The last five months have been really tough. I've been without my trusty Sony A6000 after it suddenly stopped working during my vacation in London last November.

After what felt like forever, Sony finally announced the A6300, the A6000's long-awaited successor. I pre-ordered one as soon as I could. The camera's been in my hands for a few weeks and I have zero regrets dropping $1,000 on the 24-megapixel mirrorless camera.

The Sony A6300 was well worth the wait. It's the fastest mirrorless camera I've ever used and it shoots crisp 4K video, making it not just awesome for still pictures, but also for video.

Good design never goes out of style

The A6300 is to the A6000 as the iPhone 6S is to the iPhone 6. That is, the new guy looks almost identical to old guy with all important changes being internal. You wouldn't notice the differences unless you were looking very closely.

The camera body is a little thicker and about 15% heavier (with a battery and memory card) since it's now made entirely of magnesium alloy, but it's not really noticeable in daily shooting. The tougher construction means the camera's more dust- and moisture-resistant; it's not weather-sealed like on many high-end DSLRs, but still appreciated.

Everything else is almost unchanged. The grip, while not as thick as the one on Sony's full-frame A7R II, is sizable for my fingers to firmly wrap around, though it may feel a cramped if you have chubbier fingers. There's the standard shooting mode dial on top and a control dial to its right, a built-in flash, a control wheel and a myriad of customizable buttons on the backside. The only change — button-wise — is the new lever and button for switching between AF/MF (autofocus/manual focus) and AEL (auto exposure lock); previously it was just an AEL button. The button Sony should have moved is the video recording button; it's still awkwardly tacked onto the thumb grip.

The backside has a 3.0-inch screen with the same 921K-dot resolution. It tilts up 90 degrees and down 45 degrees. I can live without the ability to flip the screen up 180-degrees for selfies like on the company's RX100 IV point-and-shoot, but would it kill Sony to include a touchscreen already? I gave the A6000 a pass for not including a touchscreen, but not this time. There's no excuse on a $1,000 camera and not when all of Olympus's mirrorless cameras have touchscreens.

My favorite upgrade is the electronic viewfinder (EVF). The A6300's EVF is twice as sharp as the A6000's: 2.4 million dots (1,024 x 768) versus 1.44 million dots (800 x 600). It's one of the clearest, brightest EVFs I've ever used on a mirrorless camera. The default refresh rate is 60 fps, but you can bump that up to 120 fps for even smoother visual fidelity.

Fast and crisp

The A6000 was a very, very fast camera. It could autofocus in 0.06-seconds, the fastest on an APS-C-sized mirrorless camera at the time. The A6300 autofocuses in 0.05 seconds. For single shots, it's not a quantum leap, but those seconds saved total up when you're shooting on continuous (up to 11 fps) and when you're shooting fast-moving action like sports and kids.

When I shot with the A6000, it felt like it was impossible to miss a shot. The camera's 179 phase-detection autofocus points were quick to lock onto subjects. Sony somehow squeezed in 425 phase-detection autofocus points, more than twice as many, into the A6300. All those phase-detection AF points cover more of the image sensor, which translates even faster subject-tracking and even fewer missed, out-of-focus shots.

As expected, the A6300 is a phenomenal camera for photos. Pictures are sharp, color-accurate, have excellent dynamic range and low image noise. With a fast prime lens (large aperture with low f-stop number), you can take some very crisp low-light photos.

I was impressed by the A6000's image quality and I remain blown away by the A6300's. If you want "DSLR-quality" photos and don't need the higher resolution offered by full-frame, the A6300 is unbeatable on image quality and speed. I'd pick it over a larger, heavier DSLR or bulkier A7R II any day.

Sony's also increased the selection of E-mount lenses. There are now more prime and zoom lenses to choose from to flex your creativity, including the new high-anticipated 24-70mm f/2.8 G Master lens. Zeiss also makes lust-worthy glass that are compatible with the A6300 if you can afford them.

Spectacular 4K video

Sony's pushing 4K like there's no tomorrow. For years, 4K has been a "nice to have, but not necessary" feature. With 4K finally everywhere (4K TVs, 4K movies and videos, 4K video recording in phones) and at affordable prices, it's now a must-have, especially in a camera.

4K has four times the resolution of 1080p full HD resolution. All those extra pixels provide greater picture clarity and more detailed footage. However, recording in 4K doesn't mean you have to use all those extra pixels in a finished video. Much like how more megapixels allows you to crop in on a photo, 4K gives you more room to crop for 1080p or 720p videos. For creating videos, 4K is useful for shooting wide and zooming in for a tight shot; no need to use two cameras for each shot.

On the A6300, Sony's doing something very special. The camera's actually recording video in 6K resolution (6,000 x 3,376) and then downsampling it to 4K (3,180 x 2,160). By oversampling at first in 6K, the 4K footage ends up looking sharper and with more detail than 4K video from Sony's top-of-the-line A7R II.

Looking at the 4K footage, it's remarkable how impressive it is considering the camera's price.

The inclusion of a microphone jack is handy for attaching an external boom mic to the hot shoe or lavalier mic. Budding filmmakers will no doubt nerd out over the ability to shoot in the S-Log 3 profile, 120 fps full HD slow-motion, and 100Mbps recording.

There are a few compromises when recording video. The rolling shutter or jello effect as it's called is pretty noticeable when you're panning the camera around. Even on some normal "slow" pans, footage came out looking warped. Low-light performance is also obviously nowhere near as good as the full-frame A7S II, which just sucks in so much light.

Still ahead of the pack

The Sony A6000 hit the perfect balance between high performance and price. It still is a very attractive camera with enough features and speed to satisfy most general consumers. It also helps that it can now be found for $698 with a 16-50mm lens (originally $800) or for $548 (body-only). I've seen the camera body as low as $450 at some places.

The A6300 redefines the meaning of a consumer mirrorless camera. It's got cutting-edge technology like the fastest autofocusing system I've ever experienced on a camera, 4K video recording and slow-motion recording at up to 120 fps. All of these new features push the camera to its $1,000 (body-only) and $1,150 (with 16-50mm lens) price ranges, which, I'm not going to lie, is not cheap. But you are getting a whole lot without jumping up to Sony's pricier full-frame A7 series mirrorless cameras.

Sony has proven time and again that its mirrorless cameras are the best in the business. The A6000 was a solid 9/10. The A6300 is a 9.5/10. Sony's one camera away from a perfect 10.

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