PHOTO QUALITY. This 24-megapixel mirrorless camera captured images with very good quality. Pictures were sharp, which means you can see most details and subtle patterns in the image. In low-light situations without a flash, pictures were sharp. We judged this model very good for outdoor performance, such as shooting landscapes in the daytime; very good for indoor performance, such as photographing a well-lit basketball game in a gym. And very good for low-light performance without a flash, such as capturing a birthday party. Photos taken in our low-light performance tests displayed little image noise; subjects retained most of their correct detail and color.
FLASH. The Alpha A6300 w/ E PZ 16-50mm F3.5-5.6 OSS with the 16-50mm kit lens captured flash shots that were good. In our distance test, we found the camera's flash could illuminate most subjects that are closer to the camera, but had some problems with distant subjects. The flash also has very good, even coverage.
LENS. This camera has a standard 3x optical zoom lens. The lens also has very wide-angle (24mm) capability that's very useful for landscapes and group portraits, although you may notice a bit of distortion when you're shooting faces up close, for instance.
IMAGE STABILIZATION. This is an important feature; taking hand-held shots at the telephoto end of the zoom range can generally blur or soften images due to the slight movement of your hands. Shooting telephoto in well-lit scenes, this model did an excellent job of minimizing the effects of camera shake. In low-light settings, it performed excellently and almost never produced blurry photos. Overall, the shake reduction results from our tests were excellent.
SPEED. In terms of performance, the Sony Alpha A6300 w/ E PZ 16-50mm F3.5-5.6 OSS powers up in a moderate amount of time. It has a very short interval between shots, which can be important when shooting fast-moving or unpredictable subjects.
VIDEO. The Sony Alpha A6300 w/ E PZ 16-50mm F3.5-5.6 OSS takes very good video. It also captures 4K-UHD video at 3840 x 2160 120p or 30i. As for sound, it captures excellent audio in stereo.
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS. Like most mirrorless models, this camera does include an electronic viewfinder, which means you have flexibility when composing your photo or video; this viewfinder has excellent quality.
