With the ever-growing popularity of the Sony A6000, third-party accessory companies all over the world have been putting out some fantastic gear for this camera. From cases to straps, I want to share some of the best accessories I use every day for my cameras that will work great for this camera and now the A6300 and A6500.
Quite a few things have changed on the A6300 since the A6000. The camera overall has been redesigned to be a mini super 35mm 4k monsters. The body is a bit more ridged since it is now composed of magnesium alloy and there are some new changes to the overall dimensions, however most of the accessories, like batteries and screen protectors are still interchangeable. The only thing that’s not are body cases.
I’ll be collecting more accessories and gear for my A6300, but for now I’ll list some of the best and most essential accessories I’ve found and that also work great on the A6000.
Sony A6000 / A6300 / A6500 Accessories And Gear
Starting with the fundamentals, there are so many brands of batteries and screen protectors, it can be very challenging to know whom to trust.
I’ve tested a few batteries and I’ve gone through a ton of screen protectors, so I’ll share with you the brands I’ve found that can be trusted.
Sony A6000 / A6300 / A6500 Screen Protectors
The A6000, A6300 and A6500 share the same size screen so any screen that you find for the A6000 will also work for the A6300 and the A6500.
The most important accessory every A6000, A6300 and A6500 owner should have is a screen protector. Sony has yet to put a great screen on any of their cameras ( in terms of glass ), so they seem to get beat up very easily. The main issue is the little bubbles that seem to appear under the glass as the camera is bumped around over the months and years of normal use, I’ve found screen protectors help alleviate this.
Expert Shield has been my favorite, although I also really like the Sony semi-hard screen. It’s slightly thicker and provides a little more ding protection.
- Expert Shield Screen Protector Crystal Clear – Amazon
- Expert Shield Screen Protector Anti-Glare – Amazon
- Sony Screen Semi-Hard Protector – Amazon
Best Battery For The Sony A6000 / A6300 / A6500
Third party batteries have come a long way over the years. I would say some brands like Wasabi put out batteries that are close or as good as the Sony brand batteries.
Avoid charging your batteries with the cheap wasabi (or other cheap brand) chargers. They can mess up your batteries and cause random power losses while shooting.
There are two types of batteries I’ve found Sony to make, Chinese made and Japanese made. The Japanese batteries are heavier and last longer but I haven’t been able to find them anymore and they no longer ship with Sony cameras. So the best battery for the Sony A6000 was the Japanese Sony battery (I guess discontinued). The Chinese version is also very good as is the Wasabi.
Lately I’ve been using a few different battery accessories by RavPower. I have their Sony Batteries and charger and their charging 22000mAh charging bank. What’s cool about their battery charger is you can charge it via USB with the charging bank or with a Solar charger. I’m not sure if it will present any problems with charging batteries regularly like the Wasabi charger. At least I haven’t seen anything yet.
- RavPower Batteries and Charger – Amazon
The battery bank and solar I use are the RavPower Type-C / USB-C charging bank with QC (quick charge) 3.0 and the iNice 28W solar charger with QC 3.0. It’s all a very cool and useful combo. I can’t tell you how many times the power bank has saved me.
Memory Card For The Sony A6000 / A6300 / A6500
Sony Memory Card Speed Tests
I’ve put the Sony A6000 cameras through the memory card speed tests. They all perform about the same except the A6500 has a huge buffer.
- Best Memory Cards For The Sony A6000
- Best Memory Cards for The Sony A6300
- Best Memory Cards for The Sony A6500
Memory cards can be tricky for Sony cameras because of the restrictions the Video Codec has. As a quick summary, most cards work great for this camera as long as they are SDXC cards. Meaning they need to be 64GB or larger. There have been some firmware changes that allow for 4k compatibility with SDHC card, so check your camera and make sure it’s updated.
Check the links above, but otherwise here is a short list of cards that have been consistently giving people good results.
- Sony 64GB SDXC UHS-I U3 – Amazon
- Sandisk Extreme Pro 64GB UHS-I U3 – Amazon
- Lexar 633x 64GB SDXC UHS-I U3 – Amazon
Memory Cards You Need For 4K video – A6300 / A6500 Only
To shoot 4k 100M you need a memory card that is U3 compatible. Any of the three memory cards above should work, but you should probably grab the Sony cards first. I’ve yet to hear of anyone having any issues with them yet.
The only problem I’m seeing right now is with my Samsung cards. Most of them do not work in the Sony cameras for 4k video.
