Sony NEX-6 review

A product gets a Best Buy award if it’s the best of its kind that we’ve seen, but every now and then we’re treated with something that’s not just better than the competition, but as good as we could possibly hope for. The Sony NEX-6 comes very close, building on the successes of the Sony NEX-5N and Sony NEX-7, while taking a few pointers from the best of the rest.

Its 16-megapixel sensor is closely related to the 5N’s, delivering breathtakingly low noise levels in low light. It’s on a par with the best SLRs at this price, and comfortably ahead of any other brand of CSC. As with the NEX-5R (review coming soon), this updated sensor incorporates phase-detect autofocus points to speed up autofocus – something that NEX cameras have struggled with in the past.

Sure enough, the NEX-6 outperformed the NEX-5N in our tests. Getting them both to refocus repeatedly on nearby and distant subjects, the NEX-6 averaged 0.54 seconds from pressing the shutter button to capturing a shot, while the 5N came in at 0.72 seconds. That’s not a massive improvement but it’s enough for us to say that autofocus performance is no longer a concern. It’s a fast camera in most other respects, taking 0.7 seconds between shots for both JPEGs and raw capture. Continuous mode is at 10fps, slowing to 2.9fps after 12 frames.

BUILT-IN WI-FI

Another feature shared with the NEX-5R is built in Wi-Fi. It can join an existing network and upload photos directly to Facebook. Entering username and password information is fiddly, though, and portrait-shaped photos were displayed on their sides on Facebook.

More usefully, it can create a network for a smartphone to join, thereby allowing uploads wherever there’s mobile coverage. Transferring photos directly to an iPad using the PlayMemories Mobile app was simple and quick, with an option to resize photos to 2 megapixels before they were transferred. We could transfer videos, too, but only if they were recorded in MPEG-4 rather than the more flexible AVCHD format. We were also able to control the camera remotely from the app, complete with a live view feed and instant transfers. There wasn’t much lag but control over settings was severely limited on both the camera and the app – we weren’t even able to adjust the zoom.

PlayMemories Mobile is available for Android too, but we had less success here. The remote viewfinder failed to work on both an HTC One V and a Samsung Galaxy Note II. Image transfers worked temperamentally on the HTC, and were complicated by an inability to save directly to the phones’ storage – instead, we had to choose another app to send them to.

This is the first camera we’ve seen that can download and install apps

CAMERA APPS

The Wi-Fi functions also include the ability to download and install apps to the camera. These must be especially written for the camera but the platform is open for third-party developers to sell apps. The online store was closed for maintenance at the time of testing, but there was an app installed for basic photo-editing tasks, while another added creative effects while shooting in PASM modes (Program, Aperture and Shutter priority, plus Manual) – a great idea, although the conventional camera controls became noticeably less responsive.

The Picture Effect+ app is perfect for creating moody (or pretentious) Facebook profile images

It’s an interesting idea, but time will tell whether developers and customers want to invest their time and money here. We’d be more inclined to spend it in Android or Apple’s app store. However, if Sony gets the ball rolling with more free apps to improve these cameras’ shooting abilities, that’s fine by us.

Other features are drawn from the NEX-7. There’s the same 2.4-million-dot electronic viewfinder (EVF), giving a view that’s as big and detailed as a full-frame SLR. While most CSCs with viewfinders resemble shrunken SLRs, we like how this one uses the same boxy design as the rest of the NEX range to keep the proportions as small as possible. Having the EVF of the left edge means that you don’t have to press your nose against the screen – as long as your right eye is dominant, of course. A proximity sensor switches the EVF on automatically when the camera is raised to the eye.

There’s an integrated pop-up flash and a standard hotshoe, which are far preferable to the NEX-5N and 5R’s clip-on flash unit and proprietary shoe that doesn’t accept standard accessories. It’s better than the NEX-7’s shoe too, which is yet another proprietary design.

The new kit lens is much more in keeping with the NEX system’s compact designs

Other NEX cameras are bundled with an 18-55mm kit lens that’s relatively bulky and suffers from soft focus in the corners of frames. The new 16-50mm kit lens is a big improvement on both fronts. It’s impressively sharp into the corners of frames, even at its widest aperture settings. It uses a motor rather than a mechanical lens ring to control the zoom, and can retract down to 30mm when powered down. That’s half the length of the 18-55mm lens, and it’s 40 per cent lighter too.

