You can easily make a custom tone curve and color profile thats applied to your RAW files with Lightroom. Its a different workflow but I like to know I can tweak my negatives ten years from now when my ability to process has progressed. And thats usually my workflow, a tone curve that accentuates what I wanted to achieve with the scene.
But Fuji does do some special stuff with their JPEG engine.
I do need to get better at exploring the built in options for processing the photos, at least as a starting point. I don't even know what most of them are. :x
You're definitely correct that the lens is a very important aspect. I would say that this was more true before digital where you could buy a really cheap body and pair it with a really nice lens and it would take as great a photo so long as you put decent quality film inside.
But digital has complicated things. Yes, the photo will look as nice as on a 6500 but the latter will have better low light capability, IBIS, etc... whether this is important to you is up to you. That's why it's great to have choice. (And heck, I would even still recommend the a6000 to anyone getting started. It's a great camera which is much cheaper than the 6500)
In any case Fuji and Sony have great systems and either will take awesome photos.
Yeah, that's my biggest annoyance with digital cameras, and I say this as a person that started with digital -- new body? Your body sucks.
I'm not sure I understand why brands dictate IQ, when lenses are the biggest factor. The body determines the ergonomics, weight, water resistance, price, video and burst rate.
I can take better quality images on a cheap Fuji XE1 (which is 1/10th of the price of), with a premium lens, than the a6500 with a similar lens.
Sony's sensor is better -- the JPEG engine in Fuji might be awesome, but the raw sensor in Sony is better. This is mainly a plus if you disregard native lenses -- something most people won't do, but the A7 series is sorta well known for buying for vintage lenses, so it's not unheard of. Putting a vintage lens on a Sony body will get you better results than putting it on a Fuji (Although I've heard Fuji allows you to make lens profiles which saves custom EXIF data to the photos, WHICH WOULD BE NICE).
The a6500 is new, but with Sony you still feel like there is a new camera around the corner. IBIS is not as good as in the Panasonic and Olympus cameras because even if the sensor is m4/3 in those, the body of the 6500 is smaller. Sony just needs to make a camera with the specs of the a6500, but without such a tiny body.
Between the a6000 and a6300, it wasn't too bad, but then of course the a6500 came and shat on that parade. Word is that the a6300 was delayed and for some freaking reason they didn't just wait a bit longer to release the a6500 and skip the other entirely. :/
And it's mainly a problem if you look at their A7 series as being "one" camera. If you see how they release the A7, A7r, A7s, A7II, A7RII, A7SII, yeah it's a problem, but if you look at A7, A7II, well the A7 was released four years ago. That's a quicker turn over rate than Canon or Nikon, yeah, but if you think of the A7 series all being different, well, series, then it makes a lot more sense. ("Standard" full frame, "Stupid high res FF", "Low light video FF")
If you count the Sony DSLR Alpha line and Pentax DSLRs, there are other APSC cameras with IBIS.
The IBIS itself in the A6500 is competent, but nothing earth-shattering or class-leading.
You're right, there are DSLRs with IBIS.
Was thinking APSC, Mirrorless.
As for it being "competent", we should keep in mind that APSC is a larger sensor to move around than a 4/3rds sensor, and they kept the same body size as the A6000 (something the A7 series can't say, with their only "2 stop" IBIS).
In other news, I'll be returning the 50mm 1.8 -- not as any indication of its quality (early tests look quite good), but just have other things that could use $250 before it. But, I'm confident I'll pick it up again later down the road (unless that Samyang 1.4 50mm draws my attention.)