1st prime lens purchase for a6000

The Sigma 16/30/56 F1.4 are the best for APS-C.

Thomster said:

I have a Sony a6000 with the 2 kit lenses (16-50 and 55-210) they have served me fairly well for general photography, but Im looking to do more landscape

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I think that your kit lenses should be OK for landscape. If you want better quality, I would recommend to check your landscape photos to recognize what is your most used focal length and choose prime focal length accordingly.

Personally I like zooms more for landscapes to be more flexible without lens changing. Typical apertures are f5.6- f11, where zooms are sharp enough. So I bought Sony 18-135 for general family/trip/landscape photography and I'm happy with it.

Thomster said:

and maybe some night sky photography.

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Not an expert on night sky, but I would choose primes like Samyang 12f2 or Sigma 16f1.4

Thomster said:

I get a little confused on the focal lengths

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You already have wide range of focal lenths covered by zooms, you should already know from experience what you are missing when shooting - wider lens? longer lens? faster aperture? better magnification?...etc

When you decide on focal length, we can advice lens models.

Thomster said:

and what constitutes a wide angle or fisheye.

I'm on a budget, and likely can only afford one at the moment, the lenses I'm considering, but leaning towards the Sigma 16mm f/1.4

Thoughts and opinions welcome!

Sigma 16mm f/1.4 DC DN

Sigma 30mm f/1.4 DC DN Contemporary Lens for Sony E

Sony FE 50mm F1.8 Full-frame Prime E-Mount Lens - SEL50F18F

Tamron 24mm f/2.8 Di III OSD M 1:2 Lens for Sony E

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Hey Thomster!

I think the Sigma 16 1.4 will be your best choice. When you use APS-C cameras, since your sensor is going to be smaller than a full frame one you will need to multiply your lens focal length by 1.5 in order to get the actual focal length that you will be using. (The smaller sensor crops the full capacity of the lens)

So shooting on 16mm will be the equivalent of shooting on 24mm. On top of that, the A6000 doesn't have in body image stabilization, and even though at these focal length ranges and purposes (landscape) that might not be relevant, that is something that you want to keep in mind if in the future you want to get another prime such as the 85 1.8. These things will force you to stay super far away from your subject, and use higher shutter speeds to keep the image in focus.

TL;DR

Use the widest that you can get. If you can afford to get full frame lenses, go ahead and get those (if in the future you want to upgrade equipment, it will work great with your new camera)

Thomster said:

I have a Sony a6000 with the 2 kit lenses (16-50 and 55-210) they have served me fairly well for general photography, but Im looking to do more landscape and maybe some night sky photography. I get a little confused on the focal lengths and what constitutes a wide angle or fisheye.

I'm on a budget, and likely can only afford one at the moment, the lenses I'm considering, but leaning towards the Sigma 16mm f/1.4

Thoughts and opinions welcome!

Sigma 16mm f/1.4 DC DN

Sigma 30mm f/1.4 DC DN Contemporary Lens for Sony E

Sony FE 50mm F1.8 Full-frame Prime E-Mount Lens - SEL50F18F

Tamron 24mm f/2.8 Di III OSD M 1:2 Lens for Sony E

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None of those are fisheye lenses.

The Meike 6.5mm F2 is a 190 degree circular fisheye. If you want to photograph the entire night sky and the entire horizon, it works very well.

The Samyang 12mm F2 AF or MF is often recommended for night sky. It is not a fisheye. It is much wider than the Sigma 16mm F1.4.

The E 50 F1.8 OSS is better than the FE 50 F1.8. I'd recommend the Tamron 20mm over the 24mm.

The Sigma 16 is a good lens. You can't go wrong. For astro, you may want to take a look at the (manual focus) Samyang 12mm, though. The biggest downside of the 16mm is its size.

Sigma 16 1.4 is an amazing lens. I recently added FF and sony 24gm 1.4. To be honest, I rarely see a difference in real life photos.

The ones you are looking at are covered by existing lenses so you can get an idea of the focal length coverage to compare. I'd tend to suggest the 12/2 Samyang. It's seriously wider than the 16s. so it's a range you don't have now. I got one to use with my A6400. I don't use it a lot, though, but that's kind of dependent on what interests you, of course. I added the 12/2 and 30/1.4 Sigma to my NEX6 and later A6400. I replaced the 16-50 with the 18-135. Not a prime but was quite an improvement in convenience and never got to adding a longer lens.

The 16 is the best lens of the bunch but also the only one I would recommend against.

I would recommend you get a Samyang 12mm f2 instead, so that you have an entirely new focal length and perspective to play with.

The 16 is very rarely worth the trouble of carrying and switching an extra lens (most of the time used at f8 anyways). It's a boring focal length that would add nothing new, and the focus ring is a pain in the pooper for astro. It's also heavy and more expensive.

Just to clarify, I own/owned both lenses.

The other lenses are nice for walkaround (30) or portraits (50) but they can't really be used for astro unless you can successfully merge panoramas, and like the 16, they would not give you a new perspective.

Thanks for the input! all good things to consider.