Best Bokeh Lens For Sony A6000

1. SONY SEL-20F28 E-MOUNT 20MM F2.8 PRIME FIXED LENS

DESIGN:

I decided to start my list with an affordable pancake prime lens, meant for APS-C format full-frame cameras. The SEL-20F28 lens is fairly small and sturdy; that lets you carry it inside your pocket.

The rear focusing design of this lens improves autofocus speed. Unfortunately, it lacks physical controls. I still often go out with this lens for street photography, as I found it easier to handle when compared to the same.

FEATURES AND PERFORMANCE:

First and foremost, I would like to point my finger at the f/2.8 maximum aperture and 0.2-meter minimum focusing distance. The large aperture offers the perfect low-lighting shooting solution, and when I paired it up with Sony A6000, I always get the sharpest image quality ever, even in a dark area.

The sharpness sometimes comes slightly off towards the extreme corner but remains impressive in the center. That’s why; I often use this lens to click on portraits of my clients and friends. I really liked the depth of field it provides to make my subject highlighted by defocusing the background.

The optimized lens arrangements of three Aspherical elements add an extra star in favor of this lens. Moreover, I found the autofocus system is pretty fast, even the fastest one among all. So, it never lets me miss a single target. In addition, it provides the strongest color rendition and color fringing.

It also delivers an outstanding resolution and contrast, which attracts me all the time when I plan to click some street photographs on the weekend. After all, who doesn’t like to have such a pancake lens in their pocket on the go?

2. SONY E-MOUNT FE 24MM F1.4 GM FULL-FRAME WIDE-ANGLE PRIME LENS (SEL24F14GM), BLACK

DESIGN:

This 24mm E-mount Sony lens specifically comes with dust, moisture, and weather resistance construction, making it appropriate for heavy-duty outdoor use. Moreover, it comes with a lens hood, rear, and cap to ensure the best protection.

The lens looks like a medium-large telescope lens but doesn’t carry much weight; it’s less than 1 LB, making it convenient to carry around all day long.

FEATURES AND PERFORMANCE:

The best part of this lens is the circular 11-bladed aperture, making the lens ideal for those; who are passionate about the defocused background and bokeh quality, just like me.

The lens is also equipped with advanced, high-end optics with original nano multi-layer AR coating; that reduces reflection, flare, and ghosting, ensuring life-like details. The picture quality is stunning.

Moreover, I found the autofocus quiet, precise, and faster than others. In addition, you’ll get a switch; that lets you toggle between manual and autofocus.

This Christmas, I used this F1.4 24mm GM series lens to click portraits and group photos. The luminous lighting scenes of Christmas Eve are the best thing I consider ever to make the best bokeh effect in the photos.

I tried to play with the lighting on the Christmas trees and the background of the walls. I got mesmerizing results with the lighting and bokeh effect. The performance of this lens just amazed me.

3. SONY FE 35MM F1.8 LARGE APERTURE PRIME LENS (SEL35F18F)

DESIGN:

It’s a large-aperture prime lens with up to 0. 24X magnification power. Like the previous two, I also prefer using this lens for street photography or travel photography because of its lightweight and compact design.

Features AND Performance:

Unlike the previous two, it offers a few extras. For instance, the minimum focus distance of 8.66” and 0.24” magnification power come in handy for macro and other interesting shots.

With a large aperture of f/1.8, this prime lens delivers an advanced low-light shooting capability and shallow depth of field. The rounded aperture blades deliver a soft and natural blur effect; that we mostly opt for.

However, before exploring this lens, the faster 85mm prime lenses used to be my favorite, especially when it comes to full-frame cameras and 50mm lenses for crop-sensor camera bodies. I’m thankful for this lens; that changed my perspective.

With this lens, I experienced that a short focal distance makes it easier to gain a tight depth of field and get closer to the subject than others. The shorter focal length helps me squeeze more of the blurred background into the frame.

4. SONY - FE 50MM F1.8 STANDARD LENS (SEL50F18F/2)

DESIGN:

It’s a lightweight double Gauss compound lens; designed with aspherical lens elements to reduce optical aberrations over a large focal plane. The lens carries only 6.6 ounces and fits on APS-C format E-mount bodies.

FEATURES AND PERFORMANCE:

The focal length of 50mm is good for taking everyday photos, where generally we have to face various shooting conditions.

Moreover, the fast f/1.8 maximum aperture contributes to low-light conditions and gives you better control over the depth of field for selective focus imagery.

The lens provides sharp image quality throughout the aperture range with reduced field curvature. In addition, the seven bladed round diaphragm contributes beautiful bokeh in the pictures.

The DC autofocus motor lets the lens click the photo silently. Being pretty lightweight, I like to keep this lens with me while going out for a tour. The focal length can capture a perfect view; we generally opt for capturing full-frame group photos.

5. SONY 55MM F1.8 SONNAR T FE ZA FULL FRAME PRIME LENS

DESIGN:

Based on refined optical design, the lens comes constructed with three aspherical elements and the legendary Zeiss's T anti-reflective coating, which contributes to excellent image quality. The AAA elements also reduce overall size and weight, making it another portable solution for bokeh photography.

FEATURES AND PERFORMANCE:

Like the previous one, this lens with a 55 mm focal length would also work well for street and group photography. I enjoyed watching people with different colored clothes. I just love to check out how they look in real life and in my frame. When I use this lens, sometimes I find them look even better on my camera, and all credit goes to the Zeiss Sonnar optical concept.

