Best Lenses for Sony a6000

Best Overall: Sony E 35mm f/1.8 OSS

• Focal Length: 35mm
• Size: 63mm x 45mm
• Weight: 5.5 oz.
• Filter Diameter: 49mm
• Minimum Focus Distance: 0.3 m

Pros: Good all-around focal length, lightweight, compact, strong bokeh effect, affordable

Cons: The shallow depth of field can be limiting, fixed focal length isn’t as versatile

What Makes this Lens Our Top Pick?

One of the biggest problems with Mirrorless Cameras is their small size can be unbalanced by large lenses. This makes them difficult to use and uncomfortable to hold.

One of the best aspects of this lens is its compact nature and low weight. Those factors make it comfortable to pair with the camera. They also make it convenient to carry and use.

This lens also gives a reasonable 50mm field of view on the cropped sensor Sony a6000 camera body. That yields low distortion and is flattering for a number of scenarios. Those include portraits, travel photography, landscape and more.

The aperture can be stretched wide enough that photographers can shoot at higher shutter speeds with lower ISO in low light situations. This makes this lens particularly versatile.

The wide open aperture also enables photographers to create a pleasantly blurred bokeh effect. That is desirable for portraits and other close-up shots.

The image quality is also consistently sharp and reliable. It provides nicely contrasted images that have a lot of detail in the highlights and shadows.

OSS in the lens name means Optical SteadyShot and is Sony’s brand of image stabilization. This feature is not common in prime lenses. However, it is invaluable when shooting in low light situations.

Having image stabilization allows photographers to take advantage of the wide open aperture. They can do that while keeping the ISO low and the shutter speed slightly higher. That preserves better quality in more challenging situations.

What Do Reviewers Say?

Overall, reviewers consistently recommended this lens for taking sharp, high-quality images. Some of the key aspects that reviewers like are the bokeh effect, affordable price tag, the sharply contrasted images and the lightweight, compact build of the lens.

Some reviewers noted that the price was a little high. However, they also noted that the price is reasonable for the quality.

This is especially true since the lens complements the camera body well. It enables photographers to take the high-quality images that the camera should be able to accomplish.

The lens has a minimum focusing distance of about one foot. That means you can get up close to create beautiful detail shots and portraits.

Shooting further away, the lens can also capture stunningly sharp landscape scenes. That makes it a versatile option for photographers.

This field of depth is considered closest to how the natural human eye processes images. That means photos captured have little distortion. They look very true to how people would see a situation.

The built-in image stabilization is particularly beneficial with the other features of this lens. It is not something that Nikon lenses or Canon lenses come with. It also focuses quickly and quietly, and almost never lags or misfocuses.

Features and Considerations

The bokeh effect is strong. However, it can be a bit hexagonal because of the traditional aperture blade design. Other lenses on this list feature rounded blades that create a more desirable round bokeh blur. However, the hexagonal effect is pretty slight on this lens.

The lens is constructed from plastic and aluminum alloy. Both are sufficiently high-quality to last for a long time and protect the inner workings of the lens from reasonable moisture, dust and wear.

The lenses’ control of lens flares and ghosting are average but sufficient. It does come with a lens hood in case you want to cut down on these effects even more.

The center sharpness at maximum aperture could be a bit sharper. However, it isn’t enough of a problem to be noticeable to the naked eye without zooming in significantly.

There also aren’t a lot of lenses that are this fast at this focal length available for mirrorless cameras. That makes this one unique and useful if you need a lens around this focal length.

Click to See Price

A Close Second: Sony FE 28-70mm f/3.5-5.6 OSS

• Focal Length: 28 – 70mm
• Size: 72.5mm x 83mm
• Weight: 10.5 oz.
• Filter Diameter: 55mm
• Minimum Focus Distance: 0.3 m – 0.45 m

Pros: Affordable price tag, sharp focus, high-quality images, convenient zoom range

Cons: Struggles with uniformity at wider apertures, narrower zoom than other alternatives

What Makes this Lens Special?

This lens has a useful zoom range and performs consistently well. It yields sharp, high-quality images in a range of situations. Part of what makes this lens particularly attractive despite the full frame build is the amazingly low price tag.

The cost averages below $300. That’s hard to beat, especially when compared to other lenses at similar focal lengths that cost significantly more.

