EVENT COVERAGE 2024 | LITTLE CAYMAN
GEAR TESTS: SONY A6700 UNDERWATER CAMERA REVIEW
THOMAS ANDERSON
Media Producer
The Sony a6700 represents the latest and greatest APS-C camera from Sony. Sporting 26 megapixels, great autofocus tracking, and a good underwater white balance for video, the a6700 has plenty to offer at its $1,399.99 price tag.
I shot the a6700 with the Nauticam housing, which was compact and comfortable to use. I used the 16-50 kit lens along with both the WWL-1B and WWL-C lenses, which provided excellent image quality, corner to corner sharpness, and plenty of zoom through to capture a variety of shots. What I missed with the a6700 was a fisheye option, which is hands down my favorite type of lens and perspective for shooting wide angle still images in Little Cayman.
The main drawback of the a6700 would be its relatively slow flash sync speed limit. At 1/160th, it is slower than most cameras which are typically in the 1/200-1/400 range. This makes capturing sun-ball shots and getting black backgrounds shooting macro difficult. I found myself using low ISO extensions as a substitute when the scene demanded it. Overall, the a6700 is a solid choice for photo and video but lacks a fisheye option and is limited to 1/160th when using a flash.
JAMES EMERY
Media Marketing Manager
I’m very experienced with Sony cameras, so picking up the a6700 and starting to shoot was a breeze. Just as expected with the newer Sony models, the autofocus was fast and accurate, and the overall image quality was very good for a camera in the APS-C category. I used the 16-50mm kit lens, which may not be the highest quality lens, but when paired with a Nauticam WWL-C, it made a significant difference, offering a 130-degree field of view and sharp images. The a6700 does have a slow max flash sync of 1/160, but I didn’t find this to be much of an issue, even when shooting in shallow, bright ambient scenes – I was still able to capture good sun-balls with a subject.
