sony a6000 - recommendations

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McCloud

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Hey,

I was looking into buying my first camera and was doing quite a lot of research.
I am not that new to photography, just never owned a camera myself.

My budget is quite limited, and I am not a professional so I decided to go with the mirrorless Sony a6000 (instead of the a7 for example).

I've managed to test it out with the stock lens (16-50mm).. the pictures were ok, but not great.
I think it's mostly the lens that's to blame ?

So I'd love some input from you guys..
First off, the body - if I understand correctly, there are only minor differences between full frame and crop sensor.. the ability to get a slightly better depth of field (blurred bg) on full frame - and the compatibility of lenses.
Although I am a bit confused with the E / F mounts ? If I want auto-focus, would I be limited to only Sony, crop sensor lenses ?


And the lens - I definitely want a 50mm.
Although the stock lens is very handy, it make a difference on the price.. so I thought about buying just the body + a 50mm lens.. and later on, maybe get a wider lens for all-around photos.

What do you recommend ?
Thanks
 
The A6000 is an excellent camera and still performs well above its' price. It's my only digital kit now and I covered the last wedding I shot this year with it alongside a D750. To answer your questions;

1) Full Frame sensors will give you a shallower depth of field (more out of focus) at equivalent aperture. For example, shooting at F4 on a FF sensor will give you more out of focus area than F4 on a crop sensor. Also, due to the sensor area being larger, FF sensors generally perform better in lower light and are better for wide angle as you don't apply the 1.5x 'crop' factor to a lens. In the opposite way, a crop sensor gives you more reach at the long end as a 300mm lens gives an equivalent field of view as a 450mm lens on FF (as the image is essentially cropped from the centre)

2) There are adaptors to allow you to auto-focus Canon lenses on Sony E mount bodies but the fastest AF will be with native Sony lenses.

3) You can mount Sony FE lenses (full frame) to an A6000 and get good results because you're using the centre of the glass but they are generally larger and heavier then E mount (crop) lenses.

4) The 16-50 kit lens is good when shot within its' limitaitons like all lenses. It's not a particularly fast aperture (3.5 at 16mm) so you won't get very shallow depth of field but if it's stopped down to F8-F11 it will deliver excellent sharpness across the frame. I also use mine for video and when I want to carry the smallest setup.

5) The Sony E mount 50mm 1.8 is a great lens which I use probably 90% of the time. it focuses quickly and is great in low light at 1.8 but 50mm is quite long on a crop body so shooting indoors can be challenging if you don't have a lot of room to move back.

6) For wide angle I always recommend the Samyang 12mm F2. The results from it are great and it's tiny on the A6000. I carried mine around Disney in Florida last year with the 16-50 in my pocket along with a couple of batteries and didn't know it was there!

This is an album of my shots from the A6K and 50/1.8 here

This is a mixed selection of shots from the A6K and various lenses here

These are some with the Samyang 12mm here
 
The 16-50 that is bundled with the A6000 is a reasonable lens, but certainly nothing special - other than it's diminutive size when powered down, making the A6000 a camera that fits in a coat pocket.
 
McCloud said:
Although I am a bit confused with the E / F mounts ? If I want auto-focus, would I be limited to only Sony, crop sensor lenses ?
Click to expand...
No, on 3 counts.
1. there are several 3rd party manufacturers who make lenses in native E-mount fit (e.g. Sigma makes nice, affordable 19, 30 & 60mm lenses for APS-C E-mount)
2. you can use adapters (of varying quality, features & price) to use non-E-mount e.g. Canon EF lenses on a Sony E-mount body
3. E-mount supports both FF (35mm) & crop image circles & the FF image circle is larger than an APS-C sensor anyway so you can happily use an FF lens on an APS-C E-mount body with 1 caveat - the image so created will give the perception (due to the edges being cropped) of having been taken by a longer lens compared to using that lens on a FF body e.g. using a 50mm FF lens on an A6000 (1.5 crop factor) will give an image similar to that taken using a 75mm lens on a FF body.
 