The new 16-50mm kit lens is much sharper into the corners of frames than the older 18-55mm lens

The similar Panasonic 14-42mm PZ lens uses levers to control the zoom and focus, but Sony’s new lens has a lens ring that can be assigned to either zoom or focus duties. Controlling motors with a lens ring is often vague and clumsy, but here it’s implemented extremely well. Zoom can be assigned to the lever on the lens barrel if you need control over both zoom and focus. Alternatively, selecting DMF mode (short for direct manual focus) assigns the lens ring to zoom, but after triggering the autofocus with a half-press of the shutter button, the ring then switches to manual focus duties for fine tuning.

Along with the sharp screen and viewfinder, up to 9.6x temporary magnification and a peaking mode that highlights high-contrast (and thus, sharply focused) parts of the image, this is as good as it gets for manual focusing with a compact system camera. We only wish that there was a hardware button for toggling between auto and manual focus. As with other CSCs, Sony NEX cameras don’t include switches on their lenses, but whereas the NEX-7 has a physical manual focus switch on the back of the camera, the NEX-6 requires a trip to the menu.

Otherwise, the controls are hard to fault. ISO speed, exposure compensation, drive mode, autofocus point and AE Lock all have dedicated buttons, and a Function button reveals another five (picked from a list of 15) on the screen. There are two dials for adjusting settings, giving direct control of shutter speed and aperture in manual exposure mode. There’s no shortage of smart shooting modes, including automatic panorama stitching and high-dynamic-range shooting. Best of all, there’s a physical mode dial – something that’s been sorely lacking from previous NEX cameras, including the NEX-7.

Sony excels for sophisticated shooting modes, such as this automatic HDR shot made by merging three frames at different exposures

Priority and manual exposure modes work exactly the same for photo and video capture. With Full-HD capture at 25p, 50i or 50p and clips up to 30 minutes, this is one of the most capable cameras around for video. Autofocus is smooth and silent, and the motorised zoom isn’t too invasive on the stereo soundtrack.

The low noise and detail retention in this ISO 1250 shot is as good as you’ll get from any camera under £1,000

Photo quality is hard to distinguish from the NEX-5N, which places it among the best CSCs available for noise levels and a strong contender for details too. However, direct comparisons revealed that the NEX-5N exhibited slightly lower noise at fast ISO speeds. This is a surprising and a little disappointing, but there wasn’t much in it and it was only perceptible at ISO 6400 and above. The benefit of the NEX-6’s sharper kit lens was much easier to spot.

Sony’s aggressive noise reduction handles the block colours in this ISO 2500 shot incredibly well

We got a chance to try the NEX-6 out with Sony’s new 35mm f/1.8 lens, the SEL35F18. This gives an effective focal length of 52mm, which is perfect for general snapping. It delivered seriously sharp focus at f/4 and – predictably – superb low-light performance at f/1.8. The only snag is that the NEX-6 limits the aperture to f/4 on automatic settings, only using wider apertures when the ISO speed is maxed out at 3200. We had to switch to aperture priority mode to make the most of its low-light capabilities.

The new 35mm f/1.8 lens (giving a 52mm equivalent focal length) is further proof that the E Mount isn’t short of high quality lenses

The NEX-6 is very nearly perfect, but there are still a few things on our wish list. It’s disappointing that the 3in articulated screen isn’t touch-sensitive. Perhaps it was deemed to be unsuitable on a serious camera, but we find touchscreens extremely useful for moving the autofocus point – something that’s worth doing often on a large-sensor camera because of the shallow depth of field it gives. Adjusting the autofocus point using the NEX-6’s navigation pad is slower than simply prodding the screen.

We wish it were possible to hear a beep to confirm autofocus but not also have to put up with a clicking sound every time we press a button or turn a dial. We’d also like to be able to disable the text descriptions that appear each time the mode dial is adjusted, requiring a button push to dismiss.

These are minor quibbles, though, and in all other respect the NEX-6 is an outstanding camera. It’s a pleasure to use, it’s packed with useful features and image and video quality are top notch. Sony’s E Mount still trails behind Micro Four Thirds for the sheer number of compatible lenses, but based on these two new additions, it’s no longer trailing for quality.

It’s currently available for £819, but that’s only £10 less than Sony’s official price – we expect it will shed £100 or so in the next couple of months. Either way, though, it’s an expensive camera. Our next challenge is to find something that’s this good but costs less.

We might not have to wait long: the NEX-5R uses the same sensor and includes 10fps shooting, Wi-Fi and similar controls, but costs just £480 inc VAT from Amazon. It doesn’t include the NEX-6’s electronic viewfinder, integrated flash, hotshoe, mode dial or superior kit lens, though. If you’ve got the funds, the NEX-6 is hard to resist.