Vlog video shooting expert Sony micro-single A6400 evaluation

IT 168 Evaluation With the continuous sales of Sony Quan Huafu micro-single A7 series in recent years, the micro-single field has also been widely concerned by everyone, and another big branch of Sony, APS-C format micro-single series products have also been performing well. APS-C format micro-single model has always been its advantage in pursuing high quality and powerful performance while being light and portable. After nearly two years, Sony finally officially launched the new A6400 in APS-C format in June 20 19.

This is a new product with Vlog video shooting as its selling point. In terms of naming, Sony A6400 is a model between A6300 and A6500. But in fact, in some performance, A6400 may be better than A6500 with higher price positioning. We will also talk about these in detail in the following pages, so what are the bright new features of this A6400? Let's learn more about it through the real machine experience.

Let's take a look at the basic configuration of Sony A6400. This time, Sony A6400 still uses 24.2 million pixel Exmor CMOS sensor, and the image processor is BIONZ X+LSI, which supports 4K 30P video shooting. The standard sensitivity is as high as 32,000,425 phase focus points, the shutter speed is as high as 1/4000, and the continuous shooting speed is as high as 65,438.

From these data parameters, except that A6400 does not support five-axis anti-shake, but is equipped with a 920,000-pixel touch screen that supports 180 degree flip, other basic parameters are almost the same as the previous A6500, but in fact, this A6400 has greatly improved its focusing performance, adding real-time eye movement AF and real-time tracking functions, and can be used in AF-C mode without pressing any button. This may also be a major reason why this A6400 is suitable for Vlog shooting.

The design and feel are still small and portable.

Sony A6400 has a built-in flash and supports the flash jump function.

Judging from the size of the fuselage, the Sony A6400 has not changed much compared with the A6500. The magnesium alloy shell also continues the consistent design style of Sony series. The model with pure black color matching is angular, giving people the impression that it is full of materials, supporting dust and drip prevention, and the integrated sealing performance can well support the film pasting in outdoor harsh environments.

Sony A6400 adopts Exmor CMOS sensor with 24.2 million pixels.

The key operation layout on the top of the fuselage has basically not changed.

The layout of the buttons on the back of the fuselage is basically the same as that of A6500, and the button control is still the mode of double dial and multi-function direction keys, which is convenient to operate and simple to use. The protruding feel of the skin is still the same, and it can be firmly controlled even if it is held by one hand.

Screen design can be said to be a major change of Sony A6400. Two-stage hinge structure allows the screen to be folded at 180 degrees, and finally it can be easily taken by itself. This 3.0-inch LCD screen also has touch function. In the Function of Touch Operation menu, you can select Touch Shutter, Touch Focus and the new Touch Tracking function, and you can quickly activate the Real-time Tracking function by touching the screen.

On the side of the fuselage are Micro USB, HDMI and 3.5mm microphone jacks, which support USB and mobile power charging.

The battery of Sony A6400 is still NP-FW50 lithium battery. After 20 10, basically all Sony microbatteries are of this type, and the life of still photos of 4 10 is slightly improved compared with the previous 350 photos of A6500.

In this test, we got a new lens E18-135mm F3.5-5.6 OSS with A6400 camera. The lens has a wider coverage in focal length and a moderate lens size, which is very suitable for use with Sony A6400. In addition, by the way, this Sony A6400 still maintains the product characteristics of this series with equal emphasis on performance and thinness. The fuselage weight of only 359 grams is very suitable for long-term travel.

performance test

High sensitivity test, clear and low noise

During the test, because Sony A6400 adopts APS-C exmor CMOS sensor with 24 million pixels, the change of sensitivity range this time is very significant. The original sensitivity is increased to 32000, and the extended sensitivity is increased to 102800. So what is the high sensitivity performance of A6400?

