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Seond lense recommendation for island travel


chris6500
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All,

 

I have recently purchased an a6500 with the Sony 18-105 mm OSS lense.  I will be using the camera 70% for travel, and the rest family photography.  For an upcoming trip to Fiji I am looking for a second lense to take on the trip.  I will primarily be using the camera for shooting landscapes of the rainforest, lagoons, resort where I am staying, pic of my wife and I, and some local villages which I will visit.  I made a short list of lenses that may work, but I really can use some guidance from some of the experts here.  I am an amateur photographer, and only have a couple years experience shooting with decent cameras.

 

1. Sony 10-18 mm OSS.  I think this lense but it is also very expensive

2. Sony 35 mm f/1.8 OSS.  Good optics and I could possibly "walk zoom."  It is compact and only 60% the cost of option 1.  But there are probably pros and cons I could use advice on.

3. Rokinon 12 mm.  Good optics and lower cost, but no autofocus so I'm afraid of missing shots.  Also no camera distortion correction profiles or lense stabilization, but the later may matter less with the 6500.

4. Sony 20 mm f/2.8 pancake lense

 

Please help!

 

Chris

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Unless you frequently fail to bring your zoom-equipt

camera, as too burdensome for your activities, I see

no photographic benefit of the pancake 20. It may be 

"loveable", but if you don't tend to leave your camera 

behind very often, the pancake is just a solution to a  

problem that you don't happen to have. 

   

35/1.8 or another fast prime ? Do your travel images 

include a lotta night scenes or interiors ? If so, you'll 

prolly get pix you otherwise would NOT have gotten if 

all you had was a zoom ... allowing only OSS primes, 

cuz without OSS, the primes are less capable than an 

OSS f/4.0 zoom in low light. 

   

12mm ? It's a gee-whiz toy. You WILL get a reliable 

"gee-whiz" when you show your shots ... but so what. 

12mm is not extreme for APS-C, and it doesn't cost 

an arm and a leg. Don't sweat the manual operation. 

It's a viable option.  

   

10-18 zoom ? Got OSS thaz lacking on the 12 [above] 

and an even greater gee-whiz factor at 10mm. Please   

forgive my attitude that anyone who can afford all the 

destinations/subjects that you mention is somebody in 

no position to complain about the price of the 10-18. I 

suggest you'd regret NOT buying it ... waaaaay more

than you'd ever miss the sheckels. Buy it. Enjoy. And 

if I'm sorely off-base about affordability ... get the 12 :-)  

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Guest Jaf-Photo

I agree that the 10-18mm lens is the best option. It will extend the field of view and allow you to frame scenes that you can't get with the zoom lens.

 

When you're on organised trips, you're often restricted in time and space, so being able to frame a shot from where you are is very useful.

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A somewhat minor adjustment to advice I offered 

in post #2. Not too much to adjust, but I placed too 

much value on OSS lenses ... failing to consider 

that an a6500 has IBIS.  

   

Supposedly, OSS and IBIS can team up and offer 

more IS than either can by itself. Sounds like some 

benefit there ... but since an a6500 has its own IS, 

then OSS [or lack of it] is clearly less of a deciding 

factor in choosing a lens.   

    

------------------------------------------------------------

   

Owning a 6500 rather than a 6000/6300 is spozed 

to offer you a wider, easier choice of lenses, in that 

no lens need be ruled out for lacking OSS. If I had 

your kit and was considering a new wide angle, I'd 

be very drawn to the 12mm and let the IBIS provide 

all the IS that may occasionally be helpful. But cuz I 

use a 6000 rather than a 6500, I personally would 

spend for the 10-18 cuz it brings OSS and so I can 

avoid replacing my 6000 for its lack of IBIS. But you 

expressed hesitation about the manual nature of the 

12mm. Manual operation is 2nd nature to me, so I'd  

favor the 12mm, *IF* my camera had IBIS ... which

it does not :-(   

   

So AFTER your travels, you can learn and practice 

the "art" of manual lenses, and get the 12, and sell 

your 10-18 OSS to ME :-) 

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Guest Jaf-Photo

Well, I still support the 10-18 anyway. At the lower end, each millimeter of focal length makes a clear difference in the field of view. Zooming between 10 and 18 mm therefore gives you a large variety of shots to take. Furthermore, it's only when you get down to 10mm that the field of view is really wide on an APS-C camera.

