Sony α6600 Camera Review

The Sony Alpha 6600 is fairly portable. The body can fit easily into a small camera bag and isn't too heavy to carry around your neck or shoulder for long periods. If you want a similar APS-C camera that's more portable, check out the Sony α6000.

The Sony a6600 has a sturdy magnesium alloy body and feels very well-built overall. The dials turn easily without slack, and all the input covers and doors feel secure. It's also weather-sealed against elements like moisture and dust.

The Sony Alpha a6600 has two command dials, including one dial on the top right of the camera and a control wheel on the back that also acts as a directional pad for menu navigation. By default, the control dial adjusts the aperture while the rear control wheel adjusts shutter speed, though you can customize these to control up to three different setting combinations. The camera also has three custom buttons and extensive customization options, meaning you can configure it to your shooting preferences.

• Sony α6600 camera body
• Sony E 18-135mm F3.5-5.6 OSS lens
• Lens hood
• Lens cap
• Rear lens cap
• Sensor cap
• Viewfinder eyecup
• Shoulder strap
• 1x NP-FZ100 battery
• Charging adapter
• USB-A to Micro USB cable
• User manual

The Sony α6600 is very comfortable to shoot with. It has a larger handgrip than either the Sony α6400 or the Sony α6100, and it's suitable for most hand sizes, though people with very large hands may find the camera a bit cramped. It's easy to adjust exposure settings with either eye to the viewfinder. The eyecup is soft and comfortable, and the offset viewfinder means right-eye dominant shooters won't have their noses pressed up against the camera, though left-eye shooters are more likely to accidentally change focus points on the touchscreen.

The electronic viewfinder (EVF) has a high resolution, so the image through the viewfinder looks sharp, and it feels comfortable to use, thanks to the rubber eyecup.

The Sony a6600 has a flip-out screen. You can tilt it up or down or flip it completely up to face forward for selfies or vlogs. It's bright enough to overcome glare in sunny conditions, and it has a decently high resolution, so the image looks fairly sharp. Its touch features are mainly limited to selecting focus points, and unfortunately, you can't use the screen to navigate the menu.

Like other Sony models before the Sony a7S III, the Sony a6600 has an okay menu system, though navigating it can be somewhat hard. You can only navigate it through the physical control wheel rather than the touchscreen, and it doesn't have the most intuitive interface. Advanced settings are harder to find because they're buried within submenus. That said, the camera has a lot of customization options, which can help you more easily access commonly-used settings, although there's still a learning curve to figure out how to configure everything. Thankfully, the camera has a guide mode to explain certain features and settings.

The Sony a6600 has a superb battery life, representing a big upgrade from other Alpha 6000 models like the Sony a6400. It's advertised to last for approximately 810 photos according to CIPA standards, so it can easily last for a whole day of shooting, depending on how you use it. When recording video, it lasts for almost two and a half hours, which is fantastic, and it doesn't suffer from any overheating issues. Note that battery performance varies based on your usage habits and camera settings.

The Sony a6600 gives you three shutter options: a fully mechanical shutter, a fully electronic shutter, or an electronic front-curtain shutter (EFCS), which is the default setting. The EFCS is enabled by default because it helps reduce shutter shock at slow shutter speeds. However, the EFCS can cause distortion or artifacts with bokeh when shooting with very wide apertures at speeds faster than 1/2000s. Unfortunately, this camera doesn't have an option that allows the camera to automatically switch between shutter types depending on shutter speed, a function that you can find on Fujifilm cameras like the Fujifilm X-T4. The electronic shutter option is good for silent shooting, though electronic shutters aren't ideal for fast-moving subjects since they depend on the sensor's readout speed, which can cause distortion.

Its max shutter speed in any shutter mode is 1/4000s, which is suitable for capturing fast activities like sports. If you want to introduce artistic motion blur into your photos, it can shoot at speeds as slow as 30s. There's also a bulb mode for even longer exposures, like nighttime landscapes or astrophotography, which keeps the shutter open for as long as you press down the shutter button.

This camera has a decently fast 11 fps burst rate in its high-speed drive mode. While it's not the fastest shooting speed on the market, it's still fast enough to capture many fast-moving subjects, though timing is just as important when capturing sports or wildlife. With silent shooting enabled, the burst rate drops to 8 fps, which is still okay, especially for skittish animals that aren't moving very quickly. Unfortunately, its photo buffer isn't especially large, and it takes a long time for it to empty once full, which can interrupt your shooting if you manage to fill it up.

Note: The kind of memory card you use affects how quickly the camera empties its buffer, which in turn affects how many photos you can take before it fills up. We achieved the review results using a UHS-II card as part of our standardized test bench. However, we previously tested this camera using a UHS-I card, and its slower transfer speed made the buffer fill up more quickly, after 100 JPEG photos, and empty even slower, after about 60s.

The Sony a6600 has a great overall autofocus system. It uses what Sony calls 'Real Time AF Tracking', integrating face and eye detection with subject tracking, so you can seamlessly switch between tracking an object or tracking a moving human face with eye AF, even as subjects turn around or move across the focus area. You can set the 'Subject Detection' to detect either humans or animals, though the animal eye detection is best for pets or larger animals and isn't specifically calibrated for birds like the bird detection included on the flagship Sony α1.

Overall, it does a good job tracking moderately quick subjects, with a high percentage of keepers, making it well-suited to most shooting situations. That said, it can still sometimes lose track of subjects shot against busier backgrounds or moving more quickly or erratically.

