Test the Sony A6100

Our Verdict

Sony's entry-level mirrorless system camera, the A6000, has been one of its best sellers since its launch in early 2014. Almost six years later, the A6100 brings a host of improvements, sharing good many of the same upgrades seen in the latest mid-range A6400 and high-end A6600 enclosures. However, these upgrades don't come cheap, as the A6100 is almost double the price of the original A6000, somewhat limiting its appeal as an entry-level camera.

For

Light and compact

Real-time tracking autofocus

4K video recording

3.5mm microphone jack

1:1 aspect ratio option p>

Versus

No stabilization by displacement of the sensor in the body

Relatively low resolution electronic viewfinder

Much more expensive than the old a6000

plastic feel

JUMP TO:

Specifications

main Features

Construction and handling

Performance

Laboratory tests

Verdict

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The Sony A6100 APS-C mirrorless camera has a tough act to follow. It's an upgrade to the half-million-selling A6000, which can now be had for a surprisingly low price (around £408/£349 for the body only - see

Sony A6000 Deals

for the best current prices).

However, the A6000 has recently started to look a bit dated. Image quality is good rather than excellent, at least by the latest standards, especially at high ISO settings. Video capture maxes out at 1080p and the camera doesn't even have a touchscreen.

The A6100 (or ILCE-6100 as it's sometimes called) introduces significant improvements, including 4K video. It's not a replacement for the A6000, and both will be on sale simultaneously for some time. Armed with basic quality and even a 1:1 aspect ratio option for Instagram, can the A6100 tempt vloggers and all-rounders after an upgrade?

Sony A6100 (black) on Amazon for £912.49

Specifications

Sensor:

24.2MP APS-C CMOS

Image processor:

BIONZ X

425phase/contrast detection

ISO range:

ISO 100-32000 (51000)

Max image size:

6000x4000 pixels

Measurement modes:

Multi-segment, Center-weighted, Spot

Video:

4K 30/25/24p, 1080 120/60/30/25/24p

Viewfinder:

EVF, 1440k dots, 0.39 type

Memory card:

1x Memory Stick/SD/SDHC/SDXC

LCD:

3.0 inch, 922k dots, tilting touchscreen

11fps, 33 raw, 77 JPEGs

Connectivity:

Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC

Cut :

120x67x59mm

Weight:

396g

The rear screen of the Sony A6100 rotates 180 degrees to face the front and it's touch sensitive too.

(Image credit: Matthew Richar ds/Digital Camera World)

main Features

At the heart of the A6100 is a new 24.2-megapixel Exmor CMOS image sensor and next-generation BIONZ X processor - the same as in the latest high-end A6600 camera. It's a potent mix that aims for outstanding performance in everything from autofocus and fast shooting to improved image quality even at high ISO settings, as well as capturing compelling 4K video.

Starting with autofocus, the A6100 benefits from Sony's latest hybrid system which combines 425 phase detection points with 425 contrast detection points. It's a big digital boost over the a6000, and the autofocus points cover a larger area of ​​the image frame. New features include “Eye AF” for animals instead of just humans, while adding real-time AI-based tracking. This automatically focuses on the eyes wherever they move in the frame. Autofocus speed is incredibly fast, rated at 1/50th of a second. That's three times faster than in the A6000.

(Image credit: Sony)

The maximum burst rate is equally impressive, at 11 frames per second, with enough buffer depth for 33 raw files or 77 JPEGs. Switch from the flat Hi+ setting to Hi and you'll still get a continuous 8fps drive, this time with the silent shooting offering using an electronic shutter rather than a mechanical one. At this speed, you'll also get continuous tracking for autofocus (including real-time Eye AF) and metering, with live preview while shooting, instead of the instant review of Hi+ mode. from the previous shot in a sequence. Real-time preview when shooting at high speed is another feature that was not available on the A6000.

The A6100 inherits processing algorithms from Sony's latest full-frame mirrorless cameras, aimed at improving color reproduction, especially for skin tones. Several “Creative Styles” are offered, including Standard, Vivid, Portrait, Landscape, Sunset, Black & White, and Sepia, as well as incremental adjustments for Saturation and Sharpness. Besides that, there are tons of “picture effects” like pop color, retro photo, toy camera and water color, and many more. reading and no pixel grouping. Time-lapse and slow-motion movie capture is also available, and the camera has an external microphone input jack that the A6000 lacked. The much larger reach of the tilting screen allows for forward orientation for selfies and vlogging. Compared to the higher-end a6600, video capture in the a6100 lacks real-time Eye AF. S-log gamma profiles for enhanced dynamic range are also not available. In-body or sensor-shift stabilization is lacking, and while the viewfinder is the same 0.39 type size as in the A6600, it has a lower resolution of 1440k instead of 2360k dots, just like in the A6600. 'Original A6000.

There's room in the A6100's slim body for a pop-up flash, but not for in-body stabilization.

(Image credit: Matthew Richards/Digital Camera World)

Not much has changed on the A6100 compared to other cameras in Sony's Alpha line, with the same ergonomic grip, battery, SVGA electronic viewfinder and nearly identical button layout as the A6000. . It weighs 396 g against 344 g for the A6000 and 503 g for the A6600. Build quality isn't as impressive as with the A6600, with the body being constructed from plastic rather than metal. It is also the only one of the three not to have weather stripping. Despite this, the overall build feels sturdy and reliable, and the triple-hinged rear screen allows for a good range of movement from 180 degrees upwards to nearly 90 degrees downwards.

