wide angle for nex6

[dynacam]

I am looking at getting a nex 6 with the 16-50 lens and wondering if it will be good enough for landscapes, I have been used to using a 17-35 on the a900 and going back to aps-c format do I ned to look for a wider lens, thoughts would be appreciated

[Birma]

Hi Graeme

Not too many UWA options in native Nex mount (SEL). At the moment there is the SEL 16/2.8 with the very neat Vcl adapter which takes you down to 12mm. I've been quite happy with this as an UWA option.

Sony has just released a SEL 10-18/4 with OSS. There is also a Samyang 10/2.8 announced for APS-C but no mount details yet. The samyang and Vcl will not fit filter adapters without some inventive work-arounds. The SEL 10-18 looks like it will accept filters as normal.

If you are happy to use a mount adapter then you can fit just about anything on Nex . In APS-C the Sigma 8-16 gets good reviews from DK, and there is Tokina 11-16 that used to be available in a-mount that is well reviewed.

I'm interested in both the SEL 10-18 and 16-50 but still gathering options / reviews from the net.

[kaled_201299]

I've got the Nex-6 with the 16-50 lens. I'm not really a landscape photographer, but I was in the States last week and managed to get to take a break from work for a couple of hours prior to my flight home and took the opportunity to go to Concorde Massachusetts and took a few shots.
I shot in RAW + JPEG and processed RAWs in ACD pro 6. I'll post some shots later with the original RAW, JPEG and processed RAW. As has been observed on the web, the lens at 16 mm shows strong barrel distortion, which the camera corrects in the fly (so you see it corrected in the view finder) and in my experience it is easy to correct the RAW files in processing.
Personally, I've been happy with the performance of the lens (and you'll note from my sig that I also have an A77 and some reasonable lenses) and camera combination.

[dynacam]

Thanks for comments.

[mvanrheenen]

If you bought the Nex as a compact system, I would stay away from adapted a-mount lenses.

I was in Rome last year carrying my Nex + LA-EA1 adapter and Samyang 14 + 35mm a-mount lenses. Walking through the city with both I had a moment of insight: what the hell was I doing dragging these heavy lenses with me on a small camera...

Just my 2 cents.

Mark

[pakodominguez]

I am looking at getting a nex 6 with the 16-50 lens and wondering if it will be good enough for landscapes, I have been used to using a 17-35 on the a900 and going back to aps-c format do I ned to look for a wider lens, thoughts would be appreciated

If you are looking for a 17-35-like lens, the new SEL 10-18 is probably your best bet. I had the chance to play with that lens at the PPE in NYC last month, and I was surprised by the lightness of the lens. It is quite compact but 62mm filter size (so it seams fat if you put it side by side with other SEL lenses. I took some pics at th show, so not really the best condition, and it seamed good overall. I'm planning to buy that lens this winter and after that, only a 75 or 100 macro will be missing in my collection.



Regards

37847

[artington]

I'm planning to buy that lens this winter and after that, only a 75 or 100 macro will be missing in my collection.



Regards

37847

Heard that one before

[dynacam]

Picked up the nex6 today, will put the wide angle on hold for a while to see how the 16-50 performs. Intresting to use a evf again after having owned the minolta dimage7.

[alphaomega]

I also looked briefly at the SEL 10-18 W//A zoom, but when discovering the price at £749 here in UK (product has disappeared) I decided to keep my 16mm pancake and W/A converter on my NEX-5N. I also now have the NEX-6 with 16-50 mm pancake fitted and 55-210 zoom loose in the bag. Still hanging on to my old NEX-5 with 18-55 but sorely tempted to put the combination up for sale as I consider the 16-50 to be at least as good as my 18-55.

[pakodominguez]

Still hanging on to my old NEX-5 with 18-55 but sorely tempted to put the combination up for sale as I consider the 16-50 to be at least as good as my 18-55.

Apparently, the 16-50 is good (at least better than the 18-55) close focus range. Otherwise I guess it will be as good or bad as the 18-55. But, is the 16-50 good enough that I'll be in the mood for dealing with the powerzoom?

[alphaomega]

pakodominguez wrote

Apparently, the 16-50 is good (at least better than the 18-55) close focus range. Otherwise I guess it will be as good or bad as the 18-55. But, is the 16-50 good enough that I'll be in the mood for dealing with the powerzoom?

I found the power zoom lever a pain. A bit like my Panasonic LX5. Too much or too little zooming UGH. As I use auto focus I can simply use the focus ring on the lens barrel and voila the zooming is perfectly smooth. Cannot see why anyone would use manual focus with this lens.
I have now submitted a few images to Alamy using the 16-50 pancake on my NEX-6. They sail through and that will do me. I only pixel-peep at 100% for Alamy and for that the 16-50 would appear to be more than adequate. I find less of the dreaded one side "out of focus" problem on the 16-50 compared with my 18-55, now up for sale on ebay together with the NEX-5.

[kaled_201299]

As promised, a comparison of geometric correction in camera and in software.

2012-11-15 14-19-09 -NEX-6- DSC08004 - Copy_resize.jpg (99.85 KiB) Viewed 8345 times

Un-corrected RAW file

2012-11-15 14-19-09 -NEX-6- DSC08004_2_resize.jpg (97.21 KiB) Viewed 8345 times

Corrected in software

2012-11-15 14-19-09 -NEX-6- DSC08004_resize.JPG (141.3 KiB) Viewed 8345 times

JPEG from camera

[Dr. Harout]

I prefer the camera software.

[Vidgamer]

I'm planning to buy that lens this winter and after that, only a 75 or 100 macro will be missing in my collection.



Regards

37847

Heard that one before

Sounds like an addiction. "Just one more lens and I promise I'll stop!" Ehh, I'm not making any such promises.

Good to hear that the new lens is keeping up with the old kit lens. On DPR, people seemed really bugged about the software correction, but it's kind of funny to me, as many of the m43 fans were promoting software correction for certain m43 lenses.

[alphaomega]

Sounds like an addiction. "Just one more lens and I promise I'll stop!" Ehh, I'm not making any such promises.

Vidgamer, difficult to shake off. When I purchased the NEX-5N I also resolved to stop at that and I now have the NEX-6.

On DPR, people seemed really bugged about the software correction, but it's kind of funny to me, as many of the m43 fans were promoting software correction for certain m43 lenses.

Not read that. Find that you need to wade through 10 comments to find a worthwhile one on that Forum. I actually invested in LR4 for my Win7 laptop to handle NEX-6 RAW. Strangely enough for me I find that the NEX-6/16-50 pancake images from Jpeg out of the camera are very good. Cannot find any CA needing correction and the distortion correction is good. Just need the occasional perspective adjustments in PS as well as a little shadow/highlight tweeking plus a final little bit of contrast. Typically no need to use levels. Full 256 levels out of camera. Just taken some images at ISO800. Cannot see any noise or luminance at 100%. I am as happy with this little gem as I was getting my A580 a couple of years ago. Only drawback is the omission of external microphone provision. I hope that a solution will be forthcoming using some of the 21 contact points in the new "Smart Accessory Terminal". Providing that would be a "smart" move by Sony. Note I am not a "pixel peeper" just an ordinary user and for types like me this seems like a "dream" camera.