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I'd personally go with the sigma 30mm over the Sony 50mm. Cheap as chips and compact. Or a something similar from fuji like a xe2 with the 27mm f2.8.
 
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I had the Sigma 30 on my Nex5 and then the Sigma 60 on my A6K and the results are good but the AF is nowhere near as fast. Also, continuous AF (tracking) is much better on the Sony 50. Unless you really prefer the 30 or 60mm focal length I'd definitely recommend the Sony 50 when it's not much more expensive.
 
Note that the Sigma 2.8 lenses do not work properly with continuous AF on the A6000. It's not just a question of speed. The new 30mm/1.4 does work. But I have now given up on third party lenses.

The A6000 is cheap and can produce nice pictures, but the lack of matched lenses is a problem. I found the 16-50 to be unsatisfactory, but I may just have had a bad one. Most of the Sony lenses are poor, or are the full-frame FE ones that are unnecessarily big, heavy and expensive.

For me the main advantage of full-frame is better low light performance.
 
The kit lens is what it is, a small lightweight lens that covers all bases so it's never going to be world class. While they're missing a 2.8 constant zoom, the primes are fine and the 50/1.8 in particular is excellent.
 
Neil Pho said:
The A6000 is cheap and can produce nice pictures, but the lack of matched lenses is a problem. I found the 16-50 to be unsatisfactory, but I may just have had a bad one. Most of the Sony lenses are poor, or are the full-frame FE ones that are unnecessarily big, heavy and expensive.

For me the main advantage of full-frame is better low light performance.
Click to expand...

Bit sweeping that isn't it?

I've looked at the Sony A6xxx range several times and researched the lenses and from what I've seen and read some of the lenses are generally accepted to be excellent, some good and a few ho-hum but saying that most of the Sony lenses are poor just doesn't seem to ring true to me.

Regarding the FE lenses I suppose terms like big, heavy and expensive are up for debate but I'd say that the 28mm f2, 35mm f2.8 and the 50 and 55mm f1.8 primes (as that's what I'm mostly interested in) are all excellent, reasonably compact and reasonably priced considering that you're getting some excellent lenses.
 
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perfect, thanks guys for all the info! highly appreciated.

@rjbell
I assume you were addressing this one ?
(sorry for the german site, that's just where I was looking for all the lenses)

@stevelmx5
so much value in your post. Thank you.

If I am not mistaken, this is the only Sony E-mount 50mm lens, right ?

/edit:
So I just found out, there's the exact same lens for full frame, E mount as well.
I have the possibility to buy that for 220 euro, but I think I'll go with the crop sensor.. so it matches with my a6000.

I've heard split opinions on using a full frame lens on crop sensor camera...
 
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Yes, that's the E mount 50/1.8 I use. As you say, there is also an FE 50/1.8 (they're not the same lens, just the same spec) but unless you're planning on upgrading to an A7 in the future there's no benefit.
 
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McCloud said:
I've heard split opinions on using a full frame lens on crop sensor camera...
Click to expand...

I think that the main thing is that with FF lenses on APS-C you're paying for and carrying around glass that you can't use.

If the bulk, weight and cost of the FF lenses aren't issues then just judge them fairly against the APS-C alternatives. For example the FE 55mm f1.8 is excellent.
 
Also, watching that video, it's wrong straight away. The focal length on an FE and an E mount lens are the same. If you mount the 50 FE to an A6000, it's still a 50mm focal length but the crop factor gives an equivalent field of view of 75mm (because it crops the centre of the image).

Buying an FE 16-35 doesn't give you a 16mm field of view on the A6K, it would be 24-52 equivalent.

The only benefits to using FE glass on a crop body are;

1) Future proof for if you upgrade

2) Possibly sharper because you're only using the centre of the lens, assuming there isn't an equivalent E mount lens.