The optical design contributes to outstanding resolution, high color contrast, and clarity. The lens construction ensures the best picture quality by reducing reflection, flare, and ghosting and controls spherical aberrations.

Finally, coming to today’s topic – how its’ bokeh quality is? The answer is – it has a nine-blade circular diaphragm. I think now its’ enough to make you understand how the defocused background and bokeh will look in the pictures; when you’ll use this lens.

Enough of the group photos! Now, it’s the time to think about something intimate and let’s try to get closer. Explore something amazing for bokeh portraits!

6. SONY SEL85F18 85MM F/1.8-22 MEDIUM-TELEPHOTO FIXED PRIME CAMERA LENS, BLACK

When I commercially or personally cover some live events, specifically the wedding, anniversary, or birthday parties, my clients and their relatives and friends ask me to click their DP and cover photos for social media platforms.

I’ve noticed everyone likes bokeh portraits more than the simple defocused background. People love to see them surrounded by the best bokeh effect by having dim lighting conditions in the backdrop.

And the SEL85F18 85MM F/1.8-22 lens makes capturing bokeh portraits fun combining a nine-bladed circular aperture design with an 85mm focal length.

You may know that 85mm focal length is great for portrait works. From headshots to full-body images or captivating to flattering portraits, the SEL85F18 85MM F/1.8-22 lens efficiently produces all.

Some of them admire single colors, meanwhile, others like colorful lighting conditions. No doubt, the picture quality of this lens is extremely stunning. On top of that, the color contrast clarity, color fidelity, and color rendition would also make you awe. After every event coverage work with this lens, I become more than happy, as it lets me serve my clients all things they want in the best quality.

7. SONY SEL90M28G FE 90MM F/2.8-22 MACRO G OSS STANDARD-PRIME LENS FOR MIRRORLESS CAMERAS, BLACK

This 90mm macro lens lets you be more creative and capture more interesting photos. Like 85mm lenses, the 90mm lenses also work great for portraits, specifically, for the proper proportions of faces or props.

So, I often use this OSS macro prime lens for product photography, fashion photography, and obviously portraiture. Fashion photographs always should look stunning and attractive, whereas clarity is the main concern for product photography. Right?

This lens is blessed with both dedicated features: the refined optical design with aspherical lens elements, ED glass and Nano AR coating, and an Optical SteadyShot image stabilization mechanism.

The lens construction ensures the best color accuracy, fidelity, and contrast, whereas the OSS mechanism eliminates all sorts of distortion by compensating for camera shake.

You may have noticed that fashion and product photography both use bokeh and defocused backgrounds in different creative ways. How you’ll implement the bokeh - it's’ up to you! Meanwhile, I can assure you never have to hold back your creative thoughts about the limitations of specifications of this lens.

8. SONY FE 135MM F1.8 G MASTER TELEPHOTO PRIME LENS FOR SONY E-MOUNT

The 135mm lenses are sadly not a world favorite. I think because of the hefty price tags. As professional photographers, we aim for good looking photos with interesting perspectives at the best quality. So, we try various lenses with different apertures and focal lengths.

To be honest, sometimes I prefer it over the previous options; when it comes to bokeh. Why?

First and foremost, it has a rounded 11-blade aperture; that lets me click the best creative shots with attractive bokeh.

The f/1.4 maximum aperture of this wide-angle prime lens is another reason behind achieving the stunning bokeh.

The 85mm or 90mm lenses do their job of separating objects from backgrounds efficiently, but the extra millimeters of the 135 help it do far better.

Generally, we need a tight depth of field to add pleasing bokeh. Such a wide aperture rating and telephoto focal length will help shrink the depth of field and isolate the main subject by blurring the background.

So, if you want versatility in shots, this pro-level lens is the best solution for bokeh photography.

BUYERS GUIDE: BEST BOKEH LENS FOR SONY A6000

You could reach the best bokeh lens for Sony A6000 by following these factors –

Aperture is the most important thing; that makes the bokeh effect possible. However, it basically controls the entry of the light. Wide apertures of about f/1.8 to f/2.8 allow the most light to be let into the sensor and provide the best bokeh effect and low lighting shooting capabilities. It would be better, if you can get a faster and wider aperture Sony A6000 lens than rests.

The lens with more than 8 circular aperture blades provides a good quality bokeh effect. If you can go beyond 8, like the lens with 11 diaphragm blades, then you’ll get top-notch blur quality.

On top of that, you’ve to consider their shapes. For instance, the circular-shaped blades create soft and rounded blurred circles on the backdrops, and the hexagon-shaped blades create hexagon blurred elements.

If you want to maximize your bokeh potential, look no further than the longer focal length lenses like telephotos. In my previous post, I discussed about the best zoom lenses for Sony A6000; you can check them out.

Besides telephoto lenses, the wide aperture prime lenses like 85mm or 50mm also come with good bokeh potential; I’ve tried many times and became satisfied.

When there is adequate space between your subject and background, you’ll get a more blurred background; when you will go closer to the subject. So, don’t overlook the minimum focusing distance.

If you’re going with a large and weighty telephoto lens don’t compromise the optical image stabilization option. Your hand can shake due to heavy weight, and an OSS lens compensates for camera shakes and all sorts of distortions.

You have already seen that I’ve added all types of lenses. From sleek pancake lenses to heavy and larger telephoto lenses, all are there; those are capable of providing the best bokeh effect. You need to choose according to your budget, shooting needs, and the weight you prefer to carry.