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Here are the top features
of the Sony a6400.
Flip up screen, updated menu system,
1:1 photo aspect
ratio for the grams,
no cropping in 4K 24 frames per second.
Take that, Canon. (smacking)
Built in intervalometer, real
time auto focus tracking,
brighter screen, and bye bye
30 minute recording limit.
And what better way to review this camera
than to vlog my Hong Kong trip.
(upbeat music)
It's kind of humid out here in Hong Kong.
Anyways, Sony is definitely
marketing this camera
towards the vlogging demographic
with its flip up screen right here
but after using this camera
for about a month now,
I can confidently say that this camera
has major improvements in the photography
and videography department.
Whether you're just
starting in photography
or upgrading from an
older a6000 series camera,
you'll find the auto focus on the a6400
bar none one of the best out there.
It'll make taking sharp photos a breeze.
Now the major Achilles's
heel that everyone is saying
that Sony a6400 has is the lack of in body
image stabilization so
if you're planning on
shooting a lot of videos with this camera,
I would suggest picking up a few lenses
with optical steady shot.
Aside from that, video
shooters will find the user
experience of the a6000
much more enjoyable
compared to its predecessors.
With that said, let's go ahead
and get into the specifics
on what could potentially be
the ultimate camera for content creators.
(gentle music)
What I love most about
the Sony a6000 series
is their compact form factor.
Small bodies and small lenses.
They are the living
embodiments of the ideals
of using a mirrorless camera
compared to its competition
and traditional DSLRs.
The size itself makes it a portable
travel friendly camera
but it's not too small
where it sacrifices usability.
All the necessary functions and features
are easily accessible
within your fingertips.
Off to the side you'll
find a micro USB port
for firmware upgrades and
convenient on the go charging,
a micro HDMI port for monitor or TV usage
and a mic jack for
external audio recording.
Now the headlining feature of the a6400
is obviously the flip up screen.
So this is kind of
foreign to me right now.
Even though I can see my framing,
I find myself looking at the screen
more than I'm looking at the lens.
With the other Sony cameras
that I'm used to vlogging with,
I'm always looking at the lens
because I don't have a
flip up screen to look at
so that was one positive aspect
to not having the flip up screen.
This is going to take a
little bit of getting used to.
A couple of things with
the flip up screen.
It's a little stiff when you're moving it
to selfie position so get
ready to get used to that.
When the screen is up, you'll notice
the eye piece is blocking.
You would still see a
majority of your screen
but it does block the ISO reading.
If that is important to you,
you can always remove the eye piece.
One of the biggest
critique about the camera
is when you mount a mic
on top of the hot shoe
it blocks the screen.
I however have a solution to that
which you can find in more details
from my a6400 recommended
accessories video.
However, would a fully
articulating flip out screen
have been better than this flip up screen?
I would argue this.
When you throw a shotgun mic into play,
the form factors of either setup
would look to similar
anyways so in my opinion,
it doesn't matter.
Without the mic, the Sony
a6400 has a smaller footprint.
Now while we're in the topic of no mic.
Here's the thing, people
outside of the prosumer
camera's sphere won't
find the audio recorded
from the on board mic too bothersome.
They're used to this from
their favorite YouTubers by now
but people like me and you
camera enthusiasts out there
with the pitchforks ready,
this sounds completely garbage to you.
You guys probably want
to stab me for making you
go through this.
Well don't worry, calm down,
put away those pitchforks
'cause I'm putting on the mic right now.
Alright, so this should
sound a lot better now
so you can go ahead and
put away your pitchforks.
I'm gonna go ahead and enjoy
my Hong Kong breakfast.
(chiming)
Now there's nothing new
in the image quality
and video quality
department because the a6400
uses the same sensor as the a6300.
You're still getting the same
grade of 24 megapixel photos.
You're still getting the same grade of
amazing over sampled 4K videos.
Now in case you're new around here,
here's what I mean by oversampling.