 

For wide lenses, image stabilisation, becomes a factor mainly when you are shooting interiors. For outdoor shooting, you should have enough light for handheld shots without stabilisation. (In my book, IBIS lowers pixel sharpness while OSS increases pixel sharpness, so if you can rely on OSS alone, that is a good thing.)

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Update:

 

This is for a Honeymoon adventure and who knows when or if I'll get there again, so I bit the bullet on a 10-18 mm F4 so I have less chance of missing a shot.  It was really expensive for me and more than I had ever planned to spend on a camera, but its a honeymoon...

 

Thanks everyone for your advice.

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Guest Jaf-Photo

Well, congratulations and enjoy the trip! Buying good optics is a wise investment. You get better photos and you can always recover a chunk of the money by selling it on later.

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Although pricey for me right now, the glass seems to hold its value more than the camera body, and I figure I can re-use them on a future camera model with E-mount lenses - provided I master my skills to warrant an upgrade.  Thanks for all the advice!

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I did consider 10-18 for my A6500 as well, but it couldn't even match sharpness of Panasonic's 7-14mm on 16 mpix body, so I passed. I definitely recommend Sigma 19mm F2.8 DN, at F5.6 the sharpness is basically indistinguishable from Sigma 18-35 which is the sharpest APS-C lens at that focal length. It is also quite cheap. 

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I did consider 10-18 for my A6500 as well, but it couldn't even match

sharpness of Panasonic's 7-14mm on 16 mpix body, so I passed. I

definitely recommend Sigma 19mm F2.8 DN, at F5.6 the sharpness

is basically indistinguishable from Sigma 18-35 which is the sharpest

APS-C lens at that focal length. It is also quite cheap. 

  

I wouldn't let all that stuff haunt your honeymoon ! I'm sure 

your 10-18 is much better than mine, which is more or less 

a kit lens [4.5-5.6, plastic bayonet, etc] but the pix are great. 

For well under $200, it punches waaaay over its weight :-) 

Your Sony is definitely superior to it.  

  

Sharpness is extremely over rated ... NOT joking. It's kinda 

like horsepower. Seriously too little is bad, but enuf is enuf, 

and beyond that is basically BS. 

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Guest Jaf-Photo

I did consider 10-18 for my A6500 as well, but it couldn't even match sharpness of Panasonic's 7-14mm on 16 mpix body, so I passed. I definitely recommend Sigma 19mm F2.8 DN, at F5.6 the sharpness is basically indistinguishable from Sigma 18-35 which is the sharpest APS-C lens at that focal length. It is also quite cheap.

 

The Sigma 19/2.8 is a good value lens. But it is not very wide on APS-C and it is not a zoom. So, it does not have the same functionality as the 10-18. The Sony zoom produces very good images, which is what matters.

 

I have the 19/2.8 but I don't use it much. Because it's not wide enough, I used it mainly as a close-focus normal lens. Then you get issues with distortion, so it's been gathering dust for years now.

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19mm (28mm FF eqv.) is the focal length that I use the most, so that is not a problem for me, but versatility of course isn't comparable with zoom lenses. But I cannot agree that "The Sony zoom produces very good images". I would say that it produces decent images, worse than competition, despite being the most expensive APS-C ultra wide lens (to my knowledge.)

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Guest Jaf-Photo

That is a matter of opinion. 

 

Everything is a matter of opinion. You seem to put great stock in sharpness, to the extent that you buy an expensive Sony camera but no Sony lenses, because they don't fulfil your criteria for sharpness? I personally would never buy the A6500 to use with the lenses you list in your signature. Furthermore, you seem to be primarily a video shooter not a stills shooter. You're also spreading yourself thin by running three low- to mid-range systems side by side. You would do better to sell them off and focus your investments in one high-end system. That's my opinion.

 

With regard to sharpness, it is exactly like Username says. Once you reach a level of sharpness where the pictures are not visibly soft, it doesn't matter anymore. What matters more are colours, contrast, control of distortion, vignetting and CA. All Sony lenses (except the cheaper FE lenses) aim to strike a balance between all the factors that determine how a picture looks.

 

Just look up some galleries for the Sony E 10-18 on flickr, like https://www.flickr.com/groups/2158077@N22/pool/. They are full of good-looking photos. Not bad at all for a small and versatile native lens.

