For photography connoisseurs

A successor to the Alpha A6000, the Sony Alpha A6300 is sure to have a lot of takers

Though most people these days are satisfied with smartphone cameras, there still exist connoisseurs of photography who wait with bated breath for a great camera to come along. Sony's Alpha 6300 (A6300) is such a camera. Its predecessor, the A6000, is counted as one of Sony's most impressive cameras. So, its natural for the successor to garner the same attention.

The camera comes with a 24-megapixel (MP) APS-C sensor, like its predecessor, which makes it ideal for capturing action. The camera is well-suited for sports photography. I did get a chance to click pictures of a football match organised in a school near my place and the results were amazing. Its design is also similar to the A6000 - the body and control layout are identical. The A6300 has a pop-up flash, a tilting screen and custom buttons. However, the camera has an upgraded dust resistance along with a microphone and a lever to switch back and forth from the AE lock to focus lock, which were missing in the A6000.

For those new to photography, APS-C seems like a foreign word. Advanced Photo System type-C, also known as a crop sensor, is an image sensor format that are mostly used by DSLRs and mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras. The picture quality of such sensors are high as they allow more light than other smaller sensors. A 35mm full-frame sensor is the only one bigger than the APS-C.

The A6300 also comes with 4K video recording, so I decided to take it out for a spin. Apart from the football match that I witnessed, I also went to the Delhi zoo. The resultant videos from both occasions were highly detailed with almost no noise. Noise is where many cameras falter but the A6300 came out with flying colours.

As for stills, the camera is on a par with popular Nikon and Canon cameras. Having used a Nikon D7200 before, I was quite impressed with the images. It has an excellent autofocus - I tested it with the 16-50 lens the camera comes with. The autofocus is able to follow a subject with ease, though I faced some problems when the subject wasn't isolated. If you have multiple subjects in a frame, it also lets you choose which subject to focus on. For novices, the camera's autofocus is a brilliant way to learn the art of photography.

However, there is one drawback - poor battery life. It lasts for about 400 shots. Nikon's D7200 offers a much better battery life. Other than this caveat, it is a great camera that would make you want to keep shooting all day.

Priced at Rs 74,990 (with a kit lens), the Alpha A6300 will turn heads for sure.