Sony A6300 Review: Is it Good in 2023?

This is a review guide covering the Sony A6300.

The Sony a6300 is a rangefinder-styled mirrorless interchangeable lens camera.

It is a compact design that should attract users who are looking for a powerful interchangeable lens camera system but without the weight that is usually associated with DSLRs. In that sense, it combines the best of both worlds.

⭐ In a hurry? Here’s the quick review of the Sony A6300

The Sony A6300 is a mirrorless camera that is well-suited for a variety of photography genres including action, sports, and wildlife photography, due to its advanced autofocus system, high frame rate and fast continuous shooting.

It is also a good option for photographers who wants to shoot video, with 4k video capability, and good low-light performance.

It is a versatile and advanced camera that could appeal to professional photographers, advanced enthusiasts and semi-professionals who are looking for a compact and capable camera, especially those who need to shoot fast-moving subjects and want to take advantage of the camera’s high-speed autofocus, fast frame rate and 4k video.

It features:

• High resolution sensor: The camera has a 24.2 MP APS-C Exmor CMOS sensor that captures high-quality images and offers low noise at high ISO.
• Fast autofocus: The camera features a 425-point hybrid autofocus system that allows for fast and accurate focus in a variety of lighting conditions.
• High frame rate: The camera can shoot at 11 fps in continuous burst mode, making it well-suited for action, sports, and wildlife photography.
• 4K video: The camera can shoot 4k video at 30p and 100Mbps, with full pixel readout and no pixel binning.
• High-resolution viewfinder: The camera has a high-resolution XGA OLED Tru-Finder viewfinder that offers a clear and bright view of your shots.
• Wi-Fi and NFC: The camera offers built-in Wi-Fi and NFC connectivity, allowing you to control the camera remotely, share images, and transfer files to other devices.
• Durable body: The camera has a durable, weather-sealed body that is designed to withstand a variety of shooting conditions.
• Customizable buttons: The camera has customizable buttons and controls, allowing you to easily access the features and functions that you use most often.
• Interval shooting: The camera has a built-in interval shooting function that allows you to capture time-lapse sequences easily.

Here is the full review.

Sony A6300 Summary Review

If this is going to be your first interchangeable lens camera it is a good choice. You will definitely find the 4D Focus excellent to work with.

I have already detailed the long list of video features on the camera. Yes, it is not the best video camera in the business, it still lacks some important features like focus assist but it more than makes up for that with the low light performance when shooting stills.

All in all, this is a good package to go for.

Pros and Cons Sony A6300

Sony A6300 Specs

Very quickly let’s go through the specs of this camera. At 24.2 megapixels the a6300 comes with a decent amount of resolution to capture high-quality detailed images.

Paired with the camera is a BIONZ X image processor. The BIONZ X image processor gives the a6300 incredible low light capabilities.

The camera is almost ISO invariant (detailed below) and the low light dynamic range is also very good comparing with the performances of the cameras in this segment.

The a6300 incorporates what is known as the 4D Focus system. it combines 425 phase-detection AF points with a 169-area contrast detection system to ensure that the camera can lock into focus almost instantaneously.

Video specs are long and interesting to read. I feel if you are an amateur video enthusiast you will love the video features on the a6300. You can shoot 4K/UHD videos at 30fps and full HD videos at 120fps.

The one area where the a6300 loses out, especially against the deluge of modern cameras is the rear LCD screen. The rear LCD screen does not have touch properties.

The 3-inch screen has a resolution of only 921k-dots which is also disappointing. But it does tilt and therefore allows you to shoot from difficult angles without too much of a problem.

There are other additional video features that I have detailed below in the video quality segment.

Still, images, particularly low light imagery are very good too.

There is an auto HDR mode on the camera that was interesting to use. The camera can take a series of images with sequential changes in exposure and then combine all the images to produce a single image of a high dynamic range.

The continuous shooting speed of the a6300 is 11 fps. If you are a wildlife or sports photography enthusiast, you will benefit from this fast burst mode.

With such high continuous shooting speed, you will have a larger rate of frames that will turn out to be good. And don’t forget the 4D Focus system is much refined allowing you to track subjects easily.

