This is the camera streamers will be asking Santa for this Christmas

The new Sony A6700 is the firm's most advanced APS-C mirrorless camera yet, and it's the camera that streamers, vloggers and other content creators will be asking Santa for this Christmas. It's likely to feature prominently in our guide to the best mirrorless cameras once we've had the chance to put it through its paces.

The A6700 is the successor to the A6600, which we said was “packed with fantastic technology” including superb auto-focus, class-leading specifications and superior image quality. The new model is even more powerful, with features nabbed from more expensive cameras such as the A7R V and support for Sony’s Creators’ App for cloud sharing. Sony also promises to roll out a new version of its Camera Remote SDK this month for remote operation and settings adjustments.

What’s new in the Sony A6700?

The sensor here is a new, 26 megapixel BSI APS-C sensor with Bionz XR processing and a new AI processor. There’s now support for HEIF files and lossless compressed RAW, and the huge buffer means you can burst-shoot up to 1,000 JPEGs. The frame rate for 4K video has doubled to 60fps (120fps for 5x slo-mo or 120fps for 10x) and there’s S-Cinetone picture profiles for better cinematography.

Sound has been improved too. The A6700 is designed to be teamed with the new ECM-M1 shotgun mic, which has eight sound pickup modes including stereo.

Video should be smoother than before thanks to a new gyroscope for better stabilisation, a feature previously found in cameras such as the A7S III. And one of our bugbears about the existing model, its uncomfortable casing, has been addressed too.

There are some good accessibility features here too. The A6700 includes a built-in screen reader function that will read mess and video playback screens aloud to help more creators use the camera to its full potential.

This isn’t a camera for streaming newbies or for anyone on a tight budget: it’s starting at £1,450 for the body and the ECM-M1 mic is another £349. But it’s a serious camera for serious streamers, vloggers and other content creators who need a do-it-all camera for photos, videos and audio that doesn’t cut corners on any of those features.