Hey Everyone, so I've been collecting legacy glass for a couple of years now. Wanted to figure out a good wide lens for my NEX6. the widest i have right now is my kit 16-50mm lens.

 

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Legacy lenses are for 24x36mm format. Your camera 

is 16x24 format. The solution is a SpeedBooster, aka 

"focal reducer", aka "reverse tele-extender". You put 

something in the affordable 17 to 20mm range onto a 

SpeedBooster and you maintain 95% of the FoV plus 

lens speed at every stop is one stop faster. 

   

Ever notice that when you move a projector closer to 

a screen/wall to shrink the image size, that the image 

gets brighter and brighter, while getting smaller and

smaller ?  

   

A SpeedBooster uses its optics, instead of a physical 

change of distance, to shrink the image that the lens 

is projecting toward the sensor ... but the principle of 

"smaller makes brighter" still pertains. Thaz how each 

f-stop becomes twice as bright.  

   

Due to the relay optics nature of SpeedBoosters, they 

are physically a few mm shorter than an ordinary non-

optical [empty tube] adapter. Seems like a win-win, so 

there hasta be a catch, which is price :-(  

  

But, thaz the price. There's no really wide FoV legacy 

lens for APSC cuz, again, legacy lenses were made 

for a larger format. 

So something like a metabones is my only hope for getting a great wide angle

 

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So something like a metabones is my only hope for getting a

great wide angle

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You say you've been collecting legacy lenses for a coupla years. 

So that means there is one other option. Perhaps that collection  

justifies acquiring an a7 or a7-II body. 

  

For my use, APSC has only the slightest advantage over FF, so 

the only reason I have one FF Sony [i have 4 APSC Sonys] is to  

make use of my pile of cool lenses left over from the film era. All 

film lenses [OK, 99.9% of them] are acoarst FF lenses. 

   

Initially I used my Nikkors on APSC Sonys via a SpeedBooster, 

and I still do that. But I also wanted to use all my old Minolta AF 

lenses and Sony has very appealing adapters for them, but they 

have no focal reducing optics in them, so to use the full FoV of 

those lenses you need a FF body ... even tho these adapters do

function perfectly on the smaller bodies.   

   

  

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That is the long term plan, as far as finances allow. The short term was to get hold of the widest lens available in the prime lenses, something that even with the 1.6X magnification factor would give awesome wide angle.

 

The lowest I've found is 12mm lenses (19.2mm with crop factor), even of these i have no idea which ones are good

 

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Are you sure you have a Sony, not a Canon? Because Sony's APS-C crop factor is 1.5, Canon is 1.6.

 

Anyway, adapting legacy wides is not such a good idea as modern lenses are just so much better. There's a very nice modern Samyang 12mm and it's affordable. It's sold under various different names around the world, you should look into that.

 

If you're also not rectilinear wideangles, there are also a few fisheyes available. As far as I know you get the widest angle of view with the Meike 6.5mm which is a circular fisheye that can actually see slightly behind itself (190° diagonal).

Like Miran, I would advise against adapting legacy wide angle lenses. Ultra wide lenses were difficult and expensive to manufacture until recent years. So the legacy ultra wide angle lenses are also rare, expensive and not very good.

 

You seem to have been looking at the newer manual lenses with native E mount, like Samyang. That's probably your best bet. If you want better quality than the kitlens but not necessarily a wider field of view, then there are a few options like Sony 20 or Sigma 19. You could also look for a used copy of the Sony 10-18.

Speaking of rectalinear glass I got Laowa 12mm f2.8, with focal reducer it's 8.5mm and works fine, just lean a bit forward to avoid your shoes in the picture. There's also Irix 11mm (7.8mm with focal reducer) which should be good thou I have not tried one. Viltrox makes a good focal reducer at fraction of the price of Metabones..

Forgot the Voigtlander 10mm f5.6 Heliar..

 

BR Teddy

Wow, will find and compare these lenses. Might have to save up a bit, but if the new lenses are so much better then it'll be worth it

I would go for a more modern design like the Rokinon 12mm F2 or the Laowa 9mm Zero-D