Lens for X-T3

emils92 wrote:

Hello. I have landed on X-T3 as my first mirrorless camera (or any camera besides my phone for that matter). I am torn between the 16-55 weather sealed lens and the 18-55 lens with OIS. Money is not really the issue here, but I am not sure whether ois or weather sealing is most important to me.

I will not be shooting lots of video, its more of a "nice to have" thing to me, I am in it for the stills. I will be bringing my camera hiking and camping, as well as shooting when I am on vacation in various cities.

The X-T3 does not have IBIS, so OIS in the lens seems nice...OIS can be nice in low light, with a slow shutter speed, but the 16 55 has a fixed 2.8, the other lens is variable 2.8-4. I have very little experience with cameras, all I have done is read online to try and understand the workings of a camera, and what you need for various scenarios. Are there any more experienced shooters out there that can chime in? How well does WR work, is OIS actually useful in stills, etc. etc., any good input is appreciated.

Cheers

I would recommend you to go with the 18-55 as it's a great lens to learn everything with and because you're not sure what you want/need. It has good image quality, OIS and low weight.

The upsides to the 16-55 is that it has a bit better image quality, goes a bit wider and has weather sealing. The downsides are that it lacks OIS, weighs more and is more expensive.

When you've learned using the camera and lens and might know more about what you want to shoot and achieve you will also start to understand what lenses you might want/need.

When it comes to the aperture you can't only look at exposure since aperture also controls the depth of field so you might not always want to or be able to shoot at a large aperture.