The a6400 is technically
shooting 6K worth of information
but in a 4K box so you're
getting a lot of details
in your 4K videos plus giving
you crispy, sharp results.
Unfortunately, the 1080p
quality is still okay.
Slow motion at 1080p 60
and 120 are still mushy
compared to the results you would get
from the full frame a73.
However, there is one aspect in quality
that the a6400 does have an improvement on
and that is the color.
Human skin tones look more natural
straight out of the camera and apparently
plant colors too and for
my video breatherens,
in addition to SLOG-2 and SLOG-3,
you will now be getting hybrid log gamma.
In my opinion, that's
a lot easier to grade
with still a ton of
dynamic range to work with
but if you're a hardcore SLOG guy,
you'll be happy to know that
the minimum ISO for SLOG-3 is now 500.
(gentle music)
Like the a63 and a6500,
you're also getting
the same 11 frames per
second out of the a6400,
so that's good for action,
sports, drifting cars.
Anyways, no drifting cars here,
but here are some taxis driving by
just to show the buffer on this camera.
It still takes some time for the camera
to write in the raw and
JPEG after a burst session
but you'll be glad to
know you can still access
most menu functions while the a6400
is still processing the new photos.
The a6400 also have the
same 425 phase detection
auto focus points which is a good thing
because that means there
are more focus points
on the screen to keep
your subject in focus
as they travel across the frame.
If shooting portraits is your thing,
not only will you have continuous
eye auto focus tracking,
but you can now select which
eye you want the camera
to prioritize to ensure you
get the sharpest results.
If you have a pet that has more followers
than you on Instagram,
they would be happy to know
animal eye auto focus is now a thing.
Or rather soon via a firmware update.
But the thing that really sets this camera
apart from the other a6000 series camera
is the real time auto focus tracking.
I mean, come on, they're
making this way too easy now.
The a6400 uses AI to improve
its auto focus tracking.
Even just pointing the
camera at a subject,
it can already tell where the eye is
without triggering the
eye auto focus button
and the real time auto focus
applies to video as well.
It is a tremendous improvement
over the previous center
lock on auto focus
found in cameras before this one.
For one, you can simply tap on the subject
to activate real time auto focus tracking
and it does a great job
keeping them in focus
as they move across the frame.
Now I'll have to say this though,
this works best when there
are a lot of contrast
in the scene and a subject is apparent.
Otherwise, the tracking
box will get confused.
To activate touch tracking,
you will need to go into
the menu to enable it first.
Speaking of touch, let's
talk about the touch screen.
It is so much better
compared to the a6500.
However, it's still limited
to touch focus really.
You're not gonna be able to
navigate through the menu
to get to things or
swipe to the next photo.
You can however double
tap to enlarge the photo
and swipe around but that's about it.
The menu is still largely the same
but with a few improvements.
My menu has made its way to the a6400.
This allows you to pull from all of your
most used menu settings in one page
in case a default menu is
too difficult to traverse.
Another thing that I'm glad
has made its way to the a6400
is the star rating system.
You can now rate your photos on the spot
so you can remember
which ones are the best
to off load to your computer for editing.
And new to the a6400, you'll
now get a visualization
of the camera layouts when
you're customizing the buttons
which is incredibly helpful as well.
For those of you who are new around here,
you'll be happy to know you can wirelessly
transfer photos and
videos to your smartphone
via WiFi for quick social media posting.
That's how I've been sharing my content
to my Instagram story on the same day.
One of the biggest bummer
within the last couple of years
was the elimination of
the PlayMemories app,
which took away an insanely
helpful feature, time lapse.
However, Sony has brought
it back to the a6400
in the form of interval shoot function.
No longer do you have
to go through a clunky
app system to use time lapse.
It is now built right in.
While the a6400 can shoot up
to ISO 32000 in video mode,
I personally wouldn't go past
ISO 6400 for the best results.
(laughing) 6400.