Sony A6000 Cases
I still like to put all my cameras in some form of a case. It adds a little weight but just helps them last longer. I personally like Gariz because they work well with a tripod because of the metal base. Otherwise Kaza Deluxe makes my favorite case combo.
Sony Leather-Like Protective Case A6000 – Amazon
Gariz Leather Half Cases A6000 – Amazon Other Options – Amazon
Kaza Deluxe Vintage Combo A6000 – Kaza-Deluxe.com
Sony A6300 & A6500 Cases
The body has changed slightly between these cameras, so the A6000 cases will not for the A6300, but the A6300 and the A6500 are compatible.
- Gariz Leather Half Case A6300 / A6500 – Amazon
- Kaza-Deluxe Leather Case Sony A6300 / A6500 – Kaza-Deluxe
The body on the A6500 and the A6300 are the same.
Thumb Grips
I haven’t really felt the need for a thumbgrip on this camera, but some people do like them. They provide you with extra grip of the camera and sort of help keep your thumb off the buttons. Lensmate really makes the only thumbgrip I’ve ever liked.
Battery Grip
There is a new Meike Battery grip available for the Sony A6300 that comes with a remote.
- Meike Mk-A6300 – Amazon
This does not work on the Sony A6500 although one is supposed to come out soon.
Flash Diffuser
The flash on the A6300 and A6000 is a nice feature but it tends to generate too harsh of light. I recently purchased these diffusers designed for the A6000 and they also work for the A6300. They work surprisingly well when used indoors. My favorite in the kit is the clear one, it seems to work the best.
- A6000 / A6300 / A6500 Flash Diffuser – Amazon
Camera Straps
Wrist Straps
The Sony A6000, A6300 and A6500 are the right size to work great with a wrist strap, but you can also use a full strap. If you’re traveling around you might want a nice full strap just to let it hang, but if you use the camera as sort of sidekick / around the house type camera, wrist straps work great.
Here are the wrist straps I’ve really liked over the years.
And I’m not affiliated with Gordy’s or Hard Graft. I just like their gear.
- Gariz Leather Wrist Strap – Amazon
- Gordy’s Wrist Strap – Gordyscamerastraps.com
- Hard Graft Slide Camera Wrist Strap – HardGraft.com – See Review
Full Straps
I personally have fallen in love with leather straps. Here is a list of some of the most popular leathers straps.
I don’t make any profit off these links. Hard Graft sends me stuff from time to time but that’s it. I’m listing these because these I’ve personally used straps from these companies and trust the quality.
Leather Straps
Leicatime Deluxe Strap
This site is Legit, I promise. I have the Deluxe strap which as very soft leather and has an amazing handmade quality.
HardGraft Leather
These guys make all sorts of great premium leather products. They seem to be discontinuing a lot of their camera accessories though.
Tap&Dye
Great straps, many with a more raw harder leather, but some with softer leather as well.
Non-Leather Straps
If you like straps that connect to the bottom of the cameras for a quick release, then C-Loop and Black Rapid make some nice stuff. C-Loop just put out a new strap that I haven’t tried yet but I’ll list it because it looks a lot more suited for the A6000 compared to their other straps.
Strap Accessories
If you’re looking to connect your strap to the bottom of your camera then C-Loop makes a few options as well as Black Rapid.
Software
Aside from using the traditional Lightroom and Photoshop combo, if you’re a landscape, travel or HDR photography I highly recommend checking my Aurora HDR review.
It’s made my post processing workflow way faster and less of a chore.
Cleaning Supplies
There are a few cleaning supplies everyone should consider having. Air blowers, micro fiber wipes and a sensor brush.
99% of time if you’re sensor gets dirty you should use an air blower to clean it. If you find that a piece of dust is stuck to your sensor then I really have had great success with a sensor brush. I wouldn’t use anything else. Those are the “dry methods” for cleaning your sensor. I wouldn’t recommend using the wet method unless you’ve really done something bad to your sensor, like tried to blow dust off it with your mouth and got spit on it. I’ve done that and if that’s the case, you can get it cleaned at a camera store or for a similar price, buy all the supplies to do the wet cleaning method.
I buy Micro Fiber cleaning cloths in bulk now because they always get dirty and need to be replaced. It’s also nice to just grab a fresh cloth to clean your lenses.
Lenses And Adapters
A list of all the available APS-C lenses and Lens Adapters designed for the Sony E-Mount – Sony APS-C E-Mount Lens List
Lens Adapters
I’ve listed a few of the best lens adapters here, but I recommend checking out the E-Mount lens list above.