3) Focal lengths/lenses that aren't available in E mount like Batis etc

I haven't watched the rest of the video but I'd recommend buying E mount lenses for the A6K to gain the benefit of size, weight and cost.
 
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woof woof said:
Bit sweeping that isn't it?

I've looked at the Sony A6xxx range several times and researched the lenses and from what I've seen and read some of the lenses are generally accepted to be excellent, some good and a few ho-hum but saying that most of the Sony lenses are poor just doesn't seem to ring true to me.

Regarding the FE lenses I suppose terms like big, heavy and expensive are up for debate but I'd say that the 28mm f2, 35mm f2.8 and the 50 and 55mm f1.8 primes (as that's what I'm mostly interested in) are all excellent, reasonably compact and reasonably priced considering that you're getting some excellent lenses.
Click to expand...

I guess it is a bit sweeping, but I found it all rather depressing. If you look at this list most of the lenses are well into the bottom half of the scale for Sharpness and overall rating:

https://www.dxomark.com/best-lenses-for-sony-a6000-(942)-under-13000-dollars

Many of the top lenses are either FE, or third-party. The Sony lenses are wildly expensive when compared to the Sigmas. I am sure Sony could make sharp, small, affordable lenses if they wanted to.
 
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Have you actually shot with the Sony lenses rather than reading dxomark scores? Shooting in the real world is completely different to a scientific score in a lab. I was paid for a 2 page Gallery image printed in Digital Photo with my first Canon 400D and 18-55 kit lens so online scores don't always mean you won't get excellent results.
 
Actually, looking at those DxoMark scores, the E mount 50mm 1.8 has the same score (whatever that actually means) as the Zeiss Loxia 50, 1 higher than the Batis 25 and the Tuit 32 and 5 more than the G-Master 24-70!
 
There's nothing wrong with the kit lenses!

You'll probably be viewing on a PC or tablet anyway. How likely are you to print at 4' x 6'?

It's not about pixel peeping at 100%.
 
Sites like Dxomark make everyone into a pixel peeper when they should be out actually taking photographs!
 
timetraveller said:
What about old retro manual focus lens ?
Click to expand...
good point...
I kind of liked the look and feel of this one.. and the price. But I am not sure if I'd go with a manual focus lens as my very first one..

I was thinking about the Sigma (also compared in the video) but after all will go with the Sony native 50mm 1,8.
 
Olympus OM Zuiko lenses are excellent on mirrorless bodies. They're small, the adaptor (OM-NEX) is small and the 50/1.8 can be found for under £15 so cheap to try out.

You won't go wrong with the Sony E 50/1.8. It really is an excellent lens.
 
Sorry, with regards to legacy lenses, once you go wider than 28mm they start getting much more expensive. 35mm film cameras are obviously full frame so 19-24mm is basically an ultra wide lens hence more expensive.
 
stevelmx5 said:
Sorry, with regards to legacy lenses, once you go wider than 28mm they start getting much more expensive. 35mm film cameras are obviously full frame so 19-24mm is basically an ultra wide lens hence more expensive.
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Thanks, daft question but do you have a pic of the lens on the camera?
As an all rounder I'm rather liking the a6000 due to the video too.
 
Excuse the picture quality. Not great lighting but;

A6K with Sony E50/1.8

IMG_1479744353.302634.jpg

Samyang 12/2.0

IMG_1479744371.229484.jpg

Olympus OM Zuiko 50/3.5 Macro (similar size to the 50/1.8) with adaptor.

IMG_1479744395.097642.jpg

All three lenses plus the Sony 16-50 kit lens

IMG_1479744429.122872.jpg
 
Awesome stuff.

I've had the camera for a week now, was able to test it and play around the settings a lot... one thing that would be really interesting for me - is it somehow possible to shoot in low light with the AF Illuminator ON ?
I mean, that light would create some very nice shots - I wish that I could actually capture the image I see for a split second while focusing..
 
McCloud said:
perfect, thanks guys for all the info! highly appreciated.

