Pondering an a6600? Pros and Cons?

I would keep away from investing in APS-C bodies. I do not like the handling, it is just not the same as the newer A7 bodies.

AF wise; A9 of A7IV bodies seem the way forward. Maybe give it another year for prices to come down......

Coast wrote: Basically what I'm saying, it makes no sense having a crop camera and using FE lenses and adapters

I'd put it the other way. Even if you have only APS-C lenses the A7Rii to iv make sense, because they're fine cameras which work well on APS-C. For example, if you like wide and UW and don't want to carry several lenses with you, the Sony 10-18mm f4 is a superbly compact solution - there isn't anything in FF with that range that isn't at least twice the weight and twice the volume. And at the long end, to improve on the resolution of the better APS-C zooms you need a very big and expensive FE lens. Sure, it will have a wider aperture, but you pay for that in multiple ways.

Wētāpunga wrote: I know it doesn’t have bird eye detection but from what I can see, that hasn’t stopped a lot of wildlife photographers getting a lot of great flying bird shots

Yeah, I have hardly any experience with α9, but I am fairly confident that it can work reasonably well with flying birds even without bird eye focusing, certainly it will make easier to follow and shoot flying subjects since there is no viewfinder blackout.

Phil Wood wrote: Perhaps worth noting that the A7Riv is the highest resolution APS-C camera Sony make.

, you're absolutely right Phil, the APS-C crop of the A7iv is ~28 MP, better than any A6xxx APS-C body.

I even use my A7Rii that way with APS-C lenses, the APS-C crop of that one is ~18 MP, which is better than my NEX6 and way beyond my A700, which already had more pixels than I usually needed.

Well, you basically describe my experience with the A6400, Gary I would add the EVF on the negative side: passable but noticeably less good then my A7r4.

My A7r4 (and A7r2) feel bulky compared to my A6x00 cameras. That is why I use my One-Mount system basically as a Two-Mount system

Edited by addy landzaat - 07 February 2022 at 15:49

Congrats on the a9!

I genuinely need new gear, but haven't spent money yet, which is silly because my demands and expectations are unreasonable for the market, even though I think I am completely reasonable.

I am enraged that Sony took TEN YEARS to make a full-frame nex7. I have read others here on dyxum say the wheel layout and rangefinder styling of the nex7 was the best, and I agree, certainly for manual lenses. With electronic control I can only change one item at a time; with manual lenses on the nex7 I could roll focus with my left index finger, spin the aperture with my left middle finger, and with my right thumb spin one wheel for shutter speed or ISO, so I could change two legs of the exposure triangle simultaneously, and I had instant control of all three legs. With electronic control the camera will not respond simultaneously to wheels (so front-aperture and rear-shutter control is independent but not simultaneous), and a button press is an extra step which locks out other controls, including focus assist, and pressing the shutter half way to focus cancels the current operation, requiring another button press and spinning.

Addy has said the a6000 sold more units than any other Sony interchangeable lens camera, and the form factor, I think, is almost ideal. Fivepin's analysis seems very good. I am also enraged at Sony's lack of firmware updates for the EA5, so the a6600 with full EA5 screw-drive support is very attractive to me.

I haven't gotten a Monster Adapter EA4r because I have a a7ii, which there have been reports of the a7ii main board shorting out when someone changes lenses with the camera powered on. I THINK I am disciplined enough not to change lenses with the camera on, but the penalty for a mistake is so severe I haven't modified my EA4 yet ... Which means I am using the a55 focus module (the EA2 used the a55 focus module, I hope the EA4 uses a later focus module, but my a68 has much better focus than EA4 on a7ii, so I suspect the EA4 PDAF array is very old), so the EA4r/EA5 would be a spectacular improvement.

From what I have read the Sony Animal Bird Eye AF is almost as good as Canon, and like Fivepin said is >90% bang on, which is unbelievably amazing. I have tried the silver 70-400 with EA2/4 and nex5n (LOL) and as long as I am disciplined in supporting entirely with my left hand it actually works hand-held, so while sports/wildlife cameras are supposed to be big (Olympus made the EM1x as huge as a FF camera) I don't mind the form factor.

In fact, as long as there are C1/C2/C3 buttons, I change settings LESS when shooting action than landscape / "general photography" ... it cracks me up that people think landscape shooting is "slow", I work a lot harder changing settings for landscape than I do action, as long as I have custom buttons I can save the "motion blur" panning settings or "bird under a dark bush" setting, action for me is "set and forget". So I don't really miss all the buttons on a smaller body like a65/6600.

Although I am also enraged at Sony's tilt screen ... a twist-out screen is the perfect "workflow", if the screen is out then I'm using the screen and the viewfinder is off, and if I have the screen turned in to the body then I am using the VF and it is on. At least the a68 has a dedicated "FINDER/MONITOR" button on the VF hump, but even that is stupid compared to the twist-to-stow design.

I will probably get a rx10iv since I have taken more pictures with a Panasonic FZ1000 (or rx100ii before I got it) than with the traditional styled cameras, though the screen and button layouts enrage me. I have been waiting for Panasonic or Olympus to update the FZ2500 or make something new to compete with the rx10, but I've waited so long it appears the rx10iv is the only Bridge Superzoom left.

That's rx10iv instead of the a7c, so ironically after waiting for so long for the FF nex7 I'll probably keep using the nex5n (with the external top viewfinder) as my tiny camera. If the a7c had two right-side thumbwheels like the nex7 I probably would have run to the store the day it arrived, since it has a twist-out screen. But I can't have everything LOL.