Canon
For Canon I was using the Metabones for a long time but it slowly began to diminish to the point where it would only work on manual lenses. I could have sent it in for repair but the shipping to Asia alone would have cost at least $50 dollars.
Now I use the Fotodiox. For a fraction of the price the Fotodiox is just as good in my opinion. And considering Metabones only has a 1 year limited warranty that does not include shipping fees, you might be better off with the Fotodiox.
Nikon
I don’t use Nikon lenses but my friend does. He has the Fotodiox on his A7sII, I messed with it for a while and it seemed very solid and well-built, no play. He also has zero complaints.
Leica
I love using my Leica mount lenses on my Sony cameras. Just keep in mind that they are full manual and your 35mm lens will have the field of view of 50mm with the A6000 APS-C sensor.
There are a few adapter options, I personally use the Voigtlander and love it. Novoflex makes some really high-end stuff, but it might be overkill for this.
There are also adapters with close focus controls. Many Leica and Voigtlander lenses have pretty bad minimum focus distances, so having a close focus adapter that can extend might come in handy.
- Voigtlander M to E-Mount Adapter – Amazon
- Voigtlander M to E-Mount Close Focus Adapter – Amazon
- Novoflex M to E-Mount Adapter – Amazon
- Fotodiox M to E-Mount Adapter – Amazon
Carrying Cases
I’m still working on testing out more carrying cases. I just can’t seem to find a lot that I really like. I’ve used a lot of Lowepro bags and backpacks, and they do work great but just aren’t that cool. I actually still use two Lowepro backpacks. But for smaller carrying bags I really like my Mirrorless Mover 20. It’s pretty much perfect for a small camera like this. You can fit the camera and maybe one or two small lenses.
For higher end bags, Ona makes some great stuff as well as HardGraft.
Mirrorless Mover 20
They have other sizes as well, but I love this bag for light travel.
LowePro Fastpack 250
This is my primary bring around town bag because it holds a lap top as well as a few lenses.
They’ve changed the style on this bag a few times now. I’ve had two of the three styles that I’ve seen. On my old one, the zipper for the laptop eventually broke so I upgraded. The main difference is, they moved the laptop insert pouch from the side to the top.
LowePro Vertex 200 AW Backpack
This is the backpack I use as my adventure bag. It’s big and heavy but holds all my stuff. It’s also all-weather. I only wish it was lighter, but it’s a great bag.
Calibration And Color
I almost never talk about color calibration, but I really should and I encourage you to seriously consider it. It’s a game changer and an absolutely must have item for any photographer that’s halfway serious. Even if you don’t have great monitors, it does wonders.
I’ve used two color calibrators. The Spyder, and the i1 Pro.
I personally like the i1 Pro more, it’s a little faster and a little easier to use, however, they both produce very good results. At my work I use the Spyder3Elite at home I use the i1 Pro. The i1 Pro was producing more consistent results between various monitors, but again I am using the older Spyder 3. The new Spyder5 has had some major improvements.
X-Rite i1 Display Pro
There are a few bundles, and a few other options. This is the basic version. I bought the one that comes with the color checker passport that I was using to help me with lens review and other tech stuff like that. It’s also handy if you’re shooting something like wedding with two different cameras, or by two different brands. You probably don’t need the passport color checker unless you know you need it. If that makes sense.
Datacolor Spyder5Pro
They have a few types, the Pro, Elite, and Express. But the difference is actually just in the software. Some allow you to calibrate your whole studio to match ambient light; express is geared more towards home use with simple color correction. The Pro model is probably your best choice if you’re serious about your colors. Otherwise if you just like to shoot for fun and want to make sure your monitor is properly balanced, the Express will be fine. I personally would use the Pro.
A6000 / A6300 / A6500 Accessories | Conclusions
This is a basic list of some of the best accessories I’ve found that I trust. I’m always testing new gear, new cameras and new technology and I’ll continue to update these lists with the best stuff.
If you’ve found something you really like that you feel like it will make shooting with the A6000 a better experience for other photographers, please let me know.
Many of these links are affiliate Amazon links but also many are not. If something is good, I’ll list it even if I don’t get a commission. Ultimately, I want to make these lists the best, most complete lists of great accessories that make shopping for photographers a much easier and better experience and I will continue to expand the technology that powers this site to make things cleaner, simpler and faster. But it all takes time and money so buying your next accessory though one of these links does help me a lot.
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I am a professional commercial / trailer editor, blogger and landscape photographer based out of Los Angeles CA.