When you decide to get a little more serious about your video efforts, sooner or later you will ask yourself a very popular question: which one is the best camera under 1000$? Once you have outgrown the entry-level cameras for your casual vlogging, you will need something more serious to work with and the 1000$ range is where most brands want to give you the perfect package to work with. The Sony A6400 is definitely one of these packages since you will be getting a lot of performance in a really compact form factor.
Sony A6400 – Everything You Need
With this camera, you will be getting a very solid autofocus performance, given that you are using native E-Mount lenses. It doesn’t utilize Sony’s new eye-tracking AF just yet but that’s probably a good reason for the brand to announce the next generation of this class very soon.
With S-log2 / S-log3 on board, you will be able to shoot nice flat imagery to color correct in your NLE. Unfortunately, you will be limited by the 8-Bit codec, which can be a little bit of a stretch, when tweaking it too much. Trust me, flat footage out of (S-Log2) Sony camera can be a real headache when trying to nail that cinematic color grading compared to other cameras in the same class.
Also, keep in mind that you won’t get any in-body stabilization so you will need a lens with optical stabilization. With no recording time limit, you can definitely hit that record button and film your next event or podcast without having to worry about the camera shutting off after 30 minutes. But you still have to keep an eye on a typical Sony camera problem and that’s overheating. Like most other Sony cameras you are very likely to get that overheating sign much earlier than any other camera in the same class. In Sony’s defence, with the newly developed sensors built into the new cameras like the A7R III or the RX100 VII, this problem finally seems to be gone (or at least on par with most other competitors.)
Another typical Sony problem is battery life, so be prepared to get yourself a handful of the small battery blocks.
Other than that you will get a very capable camera for under 1000$. With a quality that you’d actually expect from much more expensive cameras. Sony is known for being more on the expensive side, but this specific camera class is definitely giving you the best bang for your buck. I’ve shot a couple of projects with the predecessor (the Sony A6300) and the footage is just gorgeous. If you didn’t know, you’d think it has been shot with the much bigger (and expensive) cameras like A7S, A7R or even the FS7 thanks to S-log2 / Slog3.