@rjbell
I assume you were addressing this one ?
(sorry for the german site, that's just where I was looking for all the lenses)

@stevelmx5
so much value in your post. Thank you.

If I am not mistaken, this is the only Sony E-mount 50mm lens, right ?

/edit:
So I just found out, there's the exact same lens for full frame, E mount as well.
I have the possibility to buy that for 220 euro, but I think I'll go with the crop sensor.. so it matches with my a6000.

I've heard split opinions on using a full frame lens on crop sensor camera...
Click to expand...
No I was referring to the 30mm DN.
 
Just to add an example, I shot this last night at the Chester Zoo Lantern night. Sony A6K with the Samyang 12mm 1/100th @ F2 ISO1250;

IMG_1481960582.903786.jpg

My two are the boy the with the elf hat on the left and the girl looking up from underneath the emu :0)
 
Has anyone got any experience of the sigma 30mm 1.4? Dedicated native crop lenes at a very appealing focal range.
 
I use a Nikon D800 for my "serious" landscape photography but wanted a light travel option so went with the A6000. There are significant differences between a FF and a crop like the A6000 but I'll not go into them as you already have the crop so no point going off track.

I agree with comments that the dedicated E mount lens line-up is a little weak. Sony really should address this, but there are some decent options without going to the bulky FE lenses which for me don't make sense with the A6000 as it loses the weight/compact advantage I bought it for in the first place. If I was thinking FE lenses I'd just take the D800 & have the best of both worlds!

So E mount lenses I've settled on now are the 16-50 kit lens which came with the camera...not the best IQ but don't expect it to be as it's a kit lens but it can produce nice shots and it's size makes it perfect to carry around as a single lens solution in your coat pocket etc. In essence you have a very high quality compact camera to take anywhere.

I've recently bought the Zeiss 16-70F4, bulkier that the 16-50 but my copy is much better IQ wise, nice & sharp, lovely colour contrast in comparison... this lens does seem to have had some quality control issues though so if you read reviews on the web you'll find wildly differing opinions.....downside, it's expensive!

Wide option I have the 10-18F4 which is very good, really like this lens.

telephoto I have the 55-210...another kit lens but I think it performs above expectations. Not quick so iso needs pushing up in lowish light but for the money the lens does a pretty good job.

I also have the Sigma 19mm f2.8 for low light, very sharp, nice colour and doesn't cost much...not had any focusing issues but haven't tried it with tracking.


Just to summarise I think there are good lens options available in E mount, just your choice is very limited.

Simon
 
Neil Pho said:
I guess it is a bit sweeping, but I found it all rather depressing. If you look at this list most of the lenses are well into the bottom half of the scale for Sharpness and overall rating:

https://www.dxomark.com/best-lenses-for-sony-a6000-(942)-under-13000-dollars

Many of the top lenses are either FE, or third-party. The Sony lenses are wildly expensive when compared to the Sigmas. I am sure Sony could make sharp, small, affordable lenses if they wanted to.
Click to expand...

Bit late to this but as you quoted me... Almost anything is wildly expensive compared to the Sigmas.

As to the DXO table... I can honestly say that I never look at it when considering a lens. I look at the focal length, aperture range and price and after that I have a few blogs I like to refer to as personally I prefer to read someones opinion rather than a spec sheet.

I've looked at the A6xxx a few times but for various reasons at the moment it's not for me and one of those reasons is the lack of a compact 24mm f1.8. The one they have is generally thought to be excellent but it looks a bit chunky to fit with my expectations.
 
si019 said:
Has anyone got any experience of the sigma 30mm 1.4? Dedicated native crop lenes at a very appealing focal range.
Click to expand...

I just got one today and it's crazy sharp even wide open which i really didn't expect from Sigma and combined with using the A6000 auto eye focus it's easy to get perfect eye sharpness at 1.4. Focusing is just as quick as my Sony 50mm.

As for manual lenses, the A6000 has great focus peaking features so it's very easy to manually focus.
 
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