I’ve never wanted a big camera, but that all changed this Thanksgiving.

Once I carefully snap a photo, I don’t want to think. I want my fullsize, original photo to be organized and backed up by computers. I don’t want to deal with files on memory cards when technology can quickly replace all that manual labor.

So, I bought a Sony a6000.

After 3 years with a Nexus 4, Google auto-upload, and the semi-new Google Photos, I realized that a DSLR-quality camera was the missing link in an otherwise ideal photo setup. Google Photos provides an absolutely fantastic web UI and dead simple date-based photo organization. The big deal with the a6000 is that it syncs photos to your smartphone with hardly any fidgeting.

Snap a photo, sync to smartphone, whisk off to Google Photos? Not so fast, there’s of course a catch. While the final solution is great, getting there with the camera is anything but easy.

In order to set up the camera to sync to your smartphone, you have to register on Sony’s “Playstation Network,” then sign in to “playmemoriescameraapps.com.” That’s one shitty domain. And they’re going to mix photographers with their “Playstation Network”? That’s a fail, bigtime, Sony.

Then, things get really fun because you actually have to use Internet Explorer with a .msi helper program while the a6000 is USB’d in to actually use “playmemoriescameraapps.com.” By far, that is the worst negative about the camera. (https://twitter.com/mcnelsn/status/670476456280137729)

Despite the unfortunate Microsofty requirement, once you get their “Sync to Smartphone” app installed, you can put your Windows machine back in storage as it’s just a bit more menu navigating to register a smartphone and begin syncing.

The final product is a robust camera that automatically pushes your hi-res photos straight to a reasonably priced photo storage web-app with a beautiful web UI. I’ll take it.

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