I recently upgraded from the A6000 and could not be happier. I am an amateur photographer with a love for landscapes, sports, wildlife, and capturing people doing what they love. The A6000 was a tremendous entry into an advanced camera that has produced, and continues to produce, excellent results. I stepped up to the A6500 to take advantage of the improved focusing, increased buffer, and the IBIS system. The IBIS has really improved the sharpness of my work and added confidence in capturing images beyond the normal focal length/shutter speed guidelines. I recently paired it with the Sony 18-105 G series lens and the combo is amazing. We are planning a trip to Europe later this year and cannot wait to take this over the pond and test my skills. If you like the e-mount system (I do), looking for maximum flexibility in shooting varied subjects, want a camera that will produce professional results, and are looking for the benefits

I purchased this camera as a replacement for my elderly A77. Having gone all in with the mirrorless when I purchased the A7II I wanted to still have an APSC camera for the crop and as a back up if the A7 failed. I also had a considerable collection of E mount lenses, which only helped to push the choice along. I did not want to be carrying two sets of lenses further burdening my back and bags.

Most of the time I pair the A6500 with the E mount 90mm macro. I like this set up as it is a close as I can get with my old set up of the 100mm with the A77. It gives me an effective 135 mm macro which is nice, but not quite as nice as the old set up that gave me 150mm. But I do gain the silent shutter and IBIS which more than makes up for the slightly shorter lens. In shooting both macro mode and in more "normal" conditions I have found it to be a solid performer.

I have shot with the Zeiss super-wide native lens and have found it to be not as wide as I liked. That 50% crop does get in the way when the shooting gets tight. It's here that one remembers that a 35mm is the "normal" focal length, not 50mm. I have yet to pair it with the 35mm 1.4 for street photography, but I can say paired with that lens it's a very good general purpose shooter. The fast 35 does diminish the stealth factor, the lens is a beast, but it's plenty fast, and plenty sharp. I have found this set up to be much faster than the 90mm, which has a propensity to hunt near its 1:1 limit.

A word of two about the silent shutter, it works as advertised. The shutter is absolutely silent. I've tried it exactly once so can give no honest reports about rolling shutter. I can say even with the shutter in normal mode this camera is much quieter than the A7ii which sounds like a small explosion next to its more petite cousin. I do not fathom how a camera that does not suffer from mirror slap still manages to be so noisy when taking a shot, but the A7ii manages it. I will say that the A6500 does sound much like it's much older relative the A77, its a softer, higher pitch click that they both make.

On the subject of ergonomics, it is Marmite, that much is true. You love it, or you hate it, no middle ground. For a guy i have rather smallish hands. My fingers go on forever though and that me a Large in glove, go figure. I have never had issues with how the a6500 fits in my hands. My long fingers wrap around it comfortably. With the a7ii I do use the battery grip, but this is more a function of the pathetic life span that the FP40s have on tap than anything else.

Unfortunately, this camera does use those self-same FP40, which are good for maybe 240 shots on a really good day. I've manage to get much less on the a7ii mind you, so carry extras to be on the safe side. I've never managed to kill a battery on the a6500 but that is no indication as the a6500 is my specialty camera and the A7ii is my workhorse. I've often killed at least one FP40 and sometimes have succeeded in running the second into the yellow zone on the A7ii. One more time, bring extras.

If the batteries have not been much to write home about, a really great improvement on the a6500 is the total overhaul of the menu system. In my review of the A7ii I ranted about the general awfulness of that camera's menu. Even after long acquaintance, it's still a bed of pain. I have read that Sony is about to unleash the A7iii on an unwary public, I hope that camera has the a6500 menu system. It's a quantum leap from the a7ii. It's still a bit confusing, but the color scheme and the organization is leaps and bounds above the A7ii. Sony has listened to the b*tching, moaning, groaning, and general whining and responded to it. The menu system no longer gets in your way the way it did in the past.

Some small nits to pick. At nearly $1,300 I think Sony could have at least thrown in some more physical controls, like the Two-wheel adjustment scheme of A7 series. It does have IBIS which the a6300 lacks and the touch screen. But the touch screen is no never mind for me and I would gladly ditch it for the options the two wheel controls give me. I'm not very impressed by the onboard flash either, on a $1,300 machine it's actually a bit tacky. I'm willing to forgive such fripperies on a $600 A6000 but not on a camera costing twice as much. It's there, it's OK but I would rather it not be there as there is precious little real estate on the camera as it is and a tiny flash is a waste of that real estate. I would rather just carry a nice small speedlight and be done with it. That way I'm not draining that single FP40 any more than I have to. The other nit I have is the fit of the SD card into the slot offered by the camera. It's a bit tight in there, and not much fun to engage. Having both battery and SD under the same door can be frustrating as I have managed to drop the battery while fiddling with the SD card insertion. I understand this was the sacrifice needed to keep the camera small, and I am willing to live with it, but it does cause issues from time to time.

Overall this is a wonderful camera. It punches way above its weight in image quality, ease of use, portability, and general fun factor. It's compact size makes carrying it about a joy, not a chore. The only camera that can really match it in the ease of use department are the Cybershots that use the 1in sensor. But those are point and shoots that have smaller sensors and fixed lenses. It's bigger brother is no match because it really does need a battery grip to achieve any kind of functionality, that kills the A7ii portability and fun factor. As far as the FP40 goes, the a6000 series are probably the best cameras for this underpowered battery. If you carry a second battery for the a6500 it should be all good, but best to get a third to be sure. With this body you get to use the full panoply of Sony and independent lenses. Often Independents will only make lenses for the APSC bodies and not the Full Frame. And no matte what lens you buy you do get the IBIS feature, which is worth about 3 stops of exposure. That opens up a whole world of hand-held images that is not available on a non-IBIS camera. Not a bad deal for the extra semolinas if you own a lot of non-native glass or older Minolta glass. As the most advanced of the 6000 series the 6500 is worth the investment.