Sony A6300 first impressions and thoughts using sigma 18-35/1.8 with adapters

Well today is new camera day once more. I’ve been enjoying using the A7 cameras for weddings and events recently and enjoy using aps-c bodies for the advantages they offer for reach and speed of operation. I was excited when I heard about the A6300, so when I had a call from my chums at the awesome castle cameras then I couldn’t wait to pop over and collect it. So whats it like? In a word great! I’ve made a short video about my first impressions which you can see below along with a few standard test shots(tm).

Sigma 18-35 ultimate aps-combination with sony a6300

One of the reasons for me getting this camera is that I like a faster burst mode when shooting group shots so the 11fps of the a6300 is amazing for that. Better chance of eyes being open (probably). The 4K video is also great for video as is the light weight. Also one reason is that the autofocus is meant to be amazing. With my limited testing it does seem great. I have a Sigma 18-35/1.8 art lens on loan from Sigma and this is a must have lens for APS-C sized cameras IMO. Gives you sublime images, and even better dof control than a standard 2.8 zoom on FX bodies. The fact that sony haven’t got anything even at 2.8 in E mount for their APS-C cameras like the a6000 or a6300 is a gap and the sigma beats this nicely in so many ways. So it was the first lens I tried on it. Initial thoughts are good, and you can see in my video that it performs very well in general. There is a little bit of hunting at the wide end. I’m putting this down to the newness of the camera and the adapters being older. It maybe that the metabones ones can address this with updated firmware. For now I’m using the Commlite adapter (available here) which seems to work best with this sigma lens. Of course I am waiting for the sigma MC-11 EF to E mount adapter as I believe this will bring together Sigma’s fab lenses with the best AF available – I’m expecting it to be better than on a canon/nikon body with those 405 PDAF points. Can’t wait to see how that performs!

Sigma 18-35 ultimate aps-combination with sony a6300

Conclusion : a6300 summary

So to summarise. So far a great camera. A few niggles that I will get used to. One rear dial and control wheel not the 2 dials and wheels of the a7-series, and no dedicated exposure compensation dial, so a little more awkward if you want to make those changes. Though I’ve reprogramed the top dial to be exposure compensation so it works very similarly now. The battery and memory card is in the same compartment which is different and it’s on the bottom. Not a big deal. just different. Overall i think i’m going to love this camera esp for shooting faster action with the availability of the faster fps and greater reach.

Sigma 18-35 ultimate aps-combination with sony a6300

I’m going to give it a better workout at this weekends wedding and see how i get on using alongside the other a7 cameras. Stay tuned and I look forward to hearing your thoughts too.
Here’s a few samples of a brick wall and cats.. more exciting subjects to come 🙂

Also turns out it’s really hard to say a6300 on video 🙂

4K video samples with sigma 18-35/1.8 art lens

A6300 Samples

Sigma 18-35 ultimate aps-combination with sony a6300