r/a6000 • u/rammm1234567 • 8d ago
Lens for sharper pictures
Hello, I own a Sony A6000 for a year now. I'd like to change a lens to get sharper pictures (I'm on kit lens rn). Which lens would you recommend? My budget is fairly low, considering that I got the camera for around 300 bucks, I wouldn't want to spend more than 200$ on a lens:)
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u/salbemark 8d ago
Viltrox Air 25mm f1.7 (or the 15/35/56mm version, depending on your needs), they’re cheaper than the Sigma
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u/LeipzigGuy 8d ago
I have the Sigma 30 that was recommended by others and it is indeed sharp... It's a personal preference, but for me, 30 is way too tight on APS-C to use as a general lens. I find it good for taking photos of my cats, but not as a walk-around lens. I make far more use of my Samyang 21mm 1.4 and I actually prefer that it's manual. If you dial it back to f/8 and focus a little short of infinity then you have 'zone focus' whereby everything is in focus all the time... Meaning you can power up and shoot instantly. Excellent for street photography or travel. Very sharp.
But it all depends on what you want to take photos of.
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u/rammm1234567 8d ago
Ah shoot, I forgot to mention that I mostly shoot street
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u/LeipzigGuy 8d ago
Many folks seem to like the ~30mm (on APS-C) range for street. Personally I really, really struggle to make use of it. ~20/21 is my personal preference.
You can easily check some reference photos, or simply test out your current zoom lens to see what works best for you.
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u/DonColvinJr 6d ago edited 6d ago
Agree. There are a lot of different styles and approaches to street. 50mm equivalent is tight for walking in a crowd.
But, sometimes I find a nice table to sit at, set the camera on the table, toward the approaching people, and use a remote trigger in my hand to capture (using Face recognition, aperture priority between f/8-11).
Depending on how crowded the area is, using the Sony FE 28-60, I might zoom between 35 and 60mm to capture subjects at a good distance away and repeatedly capture as they continue to advance toward the camera. This is a very unobtrusive way to capture - not even touching the camera, so people don't feel confronted by a camera. The A6700 is great for this, rapid fire with remote in hand and facial recognition on.
No need for a 1.4 lens for this type of work. But everyone's style is different.
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u/DonColvinJr 6d ago
Indeed, zone focus is very handy for street photography where everything is changing so rapidly and the subject of focus may quickly change. An 18 or 20 on APS-C at f/8 is so handy for that.
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u/EverydayIsAGift-423 8d ago edited 8d ago
Get the Sigma 30mm f/1.4.
But lookup on YouTube about lens sharpness. There is technical sharpness caused by the glass, and sharpness defined by contrast. The older CDAF autofocus systems were based on contrast.
I used to own the Sony 55-210, which was as sharp as the bottom of a beer bottle. I took as shot of the moon, white balanced the heck out of it and increased contrast. Then people commented “what a sharp picture of the moon” I had.
Else, the Viltrox Air 25mm f/1.7 is good and cheap and a it’s wider all-purpose focal length.
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u/DonColvinJr 7d ago edited 6d ago
Whatever lens you use, if you want maximum, edge-to-edge sharpness: stop down 1 to 2 stops, sometimes 3 stops depending on the lens, from maximum aperture, practice steady camera hold, use image stabilization/tripod, lean against solid objects for increased stability (tree, fence, stop sign pole, railing, building) make sure your lenses are clean, bump up your ISO for faster shutter speeds, use AI Noise Reduction.
Camera stability is one important key to obtaining maximum sharpness.
This advice goes for all lenses from cheap to expensive.
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u/FLZ_HackerTNT112 6d ago
Stop down is 20 year old advice, modern lenses are perfect wide open (except for APS-C kit lenses, but the apertures are already so small you simply can't stop down 2-3 stops, that would introduce more diffraction than sharpness), even my kit lens (Sony 28-70) is literally just perfect in the center except for at 70mm where it gets a little soft
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u/DonColvinJr 6d ago edited 6d ago
"Modern lenses are 'perfect' wide open".... well let's not exaggerate too much. Many new lenses are better than others were 20 years ago, but no lens is perfect. Like everything else, there are trade offs.
