The superb Sony A6700

Around the same time, my son became increasingly serious about photography. He upgraded from the excellent Sony RX10 to the Sony A6700, pairing it with a Tamron 50–400mm lens. The results he was getting were outstanding. His keeper rate was noticeably higher than mine, and the images were consistently sharp and detailed. In real terms, they were every bit as good as what I was producing with a much larger and heavier setup, even after cropping my full frame files.

Naturally, this got me thinking about autofocus performance rather than pure resolution. My ideal upgrade would have been the Sony A7R V, which features the newer AI based autofocus system. Unfortunately, that was well outside my budget. I then looked closely at the Sony A7CR, which uses the same 61 megapixel sensor as my A7R IV but incorporates the newer autofocus system in a smaller body.

While the Sony A7CR was tempting and just about within reach if I stretched, I had a moment of clarity before pulling the trigger. Functionally and ergonomically, it is very close to the Sony A6700, with similar viewfinder and rear screen resolution, just paired with a high resolution full frame sensor. At over two thousand dollars more than the A6700, I had to ask myself whether it actually made sense for how I shoot.

The answer became obvious. For bird photography, I would still be cropping heavily due to focal length limitations. Cropping a 61 megapixel full frame image down to APS-C framing lands you in roughly the same resolution territory as the 26 megapixel sensor in the Sony A6700. Add to that the APS-C crop factor, where my 400mm setup effectively becomes 600mm, and the logic became hard to ignore.

I borrowed my son’s Sony A6700 and took it out bird shooting with my own Sony 70–200mm GM II. The results genuinely surprised me. Focus was nailed almost every time. Eye detection was confident and sticky, even with fast moving subjects. Image sharpness was excellent, and performance remained strong when I added the 2x Teleconverter as well.

After shopping around, I picked up my own Sony A6700 for $1779 from JB Hi-Fi after a price match. At that price, it is difficult to argue that there is a better camera on the market for wildlife photography. The results speak for themselves.

I also tested 4K video, and the performance there is equally impressive. Continuous autofocus tracked birds’ eyes smoothly and reliably, producing footage that looks far more polished than I expected from a camera of this size.

The Sony A7R IV is not going anywhere. It still earns its place for landscapes, product photography, and situations where maximum resolution matters. But for bird photography, the Sony A6700 has become my primary camera, and quite honestly, it has completely changed how enjoyable and successful those shoots have become.