The Sony NEX-6 has a little pop-up flash with a guide number of 6 in metres at ISO 100/21°. The flash settings are Autoflash, Fill-flash, Slow sync and Rear flash sync, with Red-eye reduction available in the Setup menu. In the best Sony/Minolta tradition, flash exposures are generally excellent as long as the subject is within range. The NEX-6 can also trigger wirelessly slaved system flashes but you need a hotshoe-mounted commander unit for this as the built-in flash cannot act as a master.

Cinematic Photo is an effects mode that creates a video in which the majority of the frame is a still image, with a single animated element. You can find examples on the web, frequently referred to as cinemagraphs. The NEX-6 and 5R are not the only cameras with this feature which was introduced on the Nokia Lumia 920 SmartPhone in September 2012. I didn't do an exhaustive analysis of the quality of the NEX-6's video footage, but I thought my clips looked great -- very sharp, with no obvious video artifacts. E-mount lenses have tended to be on the large side compared with Micro Four Thirds equivalents, but Sony has redressed the balance with the launch of a new collapsing 16-50mm f3.6-5.6 powered zoom which is substantially smaller and lighter than the 18-55mm kit zoom of the earlier NEX models and similar in size and weight to Panasonic’s 14-42mm f3.5-5.6 power zoom. With the new lens attached the NEX-6 has a much more compact profile and the power zoom is better suited to video shooting. That is it for now and sorry I have been so busy the past week or so. Work and day to day chores this time of year are taking up more time than normal 😉 Please feel free to ask questions and share your thoughts below in the comments area 😉 The default view when recording movies is cropped, leaving large margins around the area being filmed. Exposure data as well as a timer are displayed.ISO 3,200 produces very nice 13 x 19s and excellent 11 x 14 inch prints, again with only minor noise in the shadows and mild softening in a few areas.

Sony's Hybrid AF system on the NEX-6 uses an array of 99 phase-detection points spread out across the center of the sensor. It covers a taller, slightly wider area than the system used by Canon in the EOS-M. In addition to manual controls, you can also throw the camera into either of the Auto modes and take advantage of the same Creative Styles or Picture Effects that are available for still shooting. Speaking of stills, you cannot take a photo while simultaneously recording a video, as you can with some of the NEX-6's competitors. It seems that the EVF switches on automatically when you place your eye close up to the corner of the camera ( thrus the screen goes off...) and the screen does the same when you move away from the EVF. The NEX-6 can, of course, focus manually, using a 'focus-by-wire' system like other mirrorless cameras. The frame is digitally enlarged, and you can move this area around using the four-way controller. Focusing is smooth and precise with the kit lens, and the image on the LCD and EVF is sharp enough to roughly discern what is in-focus.Picture Effect+ provides enhanced versions of some existing Picture Effects filters with additional controls. For example, the Toy Camera+ effect is similar to the existing Toy Camera effect but provides the choice of three vignette effects. Miniature+ expands on the existing Miniature effect, letting you combine it with either Toy Camera or Retro Photo effect. The Picture Effect+ app also adds the watercolour and illustration effects shown below. Squeezing into Sony's compact system camera lineup between the acclaimed NEX-7 and the NEX-5R, the NEX-6 stands on its own as a high-performing hybrid -- marrying exceptional speed and image quality with more consumer-friendly features and controls. While it gets a bump down in resolution compared to the NEX-7, the 16.1-megapixel APS-C sensor still delivers photos with sharp detail and good color, contrast and exposure. And though the NEX-6's "Fast Hybrid AF" system lags somewhat behind higher-end DSLRs, it's nonetheless pretty fast and decisive, especially on stationary and normal moving (not sports) subjects. Lightweight and compact, sharp and fast, advanced and easy-to-use: What more could you want from a camera at such an affordable price? Pros I am not a big fan of this particular feature, because it creates a JPEG file and if the settings are not consistent, it can create ugly panoramas that look like this: NEX-7 + E 24mm F1.8 ZA @ 24mm, ISO 100, 1/500, f/10.0 ISO 6,400 11 x 14s would be suitable for most uses, and 8 x 10's look very good, with similar minor issues as mentioned above.

