Sony a5000 vs a6000

This Sony a5000 vs Sony a6000 guide is designed to help you choose between these two mirrorless camera bodies.

Although neither the a5000 nor the a6000 are the newest cameras on the market, they both offer impressive features for an even more remarkable price.

Now, both of these bodies are heading into the 'entry-level' category in Sony's mirrorless camera lineup, but make no mistake about it; the a6000, in particular, is a very complete camera, offering many possibilities for customization and capable of taking consistently stunning photos.

Strongly recommended

sony a6000

Excellent autofocus and burst mode capabilities, combined with excellent image quality in a compact body. Incredible value for money.

Check the current price

And while the a5000 can't quite match the a6000 in terms of features, it offers surprisingly good image quality in a very compact package, making it a potential choice for photographers looking to get their own. first interchangeable lens camera.

To learn more about these two cameras, who they are for and how they match up, read on! p>

Contents

Sony a5000 vs Sony a6000 | Key differences (including image quality)

1. Size & Weight

2. Rear LCD & EVF

3. Build & Handling

4. Autofocus

5. Driving

6. Image quality

7. Video

8. Price

Sony a5000 vs Sony a6000 | Last words

See more reviews

Editor's Choice

1. Size & Weight

The Sony alpha a5000 and Sony alpha a6000 are both incredibly compact cameras. You can use either for travel or casual photography, although the a5000 has a slight advantage.

Without a lens, the a5000 weighs only 269 g (0.59 lb), compared to 344 g for the a6000. Both of these weights are low, but you're less likely to notice the a5000's weight when traveling or when taking a camera on hikes, backpacking trips, etc.

In terms of dimensions, the story is similar: 120x67x45mm on the a6000, 110x63x36mm on the a5000.

Although the heights are nearly identical, the a5000 is 10mm shorter and also offers a slimmer front grip.

(This last difference, however, causes other problems for a5000 users, which I will discuss later in the article.)

One thing to note: while both of these cameras are remarkably lightweight, the Sony lenses don't really follow that trend. Both of these cameras work with

Sony E-mount lenses

, including options E and FE.

So you can reduce the weight by using an a5000, you can still end up with a reasonably heavy package.

WINNER:

sony a5000

2. Rear LCD & EVF

One of the main differences between these two bodies is the lack of an electronic viewfinder on the a5000. (See as well

a5000 vs a5100

.)

If you're coming from a compact camera or smartphone then it's not going to be a big deal for you; you can use the LCD for composing, and you'll be familiar with the difficulties of working in bright light.

But if you are a

DSLR shooter looking for your first mirrorless

body, or even a non-Sony mirrorless shooter switching to Sony and used to the benefits of an electronic viewfinder, then this is going to be a big deal.

DSLRs offer crystal clear optical viewfinders. And while not all EVFs are high quality, they are all very useful as exposure, composition and focusing aids, especially when working in direct sunlight.

Personally, I would find it hard to accept a mirrorless body without a viewfinder. It's just too limited - which is why the a6000's EVF is a strong point in its favour. You get a 1,440,000-dot OLED display, plus 0.70x magnification, for a decent shooting experience.

As for the rear LCD screens, the Sony a5000 and a6000 are both three inches, but the a6000's screen offers more resolution.

The rear LCD screen of the Sony a6000.

The a6000 gives you 921,000 points, compared to 461,000 points on the a5000. This will make focusing easier (especially manual focus) and is only a generally useful specification when shooting with the a6000.

Unfortunately, neither camera includes touchscreen technology, although both LCDs can tilt (and the a5000's LCD can tilt completely, a useful feature for vloggers and self-portraits. ).

WINNER:

sony a6000

3. Build & Get Started

As the lower end of Sony's mirrorless range, neither the a6000 (

review

) nor the a5000 offer particularly impressive build quality. p>

Both feel pretty solid, but their bodies lack weather sealing, and I wouldn't take either of these cameras in adverse conditions.

In terms of maneuverability, both models are quite small, which makes things more difficult for photographers with large hands (and potentially uncomfortable for photographers with small hands as well).

I'm not a huge fan of either model; the bodies are just too small to provide a great experience when spending hours in the field.

That said, the a5000 has a smaller grip of the two, which is one of the reasons I prefer the ergonomics over the a6000. It makes a big difference depending on

what goal you set for the a6000

.

You also get extra buttons and dials on the a6000, while the a5000 is much more like a simple point-and-shoot type case in this regard.

For some photographers, the simpler interface isn't a bad thing. It all depends on what you're looking for: A more advanced touchscreen shooting experience? Or a simpler point-and-trigger scenario with fewer controls to distract?

You get a pop-up flash on both cameras, but only the a6000 packs a hot shoe. This means that you cannot connect an external flash to the a5000. So if you're planning on doing flash portrait photography, you'll want to choose the a6000.

One last thing:

The a5000 offers better battery life than the a6000. You get 360 shots on the a6000 when using the rear LCD (and 310 when using the EVF), compared to 420 shots on the a5000.

It's not a huge difference, but it may be enough to save you from buying a second (or third) battery for the a5000, depending on your shooting style.

WINNER:

sony a6000

4. Autofocus

Sony's autofocus technology has come a long way since these two cameras were released, but somehow the a6000 still manages to deliver remarkably impressive AF performance.

It's fast, it's accurate and the tracking is good. If you're a portrait, casual, or even street shooter, it'll serve you well thanks to the 179 phase-detection and 25-contrast detection autofocus points added to the APS-C sensor.

a6000+ 55-210mm f/4.5-6.3 | 1/320 at f/6.3 ISO 2500

The a6000's autofocus starts to struggle in low light, so frequent night or indoor shooters will want to keep that in mind.