The 40 – 105mm equivalent focal length makes this lens ideal if you are photographing subjects that get closer or further away frequently, like wildlife or children.

The image quality is sharp. It has a lot of detail in the shadows and highlights and can achieve a nice bokeh effect. The bokeh here is achieved more because of focal length than the aperture.

Since this is a Sony lens, it again comes with OSS image stabilization built in. That helps compensate for slight hand movements that can cause blur at longer focal lengths. This is a great quality to have given the minimum aperture that isn’t quite as low as is desirable. For the low price tag, though, this trade-off is fair.

The lens is weather-sealed, protecting the inner mechanisms from moisture or dust. Unfortunately, the Sony a6000 isn’t weather-sealed, meaning this feature won’t come in particularly handy with this setup. It is nice looking ahead if photographers think they may update to a full frame weather-sealed camera at some point.

What Do Reviewers Say?

Reviewers had mostly positive things to say about this lens. They reported that it yielded high-quality images that were sharp and consistently contrasted well.

There are some things that could be improved, like sharpness at wider apertures and the minimum aperture. However, the price tag more than makes up for these minor shortcomings.

The main lens this one is compared to is the Zeiss 24 – 70mm f4 OSS. That is certainly higher performance but also costs almost three times as much.

The Sony lens is built with 9 elements in 8 groups. It has a built-in low-dispersion element and three elements with aspherical surfaces. All of those help eliminate chromatic aberrations and soft focused areas in the final images.

The lens has very little distortion and vignetting. Both can be easily fixed in post-processing if they do occur.

It is also much lighter weight than other lenses at comparable focal points. That makes it easy to carry on long trips. This also means the lens doesn’t unbalance the lightweight camera body.

The autofocus is fast and quiet. It rarely mis-focuses or lags when you’re trying to use the autofocus system. The manual focus system is also quite smooth, and enables additional control.

Features and Considerations

This lens was built for the full frame Sony mirrorless camera bodies (FE) instead of the crop mirrorless bodies (E). However, it still works well on crop body cameras like the Sony a6000.

Essentially, the edges of the lens won’t be used. But this isn’t as big of a problem with longer focal length lenses as it would be with wide-angle lenses. Also, if photographers decide to upgrade to a more expensive full frame Sony mirrorless camera, they already have a lens that they can use that will perform well.

The full frame nature means that any edge softness you may see on full frame camera bodies will be eliminated on crop camera bodies like the Sony a6000. This is a fringe benefit of using this lens on a crop body, but definitely comes in handy.

The lens struggles in low light situations since the aperture only opens to f/3.5-5.6 depending on the focal length. This necessitates the use of a flash after dark. However, it doesn’t inhibit the lenses’ performance during the day or even in slightly lower light situations.

Besides the glass lens and the metal camera mount, the lens body is entirely constructed from plastic. The plastic is sufficiently high-quality, however, and doesn’t affect the feel or quality of the lens.

Click to See Price

Best Portrait Lens: Sigma 60mm f/2.8 DN

• Focal Length: 60mm
• Size: 60.8mm x 55.5mm
• Weight: 6.7 oz.
• Filter Diameter: 46mm
• Minimum Focus Distance: 0.5 m  

Pros: Sharp images, fast autofocus system, high-quality construction

Cons: Full manual lens, more modern design

What Makes this Lens Special?

While the Sony 50mm f.1.8 OSS lens has image stabilization built in, is slightly faster and is a good value, this Sigma lens is higher performance. That is the case particularly when it comes to portraiture.

With an equivalent cropped focal length of 90mm, subjects appear in perfect proportion without any feature distortion. The length allows photographers to stand about 6 feet back from subjects. It helps them get attractive shots with a pleasant bokeh background.

This lens also performs strongly in landscape photography and everyday photography. It compresses subjects in the background and the foreground in a pleasant manner.

The lightweight nature of the lens also makes it viable for travel or landscape photography where equipment needs to be carried over a long distance.

The lens focuses silently, making it discreet for street photography and wildlife photography. In addition, he solid build means it is strong and reliable despite its lightweight nature.

There is no significant vignetting around the edges of photos. The lens doesn’t have a lot of chromatic aberration or distortion in the final images.

