Suggestions of best wide angle lenses Sony E mount

Hi All,

I have a Sony a6300 with E mount capability. I am interested in photography as a hobby and looking to increase my capacity for wider angle shots. I currently only have the base lens 16-50mm f/3.5-5.6 lens.

I am also looking for something that is not too bulky or heavy as I do a lot of hiking for my landscape photography and would potentially need to be able to carry it for a whole day.
Does anyone have any suggestions as to what I should be looking at?



Cheers,

Emma

I would be looking at the Sony E PZ 10-20mm F4

EmGibbons said:

Hi All,

I have a Sony a6300 with E mount capability. I am interested in photography as a hobby and looking to increase my capacity for wider angle shots. I currently only have the base lens 16-50mm f/3.5-5.6 lens.

I am also looking for something that is not too bulky or heavy as I do a lot of hiking for my landscape photography and would potentially need to be able to carry it for a whole day.
Does anyone have any suggestions as to what I should be looking at?

Cheers,

Emma

Click to expand...

I am someone who likes options and the name plate on the camera is not #1 on my list

All said I also shoot with Sony, but full frame.

I have a couple suggestions. If you like to stay with Sony and have any intention of going full frame I'd not invest in APS-C only lenses.

For a larger selection of APS-C I would look at Fuji X. Not so much to switch, but you can get ideas for focal lengths they offer native to APS-C and it is more comprehensive than Sony.

If sensor size does hold high priority and you want less bulk micro 4/3's is an idea like a Panasonic / Olympus.

I have shot with Sony APS-C, Fuji X, micro 4/3, Nikon etc.

***

Lots of ideas and lots of ways to spend the same $1000 whatever that money ends up being.

***

There are a lot of excellent options.

If you don't mind using a fixed focal length lens, which gives the benefit of a large aperture for low light, there is the 11mm f/1.8 and 15mm f/1.4. Both are excellent, though they might perhaps seem a bit pricy for somebody who up until now has only bought one inexpensive zoom lens.

Somebody has already mentioned the new PZ 10-20mm zoom, which is also excellent, though a bit expensive. The older 10-18mm zoom is also very light and compact, and reasonably good quality when stopped down. It can be bought used at a much lower price.

SamKnopf said:

There are a lot of excellent options.

If you don't mind using a fixed focal length lens, which gives the benefit of a large aperture for low light, there is the 11mm f/1.8 and 15mm f/1.4. Both are excellent, though they might perhaps seem a bit pricy for somebody who up until now has only bought one inexpensive zoom lens.

Somebody has already mentioned the new PZ 10-20mm zoom, which is also excellent, though a bit expensive. The older 10-18mm zoom is also very light and compact, and reasonably good quality when stopped down. It can be bought used at a much lower price.

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I concur with this. But I will add that possibly the OP would be better off with a zoom than primes for now. The 11 or 15 mm primes would be sharper, and better for night sky or low light indoor stuff, but it sounds like he's doing daytime hiking, so I'd think the zoom might be better. For my style, an ultrawide prime is a bit limiting and I keep switching back and forth between ultrawide and normal lenses. If using it in a more casual sense, I prefer a zoom since it's more flexible.

I had the original 10-18 f/4 zoom back in my APS-C days and it was pretty good. It has OSS which helps. The newer 10-20 doesn't have OSS, but it might also be nice to have a little bit extra reach to 20 mm. It's also smaller and lighter than the 10-18. There is also a Tamron 11-20 which is even a bit larger but it's f/2.8 so you get one more stop of light. I've never used the latter two, just the original 10-18.

LenRivers said:

EmGibbons said:

Hi All,

I have a Sony a6300 with E mount capability. I am interested in photography as a hobby and looking to increase my capacity for wider angle shots. I currently only have the base lens 16-50mm f/3.5-5.6 lens.

I am also looking for something that is not too bulky or heavy as I do a lot of hiking for my landscape photography and would potentially need to be able to carry it for a whole day.
Does anyone have any suggestions as to what I should be looking at?

Cheers,

Emma

Click to expand...

I am someone who likes options and the name plate on the camera is not #1 on my list

All said I also shoot with Sony, but full frame.

I have a couple suggestions. If you like to stay with Sony and have any intention of going full frame I'd not invest in APS-C only lenses.

For a larger selection of APS-C I would look at Fuji X. Not so much to switch, but you can get ideas for focal lengths they offer native to APS-C and it is more comprehensive than Sony.

If sensor size does hold high priority and you want less bulk micro 4/3's is an idea like a Panasonic / Olympus.

I have shot with Sony APS-C, Fuji X, micro 4/3, Nikon etc.

***

Lots of ideas and lots of ways to spend the same $1000 whatever that money ends up being.

***

Click to expand...

This is some poor advice, as Fuji X has a smaller selection of UWA lenses than APS-C E-mount. And M43 does not offer less bulk at UWA, unless you opt for the quite poor Olympus 9-18mm/4-5.6. On E-mount, the AF options are (under 16mm):

Sony 10-20mm F4 G PZ

Sony 10-18mm F4 G OSS

Tamron 11-20mm F2.8

Tokina 11-18mm F2.8

Sony 11mm F1.8

Sony 15mm F1.4

Samyang 12mm F2

Zeiss Touit 12mm F2.8

There is certainly little reason to switch to FF just for UWA. I'd decide between Sony 10-20mm F4 and Tamron 11-20mm F2.8, both are fantastic options.

I am using Sony's 10-18 F4. It is lightweight and compact and I am very happy with it. This lens suffers from copy-to-copy-variation. The first copy I bought was decentered and soft on the right side. The second one was sharp at 10mm but soft at 18mm, even in the center of the frame. The third one, which I have been using for the past two years, is sharp from corner to corner when stopped down. I like OSS, especially for hand-held shots in dark environments. You can pick up the 10-18 very cheaply on the used market but make sure to check sample images before you buy.

I also used Samyang's 12mm manual focus as well as the AF version but did not like them too much as they were not wide enough. As others mentioned before, there are lots of other options.