Why analyze the mileage of SONY NEX-6 before making a deal?

The SONY NEX-6 mirrorless camera has occupied a very interesting niche - it has become the “enthusiast’s choice”, a kind of bridge between the amateur 5-series and the premium “seven”. The presence of an electronic viewfinder, a comfortable grip and a standard hot shoe attracted the attention of very advanced photographers. This means that such cameras were not bought to gather dust on a shelf.

Advanced users shoot a lot and often. They use burst shooting and experiment with flashes and studio lighting. Therefore, the NEX-6 on the secondary market is always a mystery. If the device has been used by a keen portrait or street photographer, the mechanical parts may be very worn, even if the body looks neat.

Valve block viability assessment

Inside the NEX-6 there is a 16.1 megapixel sensor, and the mechanical shutter allows you to reach speeds of up to 10 frames per second. This is a very serious load on miniature parts. The shutter design itself is very successful and served as a prototype for the future legendary A6000 series.

The service life of this mechanic, confirmed by service statistics, usually exceeds 100,000 frames. If you come across a copy with 30-40 thousand operating hours, you can safely take it, there are still many years of work ahead. However, buying a car with more than 120 thousand mileage means you risk getting a “Camera Error” due to jammed curtains on your next vacation.

Reading the EXIF ​​system log without going to the service

The uniqueness of Sony's architecture is that you do not need to pay specialists for mileage diagnostics. The moment you press the shutter button, the camera electronics not only generates an image, but also updates the system log. The total number of operations is instantly included in the structure of the saved image file.

This setting is part of the EXIF ​​standard, but is hidden in a manufacturer-specific section of MakerNotes, so regular Windows Explorer doesn't see it. But this figure is there, and it is concrete proof of the intensity of the camera’s use.