Hello, I just purchased a Sony A6000 for photographing clothes that I sell. I was originally using an iphone to shoot the clothes laying flat on the ground and only had to position the camera 3-4 feet above the clothes to capture the image. 

I purchased a F1.8/50mm lens and have found that I need to be really far away from the clothes to get them in frame. 

I looking to find the right fixed lens size that will fully capture a jacket laying flat on the floor while having the camera positioned relatively close (4-6 feet above) without too much distortion.

Thanks for the help.   

I don't know. But I know an app that does!

I don't know if this is available for iphone, but I use an app called Magic Sony Viewfinder, to see what a suitable focal length might be ...and to day dream about what lenses to buy!

The 50mm lens is nice, but on an a6000 it is actually a telephoto lens. You will need something much shorter (wider-angle).

Edited September 18, 20205 yr by Thad E Ginathom

The 50mm on an APS-C sensor is going to give you an equivalent of a 75mm lens (focal length x 1.5 crop factor).  The iPhone XS wide-angle lenses give you an equivalent of around 26mm focal length (you should be able to find what the equivalent focal length of the camera on the iPhone you have).  That makes a big difference in your field of view, as you're experiencing.  If you're used to something wide on the iPhone like ~26mm equivalent focal length, then you'll probably want to get something like a 16mm lens (24mm equivalent) for your A6000.

Edited September 18, 20205 yr by cmycycle

Ahh now it makes sense. Thanks for the information.

Should I be worried about distortion with the wide angle lens? I'd like to accurately represent the products I'm selling. I see Sony sells a F/2.8 lens in both 16mm and 20mm. I don't mind positioning the camera a bit higher if it means better photos it just has to be reasonable. The 20mm is also $100 more. Any advice or recommendations?

In regards to F Stop - I have a decent lighting setup but nothing super fancy. Should F/2.8 be sufficient? Excuse my ignorance, this is all very new to me. 

 

 

You (or someone) could figure this out analytically, doing the math, or pragmatically, which I want to propose:

just borrow/rent a zoom lens, for instance the 24-105, use that to find out which focal length satisfies your requirements, find the fixed lens having the closest focal length  _below_  the length you just found out, i.e. a little wider. Then buy that lens.

3 hours ago, LouieN said:

Ahh now it makes sense. Thanks for the information.

Should I be worried about distortion with the wide angle lens? I'd like to accurately represent the products I'm selling. I see Sony sells a F/2.8 lens in both 16mm and 20mm. I don't mind positioning the camera a bit higher if it means better photos it just has to be reasonable. The 20mm is also $100 more. Any advice or recommendations?

In regards to F Stop - I have a decent lighting setup but nothing super fancy. Should F/2.8 be sufficient? Excuse my ignorance, this is all very new to me.

Since you're taking shots of still products, so you might want to consider a cheap manual focus lens instead of pulling out money for something with auto-focus.

Did you get the A6000 with the 16-50mm kit lens?  If you did, you could just stick with that and not spend anymore cash.  Since these are product photos, you can drop your shutter speed to compensate for the f/3.5 at 16mm.  Also, I'm assuming these photos are going onto a website and aren't going to be blown-up to full size, so you could also shoot at a higher ISO to compensate for lighting.

Edited September 18, 20205 yr by cmycycle
typo

23 hours ago, Chrissie said:

You (or someone) could figure this out analytically, doing the math, or pragmatically, which I want to propose:

just borrow/rent a zoom lens, for instance the 24-105, use that to find out which focal length satisfies your requirements, find the fixed lens having the closest focal length  _below_  the length you just found out, i.e. a little wider. Then buy that lens.

That's a good idea. I appreciate the help. 

21 hours ago, cmycycle said:

Since you're taking shots of still products, so you might want to consider a cheap manual focus lens instead of pulling out money for something with auto-focus.

Did you get the A6000 with the 16-50mm kit lens?  If you did, you could just stick with that and not spend anymore cash.  Since these are product photos, you can drop your shutter speed to compensate for the f/3.5 at 16mm.  Also, I'm assuming these photos are going onto a website and aren't going to be blown-up to full size, so you could also shoot at a higher ISO to compensate for lighting.

I didn't get it with the lens kit but I imagine you can get one pretty cheap. Perhaps the 16-50mm will be handy to have anyway and if the photos end up not to my liking I can always upgrade. I appreciate the help. 

Hi there! Check up the SIGMA 16 mm F1.4

It has a large field of capture because it is a wide lens, it is very fast, very good in low light too and extreeeemly sharp.

Many say that it is the best lens for APS-C cameras