Thinking about Sony a6100 after 15 years of Olympus PEN

RECTANGULAR ART said:

Planterz said:

I'm hesitant on recommending the 16-50mm lens at all. The small size is definitely attractive, but the optics are seriously compromised by that, and the lens is well known for not being great in the corners. Without correction it has a massive amount of barrel distortion, which means the corners get stretched out by the in-camera corrections, resulting in poor image quality in those corners. It's good in the center, so if you're focusing on a single person, or an object in the center, the poor corners aren't as much of an issue, but it'll suffer if you're photographing buildings or landscapes or flat objects.

The 18-55mm lens is older, and bigger, but it's much better.

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Thank you very much for this, this is very important.

Since I often photograph buildings and landscape - so it means that 16-50mm lens would not be for me.

In the last 24 hours I think a lot about combination Sony a6500 + Sony E 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 OSS lens. It's a bit larger than I want, but if I can accept the size of this combination - what you all think about it regading the picture quality? That combination should give me a field of view similar to that of my PEN E-PL1 (even a bit wider and a bit more of a zoom) - am I correct?

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Your old 14-42mm gives you a 28-84mm full frame equivalent view, the Sony 18-55mm will give you 27-82.5mm. So yeah, pretty close, and a hair wider. Not as wide as the 16-50mm, obviously, but we've covered that lens already. Keep in mind that the a6100 and a6500 both have a panorama mode, so if you need to go wider, that option is there for you.

I don't have the 18-55mm myself, yet, but I'm thinking of getting one because I don't have a "standard" zoom, just a wide angle (Sigma 10-18mm) and the 70-350mm supertelephoto. I haven't had the need yet for a quality one, but for what they (don't) cost, it makes sense to grab one of these. I'd have more use for the 18-135mm, but it's substantially more expensive.

The 16-50mm isn't without its use - as much I crap on it, I kinda want one because it is so small. Pancake lenses have a place because their small size makes it more likely that you'll take a camera with you instead of leaving it because the lens makes it too big. You can get one used (or new, "de-kitted") for under 100, so it's not a huge deal to get one to try out. Do not pay more.

Planterz said:

IBIS, while it won't matter a whole lot with one of the kit lenses with OSS, will definitely help if you venture into other lenses

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Thanks for another great post.

This part of your post I quoted because I want to ask further - for the combinations which I'm thinking about, is it all the same which image stabilization I'll have in the end, IBIS or lens stabilization? What if I buy a6500 which have IBIS, and also one of those smaller lenses (like 18-55mm) with image stabilization - which image stabilization to use, in body or in lens?

RECTANGULAR ART said:

Planterz said:

IBIS, while it won't matter a whole lot with one of the kit lenses with OSS, will definitely help if you venture into other lenses

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Thanks for another great post.

This part of your post I quoted because I want to ask further - for the combinations which I'm thinking about, is it all the same which image stabilization I'll have in the end, IBIS or lens stabilization? What if I buy a6500 which have IBIS, and also one of those smaller lenses (like 18-55mm) with image stabilization - which image stabilization to use, in body or in lens?

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You can't choose which to use, it's either all or none. Companies tend to use algorithms that combine both stabilizations to the best benefit. I forget exactly how Sony does it - some axes are handled by the lens, some by the body or something like that. Regardless, you either have it on or it's off, whether the function is enabled or disabled from the camera or from the lens (if the lens has that switch). Just leave it on and don't worry about it.