Sony A6500 (Alpha 6500) Complete Review

The memory card fits in the battery compartment of the Sony A6500.

Behind the small flap on the left side of the Sony A6500 are the connectors for Micro-USB, Micro-HDMI, and the 3.5 mm stereo microphone.

The tripod socket of the Sony A6500 is located in the optical axis and has some distance to the battery compartment.

Another interface is hidden almost invisibly in the handle, because here is an infrared receiver for an IR remote control, which can be purchased as an accessory. The A6500 can also be triggered wirelessly via WLAN.

The tripod thread is located on the underside of the camera in the optical axis and at a respectable distance from the battery and memory card compartment. Nevertheless, removing the memory card from the bottom of the camera in this camera class is somewhat suboptimal, especially as there is only one memory card slot that can hold either a MemoryStick or an SD card (SDHC and SDXC compatible).

With 350 shots according to the CIPA standard, the battery offers sufficient battery life, especially as the percentage-accurate remaining capacity display on the screen works very precisely. Those who like to take a lot of pictures are well advised to use a spare battery despite the mobile recharging option via USB. Besides the missing splash water and dust protection as well as the memory card placement, the missing possibility to connect a battery portrait format handle is also unusual for this camera class.

Equipment And Features

In terms of price alone, the Sony A6500 is aimed at ambitious photographers, but those who are simply looking for a robust tool with image stabilizer in the case but don’t want to deal with photographic basics and settings will also be happy with the A6500.

The camera has a fully automatic mode including scene recognition, a range of scene mode programs, digital filter effects and also an HDR and panorama automatic, which has even been given a place on the program selector wheel. However, the camera only unfolds its full potential with semi-automatic or manual operation. Even with the latter, the ISO automatic can be activated and exposure correction is not missing with this “manual automatic”.

Those who don’t want to rely on the automatic HDR mode can fall back on an extensive exposure bracketing function that takes three to nine pictures with a wide exposure spread if desired. Unfortunately, this cannot be combined with the self-timer alone.

The mechanical shutter offers short exposure times of up to 1/4,000 seconds and, like the camera, is very robust. Sony promises a life expectancy of typically at least 200,0000 trips. In order to reduce shutter shocks, which can lead to slight blurring in the image, an optional electronic first shutter curtain can be activated, the mechanical shutter then only works at the end of the exposure.

Optionally, the A6500 can also trigger fully electronically, i.e. without mechanical parts and thus completely silently. However, the rolling shutter effect can reduce image quality. Even purely electronic, the fastest shutter speed is 1/4,000 seconds and not 1/16,000 or 1/32,000 as some other manufacturers offer.

In the A6500, Sony has for the first time managed to integrate an image sensor with movable bearings for image stabilisation despite the compact housing or without enlarging it. This compensates with movements on three axes (horizontal, vertical and in rotation) movements on five axes. These five axes are composed of tilting movements and swiveling movements in horizontal and vertical axes as well as rotation.

Sony promises up to five f-stops blur compensation according to the CIPA standard. In practice, this resulted in 3.5 to almost four f-stops at the long zoom end of the set lens 16-70 mm (105 mm corresponding to 35mm) and even only 2.5 f-stops at the short end of the lens (24 mm corresponding to 35mm).

Thus, the image stabilizer does a good job, but in our opinion is not as effective as promised or as we are used to it from Olympus, for example, which in our opinion build the best sensor-based image stabilization systems currently available.

The sensor-shift image stabilizer of the Sony A6500 works with five axes and thus theoretically allows up to five f-stops longer exposure times.

The shutter of the Sony A6500 offers a lifetime of at least 200,000 releases.

Video resolution reaches a maximum of 4K (3,840 x 2,160 pixels) at 25 frames per second in PAL. This involves cropping to the Super 35 mm format. If one shoots films in full HD resolution, however, the entire image sensor area is available (apart from the trim from 3:2 to 16:9).

If one switches the camera to NTSC, whereupon it restarts and if necessary the memory card has to be formatted, one can choose in 4K also 30p without Super 35 mm format (but nevertheless with Crop) or 24p. Only the engineers themselves probably know why Sony made the switchover so complicated. The maximum data rate is in any case 100 Mbit per second, which is good quality, but some other manufacturers also offer more.

