BackdoorArts
Senior Member
My a6000 arrived from B&H on Thursday, and as I opened the box I was surprised to see that Sony does not cover their LCD screen with protective plastic. There were some slight smudge marks on the screen, but the way in which I removed it from its bag may have cause them, so I shrugged it off. Then as I read the all-too short manual about getting started it describes how to go about attaching the Eyepiece Cup, which seemed to be already attached to mine. OK, great, so this obviously wasn't its first trip out of the box. Stuck the battery in (it was charged at 9%, so I figured that was probably a good sign), set the time (another good sign) and squeezed off a test JPEG that came through as DSC00001 (another good sign), so I let my paranoia ease a bit about just how new this camera was. I then took the battery out to charge it only to find out that Sony no longer ships an external charger with their cameras (I can buy one for $43) so I had to charge it in-camera (a process that takes 310 minutes according to the manual). So now I have a camera on an 18" cable sitting perched on a table edge so it can reach an outlet. Not happy, but see that I can get a 3rd party charge with 2 extra batteries for under $30, so I'm not too upset, knowing I'll need spares when I see that the manual estimates only about 350 shots per charge (it's actually a lot more than that - this is with WiFi on and flash firing on 1/2 the shots).
So, I decide to let it charge and read the manual to see what this can do. 10 minutes later, I realize learning what the camera can do is not something found in the manual as I'd managed to read the entire thing in that time. Where Nikon does a decent job at walking through the various menu options and attempting to explain them, Sony simply, well, lists them. Seriously, here's a screen grab with everything they tell you about these Camera Setting menu options.
Clicking on some of the can produce a list of various radio button options, and not only does the manual contain no information about what each choice means it doesn't even contain a list of the choices!! Essentially, Sony is asking the photographer to figure it out for themselves. This isn't my first rodeo, so once the camera was charged I was able to figure out how to make my Sony work pretty much like my Nikon, so I was at least good to go. But I wasn't satisfied, so I did some hunting and found this video from B&H with Gary Fong...
In it, he states quite emphatically that Sony's documentation is worthless in terms of learning the camera, and while he has no direct connection to Sony hereally loves the camera, and because of this has produced his own series of videos showing people how to "unleash the power of the a6000". He sells that video for $13 on his website, but in this free tutorial I got most of what I needed to know to be able to set the camera up properly. Let's just say that what I did initially was what he did initially, and it leaves most of the power of the camera unused. Thanks, Gary. Seriously!!
So, armed with the new camera and new knowledge I went out shooting yesterday for the first time. I did some shooting around Easton, which is in the process of transforming their center square into its Christmas format, where the statue is made into a giant Christmas candle. I used the Sony to squeeze off this shot (only minor LR edits applied)...
So, I get home and load them up. It should be noted that the 16-50mm kit zoom vignettes rather badly at 16mm. This is not something you see in-camera because the camera (apparently) applies distortion correction on JPEGs and the preview image, but when I got it into Lightroom I was quite surprised - but once I applied Lens Profile Correction it was fine, But it makes me wonder what I'd get with a UV/clear filter which is something I'd been seriously considering given that I'd love to be able to stick this in my coat pocket, and the lens cap is a bit small and easy to lose and I don't want to scratch the front element which.
Then I noticed something quite disturbing in the shot above. A nice spot on the sensor in the lower right corner. I looked at other shots and sure enough it was on every shot I'd taken where that part of the frame was clearly discernible. And this shot was at f8!! While you can remove the lens from this camera I had not yet done so, figuring, "Why invite even the chance of dust?!", and yet here it is. Now I'm wondering, just how "used" was this "new" camera?
I did some searching and found one site that has managed to decode the Sony EXIF and reveal the actual shutter activation count. So I grabbed a JPEG off the card and sent it in...
What this is telling me is that someone unwrapped the camera, put it together, removed the lens, fired off two shots and sent it back to B&H before they reset it and sent it to me. Given what I've spent there I'm not really thrilled by this, and would have been far more forward about them with it were they open on the Sabbath yesterday to take my call. But, I've had a night to sleep on it, and I plan on reaching out as soon as they open today to make sure that this is remedied with all due haste. Thankfully they're inside the one-day UPS shipping distance, so if I get a return label today, ship tomorrow, they'll have it Tuesday and I'll hopefully have one by Wednesday - though I will be reminding them to look at my Account History with them and highly recommend they ship one out on tomorrow (it's not gonna happen).
