Sony α6000 tricks (II) · Battery, burst and panorama
Five advanced tricks to squeeze the camera: last the whole day, control the noise, hunt motion, sweep landscapes and get the photos onto your phone.
Second batch of Sony a6000 tricks, meant for when you already move through the menus with ease. If you landed here directly, start with the part I tricks: the center button and the peaking we set up there are used here.
TRICK 06
Stretch the battery (no miracles)
The NP-FW50 is small and the a6000 is thirsty: no trick replaces a spare battery in your pocket. But there are five settings that genuinely stretch every charge.
The anti-blackout checklist 5 SETTINGS · ONCE
The big consumers are the screens and the radio (Wi-Fi/NFC). Cutting what you don't use is free.
Apply this list in order (names as they appear in the English menus):
Setting
Where
What you gain
Airplane Mode → ON
MENU → 📶 1
Turns off Wi-Fi and NFC when you're not using them
FINDER/MONITOR → Viewfinder
MENU → ⚙ 3
The rear screen goes dark; power is only drawn while you look through the viewfinder
Pwr Save Start Time → short
MENU → 🧰 2
The camera falls asleep sooner between shots
Pre-AF → OFF
MENU → ⚙ 3
Stops focusing non-stop even when you're not shooting
Remote Ctrl → OFF
MENU → 🧰 3
The IR receiver stops listening
And the habit that saves the most: turn it off with the power switch when you put the camera away. Hanging from your neck switched on, your own body triggers the viewfinder sensor again and again — the battery drains without taking a single photo.
Mission: note the file number before an outing, apply the list and count how many photos the full charge gave you. Repeat another outing with factory settings and compare.
Done when one charge lasts the whole outing and the spare battery comes home unused.
TRICK 07
ISO AUTO with a ceiling: you decide the noise
ISO AUTO is wonderfully convenient, but without limits the camera climbs to values with ugly noise. The hidden fix: give it a minimum and a maximum.
Put limits on the automatic INDOORS · LOW LIGHT
You keep the convenience of auto with the guarantee that the noise will never exceed the level you accept.
Go to MENU → 📷 4 → ISO and scroll down to highlight ISO AUTO (careful: the AUTO value in the list, not the first noise-reduction option). Press right on the wheel: the minimum and maximum appear. Leave the minimum at 100 and set the maximum to 1600 if you're picky about noise, or 3200 if you'd rather not lose shots indoors.
The secret combo: ISO AUTO also works in M mode. You lock shutter speed and aperture to taste (say 1/500 and f/8 for sports) and the camera balances the exposure by moving only the ISO within your limits. Creative manual, automatic exposure.
Mission: find YOUR ceiling: take the same photo of a dim corner forcing ISO 800, 1600, 3200 and 6400 (fixed ISO). Zoom in at home and decide which is the last value you find acceptable. That's your ISO AUTO maximum.
Done when you can name your maximum acceptable ISO without hesitating, because you've seen it in your own photos.
TRICK 08
Burst with tracking: hunt what moves
The a6000's 11 photos per second were its big headline. But without the right focus mode they're 11 blurry photos per second.
Hi + AF-C, the motion duo KIDS · PETS · SPORTS
The burst shoots; AF-C chases. They only truly work when they go together.
Press the left button on the wheel (Drive Mode) → Cont. Shooting, and with the side arrows choose Hi (about 11 photos/s), Mid (6) or Lo (2.5). Then Fn → Focus Mode → AF-C: the camera refocuses between one shot and the next as the subject moves closer or further away.
And the star shortcut almost nobody knows: with Focus Area on Wide and the center button on Standard (as we left it in trick 1), holding the center button instantly jumps to center focus with lock — perfect when the background confuses the automatic. Release it and you're back to Wide. Two focus areas, zero menus.
Mission: ask someone to run towards you in a straight line. Hi burst + AF-C, hold the shutter down and follow their face in the viewfinder. At home, count how many of the series are sharp.
Done when more than half the burst comes out sharp and you can explain when you'd use Mid instead of Hi (hint: fewer near-identical photos to review).
TRICK 09
The sweep panorama, done right
The a6000 shoots, aligns and stitches panoramas all by itself, handheld and with no computer. The difference between a panorama with seams and a clean one is in the sweep technique.
Sweep like a human tripod LANDSCAPES · NO TRIPOD
The stitching algorithm works better the closer the camera stays to the axis of rotation — that is, to you.
Turn the dial to Sweep Panorama and follow the ritual: 1) zoom to the wide end (16 mm on the kit); 2) elbows against your body and eye on the viewfinder — never with your arms stretched out; 3) half-press the shutter on the main subject to lock exposure and focus; 4) position yourself further left than where you want the panorama to start; 5) press fully and rotate your body from the waist, smooth and steady — as a reference, about 180° in 6 seconds. The camera warns you if you go too fast or too slow.
Raise the resolution at MENU → 📷 1 → Panorama: Size → Wide: you get a file of 12,416 × 1,856 pixels, more than enough for printing. Two limits worth knowing: the panorama comes out JPEG only (no RAW), and anything moving during the sweep (people, cars, waves) may come out chopped — pick your moment.
Mission: one panorama of the same landscape done two ways: arms stretched out looking at the screen, and elbows tucked in looking through the viewfinder. Zoom into the stitch areas of both and hunt for the seams.
Done when your panoramas have no steps in the horizon and no objects cut in half.
TRICK 10
From the sensor to your phone in one minute
The best photo of the day is useless trapped on the card. The a6000 sets up its own Wi-Fi hotspot and hands the photo to your phone with no cables and no computer.
Send to Smartphone SHARING · WI-FI
It sounds like a configuration headache and it's literally two button presses — once the right app is installed.
On the phone, install Imaging Edge Mobile (the successor to PlayMemories Mobile; the a6000 isn't compatible with Sony's newest app, Creators' App). On the camera: play back the photo you want to send and press Fn — in playback that button is already the Send to Smartphone shortcut. Choose Select on This Device → This Image, open the app and tap the camera when it appears. Done.
Two settings that avoid waiting: in the app, set the download quality to 2M — plenty for social media and it transfers in seconds, while the full 24 MP takes an eternity over Wi-Fi. And if you shoot RAW, relax: the camera converts to JPEG automatically before sending. Remember to turn off the Airplane Mode from trick 6 before transferring (and turn it back on afterwards).
Mission: on the way back from your next outing, pick your best photo at the bar or on the bus, transfer it to the phone and share it with someone before getting home. Time yourself: the goal is under a minute.
Done when showing off a photo you've just taken feels as natural as taking it.
Skipped the first half? In Sony a6000 tricks (I) you'll find the five button and focus ones: custom keys, zebra, peaking with the magnifier, Eye-AF and DMF — several tricks on this page build on them. And when the camera holds no more secrets, the next step is developing your RAW files with Darktable.