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I personally would never buy the A6500 to use with the lenses you list in your signature. Furthermore, you seem to be primarily a video shooter not a stills shooter. You're also spreading yourself thin by running three low- to mid-range systems side by side. You would do better to sell them off and focus your investments in one high-end system. That's my opinion.

Thanks for letting me know, although I'm not sure how is it relevant to this topic and also thanks for the critique of my equipment, but I have my reasons why I use what I use, and I'm very happy with my current setup, I will consider buying A7R II successor, but I will also keep majority of my current gear.

 

With every lens I evaluate size, weight, focal range, build quality, max. aperture, controls, sharpness, vignetting, distortion, CA and price. There is always certain degree of sharpness that I demand from every lens and that is determined by other factors. As you said not many Sony lenses fulfill my demands for sharpness, especially when I consider prices that they are asking. 

 

For example I'm OK with sharpness of Sony 16-50mm f/3.5 - 5.6 because it is small, light, focal range is great and it is cheap (I bought it for 123€ new). But Zeiss 16-70 or  Sony 10-18 do not fulfill my criteria. 

 

Of course everything that I wrote is just my humble opinion. 

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Guest Jaf-Photo

Thanks for letting me know, although I'm not sure how is it relevant to this topic and also thanks for the critique of my equipment, but I have my reasons why I use what I use, and I'm very happy with my current setup, I will consider buying A7R II successor, but I will also keep majority of my current gear.

It's relevant because you are obviously a learner. There's nothing wrong with that, except that learners should be listening to advice instead of dishing it out.

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LOL. And you are obviously someone who thinks waaaaay to much about himself. Of course I am a learner and I think that every photographer and filmmaker should be and stay a learner regardless of amount of his/her experience. I will definitely listen to your advice once it becomes valuable in some way.

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LOL. And you are obviously someone who thinks waaaaay to much about himself. Of course I am a learner and I think that every photographer and filmmaker should be and stay a learner regardless of amount of his/her experience. I will definitely listen to your advice once it becomes valuable in some way.

I already gave you valuable advice. You are wasting your money by buying bits and pieces from different systems based on tests and reviews instead of practical knowledge. It's like playing tennis wearing wellingtons and a fedora. That's all the advice I have for you until you start listening.

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I already gave you valuable advice. You are wasting your money by buying bits and pieces from different systems based on tests and reviews instead of practical knowledge. It's like playing tennis wearing wellingtons and a fedora. That's all the advice I have for you until you start listening.

I'm really curious. What makes you think that you are the one who should be giving advice (even when no one is asking)? No, that is not a valuable advice, because you know nothing about what I do, or shoot, or what are my requirements, or why I use multiple ecosystems and you know even less about how I am choosing equipment to buy.

 

Now let me return the favorite and give you an advice: since I can see that you are criticizing everyone and everything on this forum and you don't allow anyone else to have their own opinion, I advice you to read great classic How to Win Friends and Influence People by  Dale Carnegie so that you can reconsider that approach.

 

All right, that is all I have to say.

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Guest Jaf-Photo

I'm really curious. What makes you think that you are the one who should be giving advice (even when no one is asking)? No, that is not a valuable advice, because you know nothing about what I do, or shoot, or what are my requirements, or why I use multiple ecosystems and you know even less about how I am choosing equipment to buy.

 

Now let me return the favorite and give you an advice: since I can see that you are criticizing everyone and everything on this forum and you don't allow anyone else to have their own opinion, I advice you to read great classic How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie so that you can reconsider that approach.

 

All right, that is all I have to say.

You said I am full of myself but I haven't even been talking about myself that much. Also, you lie when you say I criticise everyody on this forum. Recently, I have agreed with Username and defended the artistic integrity of Ilya. I have also praised several photos and provided friendly advice to several posters who requested help. But if you come at me with an attitude that is not backed up by knowledge, I won't mollycoddle you. If you're good you get away with things, if you're not then you don't.

 

Regarding you being a learner, I have three data points. The contents of your posts, the equipment in your signature and your youtube channel. Perhaps you should figure out what is giving you away? The answer is that it is impossible to hide, so don't even try.

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You need to learn how to handle refusal, especially when you are giving unsolicited advice, your pathetic trash talking won't change a thing, and since you were not able to prove your credibility in the other topic, I assume that you don´t have any, so I will not even bother asking. And yes, I was right, you know nothing about what I do.

 

This is my last post here, so you can continue with assaults, but I will not read them. 

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