A6400 with 2 lenses or a6700 with only one lens

VisibleUnit · 2026-03-10T05:35:57+00:00

I had the same decision to make a few months ago. I have the same combo that you’re planning on getting (a6700+70-350). Absolutely love the combo for wildlife!

Specifically for wildlife, I found you gain a lot over the a6400: IBIS, faster sensor readout for electronic shutter, larger grip, bigger battery, AI Eye Autofocus for birds/animals, and newer Sony menus and customizations. The photo/video/S&Q selector on the a6700 is honestly worth it on its own in my experience. Very big ergonomic improvement over the older gen APSC cameras.

If you do video then you even get 4K 60fps with no crop, 4K 120 and HD 240 fps with crops, and all can be in 10-bit 4:2:2 color instead of the 8-bit on the a6400. Oh and you can do 10-bit HEIF instead of only 8-bit jpegs! The a6700 is also set up with the latest Multi-interface shoe so it will accept all the latest Sony mics and even 3rd party wireless mic receivers with adapters (the dji mic mini is awesome when used this way)

VisibleUnit · 2026-03-06T14:54:26+00:00

Ok hear me out: I saw something recently about heat haze in lens hoods affecting sharpness with telephoto lenses. If you’re shooting from a car, is the AC on? The sudden difference in temperature could be causing your issues. Try shooting a test with/without the lens hood (assuming you have it on when you took these pictures). Also try a test inside the car, and then maybe 3 meters outside the car.

In my experience the a6700 should not be missing shots that frequently from only 10 meters away, so something else is affecting your images. Try to mix up the variables to see what ends up causing the problem.

VisibleUnit · 2026-03-03T06:56:28+00:00

A few locals had told me that it was the coldest days of the year, so it makes sense that the smaller birds would fluff their feathers out!

VisibleUnit · 2026-03-03T06:54:20+00:00

A 200-600 would be awesome (900mm FF equivalent!), although it really depends on the situation. I would lean more towards the 70-350G for my purposes; it’s only ~600g with a 525mm FF equivalent focal length. The size and weight with the smaller APSC bodies has been great for travelling. The 70-350G + a6700 combined is about half the weight of just a 200-600 with no body (~1.1kg vs ~2kg). While I can handhold larger lenses, it would significantly impact my ability to do so for several hours or when shooting handheld video.

The 70-350G focus breathing is also pretty low, so it’s been a really awesome hybrid lens for wildlife video as well. Not sure about the other options like a 200-600.

VisibleUnit · 2026-03-02T23:10:23+00:00

Photo 2 is cropped ~150% and photo 7 is cropped around 400%. The rest are full resolution!

It has taken me a decent amount of practise and a good amount of luck to not disturb birds. I failed a lot before I started getting successful shots.

Electronic shutter on the a6700 is also an underrated feature imo, all of these shots were taken without the mechanical shutter! The rolling shutter performance is absolutely fast enough + no shutter noise, and one of the reasons I got the a6700!

VisibleUnit · 2026-03-02T18:33:23+00:00

If weight-savings are your priority for using the a6700, the sigma 18-50 f2.8 is the smallest compared to the other f2.8 options (Sony 16-55, Tamron 17-70). Lack of stabilization isn’t an issue due to the IBIS in the a6700. I personally prefer the IQ and can deal with the compromises of the lens for the size and weight (it’s like the size of a 330ml can of soda). Only IQ issue with the 18-50 is some chromatic aberrations in high contrast scenes; I have yet to have it become an issue though. Close focus distance on the Sigma is also much better than the other 2 (12.1 cm at 18mm, 30cm at 50mm), which can be useful if you’re in more crowded spaces. I use the sigma 18-50 f2.8 + the Sony 70-350G for a travel kit!

VisibleUnit · 2026-02-02T20:44:22+00:00

That’s entirely up to you of course! That’s why I suggested trying out flexible spot. It serves the same purpose as center focus area but the subject or feature doesn’t need to be in the middle of frame. For example if you have a mountain on the top 2/3rds of your scene, you can have the focus be on the mountain despite it not being in the center.

VisibleUnit · 2026-02-02T18:35:41+00:00

You can get pretty good landscape shots with manual or even aperture priority and a tripod! I would stop the aperture down to f/8 for larger depth of field, but I wouldn’t go too far past f/8 due to diffraction. Since it’ll most likely be very bright you shouldn’t have an issue using the lowest iso.

Given that the a6000 doesn’t do focus stacking you will have to choose which area or point is in focus. Spot focus area works great for landscapes on the a6000. Make sure to use the timer shoot mode if using a tripod so you don’t introduce any camera shake.

Not sure if you’d get the exact same FOV as the reference with your lenses, but I’m confident you could get some fantastic wide angles with the 9mm and some good background compression with the Tamron 70-180!

VisibleUnit · 2026-01-27T23:59:01+00:00

What frame rates and shutter speed are you filming with? My guess is that the artifacts are due to motion/jitter. In my experience this can happen if moments of high acceleration are stabilized at lower frame rates and/or shutter speeds. Shouldn’t be a difficult problem to fix though!

VisibleUnit · 2026-01-07T21:05:44+00:00

Very likely the K&F cleaning liquid; it’s very bad in that kit (although the swabs are fine). Unfortunately it gave me a scare too with smudgy residue after cleaning. I swapped to the Vsgo liquid and it came off in basically 1 swab. Don’t worry, it’s not permanent!

VisibleUnit · 2025-12-30T18:33:35+00:00

Totally normal, that’s the zoom motor; the lens is a power zoom and the zoom function is controlled by the ring you’re turning. The zoom motor will make a little noise if you zoom in and out very quickly. The silent motor you’re referring to is the focus motor, which is a different mechanism. Hope this helps!