Unfortunately, as good as the a6000's autofocus is, the same can't be said for the a5000. It offers 25 contrast-detection focus points and no phase-detection, endpoint, and while that AF system isn't bad, it just can't match the a6000.

In practice, the 25 autofocus points allow for slower focusing and particularly disappointing performance in low light - an area where the a5000 really struggles.

Frankly, none of these cameras will be perfect for someone looking to do frequent action photography. But the a6000 is a good way to get into street photography, given the fast autofocus (plus you get another great feature, as discussed in the next section!).

WINNER:

sony a6000

5.Drive

When it comes to burst shooting speeds, there's no competition between these two cameras - the Sony a6000 undoubtedly wins.

You get a blazing 11 fps on the a6000, which isn't just fast for a low-end camera, it's fast for a camera,

period

. Even more expensive options from other manufacturers struggle to come close to these speeds.

In other words, the a6000 offers a terrific combination of AF speeds and continuous shooting, suitable for some occasional action shots. Serious sports shooters, however, will be frustrated by the a6000's buffer memory: just 22 RAW frames (or 47 JPEGs), meaning you can only shoot a few seconds of RAW shots before the camera does not freeze.

WINNER:

sony a6000

6. Image quality

When the a6000 and a5000 debuted half a dozen years ago, they both offered impressive APS-C image quality. And despite the gains in APS-C sensor technology, they're still decent and fairly similar; neither really outperforms the other, although I can give the a6000 a very slight advantage in high ISO performance.

First, note that both cameras can shoot in either RAW or JPEG. I would recommend shooting in RAW, even if you're not sure if "serious" photography is your thing, but for those of you who prefer to avoid processing your images entirely, the JPEG options are there.

When it comes to color depth, the Sony a6000 delivers 24.1 versus the Sony a5000's 23.8 - if you'll notice a difference here, it's debatable.

a600 + 35mm f/1.8 | 1/640 f/4200 ISO | © Marc Bergreen

The images are beautiful on both bodies. Noise is well controlled at lower ISOs, with some noise becoming noticeable around ISO 800 and images unusable at around ISO 6400. If you are a

low light shooter

and you can overcome autofocus issues in low light, then either of these cameras will serve you well - the ISO range is ISO 100 - 25600.

Low-light ISO performance isn't amazing in either camera, mostly due to the limitations of the APS-C sensor, but light sensitivity is adequate for mirrorless cameras in this price range.< /p>

There is no external flash hot shoe on the Sony a5000, but there is on the Sony a6000 - using a flash will obviously mean that the light sensitivity issues of the APS-C sensor will not are not as relevant.

You get a few extra megapixels on the a6000 (24MP resolution versus 20MP on the a5000), but that won't make much of a difference, and either resolution will suffice for all but the most demanding photographers.

In terms of dynamic range, these two boxes are pretty equivalent. You're going to get around 13 DR stops, which is a very respectable performance, although Sony's newer cameras do manage to top that figure by a substantial amount - head over to DXO for sensor scores from both cameras .

WINNER:

Sony a6000 (barely)

7. Video

When it comes to video performance, the a6000 is the clear winner (along with the a5000 in the "nearly obsolete" category).

Neither box offers 4K, but you get 1080p at up to 60fps on the Sony a6000. Sadly, there's no mic jack or headphone port, but for the price what you get is far from bad.

Also, note that the a6000 offers powerful movie AF, so you can do decent autofocus. while you shoot.

The a5000, on the other hand, just doesn't have much to say. No mic ports, no headphone ports, and it only offers 60i to 1080p (as well as 24p) shots. The maximum video resolution is 1920 x 1080 in both cameras.

So if you are looking for video capabilities then the Sony alpha a6000 is the way to go.

It's also worth mentioning that none of the cameras have image stabilization - a feature you'll sorely miss if you're planning on hand-holding without

gimbal stabilizer

.

WINNER:< /p>

sony a6000

8. Price

You'll be hard-pressed to find the Sony a5000 new these days, although you can find it at incredibly low prices if you're willing to buy used.

You're looking at around US$200-250, without a kit lens. If you want the 16-50mm kit lens, you'll have to pay a little extra - although the lens is low performing, and you're probably better off buying your own lens.

The Sony a6000 can be purchased new for around US$550 (or US$650 with the kit lens). You can also use the a6000 for $300 or so.

Honestly, both of these cameras offer unbeatable prices, and I consider both to be a bargain. I think for the extra $50 bucks used I would take the a6000.

But if the a5000's simpler interface, smaller size, and flip-up screen appeal to you, then by all means, go this route and save a few pennies in the process!

WINNER:

sony a5000

Sony a5000 vs Sony a6000 | Last words

The Sony a6000.

At first glance, the Sony a5000 and Sony a6000 appear to be similar cameras.

But a closer look will show you that nothing could be further from the truth.

The Sony a6000 may be a lower-tier compact APS-C body, but it offers features that go hand in hand with much more expensive camera bodies, such as fast AF, continuous shooting at 11 ips and good image quality on its 24 MP APS-C sensor.

The Sony a5000, on the other hand, is really more of an entry-level box and a bit aged. Resolution is decent, with a 20MP APS-C sensor size, and image quality is competitive, but the AF doesn't quite cut it.

In addition to the shooting speeds, the lack of an accessory shoe, and the absence of an EVF make it a non-option for more serious photographers.

If you're coming from a smartphone or compact camera, and all you really want is a small, low-cost body that can shoot decent images, then the a5000 is a good buy.

But for everyone else, the a6000 is going to be the best option, given its combination of autofocus skill, continuous shooting speed, decent ergonomics, and more.

Strongly recommended

sony a6000

Impressive autofocus and burst mode capabilities, combined with excellent image quality in a compact body. Excellent value.

Check the 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.

Twitter

Facebook

pinterest