Sony has long been pushing the boundaries of what you can expect from compact mirrorless cameras. Whether they have interchangeable lenses or not, the sheer technical capabilities on offer are staggering, particularly when it comes to real-time focus and subject recognition.
There has always been something of a caveat when it comes to the smaller models like the APS-C sensor-equipped A6000-series models. Whether that’s lack of some ports, lack of the higher frame-rate 4K video recording levels or lack of a proper flip-out touchscreen.
For the A6700, those compromises are no more. With its latest (admittedly quite expensive) A6700, the camera delivers in all the ways you could want and does so with a camera body that’s incredibly compact and light.
Sony A6700
Recommended
Sony delivers everything you’d expect in the A6700: a small, comfortable camera with great photography and video skills boosted by impressive autofocus and real-time tracking abilities.
Pros
- Real-time object tracking is fantastic
- Super-fast autofocus
- Clean, sharp images and video
- 4K up to 120fps (cropped)
Cons
- Not cheap
- Only one SD card slot
Design
- 122 x 69 x 75.1mm, 493g (with battery and SD card)
- Rotating flip-out touchscreen
- USB-C port, micro HDMI out, SD and 3.5mm mic input
- Digital Multi Interface Shoe
When the A6600 launched back in 2019, I absolutely loved the camera for its compact, nimble design. Paired with the right lens it delivered fantastic image and video results, all in a device that was really easy to carry around and – crucially – much lighter than full frame cameras.
Its biggest issue – to my mind – was the lack of a proper flip-out screen. The monitor on the back articulated, but only so much. It rotated and flipped upwards to face the front, but that meant it was blocked off somewhat by the top of the camera and would be completely obscured if you mounted anything to the shoe.
That problem is no more with A6700. Sony got rid of the limited movement and replaced it with a fully articulating display that can swing out and be rotated, so you can have it at virtually any angle. Whether you want it facing forwards, or you’re behind the camera and getting tricky low or high shots. It’s a lot more flexible.
Taking onboard some lessons from recent ZV-series vlogger cameras, the A6700 also has a touchscreen that can be used for pretty much anything. You can tap to focus or tap to track an object/subject, and you can adjust important settings like changing the subject recognition mode to match what you’re attempting to shoot.
Otherwise, a lot of its design principles remain. The buttons and dials along the top are designed to be pretty flat to the surface and don’t protrude. Thanks to the compact size, they’re easy to reach with a thumb from the back, so it’s very simple to switch shooting modes or adjust exposure. There’s another easy-to-reach dial on the front of the camera’s grip too.
Despite being small, Sony has given us a decent-sized grip to hold on to. Again, this is one of those understated joys of using the flagship A6000-series. With a small, light camera and a good-sized, grippy handle, it’s comfortable to hold for long periods and never feels cumbersome. You can attach a shoulder strap if you want, but I didn’t personally ever feel the need to.
It’s a great little camera that’s easy to shoot handheld with and – of course – doesn’t take up a massive amount of space in your bag, or weigh it down.
Its selection of ports makes it a practical choice for all types of users, but most of them are fairly commonplace now in the camera world. Those include two 3.5mm ports – one for mic input, one for headphone out – plus the micro HDMI for video out and a USB-C port for fast charging and data transfer. These are all built into the left side of the camera, along with the single SD card slot – there’s no dual card action here, sadly.
Video and Stills
- 4K recording up to 120fps – 10-bit 4:2:0 (cropped)
- 4K recording up to 60fps – 10-bit 4:2:2 (full sensor)
- 26MP CMOS APS-C sensor – Bionz XR processor
Another priority improvement over the A6600 is the video recording capabilities. Specifically, that last model – launched nearly four years earlier than this – could shoot at 4K resolution, but only to a maximum of 30 frames per second. Even at that time, it wasn’t an impressive maximum frame rate. Sony went to town this time though, offering up to 4K at 120 frames per second, and at 10-bit 4:2:0 and at 200Mbps.
Landscape – sea – mountains
What that means is you can shoot high resolution 4K content, shoot at that super high frame rate and then slow down the footage to 1/2 or even 1/4 speed and still maintain smoothness in the playback at 30 frames per second. It’s a great tool to have. It is worth noting, however, that should you engage the 120p shooting, you’ll be faced with a 1.58x crop, so you’re not using the full sensor width.
If you want even higher bitrate footage – and want the full sensor width – you can have that too, just not all the way up to 120fps. Using Sony’s XAVC S-I formatting you can shoot 4K at 4:2:2 10-bit up to 60 frames per second and with a 600Mbps recording bitrate.
