Sony A6000

My wife got me an a6000 for Christmas so I'm looking into a wide angle lens now. The 10-18 wide angle zoom that @lostlandscapes uses is just out of my price range. I'm thinking about the Rokinon 12mm that @Dan_85 uses but also read a few good reviews of the Sigma 19mm which is also the least expensive of the 3. There's also a Sony 16mm and 20mm but those didn't get great reviews from what I can see.

Anyone have any input regarding the Sigma 19mm, in particular how it would compare to the Rokinon 12mm?
 
Vegan.Hiker said:
My wife got me an a6000 for Christmas so I'm looking into a wide angle lens now. The 10-18 wide angle zoom that @lostlandscapes uses is just out of my price range. I'm thinking about the Rokinon 12mm that @Dan_85 uses but also read a few good reviews of the Sigma 19mm which is also the least expensive of the 3. There's also a Sony 16mm and 20mm but those didn't get great reviews from what I can see.

Anyone have any input regarding the Sigma 19mm, in particular how it would compare to the Rokinon 12mm?
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Have you considered purchasing the 10-18 used? I've never had a bad experience with used glass. Some nice deals pop up every now and then on Amazon and eBay. So worth it if you can make it happen. Just thought I'd throw that out there, as this lens is worth every penny. Maybe a Xmas stocking stuffer? ;)

As for the Rokinon 12mm, I recently picked that one up too, and have been super pleased with it in regards to some night stuff I've done. Very sharp, light, and clean. And you can't go wrong with f/2 at that price!
 
That Rokinon is a manual lens. That would suck to shoot with in anything other than tripod kind of situations. Lenses are one of those things where you'll save a lot of money in the long run by just buying your last lens first. Yeah, it's expensive, but you'll be really happy with it and you won't always be wishing you had the one you really want. So yeah, I think it's totally worth pinching some pennies and going for the 10-18.
 
Thanks guys, that sounds like some good advice. I'm glad you said that @Nick, because I kept thinking that it would suck to not be able to zoom at all, especially since I only want to carry one lens. I think I'm going to take @lostlandscapes advice and maybe wait for a used one to come along, or maybe a sale.
 
The Rokinon is a great lens, and i've also found that battery life is much increased when using it (or any other manual lens) - something to consider for extended backcountry trips. It seems that the electronic interfacing and communication between the camera and a lens with AF is one of the biggest drains on the battery.

I had my first chance to try some astrophotography with it during my trip to Utah in October. I posted a few pics around the site in various other albums...
 
The viewfinder actually uses more battery than the LCD, at least according to the manual. I only use the viewfinder in bright lighting when it's more difficult to see the LCD.
 
John Goering said:
Well, I bit the bullet and it's sitting on the counter. Now, after the 1.5 hour DVD, not sure my memory is going to be good enough to really make use of it-wow, that's one hell of a big bunch of menus.
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Finally opened up the box and mine didn't come with a DVD? Did everyone else's come with one? I just got a bunch of paper user manuals and I HATE reading user manuals. I guess I'll have to try look for the video on their website.
 
Vegan.Hiker said:
Finally opened up the box and mine didn't come with a DVD? Did everyone else's come with one? I just got a bunch of paper user manuals and I HATE reading user manuals. I guess I'll have to try look for the video on their website.
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I haven't a clue about what a DVD would tell you beyond what you need to know from basic photography. Shoot in aperture priority until you figure out what they other shit does. read this. http://digital-photography-school.com/aperture/
 
slc_dan said:
I haven't a clue about what a DVD would tell you beyond what you need to know from basic photography. Shoot in aperture priority until you figure out what they other shit does. read this. http://digital-photography-school.com/aperture/
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I wasn't expecting info on the art of photography (although I could definitely benefit from that), I was looking for model specific info, like the menu layouts, where different settings are located, how much battery life different settings use, etc. For example my old camera didn't have wi-fi. This one does so I had to read the manual to figure out what app I needed to download and how to wirelessly transfer pics from the camera to my smartphone.
 
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Vegan.Hiker said:
I wasn't expecting info on the art of photography (although I could definitely benefit from that), I was looking for model specific info, like the menu layouts, where different settings are located, how much battery life different settings use, etc. For example my old camera didn't have wi-fi. This one does so I had to read the manual to figure out what app I needed to download and how to wirelessly transfer pics from the camera to my smartphone.
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Set it to shoot in RAW or RAW & JPG. My camera won't transfer the RAW's over WIFI so if I want to field upload one using my smartphone for bragging rights I have to save in both formats on the camera.
 
