Sony Alpha A6400

MEET SONY’S ALL-NEW MID-RANGE MIRRORLESS CAMERA.

SONY SAYS THE build quality of the Alpha A6400 has been upgraded over the A6300, although it’s not clear exactly how or where. Either way, the Alpha A6400 features a magnesium alloy body which is sealed against dust and moisture. Sony’s also bolstered the shutter, which has a lifespan of 200,000 cycles – double that of the A6300.

There’s a pretty decent-sized handgrip, with the body of the A6400 following a virtually identical form factor to other A6000-series cameras. The A6400 also features an identical control layout to the A6300, with a good amount of well-marked controls at the rear, along with a free-moving control wheel that enables you to navigate menus and scrutinize images with ease. However, as on all Sony’s other cameras, touchscreen functionality is limited to tap focus, tap shutter and defining subjects for tracking; you’re not able to navigate the A6400’s comprehensive menu system, although this has been refreshed over the A6300’s interface, with six color-coded sub-menus making it that little bit easier to navigate.

A nice addition is the My Dial feature, which enables you to repurpose the Alpha A6400’s main command dial and rear scroll when you press or hold a custom button. And this isn’t limited to just one set of functions – you can configure up to three sets, assigning them to separate custom buttons or one that cycles between them. As we’ve touched on, the design does differ slightly from the A6300 thanks to the addition of a flip-out display that rotates outwards 180 degrees, which is more good news for those wanting to shoot selfies, and vloggers looking for a feature-packed 4K camera. One issue, however, is that if you’re planning to use a dedicated external microphone and attach it to the camera’s hotshoe, the display will be significantly obstructed.

AUTOFOCUS

To say the autofocus system on the Sony

Alpha A6400 is sophisticated is an understatement, and Sony’s boast that the A6400 features the world’s fastest autofocus at just 0.02 sec is just a small part of the story.

The new camera features a hybrid AF system, with 425 phase-detect points supplemented by 425 contrast-detect AF points (up from the Alpha A6300’s 25 contrast-detect AF points), and delivers 84% coverage of the frame.

This is the first Sony camera to come equipped with Sony’s new Real-time Tracking and Real-time EyeAF technology (both features are coming to the Alpha A9 via a hefty firmware update in March, and to the Alpha A7R III and A7 III in April).

Real-time Tracking uses Sony’s latest predictive and recognition algorithms, including AI-based object recognition and color, subject distance (depth), pattern (brightness) and spatial information; that’s not forgetting face and eye detection.

EyeAF has been an impressive feature of many Sony cameras in the last couple of years, and the A6400’s Real-time EyeAF looks to be the best implementation yet

During our time with the A6400 we were nothing but impressed with its autofocus. While it performs impressively when used simply for generic wide-area focusing in AF-S, it really comes into its own when you select continuous focusing and Real-time Tracking AF. Whether you’re wanting to grab quick family snaps, or track and shoot fast sports, the A6400’s AF doesn’t disappoint. Focusing is swift, and locks on to subjects with ease, while the fact that it will automatically detect faces and then eyes even more impressive.

PERFORMANCE

To partner its advanced AF system, the Alpha A6400 can shoot at up to 11fps with both AF and AE. The buffer performance has been improved over the A6300’s, with the A6400 able to shoot a total of 116 JPEG images compared to the A6300’s 30, while for raw shooting, the capacity has been increased from 21 to 46 shots (although interestingly the A6500 has the upper hand here, capturing 200 JPEGs in a single burst at 11fps or 107 raw files). Should you want to shoot silently, you can do so at 8fps.

As far as metering goes, we found the A6400 to mostly be a reliable performer, with just an occasional bias towards underexposure; this is negligible though, and it’s often by only around half or a third of a stop, so can easily be remedied with a touch of exposure compensation, or in post-capture raw processing.

The A6400’s auto white balance system, meanwhile, does a good job of faithfully reproducing colors in a range of conditions, even impressing under typically problematic artificial sources.

IMAGE QUALITY

The Alpha A6400 uses the same 24.2MP APS-C Exmor CMOS sensor as the A6300 and A6500. The A6400 gets the latest BIONZ X image processor though, which Sony believes delivers even better image quality.

We tested the A6400 with a variety of lenses, including the Sony E 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 OSS, FE 24-70mm f/4 ZA OSS and FE 55mm f/1.8 ZA, and every combination delivered images rich in detail and with plenty of clarity. JPEGs straight out of the camera look very impressive – sharpness is good, while the contrast is just about right too.

Video quality is also excellent, with the A6400 delivering plenty of detail, while motion is nice and smooth and audio quality also very good. You’ll want to think about a separate microphone if you’re wanting the best sound possible, though – as with most cameras, wind noise can be an issue for the internal microphone.

VERDICT

You could be forgiven for thinking that the Alpha A6400 is a minor upgrade over the A6300, and in many ways it is. But it’s the upgraded and highly advanced autofocus that really shines here, even more so given that it’s on a camera costing $1,500. If this camera can help you increase your hit rate, regardless of the subject you’re shooting, that can only be a good thing.

FOCUSING IS SWIFT, AND LOCKS ON TO SUBJECTS WITH EASE, WHILE THE FACT THAT IT WILL AUTOMATICALLY DETECT FACES AND THEN EYES EVEN MORE IMPRESSIVE.