In terms of recording formats, the A6500 with MP4, AVCHD, and XAVC S again shows a good bandwidth. The video options are also varied, for example, there is a sound level display, you can adjust the autofocus and of course, adjust the exposure as you wish. There are also slow-motion and time-lapse functions with fine frame rate settings. By the way, the image stabilizer also works during video recordings, but there is no “aha” effect here either. In our opinion, Sony doesn’t come close to Olympus in this respect either, where the image stabilizer in the video practically makes a steady cam system superfluous.

The Sony A6500 is Spartan when it comes to post-processing photos, not even a raw development function is on board. Instead, Sony relies on Play Memories Camera Apps, some of which are free and some of which are available for a fee. In addition to image processing functions, they also provide special recording programs, but require prior registration and of course downloading of the apps, which is possible in a WLAN, for example.

The WLAN camera remote control is also outsourced to such an app, which must first be downloaded in the current version in order to be able to use the full range of functions.

New in the A6500 is Bluetooth, which should enable the use of the smartphone as a GPS receiver. Unfortunately, with our test model of the A6500, we didn’t manage to couple the app to the camera via Bluetooth. Although the smartphone (a Sony Xperia XZ by the way) was able to establish a Bluetooth connection, the camera could not be found by the app. During a visit to the Sony dealer roadshow, we managed to connect a Sony Xperia Z with an A6500 without any problems, which immediately wrote the location in the EXIF data for the following shots.

Picture Quality Of The Sony A6500

In the test with the testing software , the Sony A6500 with the Sony E T* 16-70 mm F4 ZA OSS Vario-Tessar (SEL-1670Z), the set costs almost 2,800 dollars, had to prove its JPEG image quality. I found it quite expensive.

The Zeiss 16-70 mm is a very universal and high-quality zoom with a continuous light intensity of F4 and a large focal length range of 24 to 105 millimeters equivalent to a small picture. An optical image stabilizer is also included, which is taken into account by the A6500 and, in combination with the sensor-shift image stabilizer, does part of the work.

While the edge darkening and the color fringes of the 16-70 mm are essentially limited, distortion becomes visible at all measured focal lengths. At a wide-angle angle, it is moderate at just under two percent of a ton. At medium and long focal lengths it is only one percent distortion, but as a subjectively more conspicuous cushion shape.

The resolution measurement at 50 percent contrast also shows mixed results. The maximum resolution of up to 60 line pairs per millimeter (lp/mm) in 35mm equivalent for a 24-megapixel sensor is good, but also not outstanding. This peak value is reached at 50 mm corresponding to 35mm with F5,6 and F8 slightly dimmed in the center of the image. Both with an open aperture and with a wide-angle focal length, the resolution curve is barely lower.

Beyond F11 the diffraction pushes the resolution below 50 lp/mm. At the long end of the focal length the lens weakens a little, the 50 lp/mm are only slightly exceeded at F11. Also at the edge of the picture, the resolution is not very praiseworthy compared to the picture center. In wide-angle, the edge resolution at F4 to F11 ranges from 33 to 39 lp/mm, at medium focal length from 25 to 50 lp/mm and at long focal length end from only 22 to 27 lp/mm.

Unfortunately, one has to say, the APS-C lens range from Sony isn’t exactly equipped with high-quality alternatives, especially as Sony is now concentrating more on the full format again. Here you can also get some very good lenses, with which especially the marginal weaknesses of the APS-C don’t get onto the image sensor anyway.

The full-frame lenses, however, do not do justice to the size advantage of the APS-C format. If you are looking for a lens with a very high resolution in the center and at the edge of the picture, the full-frame lens FE 90 mm 2.8 Macro G OSS (SEL-90M28G), for example, is a must-have.

The Sony A6500 scores much better with the performance of the image sensor and the image processing and plays in the top league. The signal-to-noise ratio, for example, ranges from ISO 100 to 400 in the good range of over 40 dB and only falls below the critical value of 35 dB above ISO 1,600. Brightness noise is slightly noticeable from ISO 3.200 and strongly above ISO 12.800. Slight color noise is also noticeable above ISO 12.800 but plays practically no role below it.

Noise suppression is virtually non-existent up to ISO 400. Even up to ISO 1,600, it works very gently, so that hardly any details are lost. Only above that, there is a slight loss of detail, but even at ISO 6.400 the images are still usable, above that rather less if the full resolution is to be used.