@Vegan.Hiker I didn't receive a DVD with mine either, I have a feeling John may have been referring to a 3rd party DVD...? Have you had a read through the manuals and documentation here; http://www.sony.co.uk/support/en/product/ilce-6000 ?

Anyway, the menu system is particularly in-depth and very customizable, I still haven't figured it out completely myself. WiFi and it's related applications are a bit of a drain on the battery, so I keep the camera in airplane mode when I don't need to use any of those functions. I also find the WiFi transfer process not particularly straight forward and a bit unreliable. I'm not 100% sure if this is the case when transferring pics via WiFI, but when transferring them to my phone via NFC, it sends a smaller resolution version of the photo (something like 2048px wide).
 
Thanks @Dan_85. I'll just suck it up and read through the paper manuals. I was wondering about the airplane mode since it's not on my earlier model Sony mirrorless. Knowing to put it in that mode when I'm not transferring with the NFC to preserve battery, and knowing that wifi transfers change the resolution is exactly the type of stuff I'm trying to figure out.
 
Took the a6000 out for the first time into NYC over the holidays and got this shot of the Empire State Building from the top of 30 Rock. Didn't have a tripod so it was hard doing the long exposures just setting it down, especially with the wind blowing. I need need to go back during the week when more lights are on.

image.jpeg
 
So I'll shamelessly say I'm an @lostlandscapes wannabe and decided to go ahead and get the Sony 10-18mm wide angle lens. But when pricing it out online I'm finding that there is quite a range in price for a new one. Many of the larger known stores are selling it for around $850 and BestBuy sells it for $765 but I see an eBay seller selling them supposedly brand new for $600; about $150 to $250 cheaper than the stores I know I can trust. Seller has a good rating and it says there are over 10 available but something has me paranoid about it. Would any of you guys that have experience buying lenses tell me if you would trust buying from this seller...

http://www.ebay.com/ulk/itm/272110063942

I also see that there are US and Japanese version of this lens. Not sure what the difference is and this listing isn't clear on which one this is (seller is in the US but under product details it says "Version: Import". Any help would be appreciated.
 
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Well, I long ago gave up on buying from eBay due to getting burned by unethical sellers. For the last two years of that I would buy if I could verify outside of the eBay sphere that it was a real company and that they were seemingly ethical. That went awry enough that I just gave it up. My two cents... Pretty much, you get what you pay for and if it seems unreasonably cheap it probably is, i.e. stolen, falsely produced, used, etc..
 
Thanks Art. I'm skeptical as well, but the listing also says it's covered by the eBay money back guarantee so I'm on the fence.

Update: I just read online that the ones selling for 750-850 are the US models and the ones that a few sellers are selling on eBay and Amazon for around 600 are the International models. Supposedly the same exact product but the international version doesn't honor the US Warranty.. I'm wondering if it's worth the extra 200 for the warranty?
 
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I was going to say it was likely the non-US (a.k.a. grey market) before I got down to your second post. I bought a camera once that was grey market. The box, manuals and interface were all in japanese. I guess a lens you might never know the difference. I'd still opt for the US version, myself. Let us know how it goes if you get the grey market.
 
Nick said:
I was going to say it was likely the non-US (a.k.a. grey market) before I got down to your second post. I bought a camera once that was grey market. The box, manuals and interface were all in japanese. I guess a lens you might never know the difference. I'd still opt for the US version, myself. Let us know how it goes if you get the grey market.
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Ouch! I wish I had seen this before ordering. I ordered the import version a few hours before you posted this but now I'm not feeling so hot about my decision. I read this from the B&H website before ordering and it made me feel more comfortable (not sure if they are known out west but B&H is a reputable NYC based store). http://www.bhphotovideo.com/find/HelpCenter/USGrey.jsp The part that made me feel confident was... "in almost every instance a "grey market" product is absolutely identical to its US-warranted counterpart. "Grey market" and US-warranted products are manufactured in the same factories from the same components, and sub-assemblies, to the same specs and tolerances, by the same workers." I was just having a hard time shelling out an extra $250 for an identical, authentic product just for the warranty.. Maybe $100 I could justify but $250 more seemed to make it not worth it. Anyways, too late now. Hopefully I don't get screwed with a manufacturers defect. Although it did come with a 30 day return policy.
 
My Rokinon 12mm was grey market, i'm sure of it.

Bought it from eBay, was a little skeptical at first. It was almost £100 less than the retail price here in the UK but the seller had a lot of good feedback so I eventually took the plunge.

The lens arrived a few days later and I've had no problems with it at all. Fingers crossed you'll be fine @Vegan.Hiker
 
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