Best Landscape Lens For Sony A6000
Being a lightweight all-rounder camera, the Sony A6000 is pretty popular among travel and humanitarian photographers. Do you have the same? If yes, great. But when it comes to landscape shots, would you like to go wider than you have? What? Do you respond with a big 'Yes'? Great! Me too! I've tried and tested several Sony landscape lenses for landscape nature and street photography.
So, today, I'll be reviewing those Sony A6000 wide-angle lenses available on the market. Hopefully, you would like my recommendations, though I’ll be adding a comprehensive buying guide to help you decide on the best one among the range of options. So, stay tuned till the end.
In a hurry?! Here are my top picks for the best landscape lens for Sony A6000
REVIEW OF BEST LANDSCAPE LENS FOR SONY A6000
1. SONY E 10-18MM F4 OSS - BEST WIDE-ANGLE LANDSCAPE LENS FOR SONY A6000
PRODUCT DETAILS:
DESIGN:
The Sony E 10-18mm F4 OSS is a compact and lightweight lens with a big angle of view; that measures around 2.5 by 2.8 inches and weighs only 1LB. The lens is finished in black. Luckily, the package will come included with a lens hood and front and rear cap, which ensures the best dust or splash protection for such expensive lenses.
FEATURES AND PERFORMANCE:
After checking the key features, you may also start believing that; this is one of the best E-mount lenses for landscape available. Isn’t it?
The lens delivers a constant f/4 aperture and a super wide 15-27mm equivalent zoom range; that helps click stunning wide-angle landscape stills in a variety of difficult scenarios.
Generally, we’ve seen conventional optical glasses struggle with chromatic aberration at telephoto ranges and cause low resolution, low color quality, and contrast. Luckily, this lens comes equipped with ED glass to offer impressive color contrasts across the images at a large focal and aperture range.
In addition to that, the aspherical lens elements also reduce spherical aberration and distortion, ensuring high contrast and sharpness, even at the maximum aperture range. The Gyro sensors can detect the slightest movement. So, Sony makes this lens blessed with a highly-efficient Optical SteadyShot image stabilization mechanism.
Be it ultra-wide landscapes shots or shooting with tight interiors, no other lens can please you better than the Sony E 10-18mm F4 OSS lens.
What I liked about this LENS:
2. SONY SEL-20 F28 - BEST PRIME FIXED LANDSCAPE LENS FOR SONY A6000
PRODUCT DETAILS:
DESIGN:
The Sony SEL-20 F28 is a small and fairly sturdy lens with the most minimalist offering. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have any physical controls but could set the focus manually from the settings menu.
Despite o minimalist offerings, people adore this lens for its’ compact 20.4 mm-thick pancake design, which could make the Sony E mount cameras super pocketable for travel or street photography.
Who doesn’t like such pancake lenses on the go? So, I also love to consider it one of the best landscape lenses for the Sony A6000.
FEATURES AND PERFORMANCE:
The F2.8 maximum aperture range, 20 mm focal length, and outstanding resolution appeal to experienced photographers. Moreover, the three aspheric elements add an extra star in favor of this lens.
The aspherical lens design ensures superb contrast and resolution, as well as reduces all sorts of distortions. I’m not claiming; that this lens offers the sharpest image quality, it is still better than others landscape lenses in this price range.
In addition, I found the autofocus system to be the quickest one among all APS-C E mount lenses. It never misses a single target except at very close distances, though the offering minimum focusing distance is shorter than other companies’ lenses.
When it comes to colors, it has the strongest color rendition quality, and the Color fringing is pretty under control, making it one of the best Sony e-mount landscape lenses for capturing wildlife or random street scenes.
What I liked about this LENS:
3. SONY SEL1655G ALPHA 16-55MM - BEST SONY E MOUNT LENSES FOR LANDSCAPE
PRODUCT DETAILS:
DESIGN:
Looking for a small and lightweight landscape lens with advanced physical controls? As the previous option lacks the physical controls, I picked this large-aperture APS-C standard Sony G lens only for you, which delivers outstanding image quality.
You’ll find a toggle switch (AF/MF switch) on the lens body, which will let you switch between auto and manual focus. There is a focus hold button; that not only locks the focus while recomposing the scene, but it also lets you customize other functions as per your needs, like – AF ON, Eye AF, Aperture Preview, Bright Monitoring, Shot Result Preview, and so on.
It has an advanced G lens design; that includes two advanced and two standard Aspherical elements to suppress aberration and three ED (Extra-low dispersion) glass elements. The Nano AR coating on the lens suppresses reflections, flare, and ghosting. The lens is a bit pricey, so Sony ensures the best protection for it. Now, see what the specialties it offers to value the hefty price tag?
Features AND Performance:
Alongside the physical controls, another thing that comes into my mind is - the XD (Extreme Dynamic) linear manual autofocus mechanism, which offers accurate manual focus. The feature genuinely comes in handy while focusing on a movable element.
The larger aperture maintains good exposure and depth of field, which helps highlight your subject from the background and foreground. In addition to that, you could add eye-soothing Bokeh to the defocused foreground and background, thanks to the 9-blade circular aperture.
If the price had been significantly less, this lens would deserve 10 out of 10, though I believe you’ll not regret this investment because of the superb image quality.