As can be seen from the above figure, Sony A6400 is still in place in the ISO 100-800 range in terms of picture performance and detail reduction. However, when the sensitivity reaches 1600, slight noise begins to appear, but it does not affect the details. However, after ISO 12800, the details began to blur. Generally speaking, Sony A6400 has done a good job in noise control. If you don't deliberately enlarge the details, then the quality of ISO6400 is completely fine.

Focus continuous shooting performance test-clear subject and smooth movement.

Sony A6400 has a very good ability to track and capture objects in real time. Because of the design of the touch screen, in addition to the touch focusing function that can be used before, two new modes of touch shutter and touch tracking have been added. It is more convenient to quickly switch between the background and the subject. Let's take a look at the performance of Sony A6400 in focusing performance through demonstration video.

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Through the demonstration video, we can see that the AF performance of Sony A6400 has been obviously improved, and its change lies in the introduction of real-time tracking function. This function is especially practical for continuous focus tracking. When the main character model jumps rapidly from left to right, the camera can still keep track of the original focus tracking subject, and the focus frame will always follow the main character closely without focusing. Improving the accuracy and stability of focus tracking is very useful for the demand of high-speed motion shooting.

The new function of real-time eye focusing is also very important when shooting close-ups of people and making Vlog videos. As long as the eyes appear in the picture, the green focus frame will follow the eyes firmly and behave very stably.

Next, let's look at the continuous shooting effect of A6400 through two sets of high-speed continuous shooting GIFs;

From the moving picture, the focus tracking performance of A6400 in high-speed continuous shooting mode is quite good. In terms of accuracy, the high-speed continuous shooting at 1 1 frame per second can clearly and completely capture a series of people's walking dynamics. Of course, this also benefits from the application of the newly added real-time tracking technology.

180 degree flip screen

The flip screen is designed to be folded upwards, because Sony designed the flip screen with the consideration that this function is mainly used for taking pictures, and the screen is coaxial with the lens, which can solve the problem of inconvenient viewing angle in the past. But in fact, the application of folding screen is not only used for self-timer, but also very practical for picture monitoring at some specific angles and low angles.

4K video shooting, time-lapse photography function is wonderful

Speaking of video shooting, A6400 is Sony's first APS-C format micro-camera that supports HLG (mixed Log-Gamma) image contour, which makes A6400 have more output space and processing efficiency while maintaining high quality of overall video performance. It can record up to 4K 30P video. Let's take a look at the video sample.

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? Video proofs still maintain the shooting effect of Sony A6400 real-time tracking and real-time eye movement focusing, and the dynamic capture of video pedestrians and vehicles is also in place, and the facial details of people close to them are almost well preserved. It can be seen that the oversampling technology of Sony A6400 is stable and mature. As a Vlog camera, the video quality of A6400 is still outstanding in the same level. In addition, it is worth mentioning that during the recording process, it was found that there is no longer a 30-minute shooting time limit for Sony A6400 video.

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In addition, the interval shooting function of A6400 is also worth studying. In the early stage of shooting, the camera will automatically calculate the shooting time as long as the interval time and shooting times are set. In the process of shooting, just wait for the completion. After that, the whole shooting was made into a video of time-lapse photography, which was also very brilliant and could completely achieve the desired effect of time-lapse photography.

Sample appreciation

Finally, let's take a look at the photo shooting effect of Sony A6400 with E18-135mm F3.5-5.6 OSS lens.

Through the proofs, we can see that the shooting details of Sony A6400 are quite excellent, and the overall color reproduction is also in place. When shooting, the design of the touch screen makes shooting particularly convenient, and the camera's grip can also adapt to outdoor shooting for a long time.

Evaluation summary

Generally speaking, Sony A6400 is a new model suitable for video shooting. The newly added real-time tracking and real-time eye focusing also bring a better shooting experience. The perfection of the camera in touch operation and folding screen also makes the operation experience of the new machine more perfect. 4K 30P video shooting and canceling the time limit are also an attempt by Sony to better combine photo and video functions. As a portable micro-single product with APS-C format, Sony A6400 can support high-quality short video shooting and is attractive enough.