Should I try this lens on my Sony a6000?

[chrisv2]

I recently purchased a Sony a6000 and I have a Sony SEL 16mm F2.8 lens which I like. I'm a little embarrassed to admit I often shoot in full auto (raw) and count on photoshop later if I have to turn any dials. I do want to learn to be a better photographer, though.

I am thinking of trying the Sigma 30mm F2.8 lens which seems to get great reviews. I am looking for a little more sharpness.

I was at the NY car show last week and took this photo with the Sony lens. No post-processing other than the camera creating the jpeg file.

Do you think I would notice a (positive, worthwhile, happy) difference if I had the Sigma lens? I also want to be able to do nice portrait shots.

 

[Derrel]

Well, moving from a 16mm to a 30mm focal length would give you a very significantly different angle of view, and would change your typical working distances in many situations.

 

[chrisv2]

Thanks, Derrel. I assume for that same shot I would have had to back up quite a bit to frame it, if I were using a 30mm lens? Maybe I should have asked the question a little differently: What's the secret to getting a very 'crisp', sharp result for a photo like this? Monopod? Better glass? Lens with gyroscopic stabilization? All of the above?

If a real pro were there taking that shot (sans studio lighting) and was stuck with my Sony a6000 camera, how would he or she do it?

 

[Derrel]

A good crisp photo starts with good focusing of the lens, and then shifts to having an adequate shutter speed or camera support, so that the camera is rock-steady as the exposure is made. Third is adequate depth of field to cover the subject enough to give a sense of everything being in-focus. Fourth would be the lens. Now, when it was premiered, the Sony 16mm lens was God-awful in optical parlance, and Sony quickly re-designed the 16mm lens after simply brutal on-line reviews. And this photo shows a lens that is, in my opinion, a good example of a wide-angle lens design that's not performing well. Maybe this is one of the early 16mm's? I don't know, there's no EXIF data.

In this car shot, the rear section of the car looks very much less sharp than the doors and roof areas...the chairs to the left look unappealing. Making wide-angle lenses that have truly superb optics usually involves high prices, and often the designers would like to go with larger lens designs, which are easier to correct and to manufacture affordably; miniaturizing lenses makes manufacturing more-critical, and this is why some of the newer wides and normals, like say the Samyang 35mm f/1.4 or sigma 50/1.4 ART, are approaching the physical size of 24-70mm f/2.8 zoom lenses.

For the Sony A-series camera and cameras of its size, there's sort of a conflict between a carryable, handy size, and good price, and stellar optics, but larger, heavier, and much more expensive. My feeling is that this shot is hurt mostly by that, specific 16mm lens and its performance characteristics. There is no EXIF info, so I can;t suggest much settings wise, but it looks like the lens is (hopefully) not at its optimum f/stop. The fifth ingredient in a rrrrrrreally crisp shot would be great lighting that emphasizes sharpness cues, and this doesn't have a lot of cues: flat light, lowish light, mostly monochromatic color palette, big broad areas of low frequency detail, none of those things emphasize "crispness".

 

[chrisv2]

Thank you Derrel this is excellent information and exactly what I was hoping for. Here's some of the exif:

• ƒ/4.5
• 16.0 mm
• 1/60 shutter
  
• 100 iso

I bought this lens a couple of years ago; not sure if it's the original vintage or later.

Again, this was with the camera in "auto" mode so maybe one of the suggestions here is I switch to aperture priority mode? I'm also going to get a monopod. At an auto show like this there isn't a lot of time to set up a shot so I have to be able to get it done quickly.

I really want to get better at this and if the lens itself is going to be the limiting factor I don't mind switching to a different lens. If I do that though I want to make sure it's the right choice.