Sony A6000 vs A6300 vs A6400?

[JDubs09]

I'm predominately shooting wide angle pelagic life around 60-110 ft:

1. Is there a significant difference in the AF when I'm that deep with limited ambient light?
2. Sometimes I want to zoom in on something a bit further away, maybe 50-100 ft away, is that just too far to shoot underwater at that depth and expect your lens to be able to AF?
3. What are the best underwater settings for the A6xxx series?

 

[hilljo88]

50 feet is pretty far for most subjects, IMO

 

[bvanant]

100 ft away is too far, 50 is also pretty far but if you are using a wide angle lens (presumably) set it to infinity focus and all will be well.
Bill

 

[BAMA6977]

Please excuse Novice wanna be a photographer question: SONY SEL 16F28 is a wide angle lens?? So set camera to infinity focus, correct?

 

[Barmaglot]

At fifty feet, it doesn't really matter how well the camera focuses; water will make your photo look like mush anyway. At a hundred feet, you can leave the lens cap on and it won't make any difference.

As an example, this was shot with a Sony A6300 with 10-18mm lens at 18mm, from maybe 30-40 feet away:

You can kind of tell it's a manta, if you look real hard, but missing focus wouldn't make this photo look worse than it already does - nothing could, really.

10-18mm and 16-50mm lenses on A6300 focus pretty much instantly; I don't have any personal experience with A6000 or A6400 to compare though. The only other lens that I used with it underwater has been the Sony 90mm macro, and that one can take a few seconds, but I suppose that's limited by all the heavy glass that it needs to move inside the lens barrel.

 

[peterak]

I'd go for the 6400 for its ultra-fast focusing and subject tracking. For settings, I'd consult any of the good on line tutorials. Several UW photography vendor's site have good info. Try Mozaik (housingcamera.com), Bluewater Photo, Oceanoptical, Backscatter.

As others have said. trying to shoot subjects at or beyond fifty feet distant is pretty much futile.