Sony manufactures some of the best mirrorless cameras available. One of Sony's strengths is that its cameras do not deteriorate over time. The Sony a6000 is still a capable imaging device, even though it has been on the market for more than six years. And with the arrival of its successor, the price of the original a6000 has dropped from $800 to just $548 with the 16-50mm kit lens. There is also an attractive price for two lenses bundled together.

That said, there have been some significant technological advances since the a6000's debut, including 4K video, richer colors, crisper low-light photos, and autofocus that is much better at tracking subjects. These and other improvements are found in the new Sony a6100, which sells for $788 with the same kit lens. For some photographers, these upgrades are worth the extra $240. However, the original a6000 offers very good quality for a variety of shots, and other buyers will be happy to save money on the original model.

Now let's take a closer look at the comparison between the Sony a6000 and the Sony A61000.

Sony has changed very little in the design of the a6000 series cameras since 2014. This has both good and bad aspects. On the positive side: the camera itself is compact and easily fits in a coat pocket or purse (when fitted with a small lens like the 3x zoom). The right hand grip is deep and holds the camera securely. A pair of adjustment wheels and plenty of programmable buttons allow for quick adjustments.

The 0.39-inch OLED electronic viewfinder is a heaven-send in bright locations where the rear LCD is prone to white-out. (The viewfinder resolution remains unchanged, but 800 x 600 is sufficient.) In addition to being dimly lit, the rear LCD remains small at 3 inches and has a low resolution of 640 x 480.

Nevertheless, the new LCD has some nice upgrades: while the a6000's screen tilts up only 90 degrees, the new a6100's screen tilts up a full 180 degrees to face forward and allow you to position yourself for selfies. The LCD on the new camera is also a touch screen, and you can tap the LCD to set the focus point and select the subject to be tracked. However, the on-screen menus, which have become more complex over the years, cannot be operated by touch.

In bright light, image quality is very similar with both cameras, and colors are nearly identical. For example, in a still life photo of fresh fruit, both cameras capture colors that are nearly identical to how they look in real life.

The resolution of the two cameras is about the same, about 24 MP, but the a6100 has a more advanced sensor capable of higher ISO sensitivity. Improvements to the sensor include the use of copper wiring, which improves signal conductivity and allows for pixels with a larger surface area. In addition, a new generation of Bionz X processors has been incorporated to suppress noise and maintain detail. The result is a camera that can capture clean images up to ISO 6400, compared to ISO 1600 for the original a6000. This is an important boost for low-light photography, especially if the photos are to be displayed large or cropped to a large size.

These photos, each taken in low light at ISO 3200, show a comparison of the two cameras. Note the detail in the apple and shadow areas.

The a6000 debuted in 2014 and caused a sensation with its 11 frames per second. a6100 maintains its overall shooting speed, but has a major upgrade to ensure that the subject is almost always in focus.

The a6000 has 179 phase detection and 25 contrast detection AF points, while the a6100 boasts a whopping 425 points each. Combined with a new image processor, the a6100 performs sophisticated autofocus algorithms and is surprisingly adept at quickly identifying and locking onto the subject in a photo. The a6100 is also very good at quickly identifying and locking onto a subject in a photo.

The a6100 also adds a touchscreen LCD that allows users to tap on the area of the image preview that they want to focus on to instantly capture the image, or select a subject that the camera will follow, like the birds in this series of photos.

The a6100's more powerful processor also enables real-time pupil autofocus, which focuses on the subject's eyes (left or right, selectable) when shooting portraits. Pupil autofocus works not only with humans, but also with animals such as dogs and cats. a6000 can also enable pupil autofocus, but you must program a button to activate the feature and hold that button down when you press the shutter release. a6000 allows you to use this feature, which works only with human This is a rather inconvenient way to use this feature, which only works for the eye.

The a6000 is a very capable HD video camera, capable of capturing rich colors and sharp details. Its image quality is more than adequate for social media postings such as home movies on Facebook or for video blogging.

A major upgrade to the a61000 is its ability to shoot at 4K/UHD resolution (30 fps or cinematic 24 fps). This is valuable if you are looking to produce professional or indie movies. a6100 has a stereo microphone input jack that allows you to use an external microphone to capture professional-grade sound. a6000 has a 4 Sony external microphones that connect via the multi-interface hot shoe on the top of the camera can only be used.

But even when shooting in HD, the a6100 offers better low-light performance than the original a6000, thanks to its new sensor and processor. It also has more responsive autofocus, which is key when shooting action video.

This HD clip of a bird in a park shows how well the a6100 balances light and dark to produce crisp, evenly exposed footage.

The a6100 can also shoot slow motion video, and clips shot at 120 fps can be played back at 30 fps for a 4x slow motion effect. This is necessary to keep up with the performance of modern smartphones. As a reverse effect, the new camera can record time-lapse video, capturing frames in a customizable range from once per second to once per minute.

Durability is always an issue for mirrorless cameras, which must keep the power-hungry LCD on so that shots can be previewed. Sony's eyepiece OLED electronic viewfinder, while smaller, consumes even more power than the rear LCD.

The a6000 can squeeze out just 310 pictures when using the OLED viewfinder for preview, and 360 when using the rear LCD. Those who like to shoot for longer periods of time are advised to purchase extra batteries.

The a6100 is able to squeeze out more shots from the same battery thanks to the efficiency of the new chip. This is a notable improvement, but we still recommend purchasing a second battery for this camera as well.

While the a6000 and a6100 look very similar on the outside, they are very different on the inside. And for some buyers, these changes are worth the extra money. It all depends on whether the type of shots you want to take match the improved features.

If you often shoot in low light, you will definitely appreciate the a6100's crisp photos. However, if you generally shoot in bright light, you can get nearly the same image quality with the lower-priced a6000.

If you shoot a lot of action, the case for the a6100 is even stronger, as the a6100's autofocus and tracking algorithms are very powerful. Action photos can also range from inspiring wildlife shots to photos of high school soccer and soccer games. If you are primarily shooting posed photos, landscapes, or still life, you won't notice much difference in focus performance between the two cameras.

As for video, the a6000 remains a solid performer for casual HD shooting. Upgrading to the a6100 will improve low-light shooting somewhat and make it easier to set the subject so that the camera's focus follows the entire clip. If you are a professional or aspiring semi-professional, features such as 4K resolution and an external microphone jack are must-haves.

In short, the a6000 is a worthy upgrade from smartphones for casual shooting. It is fast and has much better low-light performance than mobile devices. Sony's wide selection of lenses (some economically priced) will greatly expand your photographic possibilities.

But if you plan to push the camera, especially in action and low-light photography, the a6100 offers great performance at a reasonably high cost.