Update: B&H is now offering an additional 5% back in rewards on this camera, meaning you’ll get another $37.40 to spend on other items!
Sony A6000 Mirrorless Camera With Wide Angle Lens, Telephoto Lens, And $50 Gift Card
B&H has the A6000 mirrorless camera with 2 lenses and a $50 B&H gift card on sale for $748. It was $798 last month and $848 in March with no gift card offer.
-If you have a Visa business card, like a Chase Ink card, you can enroll in Visa Savings Edge for an additional 5% automatic cash rebate at B&H, dropping the price to $710.60 after the statement credit.
-B&H doesn’t collect sales tax for orders shipped outside of NJ/NY.
-A spare battery
–A Peak Design Leash Camera Strap that makes it effortless to wear your camera crossbody like you would a messenger bag and quickly take pictures while wearing it.
–Flash bounce cards that diffuse the flash brightness when you need to use flash.
While smartphone cameras keep improving, they’re still not great at taking:
-Pictures indoors or in poor lighting
-Pictures of objects in motion
-Pictures with blurred backgrounds
-Pictures of items farther away that require optical zoom.
Earlier last year a baby deer was born in my front yard. This picture was taken of it with a Galaxy S6:
When I got home from my office I took a picture of it with the telephoto lens on my Sony a6000:
I haven’t edited these pictures at all. You can tell the difference in quality that you can get from a phone’s camera versus a mirrorless camera.
I’ve been using the A6000 for several years and love it, it takes fantastic pictures very quickly. The quality of pictures in low-light situations and with zoom are far better than from even the most advanced smartphones.
I can easily transfer the pictures to my phone over WiFi or even use my phone as a remote with the phone displaying the camera screen via the Sony app. When you use your phone as the camera screen the pictures will be saved on your phone and the camera.
The A6000’s electronic viewfinder also does wonders when it’s too sunny out to use the LCD screen.
Mirrorless digital cameras offer SLR type performance and sensor size in a compact and intuitive package. In fact it even does things better than an SLR, such as video. It’s bigger than the point and shoot you might be used to, but the pictures it takes are just incredible. In a pinch it can still fit into your pocket even with the 16-50 lens on, something that can’t be done with an SLR.
I would personally recommend getting this camera as a body only as the bundled lenses do not do it justice. The 16-70 f/4 Zeiss lens will show more of its potential, with a excellent bokeh for a f/4. As a second lens, you must own a f/1.8 or lower lens. The 50 f/1.8 is great for portraits and/or low light/night photography, or opt for the 35 f/1.8 if you want a larger field of view.
Isn’t this a better deal?
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B013GQCW5U/?tag=cl03f-20
@mileagejunkie:
You’re talking about spending $$$$ on lenses.
I’m a casual shooter and am perfectly happy with these lenses. For a pro shooter who has the time to edit all their pictures, then by all means, spend the money.
@Jeff:
That’s an extra $50-$90 and doesn’t come with the $50 gift card.
All due respect Dan you know nothing about cameras – “pro shooter who has the time to edit all their pictures, then by all means, spend the money” the reason you get the lenses is so you DONT have to really edit.
This is costly, for $400-$500 you can get a Canon t series which is more respected and better than this.
@Cam:
Please. Any pro shooter still spends hours in post-production editing pictures.
Your typical amateur who just wants good pictures but doesn’t want to drop $1,500 on lenses will do just fine with the included lenses. The picture in this post was taken with the 16-50 kit lens. If you want to invest in better lenses, great. But I don’t feel the need to drop that kind of cash, especially as a very amateur shooter who is very happy with the pictures provided with the kit lenses.
The Canon T series is a completely different beast than this. It’s much larger and heavier. No WiFi, so I can’t control the camera from my phone and send a Whatsapp after the picture is taken. Poor video quality, etc.
@Dan: For someone not looking to spend as much I’d recommend just the 16-70 then. I got the camera when it was on sale for $400 and the first lens for $600 on eBay. That was after buying the kit and returning it after trying if for 5 minutes. Granted, it is more expensive than this deal, but if you go with the kit lenses, I think that there are cheaper or equivalent cameras with fixed lenses (less to carry around for an amateur) that do just as good of a job. The camera has a great sensor and it is the best value for a mirrorless APC-S sensor in my opinion. I just think that the lenses take away from its performance.
@mileagejunkie:
This one?
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ENZRPG0/?tag=cl03f-20&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER
I had it in Norway. As an amateur I just can’t see the $900 benefit of it over the kit lens. Plus it adds bulk over the kit lens.
Maybe if I were more of an expert I’d notice the difference. At any rate though I haven’t been able to replicate my pictures on a camera with a fixed lens.
@mileagejunkie:
@Dan: Also take into account that the kit lens (specifically, the 16-70) retracts, making this far valuable in terms of bulkiness. Any other lens that you may add will not have this feature. This makes a huge difference when schlepping around and every bit of space matters.
Yes, although my point is not to add $900, but to wait for a good deal on the body (the lens can be bought on eBay for $600 every week or so) when the $250 difference with this deal is easily justifiable. I don’t think that you need to be an expert to see how a fixed aperture lens performs when zooming and the sun isn’t shinning. It gives you constant bright images, no matter what the scenario is. A f/1.8 or lower can do wonders at night when a flash might ruin the picture.
The 16-70 would be most and it’s very versatile when walking around a new place, and still gives a bokeh almost as good as the fixed focal length outdoors at daytime.
In your case, I’m guessing pictures of your family would be a first. I would suggest you borrow a SEL50F18 and try it for yourself. Next thing you know you will be buying it.. I don’t mind sharing for a week or two.
Well, I am out of a job, want to take nice pictures of my kid’s graduation chiming up as well as is during summer vacation, I cannot be too choosy in terms of spending tons of $ on most current top end cameras as lenses, I guess this deal works. Thanks, Dan.