lhardister Loc: Brownsville, TN

Thanks. This kind of info is very helpful.

lhardister Loc: Brownsville, TN

Thanks, Jeff. I'll definitely check it out.

PhotobobII

It cannot be switched off but it has a zoom ring you can use. I do not like the power zoom so I use the manual zoom ring all the time. One thing, the lens always go back to 18mm when you turn the camera off.

Toment Loc: FL, IL

24-70 was fine. It is a heavy lens but if you hold the lens I don't think that the weight of the lens will be a problem with the camera.
As far as the use of the auto zoom is concerned, it is easily overridden by manual use, no problem.
The 18-105 is a G lens, Sony's best and the VR/OSS is very good with the minimum aperture of 4.0.

lhardister Loc: Brownsville, TN

That is very helpful. Thank you for your reply.

Shaun Loc: Tucson, AZ

I have a Sony a6000 and use the Sony 18-105 as my walk around lens and love it. I do not do much video but when I do, the power zoom is very smooth. You do not have to turn it off to manually zoom so that should not be a factor for you to consider. The lens is exceptionally sharp and the auto focus is extremely rapid.

imagemeister Loc: mid east Florida

If you want to manually focus, then my first recommendation is to use a lens that was originally designed to be manually focused ! and NOT an AF lens. The hitch is, most manual zooms were not that great - Primes yes.

Carl D Loc: Albemarle, NC.

I would use an 18-105 or an 18-200 if you to spend the money. These are Sony lenses.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

If you are willing to focus manually, look for a Tokina 28-135mm f4-4.6 in any adaptable mount (it was available in most common mounts... just now I found it in Nikon F, Olympus OM, and Canon FD on eBay). It's a good lens that was designed by Konica, made by Tokina and later was copied by Canon and others.

It's also a reasonably useful focal length range on APS-C (though a bit long on four/thirds like NEX).

Don't fall into the "super zoom" trap... there were a lot of 28-200 and 28-300 made back in the old days of film, that are utter crap. Modern "do everything" zooms are better, but still not all that great. They really aren't what most call "walk-around" lenses, either. Those are moderate wide to normal to short telephoto... usually 4x, 5X or 6X zooms. Not 7X, 9X, 10X and more, like the "do everything, though none of it particularly well" zooms.

For an inexpensive, manual focus, adaptable lens, you're looking at film/full frame designs. There just weren't many ultrawides, like there are today specifically designed for crop sensor cameras.

On APS-C 28-135mm gives you a good "normal" to "moderate telephoto" range to work with... on APS-C equiv. to about 40 to 200mm on FF. You might look for an older 10-20mm or something like that, if you want a wide lens too. But those will more likely be auto focus lenses.

Back in the days of film, about the widest you could buy without trading in your car to fund it was 17-35mm... or 20-35mm before that. Neither was very cheap, either. Alternatively, you might find some primes... but the 17mm, 18mm, 20mm and 21mm you'll find will all only be moderately wide now, using them on an APS-C camera. And those won't be cheap, in a lot of the available mounts. What were once ultrawides on film but now are only moderately wide on digital crop cameras, even third party and orphaned mounts such as Canon FD and Konica K/AR, are still rather pricey.

Any lenses you look at probably need to have manual aperture control, too, regardless of the mount.

lhardister Loc: Brownsville, TN

Hello, imagemeister. I understand and fully agree with your observation. My interest in manual focus lenses is not for the sake of the "art" of manual focusing. With focus peaking, the a6000 can assist me to do a reasonably good job of focusing for most of the shooting that I do. My thinking was that some older manual focus lenses could be obtained relatively cheaply and still do a very credible job for me. I am quite willing to use an AF lens if I can get one that seems to satisfy my quality and price criteria. In effect, I confess that I am unashamedly looking for that rare quantity, a great walk-around lens at a bargain. Because these criteria are difficult for me to find and evaluate, I have asked UHH'ers for the benefit of their knowledge and experience. I appreciate all the replies that have been made to my request, and must add that I enjoy following UHH from day to day--lots of good information seasoned with a little entertainment!

lhardister Loc: Brownsville, TN

Thanks amphoto1. That is exactly the kind of info that I was seeking.

Reinaldokool Loc: San Rafael, CA

I use a Fotodiox adapter with my Nikon 400mm and my Rokinon fisheye. So, since you want manual you've got a world to pick.

Still, I've chosen the Sony 18-200 SEL 18200LE. The idea of using an adapter on my "walk around" doesn't appeal to me. The Sony lens is pretty good. Not a Zeiss, but I don't have a thousand dollars laying around. I've had this lens on two a6000s and now on an a6300.