A6400 versus A6500 - Is IBIS Useful if You Only Use Stabilized Lens

[donaldsc]

I am trying to decide between an A6400 and an A6500.   I will be using the camera mainly for travel & family pictures w a few wildlife trips interspersed.  I can see the advantages of both cameras & I am having a  problem making a decision.

 

I don't shoot many videos so video performance isn't critical.  I never shoot selfies so the A6400 reversing screen means nothing to me.  Battery life isn't critical since I always carry a  spare batteries.  One thing that is important is weather sealing I am replacing my A6000 because I used it in the rain on a wildlife trip & the camera died.  It isn't clear which model is weather sealed.  I should add that price isn't an issue - just features.

 

It may come down to whether the IBIS on the A6500 is more important than the better focusing ability of the A6400 considering that all my lenses are inlens stabilized.

 

I looked at the features of both cameras and the following are important to me - 

 

Focus speed.  Useful for wildlife photography.  Is the 0.02 second focus speed of the A6400 significantly better in the real world than the 0.05 second speed of the A6500.

 

Focus tracking.  The A6400 is very significantly better here.

 

Eye autofocus.  The A6400 is better here & the upcoming animal eye autofocus should be useful.  I wonder if it will work with birds or just 4-legged critters.

 

Number of contrast detection points.  Will the 425 points on the A6400 be significantly better in the real world than the 169 points in the A6400.

 

5 axis IBIS versus 3 axis in-lens stabilization.  Remember that all of my lenses are in-lens stabilized

 

Touch screen.  I have never used a camera w a touch screen.  Is it useful.  The touch screen on the A6400 is supposed to be better than the touch screen on the A6500.  Is this true.

 

Any thoughts or comments will help me make a decision.  Thanks a lot.

 

Don

[pierces]

For what it's worth, I shoot with a few manual lenses (25mm and wider) on my A6300 as well as kid sports with the FE 70-300 G. If I had to choose between IBIS and better/faster autofocus, the A6400 would win out. I would like both, but the lack of IBIS on the A6300 has never been a noticeable handicap. 

 

As for the video, selfie screen and touch control, they aren't choice factors for me.

 

My 2¢...

 

Dave

[zackiedawg]

7 hours ago, donaldsc said:

I am trying to decide between an A6400 and an A6500.   I will be using the camera mainly for travel & family pictures w a few wildlife trips interspersed.  I can see the advantages of both cameras & I am having a  problem making a decision.

 

The good news is they're both fine cameras, so you won't get a bad one either way!  But...

 

7 hours ago, donaldsc said:

 

I don't shoot many videos so video performance isn't critical.  I never shoot selfies so the A6400 reversing screen means nothing to me.  Battery life isn't critical since I always carry a  spare batteries.  One thing that is important is weather sealing I am replacing my A6000 because I used it in the rain on a wildlife trip & the camera died.  It isn't clear which model is weather sealed.  I should add that price isn't an issue - just features.

 

Both models are actually 'lightly' weather sealed...they're not waterproof rated, as actually very few cameras are...but they have some basic sealing around the seams and buttons that should help resist water intrusion as long as you don't submerge the body.  There are other camera bodies with slightly more robust sealing, none of which are guaranteed to be replaced if water damages them; I would consider Sony's sealing to be for emergency use as needed if rain sneaks up on you, but I wouldn't just hold the camera out in the rain for 4 hours without a care and fire away...with EITHER body.  If shooting in any rainy conditions, it's always best to just employ a $3 rain sleeve which can render the camera and lens perfectly weather sealed in the worst of conditions.  If getting caught in the rain, both cameras should be OK unless you're extremely unlucky.

 

7 hours ago, donaldsc said:

 

Focus speed.  Useful for wildlife photography.  Is the 0.02 second focus speed of the A6400 significantly better in the real world than the 0.05 second speed of the A6500.

 

No. This difference in focus speed would likely be undetectable by 90% of the photographers in the world, and both are plenty fast to capture almost anything you'd ever need to focus on.