Finally, you have built-in Wi-Fi and NFC. This allows the camera to be paired with a compatible smartphone just at a tap and you can then transfer images and videos to your wireless device seamlessly.

Sony A6300 Design

The Alpha a6300 is a compact design. It is a tried and tested design. We have seen this in the previous versions of cameras in this series.

I love the finger grip which is deep and offers enough space for all my fingers to wrap around the grip. It gives me a reassuring feeling when I am holding the camera in my hand.

Although the camera is said to be weather-sealed some loopholes can result in the camera getting wet.

One of those areas is the port covers and the gasket rings around the mount. Ideally, you would be better off not exposing the camera to hard rain.

Overall this is a compact design weighing only 400 grams with the battery and memory card in place.

This lightweight design will help those who are looking for an interchangeable lens camera to shoot great quality photos but not necessarily looking forward to lugging a heavy DSLR.

The only disadvantage is that when you are using a heavy lens, the balance of the set-up is leaning forward, and it feels kind of lopsided.

For those who are migrating from a DSLR to a mirrorless camera, it will take some time to get used to this.

For first-time camera buyers, this is not going to be a problem at all.

Sony A6300 Image Quality

The a6300 achieves great details and sharpness straight out of the camera. If you love shooting JPEGs only you will like the vibrancy and colors that the camera’s built-in RAW processor can churn out.

ISO levels of the camera range from 100 to 25600. It can be extended up to 51200. I wouldn’t recommend shooting at anything above 12800.

Even at ISO 12800 noise becomes too obvious to make any meaningful use of the photos you shoot.

Speaking of low light (and high ISO) shooting it is pertinent to mention that the a6300 is very close to being called an ISO invariant camera.

That means if you deliberately underexpose the shot by shooting at a low ISO and then try to push the exposure in post-processing to bring up the exposure the image should not be demonstrating any additional amount of noise than it would have been having the image been taken at a higher ISO.

I have seen that the a6300 has a very low noise threshold and that means I can safely take an image at ISO 100 (say when the correct ISO should have been 1600) and then push the exposure in post-processing it demonstrates very little extra noise.

I have also noticed that the camera does show up some false colors (or moiré) when shooting fine patterns.

This is difficult to understand because the camera does have an AA filter in place.

Sony A6300 Video Quality

The Sony a6300 is an excellent video camera on a budget. First of all, the camera can shoot 4K/UHD at a maximum of 30fps. it can shoot full HD at 120 fps.

At 120 fps you can create beautiful slow-motion effects with the a6300.

With the a6300 you also have an external recording mode. With an external recorder in place, you can shoot 4:2:2- 8-Bit footage.

You can shoot in S-Log3 Gamma. That allows you to take advantage of up to 1300% wider dynamic range.

That’s an incredible advantage in the sense you can have a much smoother tonal gradation, plus increased dynamic range with a lot more detail in the shadows and mid-tones.

Incidentally, you get 14-stops of dynamic range. Additionally, the camera offers a Zebra highlight assist.

This is extremely handy when shooting in manual mode because you can now have a visual indication of whether the exposure is over and accordingly adjust it.

Another useful feature on the a6300 is the Gamma Display Assist mode. When you are shooting in S-Log you can still see what you are shooting in natural contrast.

This is important because sometimes it becomes very difficult to assess how the scene is appearing in the final scheme of things with the S-Log settings.

The a6300 is at home in a multi-camera setup. it offers Time Code functionality that allows multiple cameras to be synced for when shooting the same scene and then choosing the best angle or using all angles in the final cut.

There is a User Bit function as well that can record date, time, and scene number that further aids in using multiple cameras and then editing the footage from them.

Sony A6300 Overall Performance

The a6300 is a nice camera to work with. It is small, compact, lightweight, and yet comes loaded with a lot of features for shooting great quality stills as well as videos.

The fact that it uses Sony’s E mount system, means you have access to a range of lenses both OEM and third-party to work with.

Yes, it is a bit dated and Sony has since released a few upgraded versions in the same series, but yet, the a6300 should still interest amateurs and enthusiasts.

This is because now the price of the camera has dropped.

FAQ

Final Remarks

We hope you enjoyed this review guide on the Sony A6300.

Consider everything we’ve reviewed as to whether this is the right camera for you!

Have fun, good luck, and keep photographing!

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