Intro

The Sony A6600 is an upper mid-range mirrorless camera with a 24 Megapixel APSC sensor, built-in stabilisation, 4k video, 11fps bursts with autofocus, and increased battery life. Announced in August 2019, it replaces the three-year-old A6500 as Sony’s flagship body and like that model, follows the most recent unstabilised Alpha body, in this case, the A6400, by just seven months.

The A6600 certainly shares a great deal with the A6400, including the same 24 Megapixel sensor, AF system, 11fps bursts, unlimited movie recording, XGA viewfinder and tilting touchscreen, but it adds more than just built-in stabilisation. The A6600 becomes the first Sony APSC body to use the company’s higher capacity FZ100 battery pack, increasing the life to 810 shots under CIPA conditions, roughly double the A6400 and more in fact than the full-frame bodies which use it. The A6600 also becomes the first APSC model in the range to sport a (long overdue) headphone jack, and it now additionally supports eye detection in movies. These four main upgrades carry a premium of around $500 over the A6400.

Like the A6400, the viewfinder remains XGA in resolution, there’s only one card slot (albeit rotated within the chunkier grip in order to accommodate the bigger battery), and while 4k at 24 and 25p use the full sensor width and oversample from 6K’s worth of data, 4k at 30p still incurs a minor crop. The shutter block remains unchanged too with a top mechanical speed of 1/4000 when most rivals at this price boast 1/8000. I’m also disappointed to find the hotshoe doesn’t support a digital connection with the new microphone launched with the A7r IV (although you can still use it in analogue mode). But overall with stabilisation, much longer battery life and a headphone jack, the A6600 resolves pretty much all the major issues with the A6400 and becomes the most desirable APSC body in the series, especially when coupled with the new e 16-55mm f2.8 zoom launched alongside it. Do however note that their combined price is roughly the same as the full-frame A7 III fitted with the Tamron 28-75mm f2.8 zoom, so literally something to weigh-up in comparison if you don’t mind the larger combination. In my full review I’ll help you weigh-up all of the options to help you find the right camera! Start with my video review below, or if you prefer scroll beyond it to the written version, then check out my quality results, sample images and final verdict pages!

For a full comparison of the video modes, the stabilisation and a vlogging test, please check out my full review video at the top of this page!