 

7 hours ago, donaldsc said:

 

Focus tracking.  The A6400 is very significantly better here.

 

Yes.  The A6500 is still no slouch - focus tracking and continuous focus since the A6300 has been excellent and among the very best mirrorless bodies...the A6400 has just stepped the game up with the real-time tracking AF, which will function better than the 'lock-on AF' of the A6500.  Continuous focus on a moving subject should be quite good with either.

 

7 hours ago, donaldsc said:

 

Eye autofocus.  The A6400 is better here & the upcoming animal eye autofocus should be useful.  I wonder if it will work with birds or just 4-legged critters.

 

The Eye-AF won't typically work with animals unless their eyes are uncannily positioned similar to human eyes.  However, a future firmware update is coming for the A6400 which will include a special 'Animal-eye AF' mode...the A6500 won't be able to get that update.

 

7 hours ago, donaldsc said:

 

Number of contrast detection points.  Will the 425 points on the A6400 be significantly better in the real world than the 169 points in the A6400.

 

Actually, the A6300, A6500, and A6400 all share the same 425 total focus points...so no difference there.  The differences are in the processing engine, which in the A6400 has been sped up and may help it a bit with some focus situations.  In general though, all three are quite adept.  Remember, depending on what you're shooting, there may be times with landscape, portrait, or travel photography where you will want to use a single focus point or a center focus grid, so many times you won't need or want to use all 425 points anyway.  Where all the focus points usually come in handy is when using wide focus mode and needing focus to track throughout the frame with a moving subject.

 

7 hours ago, donaldsc said:

 

5 axis IBIS versus 3 axis in-lens stabilization.  Remember that all of my lenses are in-lens stabilized

 

In extreme situations, the additional IBIS on top of lens SS could come in handy for an extra stop or so of handholding ability - but likely you'd never really notice or need it unless you're really pushing things.  I've certainly put IBIS much lower on my own needs compared to focus performance and speed, especially tracking.  Most of my lenses are stabilized and do quite well, and even the ones that aren't I can shoot at pretty slow shutter speeds just by honing my technique.

 

7 hours ago, donaldsc said:

 

Touch screen.  I have never used a camera w a touch screen.  Is it useful.  The touch screen on the A6400 is supposed to be better than the touch screen on the A6500.  Is this true.

 

That's always up to each person to decide.  The A6400 touch screen should by most measures be better than the one in the A6500.  Personally, I hate touch screens and don't use them even when I have them.

 

If I suddenly had my A6300 die and needed to get a new camera body, the A6400 would win over the A6500 for me, as the improvements in focus tracking and processing engine would be more important to me than IBIS, which is the only real advantage the A6500 had over the A6300.

[havoc315]

While in the short term, the a6500 still sits “above” the A6400, I think the long term plan is for the A6400 to replace both models. 

In -almost- every way, the A6400 is a better camera than the a6500. The only exceptions are IBIS and buffer depth (the the A6400 buffer is pretty good too). 

The problem with the a6300 and a6500 was that they were essentially too close together to distinguish. They were both intermediate-high end aps-c camera’s. Neither was entry level and neither was true pro/semi pro. 

 

I suspect in the long term, Sony will discontinue the A6500 and it will be replaced by a true premium model. (Footnote being Sony never actually fully discontinue anything anymore, so it may sit on the market at discount pricing like the original a7).  

 

The advantages of the A6400 over the a6500 May not be massive but there is a very long list of small and modest advantages, many of which haven’t even been mentioned. (Ability to rate photos, group bursts together in playback, intervalometer, future animal eye-af, real time eye-af, 8 FPS silent shooting, flip screen, MyMenu, etc etc etc). 

If you’re already using OSS.. there is no way that IBIS trumps the other 20+ advantages of the A6400. 

[havoc315]

The good, bad and ugly review of the Sony A6400... an excellent camera for intermediate shooters but not without a few flaws.. https://enthusiastphotoblog.com/2019/03/30/sony-a6400-review/