Here, we're showing two pictures taken at the wide (16mm) and telephoto (50mm) ends of the kit lens. Equivalent to a focal length range of 24-75mm, this is a useful lens for everyday photography with the NEX-6.

I thought I had done my homework when decidng on the nex 6 but I am unable to find out if it is possible to override the function of having the screen on. And here are a couple of portrait shots. Neither the Auto setting nor the Red-eye reduction mode caused a significant amount of red-eye. In low light the EVF performs at least as well, and in some cases better than an optical viewfinder. Yes, it can get quite noisy, but there’s no discernible lag and with focus peaking enabled it’s possible to manually focus in situations where you’d struggle with an optical system. The only real issue I had with the NEX-6’s EVF was that it’s quite difficult to make out the shadows in high contrast subjects, for example when shooting against the light; in such a situation your eyes via an optical viewfinder are always going to be able to outperform an electronic sensor. Thanks to the NEX's hybrid AF system, the camera will attempt to keep your subject in focus, even when shooting in speed priority mode. However, should your subject wander out of the Phase Detect area, you'll lose that benefit, and the NEX-6 reverts to contrast-detection.

This final, handheld video shows quite a lot of artifacting in the water. Although it might not seem obvious in the abstract, ripples on water can form high-frequency patterns in the same way as roof tiles and fabric textures. As such, it's not uncommon to see moiré patterning in these areas in video footage (and occasionally in stills, too). Sony has touted the NEX-6's "Fast Hybrid AF" system, and for the most part, it performs admirably, delivering speedy and decisive AF on stationary subjects, and reasonably fast AF on normal moving subjects -- just don't expect it to keep up while photographing fast-moving sports. Our reviewer found that the 99-point phase-detect autofocus still lags behind higher-end DSLRs in terms of speed and accuracy, with just 50% of his field gallery shots winding up in focus when he shot in continuous AF mode. Additionally, our reviewer was dismayed that the NEX-6 doesn't provide the "Memory Recall" function found on other models, such as the RX100 and A77, which allows you to toggle between groups of settings for different shooting situations. The NEX-6 and NEX-5R are the first NEX models to provide combined phase detect and contrast detect AF systems. A similar system is used in the Nikon 1 mirrorless compact system cameras, but where the Nikon system switches between phase and contrast detect systems depending on the lighting conditions, the NEX-6 uses both together. 99 phase detect AF points on the sensor detect the subject’s distance and direction, then the 25-point contrast detect AF system fine tunes the focus. Despite that, the hybrid AF is an improvement on the contrast detect AF of earlier NEX models. The main benefit, however, is when shooting in Speed Priority Continuous mode and when recording movies. Sony NEX-6 Continuous shooting

Review Roundup

Below are our standardised ISO test shots, starting with the Sony NEX-6”s lowest standard setting of ISO 100 and rising incrementally to the top setting of ISO 25,600. While the preset options are great to have, the custom setting provides the most control (though you can, in fact, change the settings for any of the presets). Firstly, you can choose between 24p and 30p HD encoding, then you select the shooting interval and the number of shots. If you don’t want your shots automatically compiled into a movie you can choose to save the individual still frames to the card, in which case you can also choose size and quality settings including RAW. The pictures above are the ones I found most pleasing from the few dozen I’ve managed to take so far. Most of the candid shots were taken with the jupiter 8 lens and I’m particularly pleased with the way that lens works with the camera. The shots are not fantastically sharp or well composed, but they scream out 1960’s to me and I love them. In fact I think I’ve had as much fun with this camera in the first few days I’ve used it as any camera I can remember and I put a lot of that down to using that lens. So much so that I’ve started looking for other m39 mount or M-Mount lens I could buy from e-bay to pair with an e-mount adaptor so I can build a bit of a collection. Sony's Picture Effects are similar to what other manufacturers call “magic” or “art” filters. The Sony NEX-6 offers a number of Picture Effects ranging from Toy Camera to Soft Focus, with Rich-tone Mono being our favourite.