New A6000 Owner Needs Opinion on 55-210 Kit Tele Zoom

[pjmsj21]

Will be picking up my new A6000 this week and need to make a determination if I should buy the kit tele zoom in addition to the normal kit (16-50) or wait till I have some time with the camera. The camera will be a general use camera for home (pets and people), travel and some sailing photography. 

 

My goal with this camera will be to get back into photography since my dark room days of 35mm film.  I have had other point and shoot digitals but this is my first step into mirrorless. The attraction of getting the 55-210 now is the reduced price of purchasing the 55-210 now is the reduced price of the two lens kit.

 

Thoughts?

[tinplater]

I would recommend you consider the Sony PZ 18-105, it is a very useful general purpose lens, bargain value.  The kit lens would be redundant, so I would sell that and then consider either a couple of large aperture primes or 70-200 F4 depending upon your needs.

[Guest Jaf-Photo]

The 55-210 is a very usable lens. I got one when it was reduced and I have enjoyed using it. The strong points are that it is small and light yet still provides reach and good overall image quality. Even the bokeh can be quite nice if you have some distance to the background. Colours and overall contrast are pleasing. It also has stabilisation which makes up for the slow aperture. The weak points are some vignetting, distortion and lack of fine detail. That can be fixed in software. AF is good enough to shoot action scenes in daylight.

 

So, if you're a hobbyist who want a practical tele lens which produces usable images, without paying too much, you can't go wrong.

[pjmsj21]

Hi

 

Thanks for your input on this lense.  The reason that I chose the A6000 is because of its portability and I really dont want to lose this most important (for me) feature.  The use of the 55-210 will all in out relatively good light outdoor situations and I realize that this lense is not an indoor lense.  I will most likely use the kit lens, the 55-210 and the fast 35mm.

[Guest Jaf-Photo]

That's a sensible combo that fits in a small bag. If I could make one suggestion, you should consider the older kitlens, 18-55. It has better IQ and handles better than the 16-50. I have one that I got with my NEX-7. They sell very cheap on eBay and such. I don't know why they're so cheap; probably because people don't write about them on forums like these.

[Username]

........, you should consider the older kitlens, 18-55.

It has better IQ and handles better than the 16-50. .........

  

Amen. Love mine enuf that I acquired a spare,

as I assume they are out of production. 

[Fire Escape Griller]

I've had a Sony 5100 for close to two years. I have the 55-210 and consider it is a very good lens. Since you already have the kit, which is a decent lens btw, here are the lenses I think you should get, in order:

 

1. SEL35 f1.8 - great for indoor parties, holidays, shooting the family, portraits, pics of pets, etc. 

2. SEL18-105 f4- your travel lens, shooting monuments, statues, fountains. With this lens on a trip, you won't have to keep changing lenses all the time. Great for video too.  

3. SEL50 f1.8 - Beautiful portraits, lovely bokeh, gorgeous pics. I just find the focal length a bit long meaning you have to stand back kind of far, therefore I'd recommend getting the 35mm first. The 50mm takes absolutely stunning pics though. 

4. SEL 55-210mm - Overall, a decent zoom lens. 

5. Sigma 30mm or 16mm - I'd stick to Sony first, but these are reported to be excellent lenses

6. Classic lenses. I have a classic Minolta 50mm f2 with an adapter. I have to focus manually, but it takes gorgeous pics, just as nice or nicer than the SEL 50. And since I'm manually focusing, I know the pic will always be in focus. 

7. SEL 20mm pancake - I enjoy this lens. It's about the same focal length as an iPhone, but with nicer pics. Unfortunately, I would avoid any lens without OSS if you're going to shoot handheld video. This lens has no OSS. I would probably just save the money and buy something else, unless you really want the smallest camera possible.