Sony just announced the a6400, a refreshed compact mirrorless camera ideal for creators, specifically vloggers. What makes it so appealing? The a6400 comes with a touchscreen that flips all the way around — 180 degrees — so you get a vivid, easily adjustable preview of how you’ll look as you’re filming your latest video.
Sony’s a6400 mirrorless camera comes with a selfie screen for budding YouTube stars
And it starts at $900, body only
And it starts at $900, body only
Photo: Sony
That’s a feature we’ve seen on many a point-and-shoot and some DSLRs, but it’s a big deal for those who want the quality and features of Sony’s interchangeable lens mirrorless cameras.
Otherwise, Sony’s latest mirrorless is a compact camera full of incremental improvements that add up to a compelling sub-$1,000 package.
A lot of small improvements in a compact package
Like its predecessors, the a6400 inherits the same hybrid autofocus system Sony also uses in its bigger, more expensive Alpha cameras (like the A7 III), to accomplish what the company claims is the “world’s fastest 0.02 second AF acquisition speed,” admittedly slightly faster than the 0.05 second speed Sony’s A-series cams claimed before.
Quick subject acquisition is another of the a6400’s headlining features. Aided by 425 autofocus points (for both contrast and phase detection), it’s what (on paper) should make the a6400 ideal for quick-reaction scenarios (like action or sports photography). Sony also says its “Eye AF” system, which uses computer vision to identify people and focus on their eyes, is now fast enough to operate in real time and will even support animal eyes with a software update. We’ll have to test that out for ourselves.
1/5Photo: Sony
The bulk of the a6400’s specs revolve around a familiar 24.2MP APS-C Exmor CMOS image sensor, once again paired with an Bionz X image processor. Sony’s latest follows the last two camera generations by including a hot shoe mount and a microphone jack, as well as 4K video recording at 24 or 30 fps.
The a6400 also still sports continuous shooting up to 11 fps using its mechanical shutter, or 8 fps in its silent shooting mode, with continuous AF / AE tracking. If you’re wondering about the math, that would be 116 frames of JPEG Standard or 46 frames of RAW compressed images.
In terms of ISO, the a6400 doesn’t have the most outstanding night shooting performance, on paper — its ISO range is 32,000 for both stills and movies, expandable up to ISO 102,400 — but it is a wider range than its predecessors the a6500 and a6300, which boasted standard ISO of 25,600, expandable to 51,200. Sony claims it has “excellent noise reduction at medium and high sensitivities.” Plus, for those of you who care about color grading, the a6400 supports S-Log2 and S-Log3 profiles.
Regarding pricing and availability, the body-only a6400 package will ship in February for $900 or $1,250 CAD. It will also come as a starter kit version, with a 16-50mm F3.5 – 5.6 lens for $1,000 or $1,350 CAD. Or you can opt for an even better kit lens package, with the 18-135mm F3.5 – 5.6 lens, which will retail for $1,300. All versions will go on sale in North America this February.
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