This lens is part of Sigma’s Art line of lenses. So it was designed to have an attractive appearance and produce images that were particularly sharp with vivid colors and contrast. It accomplishes both of these goals and is a great addition to any camera kit.

What Do Reviewers Say?

Reviewers praise this lens for producing consistently sharp and high-contrast images. They have considerable detail in the highlights and shadows. The low minimum aperture creates a smooth, beautiful bokeh effect. It is very efficient at separating subjects from the background.

This lens also impressed people with its surprisingly compact size and lightweight nature. That makes it lighter than its Sony counterpart.

It also consistently costs less than zoom lenses of a similar range from other makers. The sleek design is attractive and simple. In addition, the body is available in silver or black depending on the look photographers want to achieve.

The lens is constructed with 8 elements in 6 groups and produces images that are amazingly sharp at almost every aperture. There is some general soft focusing at f.16 and f.22, but photographers can generally avoid shooting at these tight apertures. While the softness starts at f/11 slightly, it is barely noticeable to the human eye without significant zooming.

The Autofocus system is about average and isn’t particularly fast or slow compared to other lenses. The lens doesn’t rotate attached filters, which is a benefit if you like shooting with polarized filters, and the linear autofocus motor is also almost entirely silent when it is focusing. This makes the lens particularly discreet in situations where a low profile is important.

Features and Considerations

Since the lens is available with multiple mounts, photographers should be sure to select Sony a6000 when making their purchase. This isn’t typically an option when purchasing other E mount lenses, so photographers should double-check that they have selected the correct lens.

The build is interesting, as Sigma’s approach to building this lens is to make it as basic as possible. The body has a glossy finish instead of a matte finish, and there are no external controls, distance scale, switches, buttons or depth of field indicator. Apart from the focusing ring on the body, it is completely plain.

Many photographers like this appearance, however, as it is sleek and clean-looking. It will definitely look different than other camera lenses in your kit, though, so make sure you like the look before making your purchase.

The focusing ring does have a texture that is different than normal and is made from smooth metal instead of segmented rubber. It is cold to the touch since it is metal but is easy to use and works precisely for manual focusing.

This lens also performs poorly when it comes to macro photography, with a minimum focal distance of 55 cm. This simply means that if macro photography is a priority, you will have to go with a different lens. This lens does perform particularly well in many other situations, however, and is a good all-around lens to have in your kit.

Click to See Price

Best Landscape Lens: Sony E 10-18mm f/4 OSS

• Focal Length: 10 – 18mm
• Size: 70mm x 63.5mm
• Weight: 7.9 oz.
• Filter Diameter: 62mm
• Minimum Focus Distance: 10mm

Pros: Great for landscape photography, sharp images, built in image stabilization

Cons: Higher cost, slight vignetting around the corners

What Makes this Lens Special?

When it was released several years ago, this was the only wide-angle zoom lens for mirrorless cameras on the market. It’s unique in that even though it is a zoom lens, it covers an incredibly tight range of focal lengths, but this can be very useful when shooting wider shots like landscape photography.

The built-in Optical SteadyShot image stabilization system is unique to Sony and helps ensure sharp, crisp images even in slightly lower light situations where hand shake can have a bigger effect on the images. It also has a quick and silent autofocus system and takes images that are impressively sharp for the extremely low price tag.

This lens creates a bokeh effect that is particularly strong because of the rounded aperture blades. This unique design prioritizes bokeh effects and creates one that is particularly soft and consistent. Most lenses use non-rounded blades that create polygon shaped bokeh that is less desirable.

At 16mm, photographers can also get full frame coverage if they upgrade to a full frame mirrorless camera like the Sony A7. The lens has 10 elements arranged in 8 groups and is a reasonable size and weight for the small mirrorless camera body. There are two rings on the lens, one that is used to zoom and one for manual focus.

What Do Reviewers Say?

Most reviewers noted that this lens is unique in the fact that it is wide-angle and has a tight zoom range, and praised it for its affordable price tag and consistent performance. While it doesn’t perform as well as other newer, more expensive Sony lenses, it is also an inexpensive lens and shouldn’t be judged by the same standards.

The lens does come with some automatic distortion control that helps correct for wide-angle distortion. It is also attractive in that it weights almost one-third of similar length full-frame Sony lenses, making it a great option for the compact mirrorless camera body.

