Canon had less than a day to feel good about its EOS
M6 Mark II before Sony dropped two new cameras in the same price range. Today
we have the Alpha 6600 and the Alpha 6100, which join the company's mid-range
series of mirrorless cameras.
The Alpha 6600 is the new flagship in the
6000-series. It features a 24.2 megapixel APS-C sensor with Sony's E-mount. The
sensor is optically stabilized for 5-axis in-body stabilization. The AF system
features 425-point phase detection points, with real-time tracking and
real-time eye tracking for people and animals, even in video. The camera is
capable of 11fps burst capture with AF and AE lock with the mechanical shutter
and 8fps with the electronic shutter.
For video, the Alpha 6600 can capture 4K video at
30fps. The camera includes both a microphone as well as a headphone jack.
Multiple picture profiles are provided, including S-Log3 and S-Log2, along with
HLG for HDR workflows, although the video output is still 8-bit. The camera can
record 1080p up to 120fps but there's no 4K 60fps.
Like the Alpha 6400, the Alpha 6600 features a
3.0-inch flip-up display along with a 2360k dot OLED viewfinder. There's also
Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, NFC, and a micro HDMI along with an outdated microUSB instead
of USB-C. The camera now uses the new NP-FZ100 battery, which lasts
significantly longer than the NP-FW50 on other 6000-series cameras. The Alpha 6100 has the same
sensor and the same burst capture, ISO performance and AF performance as the
more expensive Alpha 6600. It also has largely the same video capabilities of
the 6600.
What it lacks is the in-body optical image
stabilization, along with a lower resolution electronic viewfinder, no
headphone jack, no video eye-tracking, smaller NP-FW50 battery and no picture
profiles for video. Apart from that, the feature set is similar or identical to
that of the 6600.
The Alpha 6600 is priced at US$ 1400 for the body and US$ 1800 with the Sony 18-135mm kit lens. It will be available in November. The Alpha 6100 is priced at US$ 750
for the body and US$ 850 with the Sony 16-50mm kit lens and US$ 1100 with the Sony
16-50mm and Sony 55-210mm kit lens. It will be available in October.
