Sony E Series lenses

Barryboy

Barryboy

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Rob
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Hi... I've got a Sony A6000 body on the wishlist, but which lens would you recommend out of the two zoom kit lenses, the earlier 18-55 f3.5-5.6 OSS or the later SELP 16-50 f3.5 - 5.6 OSS?

Pleased to hear

Rob
 
Anyone know of a comparison review online, perhaps? I haven't been able to find anything myself.

Rob
 
I had the 18-55 on my old Nex5 and the 16-50 on my A6000. Optically I never saw any difference between them whereas physically the 16-50 is much smaller and had quieter AF. The 16-50 was better for video using the power zoom and is obviously 2mm wider but 5mm shorter. If I was buying another I’d go for the 16-50 for the size advantage.
 
I'd say it comes down to size vs quality as the 18-55mm is optically better but larger while the 16-50mm is very compact but its IQ isn't as good and it's reliant on digital corrections to resolve some of its optical issues.

In general the 18-55mm is the preferred lens and the 16-50mm is criticised for its poorer image quality although personally I prefer the 16-50mm as it makes for a much more compact package which suits the small Sony body and it's a bit wider at 24mm equivalent as well.
 
I've got the A6000, with 16-50, 55-210 and 50 f/1.8 as my 'travel' kit - and part of the advantage of that is the incredibly compact nature of the 16-50 when powered down.

The whole kit is small (fits in a small lowepro shoulder bag that originally fitted just a DSLR and 18-70 kit lens, several years back), but the A6000 & 16-50 fits in a decent sized coat pocket.
The 18-55 looks to be a similar size to the 50 f/1.8 - which is still fairly compact, but wouldn't fit.
As @stevelmx5 said, it's that compactness (and the 16 vs. 18 at the wide end) that makes the 16-50 my choice over the 18-55 - the IQ of the latter is not sufficiently superior (they're both kit lenses) to opt for it over the 16-50.
 
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