This certainly makes it more attractive to purchase an E mount lens instead of converting other lenses since their size would easily create an imbalance with the camera body.

Since the lens focuses internally, it doesn’t suck in dust or air when it operates and ensures smooth operation for a long period of time. The lens construction is also tight and high-quality, and it feels solid and reliable when photographers are using it.

Overall, reviewers said this lens is extremely high-performance for being so compact and inexpensive. The uniqueness of the focal length and function makes it a great addition to any camera kit where photographers want to dabble in landscape photography.

Features and Considerations

Since the lens is a very wide-angle, less expensive piece of equipment, there is considerable distortion in the final images. You can fix this relatively easily in post-processing, though. It is a pretty common issue with wide-angle lenses.

The narrow zoom range and wide-angle nature make it very specific in its function. So photographers should only order this lens if they have a need for a landscape photography lens.

The image stabilization has improved since the company released this lens, but it is still nice to have with it, and cuts down on blur in lower light situations. While it isn’t as good as the OSS in newer lenses, it is certainly better than not having image stabilization at all. The autofocus motor is also accurate, fast and operates relatively silently despite the lens being an older Sony lens.

There are no depth of field or focus scales, no switch to turn the image stabilization off and no autofocus or manual focus switch, but these missing features are minor given the low price tag.

The company announced it in 2012 and released it in January 2013, making it older technology. Since it occupies a unique space for lenses, though, this is not a big problem as the technology is still reliable.

Click to See Price

Best All-in-One Lens: Sony 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 OSS

• Focal Length: 18 – 200mm
• Size: 68 x 97.1mm
• Weight: 18 oz.
• Filter Diameter: 62mm
• Minimum Focus Distance: 0.5 m

Pros: Versatile zoom range, sharp images, built in image stabilization, fast autofocus

Cons: It’s bulky on the mirrorless camera body, a little heavy and has a higher price tag

What Makes this Lens Special?

While some people don’t like all-in-one lenses, they are incredibly versatile and useful in a number of situations. This lens is no exception and is a great choice if you want one lens to carry and use for all of your photography needs. It is particularly great for travel photography and street photography, where you need to change focal lengths frequently to handle anything from light macro photography to landscape images.

This lens captures sharp images that are contrasted well, and has Sony’s standard OSS image stabilization built in to help reduce hand shake and blur when available light is low. The linear autofocus motor is fast, accurate and silent, and there is a zoom lock on the barrel of the lens to stop the zoom from creeping up or down when you are using it.

The diaphragm has seven blades that are circular to create rounded, smooth bokeh effect when you want it. There are also two additional extra low dispersion glass elements included in the design to prevent chromatic aberrations from ruining the quality of your final images. There are also four aspherical elements to help correct distortion and monochromatic aberrations.

Overall, the images produced by this lens are sharp, have vibrant colors and are professional quality. Whether you want to add this lens to your repertoire or meet all of your photography needs, this is a good choice.

What Do Reviewers Say?

While some reviewers missed the benefits that prime lenses have, like lighter weight and sharper images, most reviewers praised this lens for being a high-quality, consistent zoom option that is an asset in any camera bag for a number of different situations.

The Optical SteadyShot image stabilization system is again included and helps the lens perform well in lower light situations, and the linear autofocus motor is silent, fast and accurate.

The lens has a 1.6 foot minimum focal distance that remains unchanged when zooming in or out. While prime and wide-angle lenses often allow you to get closer to your subjects, they also don’t allow the versatility that such a wide zoom range does. The zoom lock is also particularly unique and can be very useful in a number of situations.

Reviewers noted that this was a particularly great choice for travel, in spite of the heavier than average weight. The versatility means you can use it to meet all of your travel photography needs without having to carry a number of lenses around with you. The crop focal length equivalent of 27 – 300mm is also ideal in many situations, allowing photographers to go from wider angle to telephoto.

While there are some areas where this lens could perform better, it is a great overall lens that performs reliably and consistently to create high-quality images.

Features and Considerations

The lens is heavier than other options on this list, at 18 ounces, but that is pretty normal for an all-in-one zoom lens with a zoom range like 18 – 200mm. While it can slightly unbalance the Sony a6000 camera body, this is unavoidable if you want a lens with zoom capabilities like this one.