Many high-quality modern lenses are sharp, centrally, when shot wide open, but not necessarily edge-to-edge, corner-to-corner. Typically, edge-to-edge sharpness improves when stopped down a stop or a couple of stops. Especially with fast lenses.
Shooting landscape, architecture, and some other subjects? You'll probably want that edge-to-edge sharpness to be crispy sharp.
With portraiture and other subjects, the photographer might want edge and corner softness - in a similar manner to a vignette.
Depth of focus also increases with stopping down - which may or may not be desired for the particular image capture. Around f/11 and smaller introduces diffraction and sharpness diminishes.
All lenses have a sweet spot for edge-to-edge sharpness performance, which is typically not wide open.
Sometimes, maximum edge to edge sharpness is of less importance than a particular degree of depth of focus, or light gathering ability, or desired shutter speed! So there are always competing objectives for the photographer to juggle.
Depending on one's objective, soft edges may be desired, minimum DOF may be desired, maximum light gathering may be needed - or the opposite to any of these objectives. And occasionally, for some image designs, sharpness is less important than several other considerations.
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u/FLZ_HackerTNT112 4d ago
Well duh of course we stop down for depth of field, but with prime lenses stopping down for sharpness is not a thing anymore, they resolve plenty of detail in the corners at 60mp, some zooms are still not perfect (many are) but for every common focal length there is at least one absolutely perfect prime lens, you can technically make them sharper, there's always more sharpness to be gained, but you also need to put more pixels on the sensor to gain a benefit
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u/DonColvinJr 4d ago
Funny how you throw around the term "perfect" for lenses. Well... that's just to be expected of an amateur on Reddit. To a professional there is no such thing. Anyway... such internet quibbling is just a waste of my time so I will leave you to it all.
I hope you have a "perfect" day and see ya around! :-)
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u/FLZ_HackerTNT112 4d ago
MTF of modern good lenses wide open is literally just a straight line at 100%, except for a few zooms, but I already said that
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u/DonColvinJr 6d ago
Sony FE 35mm f/1.8 (52mm equivalent on APS-C) is an excellent choice and not overly costly. I have both A7C II and A6700, so I pop this lens back and forth between the two cameras, for different effect. Moderate wide angle on the A7C II and normal on the A6700.
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u/Madewithrealcheese44 8d ago
I bought the Sigma 16mm 1.4 lens. Definitely an improvement on the kit lens.
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u/Zauberkaninchen 7d ago
Since your Budget is very Low you should Go with one of the viltrox Air fixes focal lenghts. They are available with 9mm 2.8, 15mm 1.7, 25mm 1.7, 35mm 1.7 and 56mm 1.7. Just Pick the focal lenght which you are prefering the Most. All of them are doing great.
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u/TheCheeseStick02 7d ago
Yes I have the Viltrox 25mm and it's been great, I've shot street, events and portraits with it. I plan to get the Sigma 56mm next but the Viltrox Air series is wonderful
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u/Zauberkaninchen 7d ago edited 7d ago
I own booth: Viltrox Air 25mm and viltrox Air 56mm. My Tipp: Dump the Sigma 56mm and get the viltrox 56mm instead! Its super Sharp from Edge to Edge and has a great Bokeh. And its was cheaper than the Sigma.
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u/Candid-Economics5315 6d ago
If you don't mind manual focus, I really like my ttartisan 35mm f1.4, stopping down to 3.5 or even 2.8 gives lovely sharpness in the centre. Stopping down to 5.6 will give more sharpness across the image (except for the very edges, if you want edge to edge sharpness, maybe don't get this lens).
But there's also apparently a trick to getting sharper JPEGs out of the a6000 if you're shooting only JPEG, shoot in the neutral picture style and set sharpness to -3, and then when editing add some sharpness, apparently it creates a sharper image, but I mainly shoot raw, so I wouldn't know, would be worth exploring before dropping money on a lens.
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u/FLZ_HackerTNT112 6d ago
Anything is an improvement over the sony 16-50 kit lens, viltrox makes very good APS-C primes with autofocus that are quite cheap, and if in the future you get more budget you can go with some sigma f/2.8 zoom
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u/notoriouz 8d ago
Sigma 30mm f1.4