Don’t say I didn’t try mirrorless, because I used a mirrorless camera as my primary digital camera for almost five years before going back to an SLR. One thing I should also note is that this camera was not the one I was aiming for at the time; I was originally hoping to get my hands on the then-new Fuji X100. But I’m also not one to look a gift camera in the mouth, and the a6000 was probably the right camera for the time and certainly set me on a journey that I never thought I would go and even now that the camera is no longer with me, some accessories have found a second life with another family member.
The one thing I always try to do is enter draws for things that I think I’ll enjoy. Especially those that don’t require me to sign up for email lists or pay any cost or enter any contest. Just a simple, put my name in the hat and hope I win. I don’t remember which company put up the draw for the a6000, but I entered it, even though I was aiming to flat out purchase a Fuji X100 as a travel camera for my upcoming trip to Europe in 2015. I needed something far smaller than my D300, since space was limited on this trip, and I couldn’t take much heavy camera gear. While the X100 was certainly a compact camera, the fixed lens was something I had trouble getting behind, but then I learned I had won an a6000 with the kit 16-50mm lens. Well, I no longer needed to even worry about the X100. And the camera certainly made an impression, the first of a new series from Sony, a compact mirrorless option with an APS-C sensor with the mighty E-Mount. Let me say one thing: the a6000 nearly made me switch systems, for only the second time.
The a6000 is important for one reason: it captured many amazing life events that took place from 2015 to 2020. Probably the first such event was my trip to Europe in 2015, which offered a compact, easy-to-carry camera that let me avoid always relying on my phone, even when I took to the field during the battle demonstrations. Plus, having a good (albeit kit) lens with a decent zoom certainly made it far more useful. It also did a lot of solo trips through the rest of 2015 and 2016 including two major road trips and plenty of urban exploration under its belt. But that wasn’t the only major event that the camera captured that made it special; it also captured my honeymoon with my (amazing) wife in 2017 and many of our first vacations together, with the highlight being our Disney trip.
In my photography, I’m pleased to say I only made a major system shift once, but the a6000 certainly made it tempting to go with a mirrorless E-Mount system. But at the same time, I think if I had gone with a full-frame A-Series camera, I probably would have been far more tempted to move into mirrorless. Because even with the a6000 as my digital, I never abandoned the Nikon F-Mount either. So in that case, the a6000 gave me a taste of mirrorless and made me decide it wasn’t for me; there were too many things about it that I couldn’t get behind, and that never fully gelled with me, despite capturing some excellent photos with the a6000. But there is one thing that the a6000 did for my photography, actually has nothing to do with photography, it in fact got me back into making videos and relaunching my YouTube channel as a creative outlet during the COVID pandemic (well, the second year of the pandemic).
Here’s the thing about the a6000: as cameras go, it’s pretty good for its size. You can stuff this thing into your pocket with the 16-50mm lens. Which, given that it has an APS-C sensor, is a decent focal range for your average kit lens. Although it was a bit slow (f/3.5-5.6). But since the camera is mirrorless and uses a Sony E-Mount, there were a ton of adapters out there (I went with Fotodiox), and I was able to mount my Hexanon, M42, LTM, K-Mount, SR-Mount, and F-Mount lenses to expand my focal length options. The image quality from the kit lens was also excellent, aided by the optical stabilisation and high-quality glass. And the sensor also outputs some amazing images. And the RAW files had some amazing dynamic range, I was able to recover a tonne of shadow and highlight details in some images. Plus, high-ISO performance was top-notch; I could get some great images shot handheld in abandoned buildings at ISO-3200. Although it did start to break down a little once I reached ISO-6400. But not all was great about this camera; the biggest concern is battery life, which seems to be a major issue across most mirrorless cameras. Now you can also charge the camera via USB, which makes things easier. The one thing I did make sure of was to get a second battery. The second problem with the camera came after I started recording video: there were no standard input ports, and you had to use Sony-only accessories for audio. Overall, as a stills camera, the a6000 is a great option; for video, it certainly worked but was always limited.
I tried to like the a6000, I really did, and I did enjoy working with the camera. But let me say it did solidify one thing for me: I am a solid SLR photographer. And I’m glad I kept the majority of my F-Mount lenses, both manual and autofocus, which allowed me to easily transition back to a Nikon digital SLR. But the a6000s accessories found a second life with a sister-in-law who is still running with the system, including the batteries and the accessory mic that I had gotten. Probably the one thing that made me second-guess the a6000 was that when photographing weddings, I often had to remind people that I was there in a paid capacity, something I never had to do with an SLR. So it made the first wedding with the D750 far easier, as people saw the big camera and got out of my way.