The camera can acquire focus and gauge the distance to the subject very reliably, for those who prefer not to rely on tracking. Focusing is smooth, quick, and accurate, especially when using a lens with a good focusing motor.

The Sony a6600 has in-body image stabilization (IBIS), which means you can use lenses without optical stabilization and still get a stabilized handheld image. Sony lenses with 'Optical SteadyShot' (OSS)—like the Sony E 18-135mm kit lens—work in concert with Sony IBIS, although some third-party lenses or lens adapters will prioritize one over the other, depending on their compatibility.

Overall, the camera does an impressive job reducing camera shake when taking photos handheld, allowing you to take clear photos at shutter speeds as slow as 1/8s. It's especially helpful for low-light situations like concerts and shows, where you might need to use a slower shutter speed to get a properly exposed image.

The Sony a6600 has great dynamic range, so it can capture a wide range of shadow and highlight detail. You also have a fair amount of latitude to make exposure adjustments when processing your photos. Though a drop off in dynamic range is unavoidable in low light, the camera still performs pretty well with less available light, relative to other APS-C cameras.

This camera is excellent at resolving fine detail thanks to its high-res sensor. Photos look crisp and detailed, giving you some flexibility to crop in without losing too much clarity.

The Sony a6600 has good RAW noise handling. While noise increases in low light, it still performs relatively well at high ISOs, especially for a crop-sensor camera. Note that ISO 51,200 is an extended ISO setting on this camera, meaning the camera uses some level of digital processing to approximate that ISO value.

The Sony a6600 has impressive noise handling when shooting in JPEG. Its in-camera processing does a good job of keeping noise to a minimum, even at higher ISO settings, so you can shoot in low light without introducing too many digital artifacts.

The Sony a6600 can shoot video in both 1080p (Full HD) and 4k. It supports Log recording with S-Log 2 and 3 as well as HLG and HLG 1-3 for when you want to maximize the camera's dynamic range. With an external recorder connected, it can record 4k video with 4:2:2 subsampling, meaning it can record video with more color information to give you more flexibility in post-production, helpful for more advanced video or film work. However, it's limited to 8-bit recording even with an external recorder, which undercuts some of the advantages of shooting in Log since the lower bit depth gives you less latitude when color grading your footage.

The Sony a6600 can record 4k video at up to 30 fps, though shooting in 4k / 30p incurs a slight crop on your footage, which means you may need to use a wider-angle lens or shorter focal length to achieve your intended framing.

4k internal recording specs are great on this camera. It can record fairly high-detail video files up to 100 Mbps. However, it's limited to 8-bit color depth, giving you less latitude when grading your videos. On the upside, it doesn't have a recording time limit, and it doesn't overheat while shooting 4k video continuously, which is great for longer recording sessions.

The camera's autofocus does an incredible job in 4k. It quickly and accurately tracks moving subjects, keeping them in focus even when they move around the frame or pop in and out. The Sony E 18-135mm kit lens has a minimum focus distance of 0.45m (1.45 ft), so it can't focus on objects very close to the lens and isn't the best option for macro or close-up work.

Video quality is great in 4k. Videos look sharp and detailed, and the camera performs pretty well even in low light, with a fair amount of detail visible in darker areas of the image and minimal visual noise.

Note: The auto white balance on this camera tends to be inconsistent, especially when shooting video. The color temperature can shift drastically, becoming very cold and blue when a subject approaches the camera before shifting back to a warmer tone as they move away again. It can be distracting, but you can set a fixed white balance value when shooting video to avoid it.

Unfortunately, this camera has a slow sensor readout speed, resulting in very noticeable rolling shutter effects when panning the camera from side to side. Vertical lines like street lamps or buildings can look skewed or slanted, especially when moving the camera more quickly.

The camera has several frame rate options in 1080p, including 24 fps for more cinematic-looking footage and 60 fps for smooth, fast action. It can also record high-speed video at 120 fps to create slow-motion footage, though shooting at 1080p / 120 incurs a slight crop.

1080p internal video recording is impressive, although, as with 4k, the camera is limited to 8-bit recording, so there's less color information to work with when processing your videos. There's no recording time limit in 1080p, which is great if you need to shoot longer videos without interruption.

Autofocus performance is still fantastic in 1080p. The camera does an exceptional job of keeping objects in focus, and human subjects also largely stay in focus, even when moving around or popping in and out of frame.

Video quality in 1080p is good but not as impressive as 4k. Videos still look fairly detailed and color-accurate, and low-light performance is satisfactory.

Note: The auto white balance tends to shift as subjects approach and move away from the camera. To prevent this, you can set a fixed white balance value when shooting video.

Thankfully, there's less rolling shutter effect when shooting in 1080p, although there's still some noticeable skewing of vertical lines when panning very quickly.

The Sony a6600 has a single SD card slot only advertised to support UHS-I cards. In theory, this means there's little benefit to using a faster UHS-II card; however, when shooting 4k video at 100 Mbps, the camera prompts you to use either a UHS-II card or a UHS-I card with a U3 speed rating. Using a UHS-II card also cuts down the buffer empty time.

The Sony a6600 has a wide array of inputs and outputs. It includes both a microphone port and a headphone jack. It also has a Micro HDMI port, so you'll likely need to use a Micro HDMI-to-HDMI adapter when connecting an external display. Rather than USB-C, it uses the older Micro USB standard.