Sony unveils Alpha 6400 with ‘world’s fastest’ AF
SONY has announced the A6400, an APS- C mirrorless camera with a 24.2MP sensor and some impressive-sounding AF features. According to Sony, the A6400 has the world’s fastest AF acquisition speed for APS- C cameras (0.02 seconds) plus 425 phase- detection and contrast- detection AF points covering about 84% of the image area.
It also features an advanced Real-time Eye AF as well as Real-time AF tracking. ‘Real-time Eye AF employs artificial intelligence-based object recognition to detect and process eye data in real time, resulting in improved accuracy, speed and tracking performance,’ explains Sony. ‘In all autofocus modes, the camera now automatically detects the eyes of the subject and activates Eye AF with a half press of the shutter button.’
The camera is no slouch either, offering 11fps continuous shooting with continuous AF/ AE tracking, with bursts up to 116 JPEGs (8fps in silent mode). The 24.2MP sensor is paired with an upgraded Bionz X processor, with native ISO peaking at 32,000 (expandable to 102,400). Sony claims the camera also inherits many of the image-processing algorithms from its latest full-frame models, greatly suppressing noise while preserving resolution and improving texture depiction.
Other highlights include a tiltable, 180° screen with 921k dots, touchscreen operation and 4K HD video recording (it can also record HLG footage which can be played on a compatible TV). The Sony A6400 is available in February for approximately £950 body only.
Sony has also announced the new Imaging Edge mobile app for the Alpha system, for transferring files to a smartphone or tablet, and upcoming new firmware updates for the Alpha A9 (Version 5.0, March), A7R III and A7 III (Version 3.0, April) and the Alpha A9 again (Version 6.0, slated for the summer).