji, Canon, Olympus but really want to switch to Sony… first look and test all Sony models. The a6400 alone is not worth replacing and Sony has better models depending on your budget.

If you are

already

a proud Sony photographer, and would love to buy a fun, everyday mirrorless camera without breaking the bank… yes, the Sony a6400 will work well for you and give you solid image quality.

Thanks for reading and leave me questions in the comments as usual. Well done, Daniel and Lindsay.

Strongly recommended

sony a6400

Impressive autofocus performance and image quality in a compact body.

Check Current Price

Disclaimer: All recommendations are unbiased and based on user experience with no product or brand bias. Products in this article may contain affiliate links.

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