What I liked about this LENS:
4. SONY CARL ZEISS SONNAR T E 24MM F1.8 ZA E-MOUNT PRIME LENS
PRODUCT DETAILS:
DESIGN:
Based on the Zeiss Sonnar optical concept, the lens comes equipped with eight elements in seven groups to achieve the largest aperture range. The Carl Zeiss T* (T-star) coating simultaneously reduces flare and contributes to outstanding image quality with excellent resolution and high contrast. The AA elements reduce lens weight and size, making it one of the best portable solutions.
FEATURES AND PERFORMANCE:
Like the previous options, this lens is also featured with an extra-low dispersion glass element; that reduces chromatic aberrations and color fringing, ensuring improved clarity and color neutrality.
The advanced optical design allows you to shoot from a minimum focus distance of just 6.3" with up to 0.25x of maximum magnification range, allowing shooting inside a tight interior and capturing sharp close-ups from a distance.
A linear autofocus motor and internal focus ensure fast, accurate, and silent autofocus performance. Undoubtedly, it is one of the best Sony landscape lenses for full-frame APS-C format Sony E-mount cameras.
What I liked about this LENS:
5. SONY 18-135MM F3.5-5.6 OSS APS-C E-MOUNT ZOOM LANDSCAPE LENS
PRODUCT DETAILS:
DESIGN:
The Sony E 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 OSS is another compact and lightweight wide-angle lens; that works within the wide-angle to medium telephoto range.
The lens has an advanced Aspherical optical design; that reduces the total number of elements to minimize overall size and weight.
The lens is designed for APS-C-format E-mount mirrorless cameras. Like the previous options, it also comes with a lens hood and front and rear cap to protect the delicate lens.
FEATURES AND PERFORMANCE:
Besides the Aspherical element, the lens has two ED (Extra-low Dispersion) glass elements; that ensure high-resolution images with no fringing or unnatural coloration.
Like other high-end options, it also comes featured with a 7-blade circular aperture, linear AF motor, and the most desirable Optical SteadyShot image stabilization mechanism, making it the best Sony e mount lens for landscape photography.
With an F3.5-5.6 aperture range and Optical SteadyShot image stabilization, this lens lets you cover a broad spectrum of situations and sceneries. This lens will give you the best landscape shots every time, from a nature-landscape or general day-to-day photography.
What I liked about this LENS:
6. SONY SEL1670Z VARIO-TESSAR T E 16-70MM ZA OSS LANDSCAPE LENS
PRODUCT DETAILS:
DESIGN:
Like all landscape lenses I mentioned above, it arrives with a case, lens hood, and front and rear lens cape with this landscape lens. It is also remarkably compact and lightweight; composed of specially shaped Aspherical elements and ED glass elements. Seven circular diaphragm blades are also included in the lens construction, which offers decent polygonal-shaped bokeh.
FEATURES AND PERFORMANCE:
I would like to start with image quality. This lens is blessed with an optical image stabilization system; that ensures smooth and sharp images and videos on the go.
When you use this lens with a full-frame camera, it works like a telephoto lens giving an effective focal length of up to 70 mm; that allows you to capture beautiful landscapes as well as portraits or close-ups from a distance or tight space.
Though it has a narrower aperture than the previous, this lens is good enough for landscape photography, specifically when you pair it with a full-frame APS-C format camera like Sony A6000. Recommended Best Landscape Lens For Sony A6000!
What I liked about this LENS:
BUYERS GUIDE: BEST LANDSCAPE LENS FOR SONY A6000
You could reach the best wide-angle lens for Sony A6000 by following these factors –
These days many lenses have a fixed aperture of f/2.8. I found these lenses are ideal to capture more detailed shots in low light. Generally, we prefer to shoot in the narrow aperture or higher F stop to get more of your scene in focus.
The lens with 35mm to 50mm focal length is great for taking detailed landscape scope shots. Getting into a narrower focal length (28mm on a 35mm camera) would also be a good decision; if you want to cover a wide angle of view without having the obvious distortions.
Having an image stabilization mechanism integrated into the lens is just a blessing for travel photographers. You will face many situations outdoors where you don't have enough light to get a fast shutter speed. Their optical image stabilization mechanism helps maintain sharpness outdoors in every lighting condition. So, you’ll end up with some mesmerizing shots of sunset and sunrise.
We all have a budget for everything. So, I suggest not going for the most expensive landscape lenses if you get an affordable alternative nearby. Suppose you know that you’ll be mostly shooting in well-lit areas, then you could save money by purchasing an F2.8 lens instead of an F1.4 with a high-end image stabilization mechanism.
FAQ
The Sony A6000 works better in low lighting conditions and is reasonably priced and lightweight. The camera scores 46 out of 100 for landscape photography, though you can make this mirrorless camera great using the right lenses with it.
The above-mentioned lenses are considered the best Sony lens for landscape photography. You could choose according to your feature requirements and budget without having a second thought in mind.
The wide-angle lenses have more depth of field at any given aperture setting, making them best for landscape photography.
CONCLUSION
When you travel to the new picturesque places, nothing could be a better souvenir than the epic wide-angle shots of the entire tour. Don’t you think so? However, I found these recommended wide-angle lenses work best with the Sony A6000 camera and take stunning landscape photographs.
Their low light shooting capabilities, focusing unit, image stabilization power, and Bokeh effects will also impress you for sure.
In the end, I repeat, the lenses are not only my favorite; they are genuinely great and earn huge appreciation from their real users. You could check their customer reviews on Amazon or other sites.