Sony Alpha 6600

The A6600 has plenty of enticing features, but it's let down by disappointing body design. It's a good choice for those who shoot a lot of sports and action, but there are plenty of rival models that are also up to that job. It’s also just a little too similar to its predecessor to draw too much enthusiasm for the extra outlay.

The Sony A6600 is a new flagship mirrorless camera with an APS-C image sensor that replaces the A6500 at the top of the pecking order. It's the sixth model in Sony's A6xxx range of APS-C sensor cameras, joining the A6000, A6100, A6300, A6400 and A6500 in the now extensive lineup. At its core is a 24.2 megapixel Exmor CMOS image sensor, the latest BIONZ X image processor, and a front-end LSI inherited from Sony’s more expensive range of full-frame mirrorless cameras.

The Sony Alpha A6600 offers a compact 24mp APS-C mirrorless camera, with excellent battery life.

As Sony’s new flagship APS-C camera, the 24.2-megapixel A6600 has a lot to live up to. Its predecessor, the A6500, broke new ground, and the full-frame A7 series are the best mirrorless cameras on the market. The A6600 does have some nice features like real-time AF tracking, in-body stabilization and improved battery life. However, it’s held back by poor handling, an old sensor with bad rolling shutter and 4K video capabilities that are behind rivals. Overall, it’s not as good a camera as Fujifilm’s X-T3, and represents a rare camera misfire for Sony.

The Sony a6600 has an industry-leading autofocus system, is capable of excellent images and video, comes with very useful in-body image stabilization and has the best battery life of any mirrorless camera on the market at this time. However, its sensor is getting a bit long-in-the-tooth, and competitors have caught up or surpassed it regarding video quality and features, resolution and handling. But for family photography and even some sports and action, it's easily worth your consideration.

The Sony A6600 is an upper mid-range mirrorless camera with a 24 Megapixel APSC sensor, built-in stabilisation, 4k video, 11fps bursts with autofocus, and increased battery life. It replaces the three-year-old A6500 as Sony’s flagship body and like that model, follows the most recent unstabilised Alpha body, in this case, the A6400, by just seven months. The A6600 certainly shares a great deal with the A6400, including the same 24 Megapixel sensor, AF system, 11fps bursts, unlimited movie recording, XGA viewfinder and tilting touchscreen, but it adds more than just built-in stabilisation. The A6600 becomes the first Sony APSC body to use the company’s higher capacity FZ100 battery pack, increasing the life to 810 shots under CIPA conditions, roughly double the A6400 and more in fact than the full-frame bodies which use it. The A6600 also becomes the first APSC model in the range to sport a (long overdue) headphone jack, and it now additionally supports eye detection in movies. These four main upgrades carry a premium of around $500 over the A6400.

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