For a more detailed low light
test plus other comparisons,
be sure to check out my a6400 versus a6500
versus a5100 video linked
up here on the top right.
Now you might be asking me
are there any overheating
issues with the Sony a6400?
I haven't experienced anything
yet and that's because
the Sony a6400 is
rocking the new processor
similar to that of the a9 which allows it
to use its power a lot more efficiently.
On top of that, no more screen dimming
when you shoot in 4K.
You can even make the screen brighter now
which is insanely helpful
for when you're shooting
in conditions like this
and that in my opinion
makes this camera worth upgrading to.
By the way, no recording limit.
That means you can now
record past 30 minutes.
If you're a vlogger, it probably won't be
a big deal to you but
for us videographers,
we can now record hour
long wedding ceremonies
or hour long concerts.
In my comparison video,
the a6400 can shoot
a continuous 4K video file
up to an hour 27 minutes
with 13% battery to spare.
In that time, the heat
warning signal never came on.
Again, it's because of the new processor
that allows the camera to use
its power more efficiently.
In Hong Kong, I find
myself going through about
three batteries from an all day shoot
so I recommend at least
three spare batteries.
Alright, so let's talk about the lack of
in body image stabilization
in this camera.
Does it really matter?
Now most Sony APSD lenses
have optical steady shot
so if you have a few of those,
you shouldn't have to
worry about anything.
However, if you have
the Sigma Prime lenses
and you're doing a lot of photography,
I would say crank up that shutter speed
and you should be okay.
However, if you're doing a
lot of hand held video work,
I would say try to have it
on a try pot or a gimbal.
Again, go with the lenses
that have optical steady shot.
Now if you really need that
in body image stabilization,
for $250 more there is the a6500.
However, based on my
experience with the a6400,
a lot of the new tech in this camera
really out paces the a6500.
Alright, so let's go ahead
and talk about the price,
$899 US dollars.
Now here's the thing.
Some people would find
it a little too steep
for an entry level mirrorless camera.
If that's the case, you still
have the older a6000 camera
to fall back on.
It's still a great beginner's camera
with great image quality
and decent 1080p video.
However, in my opinion,
$899 for this camera
isn't bad at all considering the new tech
inside of the Sony a6400.
It's gonna make getting
focused in photography
and videography that much easier.
Again, overall the user
experience of this camera
has drastically improved
over the a63 and the a6500.
While this camera wasn't
the Pro APSE Sony body
a lot of people were hoping for
during the initial announcement,
the a6400 still exceeded
a lot of expectations
for an entry level mirrorless camera.
The small form factor, the flip up screen,
the new efficient processor,
the longer 4K recording,
the AI focus tracking,
the better colors, I
mean, the list goes on.
This is hands down one of the best compact
mirrorless camera you
can buy for the dollar
with quality results that matches up
to the Pro Alpha 7 line.
Let me know in the comments down below
what's your opinion on the a6400
as well as the results that
came out of this camera
from this video.
Depending on when you're
watching this video,
I will have a setup guide
for the best settings
ready for those who will receive
their a6400 on release day
so be sure to stay subscribed
to see when that drops.
Alright, it's time for
us to head home now.
Guys, thank you so much for watching
this Sony a6400 user experience review
and we'll see you guys in the next video.
Peace.
Hey there, thanks again for
watching the entire video.
As you saw, we took some
pretty amazing photos
from Hong Kong, hashtag humble brag
and we're planning on using them
as we rebrand our website.
For 2019, Vivi and I really wanna combine
our hybrid shooting with travel.
With Squarespace, we're
able to rebuild our website
with their clean templates.
Everything's as simple as click and drag.
Definitely check back in the
next month to see our progress.
However, you can try out
Squarespace for yourself right now
with a free trial.
Whether you're building a portfolio
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Squarespace is an all
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go to Squarespace.com slash
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You're welcome.
See you guys in the next end card.
Peace.
