A6400 or A6600?

[russellsnr]

Hi, I use the A9 predominately for my bird/wildlife photography, I was going to buy the 1.4 extender to use with the 70-200 F4 on the A9 but bought an A6000 instead as that still gives the F4 with the 1.5 crop sensor factor and not having to put on take off an extender, anyway I am thinking of selling the A6000 and buying the A6400 or A6600 but only to use with the 70-200 F4. So the question is do I go for A6400 or A6600?
Thanks.
Russ.

 

[FowlersFreeTime]

Welcome Russ.
The a6600 has IBIS and a larger battery, for a larger price tag.
The a6400 has no IBIS and the older (smaller batteries), but has the same great Autofocus abilities, for less price.

I believe I watched a review that said the IBIS in the a6600 wasn't helpful for video, but was noticeably useful for photography. If you have the ability to get the a6600 for a good price, I'd say go for it.

 

[Brownie]

Maybe consider selling both and getting an A7 IV? 33 MP and the newest focusing features that includes bird eye tracking.

I don't know if either/both/neither of the 6400 and/or 6600 have an anti aliasing filter. If one does, pick the other one.

 

[Slug]

A6400 is a beaut little camera. My take home rate on birds is better with that than my A1.
Still trying to find the best settings on the A1 and a bit disappointed for a camera with that price tag.

 

[russellsnr]

Than you for all the advice, as I said in the OP I want the crop camera to use with the 70-200 F4 as it allows me to keep that F4, my 200-600 as you no is at 300mm only gives F5.6 and as I use the 70-200 only from my hide when the light is not so good and that extra stop sometimes comes in handy especially when leaves are on the trees also camera/s are on a tripod. Russ

 

[Brownie]

Than you for all the advice, as I said in the OP I want the crop camera to use with the 70-200 F4 as it allows me to keep that F4, my 200-600 as you no is at 300mm only gives F5.6 and as I use the 70-200 only from my hide when the light is not so good and that extra stop sometimes comes in handy especially when leaves are on the trees also camera/s are on a tripod. Russ

f/4 to f/5.6 is one stop, which is essentially the same amount of light you gain going from APS-C to FF. You also have a little over one stop of dynamic range between the two sensors, which would allow you to shoot slightly under exposed and still pull out detail without the noise. It's not enough to say a lens is a stop faster when you're comparing different formats.

Not trying to talk you out of your choice, but it does need to be kept in context when looking at data.

 

[russellsnr]

f/4 to f/5.6 is one stop, which is essentially the same amount of light you gain going from APS-C to FF. You also have a little over one stop of dynamic range between the two sensors, which would allow you to shoot slightly under exposed and still pull out detail without the noise. It's not enough to say a lens is a stop faster when you're comparing different formats.

Not trying to talk you out of your choice, but it does need to be kept in context when looking at data.

Hi, OK did not no that, so that being the case would a better option be to go for the 60+ MP camera and use the option I believe it has to go to crop mode to stay at F4 on the 70-200 or would the same equation apply on the lose of one stop as with the APS-C versus FF option?

 

[Brownie]

Hi, OK did not no that, so that being the case would a better option be to go for the 60+ MP camera and use the option I believe it has to go to crop mode to stay at F4 on the 70-200 or would the same equation apply on the lose of one stop as with the APS-C versus FF option?

You're going to get as many opinions as there are people!

Any time you use a smaller sensor you're going to get less light. In this case you're using a smaller section of a larger sensor, so to my mind it would still apply and I would consider that when thinking about this type of application.

Remember, an f/4 lens is an f/4 lens regardless, but the aperture at f/4 (for example) on an APS-C is smaller because the sensor is smaller, it simply doesn't need to be any bigger. In any given aperture setting, the FF lens will be bigger and have a bigger opening. So, larger sensor = larger lens = larger aperture at a given f-stop, = more overall light. It took a long time to drive that concept through my head.

In all honesty, each system will perform well within it's own parameters. I just wanted to make sure you understand that there are other things to consider when a different format is being compared.

 

[russellsnr]

You're going to get as many opinions as there are people!

Any time you use a smaller sensor you're going to get less light. In this case you're using a smaller section of a larger sensor, so to my mind it would still apply and I would consider that when thinking about this type of application.

Remember, an f/4 lens is an f/4 lens regardless, but the aperture at f/4 (for example) on an APS-C is smaller because the sensor is smaller, it simply doesn't need to be any bigger. In any given aperture setting, the FF lens will be bigger and have a bigger opening. So, larger sensor = larger lens = larger aperture at a given f-stop, = more overall light. It took a long time to drive that concept through my head.

In all honesty, each system will perform well within it's own parameters. I just wanted to make sure you understand that there are other things to consider when a different format is being compared.