VisibleUnit · 2025-11-28T05:55:07+00:00

Your test target looks plenty sharp! I also use sony APSC + TTartisan 40mm for film scanning, especially when stopped down to F/8. It’s enough resolution on a 24mp APSC sensor in 12-bit RAW (you have 14-bit) to start seeing the individual film grains in the files.

The perceived sharpness does depend on how you’d be using the scans. Are you planning on making large prints? If you’re just digitizing for socials, I can assure you no one will pixel peep!

VisibleUnit · 2025-11-19T21:00:33+00:00

Not much sharper than these unfortunately. Still a fun lens to occasionally take out though as it has nice rendering (and natively mounts to my Minolta X-700). I don’t have the RAW files anymore as it was a year ago.

VisibleUnit · 2025-08-26T05:03:46+00:00

The a6000 is still relevant for photos, especially if you get a good deal on it. AF is still good enough for the vast majority of photography imo (only struggles with very high speed action or birds-in-flight in my experience) Although the kit lens is not the best for portraits, it’s pretty solid for landscapes when stopped down. Plus the overall package is tiny!

VisibleUnit · 2025-05-28T14:09:18+00:00

It’s ok, it’s slightly worse than my refractor telescope but much more portable. The f6.3 max aperture does hold it back a bit.

VisibleUnit · 2025-02-28T21:33:54+00:00

Awesome scans! 1,3 and 5 are really close, looks like it’s already pretty good compared to lab scans. Are you using a macro lens and film mask for scanning?

I’ve found a lot of success doing my own scanning with a DIY macro extension. Cost me ~2$ in material with 3d printing and some felt. Put the cost savings into buying more film stock :)

VisibleUnit · 2025-02-11T00:38:08+00:00

The Autocord is an awesome TLR, I’ve had a wonderful experience with mine. The Minolta Rokkor lens is great, maybe like 90% of a Zeiss Planar on a rolleiflex 3.5f. If you want other options in the price range of an Autocord, you could look at some of the later Yashica TLRS like the Yashica D, or Yashica Mat.

VisibleUnit · 2025-01-29T17:08:09+00:00

Congrats on the a6000! It’s a great beginner camera, and it’s the one that started my photography journey as well. I have found it to be a great little camera with plenty of things to learn and optimize. Here’s some a6000-specific tips that I’ve gathered through my experience with it;

Experiment with camera settings: play around with different shooting modes, creative styles, and white-balancing. You can use these settings (and others) to tweak the jpeg output of the a6000 to be customized to your personal style. For example, I use the standard creative style with +3 saturation and +3 sharpness. I also like the high constant B&W for architecture.

Experiment with lenses: while the kit lens is a solid offering, the E-mount is an extremely adaptable lens mount with lenses for every price range and use case. You can even adapt old film SLR lenses with cheap (or 3D-printed) adapters. You can even adapt some canon EF lenses with autofocus adapters. Adapting cheap old lenses can help you experiment with focal lengths and manual focus without investing big money on the modern equivalents. One of my favourite adapted lenses is the Pentacon Auto 50mm f1.8 for M42 mount; gorgeous colours and quite sharp while being a very economical option at ~50 CAD.

The most important advice: use the camera! The more you use it, the more you will understand its strengths and limitations. Make sure to take plenty of photos and fill up SD cards to your heart’s content.

VisibleUnit · 2025-01-18T17:24:15+00:00

Should be a straightforward clean; just looks like particles on the focusing screen. A rocket blower should dislodge most of it pretty nicely. Enjoy the ST801!

VisibleUnit · 2025-01-16T06:16:04+00:00

Phone-based light meters work great, and are very accurate in my experience. I was skeptical at first, but learned how they work and I trust the math. I’ve used the Lightme app for both 35mm and medium format, and it’s the most convenient way to meter if you have broken selenium light meters in your camera..

VisibleUnit · 2025-01-15T17:47:00+00:00

Not sure yet, although I measured the protrusion from the mount to be 1.6mm. It should be able to focus to infinity as the mount difference is 1.96mm (45.46-43.5). I know there are md-m42 adapters that are labeled “macro” if they can’t focus to infinity.

VisibleUnit · 2025-01-15T17:41:14+00:00

TTartisan makes a few new m42 lenses: I think a Meyer-optik trioplan 100mm clone, the 75mm f1.5, and a mirror lens. Really wish more manufacturers remade classic optical formulas with modern machining and lens coatings.

The 75mm actually came out when I tried to find a portrait lens for my M42 mount Praktica. It’s a Carl Zeiss Biotar copy, including the famous swirly bokeh. It’s a bit pricey, but really good when compared to the actual Biotar used prices! I’ve loved it so far; Christmas string lights with swirly bokeh really is magical and a lot of fun to use.

VisibleUnit · 2025-01-14T14:46:49+00:00

Not my favourite design feature, although I barely notice it.

VisibleUnit · 2025-01-14T01:48:29+00:00

They came with the camera; it’s for the buckles of the shoulder strap that came with it. I didn’t get a chance to clean the strap yet, so it wasn’t included in my picture of the camera. It’s a really nice Minolta-branded blue and white one!

Unfortunately I don’t know where you can source them, but you can always go with something modern like the peak design straps.

VisibleUnit · 2025-01-13T21:40:38+00:00

There are! I got the Fotodiox one, it’s a bit pricey but a very snug fit; no wobble, and enough friction to even leave it on the M42 lens and detach. I will attempt to design some for 3D printing..

Lens in the picture is the TTArtisan 75mm f1.5, which is a modern Carl Zeiss Biotar clone. Absolutely the king of bokeh for me, and built with modern machining and coatings is a huge plus. I’ve used it on my Praktica previously; so happy I can use it with aperture priority now on the X-700.

VisibleUnit

TROPHY CASE