As for the camera? I like it a lot in the limited use it had yesterday. I'm not Gary Fong crazy about it thinking it could replace my DSLR's, but I do believe that once I'm comfortable with it I'll be happy to use this as a walk around and casual (as opposed to destination) travel camera. There is apparently an adapter that will allow me to put my Nikkor glass on it and retain functionality - it's not cheap, but neither is replacing/replicating glass. The 11 fps has a lot of potential to grab some cool shots I'd miss otherwise. The sensor is actually really good, with it comparing favorably with the D7100 sensor at DxOMark (for those who put stock in those numbers)...
So, color me disappointed with the experience, with Sony's documentation, and with B&H's restocking strategies, but not with the camera. I did a lot of homework and legwork before going here, and outside of the run-around I'm about to be in the midst of, I'm not regretting my decision. I'll post some fully formed photos when I get through them today.
So, I decide to let it charge and read the manual to see what this can do. 10 minutes later, I realize learning what the camera can do is not something found in the manual as I'd managed to read the entire thing in that time. Where Nikon does a decent job at walking through the various menu options and attempting to explain them, Sony simply, well, lists them. Seriously, here's a screen grab with everything they tell you about these Camera Setting menu options.
Clicking on some of the can produce a list of various radio button options, and not only does the manual contain no information about what each choice means it doesn't even contain a list of the choices!! Essentially, Sony is asking the photographer to figure it out for themselves. This isn't my first rodeo, so once the camera was charged I was able to figure out how to make my Sony work pretty much like my Nikon, so I was at least good to go. But I wasn't satisfied, so I did some hunting and found this video from B&H with Gary Fong...
In it, he states quite emphatically that Sony's documentation is worthless in terms of learning the camera, and while he has no direct connection to Sony hereally loves the camera, and because of this has produced his own series of videos showing people how to "unleash the power of the a6000". He sells that video for $13 on his website, but in this free tutorial I got most of what I needed to know to be able to set the camera up properly. Let's just say that what I did initially was what he did initially, and it leaves most of the power of the camera unused. Thanks, Gary. Seriously!!
So, armed with the new camera and new knowledge I went out shooting yesterday for the first time. I did some shooting around Easton, which is in the process of transforming their center square into its Christmas format, where the statue is made into a giant Christmas candle. I used the Sony to squeeze off this shot (only minor LR edits applied)...
So, I get home and load them up. It should be noted that the 16-50mm kit zoom vignettes rather badly at 16mm. This is not something you see in-camera because the camera (apparently) applies distortion correction on JPEGs and the preview image, but when I got it into Lightroom I was quite surprised - but once I applied Lens Profile Correction it was fine, But it makes me wonder what I'd get with a UV/clear filter which is something I'd been seriously considering given that I'd love to be able to stick this in my coat pocket, and the lens cap is a bit small and easy to lose and I don't want to scratch the front element which.
Then I noticed something quite disturbing in the shot above. A nice spot on the sensor in the lower right corner. I looked at other shots and sure enough it was on every shot I'd taken where that part of the frame was clearly discernible. And this shot was at f8!! While you can remove the lens from this camera I had not yet done so, figuring, "Why invite even the chance of dust?!", and yet here it is. Now I'm wondering, just how "used" was this "new" camera?
I did some searching and found one site that has managed to decode the Sony EXIF and reveal the actual shutter activation count. So I grabbed a JPEG off the card and sent it in...
What this is telling me is that someone unwrapped the camera, put it together, removed the lens, fired off two shots and sent it back to B&H before they reset it and sent it to me. Given what I've spent there I'm not really thrilled by this, and would have been far more forward about them with it were they open on the Sabbath yesterday to take my call. But, I've had a night to sleep on it, and I plan on reaching out as soon as they open today to make sure that this is remedied with all due haste. Thankfully they're inside the one-day UPS shipping distance, so if I get a return label today, ship tomorrow, they'll have it Tuesday and I'll hopefully have one by Wednesday - though I will be reminding them to look at my Account History with them and highly recommend they ship one out on tomorrow (it's not gonna happen).
As for the camera? I like it a lot in the limited use it had yesterday. I'm not Gary Fong crazy about it thinking it could replace my DSLR's, but I do believe that once I'm comfortable with it I'll be happy to use this as a walk around and casual (as opposed to destination) travel camera. There is apparently an adapter that will allow me to put my Nikkor glass on it and retain functionality - it's not cheap, but neither is replacing/replicating glass. The 11 fps has a lot of potential to grab some cool shots I'd miss otherwise. The sensor is actually really good, with it comparing favorably with the D7100 sensor at DxOMark (for those who put stock in those numbers)...
So, color me disappointed with the experience, with Sony's documentation, and with B&H's restocking strategies, but not with the camera. I did a lot of homework and legwork before going here, and outside of the run-around I'm about to be in the midst of, I'm not regretting my decision. I'll post some fully formed photos when I get through them today.
). Buying online does present a bit of a gamble, but I've never had that experience with B&H. 
