You guys are always asking me for camera recommendations and up till now, I didn’t have a solid recommendation. Even when I published the best cameras for bloggers blog post, I didn’t want to recommend the Sony A7RII that I shoot with because it’s a $5000 camera combination. Best Buy just sent me the Sony – Alpha a6300 Mirrorless Camera so I took it with me on my trip to Rome. After using it in Rome for the past 10 days, I love it and would recommend it as the best travel camera!
SEE ALSO: Best Cameras For Bloggers: What I Use & Recommend
With the holidays right around the corner, what’s on your wish list? Best Buy has identified the coolest and best tech to gift this season on their Top Tech list (coming soon!). Can you guess what will be on the list? The Sony A6300!
Table of Contents
1. BEST TRAVEL CAMERA THAT’S LIGHTWEIGHT + COMPACT
The number one thing I love about this camera is how lightweight it is. From the moment I took the Sony A6300 out of the box, I was surprised by how light it weighed (1.15 pounds). When I’m traveling, the last thing I want is to carry a heavy and bulky camera along with all my other equipment. The Sony A6300 even fits in my small, basket bag with my wallet, lipgloss, and sunglasses! The Sony A6300 is a mirrorless camera which makes it thinner than a DSLR camera because there’s no mechanical mirror to switch the scene between the optical viewfinder and image sensor.
2. FLIP SCREEN
A camera with a flip screen is MANDATORY for me because that’s how I get my table spread shots without having to stand on the chair in a restaurant. You do have to turn the camera around when taking top-down shots to see the screen. The screen doesn’t flip 180 degrees so you wouldn’t be able to use it for selfies or vlogging.
3. WI-FI CAPABILITY
Sony cameras have built-in wireless LAN and this is important and cool because:
- you can transfer images from a Sony camera to any compatible cell phone, tablet or other Wi-Fi-enabled devices. Edit the photo and post directly to social media!
- control the camera remotely. I personally love this feature because I don’t always have a photographer with me when I’m traveling. I use a tripod and sync up my phone to the Sony camera to take pictures like I did here. (I used my Sony A7RII to take this photo of me with the Sony A6300).
4. GORGEOUS HIGH-RES PHOTOGRAPHY
Look at how crisp this photograph is and how much the colors just pop – this is why I love Sony! Thanks to the 24.2-megapixel APS-C Exmor CMOS sensor allows for enlargements all the way up to poster-sized prints. I don’t like taking photos at night but the ISO 100 – 25,600 (expandable to 51,200) allows you to take photos even in dim lighting.
5. INTERCHANGEABLE LENSES 
WIDE LENS – Sony E PZ 16-50mm f/3.5-5.6 $299
The Sony A6300 comes with this lens already. I’ve never used a wide lens before so was surprised by how useful this lens was for travel. Wide lenses are great for landscapes and interior shots. When I was in Rome visiting landmarks like the Colosseum, Vatican, Pantheon, and even landscapes like the one above at Positano, the Sony 16-50mm lens allowed me to capture the entire scape. For interior shots, wide lenses make small, enclosed spaces look bigger. I would say this lens is pretty versatile because even if you want to get a close food shot, you can just zoom in.
EVERYDAY LENS – Sony 35mm F2.8 Sonnar T FE ZA Full Frame Prime Fixed Lens $799
This is my go-to lens for everyday shots – food, portraits, products, travel, and every in between. I really like this lens because it’s small. Even when attached to the Sony body, it fits easily in my bag. The image quality is simply incredible. The lens is pretty cropped so it’s not great for interior shots.
PORTRAIT LENS – Sony FE 50mm F1.8 Lens $249.99
Every single time I use the lens and pull up the photos in Photoshop, I’m always like, “Wow, I really should use this lens more.” And the reason I don’t is that the lens is bulky. The f/1.8 allows for beautiful defocusing effects and defocused bokeh that’s amazing for portraits and close up food shots.
6. USER FRIENDLY
When traveling and asking others to take pictures of you, it’s important to have a user-friendly camera. I now say I don’t buy a camera that I can use but a camera that my mom can use. Sony A6300’s 4D Focus allows for crisper photos and the face-detection technology automatically detects faces so you’ll always be in sharp focus. The A6300 can also autofocus in just 0.05 seconds, making it the “world’s fastest autofocus,” according to Sony. This is another top reason why I recommend the A6300 as the best travel camera. P.S. My mom took this photo of me when we were brunching in Rome.
7. AFFORDABLE PRICE
I know there are cheaper cameras than $999.99, but the quality that Sony A6300 produces makes it a great option for the price. You don’t even need to buy a lens since it already comes with the E PZ 16–50 mm F3.5–5.6 OSS Lens.
FINAL THOUGHTS
I love the Sony A6300 and I’m so glad Best Buy sent it to me to review because I didn’t know about this camera. I’ve shot with the Sony A7RII for a year now and while I do love it, I don’t like how heavy and how expensive it is. I will be using the Sony A6300 with the Sony 35mm F2.8 lens as my every day set up and do recommend it as the best travel camera!
This post is brought to you in collaboration with Best Buy. Thank you for supporting the brands that support A Taste of Koko!