Needless to say, those files are massive, so you’d need a fast SDXC card with plenty of storage space to take advantage unless you’re happy to run out of room after very little recording time.
Plants – wide and closeup
A lot of this capability is down to the 26-megapixel APS-C sensor, but equally down to the Bionz XR image processing engine and the thermal design of the camera.
This sensor, as we’ve seen on other Sony cameras recently – like the Alpha 7R V – means it’s capable of fast, accurate processing. It combines both phase-detection and contrast-detection autofocusing, giving it an edge over a lot of competitors. In fact, 93 per cent of the sensor is covered in phase-detection points – 759 of them in total – ensuring it doesn’t even really matter where the subject you’re focusing on is in the frame.
Along with some of the AI-enhanced capabilities – which I’ll go into in a second – it means you can get great images without a huge amount of effort. Great video too. Whether you want to shoot in full-auto mode because you’re not confident enough to shoot manual, or you know what you’re doing with ISO, shutter speed, aperture and the rest of it, the camera delivers, consistently.
Closeups and wide shots if insects – Insect detection enabled
With a good lens you’ll not only get sharp image with great colour, but also lovely depth and natural bokeh. The 26-megapixel sensor means details are lovely and crisp, and even when light levels drop a little, I didn’t see any excessive noise even in the shadows and problematic areas. Rolling shutter effect – where the video judders a bit when panning the camera – doesn’t seem as much of an issue as on previous APS-C cameras either.
AI smarts change the game
- Real-time tracking – Insect, animal, human, plane, train recognition
- Hybrid phase-detection and contrast-detection AF
- Auto-framing video feature for vlogging
While image and video quality is generally very good, and the shooting options and modes are super useful, it’s the AI-enhanced Bionz XR image processor that really elevates the experience. It’s something Sony’s implemented in a number of cameras, starting with the A7R V launched in 2022 and since launched across a number of newer models.
Where a lot of other cameras – and older Sony models – were great for recognising animals’ faces and eyes, the A7600 can do so much more than that. Setting it to ‘human’ means it not only looks for the face and eyes, but also where the head is in relation to the rest of the body. It knows where your limbs are, can track the moment and – if you head goes out of view – uses that recognition to predict (accurately) where your head is, to keep the relevant parts in focus.
What it means is I didn’t ever feel like I ever had to worry or think too much about the focus. I could shoot in autofocus pretty much all the time, just tap on the person I was shooting and it’d keep locked even if that person moved. Even when they moved off the edge of the frame.
As well as that, the camera can now recognise insects. I tested it a few times shooting in autofocus in both stills and video, and found it was really good at keeping locked on insects, even relatively small ones. I followed a bumble bee munching on some marjoram flowers, shooting video of its hunt for nectar, and it consistently kept the focus tight. It was similar while shooting stills of a hoverfly, and other insects out in the wild resting on flowers.
It can also recognise planes and cars so – for those of you who like shooting fast-moving vehicles – it should keep up with those well.
In addition, the A7600 takes some inspiration from recent ZV cameras by adding the auto-framing video feature. With this enabled you can move anywhere in the frame and the video will crop in and follow you around. In theory, it’s a little like the Center Stage feature on iPad and Mac. It detects where your face is in the frame, then – if you’re a little far away – zooms in to get closer, or – if you get closer – it widens the shot. All of this done automatically in the camera.
It’s surprisingly effective in use. While I personally tend to shoot my parts to camera sat in the same stationary position, for those who move around a lot, it could be very useful.
Battery life is strong enough that you can use it with a lot of freedom too. You get around 90 minutes of recording on a full battery – according to Sony’s spec sheet. The reality is it might be tough to reach that figure if you’re shooting in 4K at high bitrates, but you should still comfortably get an hour’s use from it without much trouble. Plus, even when it is empty, the Power Delivery support through the USB-C port on the side means it tops up quickly again when you plug it in.
Verdict
In the end, Sony delivers everything you’d expect in the A6700: a small, comfortable camera with great photography and video skills boosted by impressive autofocus and AI smarts.
With features like insect recognition, human body and movement tracking and the auto-framing in video, it’s a camera that’s not just capable of the high-level bitrate and resolution capture, but one that’s incredibly clever too. This makes it easy to just leave it in autofocus all the time, knowing you’ll get great image quality with focus in the right places.
Of course its manual mode is ready and available any time you want to dive into the nitty gritty, but the A6700’s flexibility here makes it incredibly appealing to a range of people.
Its external appearance may give the sense of being small and cute, but what Sony has actually produced is a bit of a monster – in the best possible way. It’s not exactly cheap, but it is fantastic.