The layout of buttons and dials is almost identical to that of the original A6000. It's certainly not to everyone's taste. The camera doesn't have a front-mounted control dial while, on the back, the buttons are pretty tight. Again, the menu system feels rather long and mysterious in places. On the plus side, the touchscreen greatly improves handling, particularly for autofocus point selection, both in static mode and for initiating AF tracking on a moving object. Additionally, eight of the physical camera buttons can be customized for direct access to any of 89 shooting and playback functions, and it's also possible to set up your own custom menu.

The viewfinder's position on the far left of the rear panel is another factor that will divide opinion in terms of handling. However, it does at least prevent any accidental touchscreen operation with the tip of your nose.

A key “missing” feature for videographers is that the A6100 doesn't have a headphone jack to monitor audio levels coming from its built-in microphone. For this you will need the most expensive

Sony A6600

.

(Image credit: Jamie Carter/Digital Camera World)

Performance

(Image credit: Jamie Carter/Digital Camera World)

Let's live up to its bill, the autofocus is incredibly fast and extremely consistent. The AI ​​engine helps deliver impressive tracking performance, even for erratically moving objects, while enabling good real-time Eye AF tracking. This is not available during movie capture, however, and you have to switch between human and animal in the on-screen menus.

In our tests we found exposure metering to be rather better than in the A6000, with images consistently being brighter and more appealing, whereas the a6000 often tends to go to the dark side. The Dynamic Range Optimizer works particularly well at retaining detail in very dark highlights and lowlights, with automatic and manual levels available for normal and HDR modes.

Taken in very dim lighting at ISO 6400, this image is incredibly low in noise and retains good levels of fine detail.

(Image credit: Matthew Richards/Digital Camera World)

The PZ 16-50mm kit lens does not do full justice to the camera body. This image was taken with Sony's new E 16-55mm f/2.8 G lens.

(Image credit: Matthew Richards/Digital Camera World)

The “landscape” creative style setting makes for vibrant color reproduction without oversaturation, even if blue skies have taken on a cyan cast.

(Image credit: Matthew Richards/Digital Camera World)

Color rendering looks very natural in the standard creative style and incredibly vibrant in landscape and vivid modes, without going overboard. Image quality is significantly improved over that of the A6000 when shooting in dim lighting conditions at high ISO settings. Chroma and luminance noise are less apparent while fine detail and texture are better preserved.

Laboratory tests

We tested the Sony A6100 against three key rivals: the

Fujifilm X-T30

,

Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark III

and the old

Sony A6000 p>

. The results show some improvements in image quality over the older model, but Sony's competitors have pulled ahead.

Resolution

(Image credit: Future)

All four cameras are closely matched at lower ISO sensitivities for resolving power - not surprising given that both Sony and Fujifilm all pack ~24MP sensors. The 20MP Olympus matches the other three well, although its lower pixel count starts to show once you get past ISO 3200. At higher sensitivities the A6100 manages to resolve slightly more detail than the older A6000 , despite the almost identical number of megapixels.

Dynamic range

(Image credit: Future)

Sony's APS-C mirrorless cameras generally struggle to compete with rival cameras in our dynamic range test, and the A6100 is no exception. It trails the X-T30 and OM-D E-M5 III at ISO 400 and above, although it shows a marked improvement over the A6000 across the sensitivity range.

Signal/noise

(Image credit: Future)

Our signal-to-noise test measures image clarity, specifically the ratio of the actual "data" in the image you want to capture, to the noise in the image you don't want, but will inevitably be visible. when shooting at higher ISO sensitivities. The higher the score at a given ISO, the better.

As for the dynamic range, the A6100 again shows a marked improvement over the older a6000. Unfortunately, that's still not enough to compete with competition from Fujifilm and Olympus.

Verdict

(Image credit: Matthew Richards/Digital Camera World)

The A6100 has been a long time coming, as the previous A6000 has been on sale for almost six years. The new camera has a huge impact. Pro-level autofocus with its ability to track subjects across the frame by locking onto faces and eyes is a really effective way to make photography less strenuous and more creative. Metering performance and image quality are also improved, the latter being more dynamic and realistic, and much better at higher ISO settings. 4K movie capture becomes available, and the addition of a touchscreen is welcome. The front-facing flip action is a real bonus for selfies and vlogging. Bluetooth is also added to Wi-Fi and NFC previously present in the A6000.

There are still some management issues. The overall control layout looks rather dated and there's no front-mounted control dial. There's no image stabilizer in the body, and while the 16-50mm power zoom kit lens features 'Optical SteadyShot', it's not the sharpest tool in the box. The relatively low-resolution 1,440,000-dot electronic viewfinder is another disappointment.

Even so, the A6100 is a significant improvement over the hugely popular A6000 and offers a real performance boost in all of the most critical areas. Battery life is quite respectable for a mirrorless camera, at 380-420 shots for stills and around 125 minutes of video.

All in all, the A6100 is a good choice for vloggers and anyone else looking to jump off a smartphone/point-and-shoot to get manual mode, zoom, and better images on a serious – and truly portable – camera. . The only significant issue is the price, which is currently well above that of the A6000, and is also slightly too high for the camera to be considered truly "entry-level" compared to its current competition. » This prevents us from giving the A6100 more than 4 stars at this time. However, once Sony inevitably lowers the price, it will undoubtedly become good value for money.

Read more:

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Sony A6000 vs A6100 vs A6300 vs A6400 vs A6500 vs A6600:

how to choose?•

The best lenses for the Sony A6000 family of cameras

•Those are the

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you can buy now• How to choose the

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• We choose the

BEST DEALS OF THE DAY

£679

at ParkCameras

£900

at Simply Be

£912.49

on Amazon