It should be noted that while this lens is larger and heavier than the other lenses on this list, it is considerably smaller and lighter than other similar focal length lenses from Sony and other manufacturers. Photographers who want to use their mirrorless camera to travel should definitely consider buying newer, more compact E mount lenses as opposed to purchasing a converter to continue using their larger lenses built for other mounts.

It isn’t as sharp as prime lenses, but this is to be expected since it is an all-around zoom lens. Some sharpness is lost around the corners, but it is not extremely noticeable and can often be corrected or cropped in post-processing.

Click to See Price

Best Wide-Angle Lens: Rokinon 12mm f/2 NCS

• Focal Length: 12mm
• Size: 72.5 x 59mm
• Weight: 8.6 oz
• Filter Diameter: 67mm
• Minimum Focus Distance: 0.2 m

Pros: Wide-angle perspective, high-quality construction, low distortion, good value

Cons: The lens is full manual, struggles to control lens flare, bokeh could be better

What Makes this Lens Special?

This lens is small, fast and high-quality, and yields consistently sharp, vibrant images. The ultra-wide angle focal length makes it useful for macro photography, landscape photography and real estate photography, and there are elements built in to minimize distortion that are useful in creating realistic photographs.

This lens was designed specifically for smaller, lighter mirrorless cameras, and thus is also built to be compact and lightweight. Since the Sony a6000 is a crop body camera, the focal length is the equivalent of 18mm, which is still wide enough to use in ultra-wide angle photography situations.

The f/2 minimum aperture is low enough to use the lens in lower light situations, and the wide-angle nature means small movements will not affect the final image as drastically as they would with longer focal length lenses.

This lens is a great option if photographers want to experiment with dusk landscape photography, since they can bump the aperture wide open and use a slower shutter speed without having to raise the ISO to levels that injure the quality of the final images.

The lens is also particularly affordable, in large part due to the lack of an autofocus motor and the off-brand build. Overall, the images are sharp, have rich colors and a lot of detail in the shadows and highlights. The center of the frame is particularly sharp, with slight blur around the edges and corners that is characteristic of wide-angle photographs.

What Do Reviewers Say?

While Sony does offer several wide-angle lenses at comparable lengths, they aren’t as fast or affordable as this lens. Reviewers praised the low price tag and fast performance of this lens, and were particularly happy with the sharp, well-contrasted images it consistently produced. Similar lenses from Sony cost an average of twice as much due to the inclusion of an autofocus lens, which most reviewers found to be too high of a price difference.

In fact, many reviewers said they found that vintage manual focus lenses can be quicker and more accurate than autofocus lenses if photographers are willing to try them.

Since the focal length is wider than the natural focus of the human eye, it can take a little bit of practice to photograph so wide. Once photographers had practiced wide-angle photography, though, the images they are able to create are stunning.

While many people think there are limited applications for wide-angle lenses, they can actually be quite versatile. They can be useful for street photography, architecture, weddings, environmental portraits, interior shots and astrophotography.

Since the focal length is so wide, you can get clean shots as low as 1/15 shutter speed, too, which many photographers find to be a huge benefit when shooting in low light.

Features and Considerations

Since this is a manual focus lens, it does not come with an autofocus motor. If this bothers you, you should look at other wide-angle lens options. Most photographers find that they are easily able to get used to manually focusing, particularly when they are shooting at such a wide-angle and small changes to the focus don’t make as big of a difference as they do with telephoto lenses.

In addition to having manual focus, the aperture is manual control as well, with an aperture ring that clicks between different apertures. It is easy to use however and isn’t a hindrance since you are unlikely to change your aperture between shots once you are set up and photographing.

Changing the aperture manually becomes second nature, as many photographers who shoot in manual mode often realize.

Lens flare can be a problem with the wide angle, but a lens hood is provided to cut down on this. The hood is a little bit bulky, but it does the trick. There is also a considerable amount of ghosting when shooting around high noon even with the lens hood, but this can often be corrected in post-processing and is often not noticeable if it isn’t the focal point of the image.

The bokeh could be better, but wide-angle lenses are often selected for their wide-angle focus, not for their ability to separate objects from the background.

Click to See Price