A6000 beginner lenses help

[adele8207]

Hi,

I’ve joined this forum to ask for a little advice on lenses if possible?

My 14 year old son has just purchased his first proper camera after taking some rather lovely photos on his iPhone for a while. It’s a Sony A6000.

He’s just learning to use the general zoom lens but he absolutely loves wildlife, nature and space.

We plan on getting him the Sony macro lens for his close ups (he bought a 55-200 second hand lens first) but what we’re stuck on is the right lens to use for both landscape and possible astrophotography in the future once he gets a handle on the manual settings.

I’ve looked at second hand lenses and found the sigma 19mm f/2.8 art, Sony e 16mm f/2.8, sigma 30mm f/2.8 and Samsung 12mm f/2 for pretty reasonable prices.

Also so a sigma 16mm f/1.4 dc. But that’s more expensive than the others.

Can anyone shed any light as to which of these might be good for a begginer user but would grow with him as he gets better and be able to do shots in low light?

Us parents have no clue whatsoever and with Christmas coming up was hoping to get him a lens as a surprise.

Thanks so much

 

[Deleted Member 5003]

For a lens to cover landscape and astro the basic principles are the lens needs to be wide(between 20-24mm and f2.8 max......the 2.8 is dictated more by the astro need than the landscape as it is important to pick up the low light from stars to obtain a clear image)

The above will lead you to a reasonably priced and capable 2 purpose lens ' suggest a used lens at this time There are many more available and better lenses but at this stage in his development suggest a good 20mm or 24 mm f2.8.

He needs an experienced photographer with him/you to buy the lens direct so it can be checked out or alternatively from a recognised second hand supply company with a 6 month guarantee usually.

Hope this helps.

 

[adele8207]

For a lens to cover landscape and astro the basic principles are the lens needs to be wide(between 20-24mm and f2.8 max......the 2.8 is dictated more by the astro need than the landscape as it is important to pick up the low light from stars to obtain a clear image)

The above will lead you to a reasonably priced and capable 2 purpose lens ' suggest a used lens at this time There are many more available and better lenses but at this stage in his development suggest a good 20mm or 24 mm f2.8.

He needs an experienced photographer with him/you to buy the lens direct so it can be checked out or alternatively from a recognised second hand supply company with a 6 month guarantee usually.

Hope this helps.

That’s really helpful thanks. I’ve been looking on MPB who offer a 6 month guarantee on their second hand kit so will have another look based on that.

 

[spudhead]

Glad some answered this for you its not in my subject knowledge really and since I only really have one short lens difficult to comment and help

 

[FowlersFreeTime]

Welcome to the forum, so nice of you to nurture your kid's interest in photography!

Landscape photography is usually synonymous with wide angle lenses like you pointed out, but they don't necessarily need to be large aperture lenses (the smaller the "f" number, the wider the aperture and the more expensive the lens gets).

Astrophotography DOES require a large aperture (f2.8 or better) and can be taken to mean two things: taking pictures of celestial subjects like the moon/planets/etc (for which you would need a zoom or a way to connect the camera to a telescope) OR milkyway/night-sky photography (for which you would use a wide angle lens).

Your ideal match for both topics at a reasonable price is probably the Samyang 12mm f2.0. It is also sold under the brand Rokinon (same manufacturer). You could even stick with the manual focus version to keep prices low as you don't need autofocus for either lanscape or nightsky photography.

For what its worth, The Sigma 16 f1.4 is more expensive, but is a jack of all trades as it can be used closer to your subjects like for family photos and its an autofocus lens.