I'm between purchasing a Nikon D5600 and a Sony a6300. I have seen both but I'm stuck on which is better for photography. Any thoughts?

Photography- Nikon or Sony

For photography, my go to is Nikon, or Minolta. For electronics (stereo etc.) Sony.

"which is better for photography"? What else are they good for?

Either one is perfectly acceptable for photography. How your images turn out depends more on your skills as a photographer, not the camera. I can take horrible pictures with expensive gear, yet a seasoned photographer could create wonderful images with lesser equipment.

You have a number of things to condsider.

Look at the breadth of accessories for both companies. You'll probably find that Nikon has a wider selection of lenses, and also from the non-Nikon manufacturers. Radio links for speedlights usually only support Nikon and Canon products if you want TTL.

If size of the body is important, then Sony wins. However, the A6300 is a mirrorless body which means battery life will be shorter, around 400 shots for the A6300, apx 1000 shots for the D5600 per battery charge. I do trips in to the bush for a few weeks on end where battery life and management is important. This may not be an issue for you.

There's consideration of EVF on the A6300 or optical viewfinder on the D5600. Both have their advantages, but for me, I would rather use optical. It's up to what you prefer.

If you want to shoot wildlife, Nikon has the 200-500mm lens. This is a well performing lens at a very good price point. That would seal the deal for me, but, you might not care about long lenses.

Neither is better for "photography" as you stated. You need to be much more specific in the types of photos that you want to do. Both are good for general types of photography such as landscapes, macro, portraits. One will be better for certain types, however.

For low-light photos, the A6300 is better since it has an EVF with focus peaking.

The Sony shoots 4K videos while the D5600 does not. The Sony also has better features and performance for making videos. However, neither models would be recommended for those who primarily make videos for various reasons.

Sony has a huge advantage in that it can be used with any lens by any brand via lens adapters.

You can adapt much fewer lenses to Nikon DSLRs because their bodies have too long of a distance between the lens flange and the sensor. This is why you can adapt Nikon lenses to fit Canon bodies, but you can't use Canon lenses on Nikon bodies.

Nikon lenses focus backwards compared to every single other brand on the planet. So if you plan on using various brands of lenses and you like to manually focus, you will find it annoying to do so.

Nikon DSLRs make much more noise when taking photos because of the mirror. If you need to be super quiet at times, go with a mirrorless.

The Nikon D5600 can shoot only 8 RAW or 100 JEPGs at 5 fps before its internal buffer becomes full.
The Sony A6300 can shoot 12 RAW frames at 11 fps before its buffer is full. This is a bit of a problem for sports shooters because you need both fast focusing (Nikon wins) and a fast frame rate with a large buffer (sony wins). So if you want to do sports, I would suggest going with something else, but the Nikon would probably be better only because it's more important to get shots in focus than shooting a lot more shots that out of focus, which is what you'd experience with the A6300. Again, you won't have this issue with higher-end Sony models like the A9.

For me, the smaller size of Sony mirrorless plus the ability to use any lens make the Sony my perferred choice. If I were to buy a new camera now, it would definitely be a mirrorless.

The Nikon is physically bigger which means it's going to be more comfortable to use with large lenses like a 300mm f/2.8 or 400 f/4. Using such long and heavy lenses with a mirrorless can be awkward, but most models have optional grips available which pretty much makes this a moot point.

For outdoor photographers, the Sony is the best option because it is weather sealed and the D5300 is not.

For travel photography, the Sony is the better option because of it's smaller and lighter form factor and it's weather proof.

Down side to the A6300 is its battery sucks. If you travel with it, you will need 3 spare batteries.

For performance specs on the Sony, go to

For performance specs on the Nikon, go to

The two manufacturers approach the technical aspects of camera use in different ways, as also do Canon and Pentax. Photography is the use of a camera to make pleasing images, or images which tell a story in some way or another. Those uses require thought by the photographer, and the brand of camera is a minor matter once the technical aspects have been mastered.

Personally, I have two dislikes: (a) using 3rd brand lenses (I learned my lesson the hard way), and (b) lens adapters. But that's just ME. My reasons are based more on common sense than practice but I stick to the same brand of lenses as my cameras because of a personal experience. I've yet to meet an experienced, long-time professional photographer that uses 3rd brand name lenses or lenses with adapters.

Nikon, better choice of lenses and even the older lenses still fit.

No