Regardless of feelings about this lens, the format of this review is very well done. Rather than filming his own talking face for 80% of the review (like most reviewers) Mr. Frost choose to voice over actual supporting evidence of all the points he was making. I think other KZread Reviewers should take note.

@kbruff2010

6 жыл бұрын

i agree

@pacerila

5 жыл бұрын

Which one is better: Sony 16-50mm in this review, or Sony 16mm f/2.8? For daily photography. Landscape, or street photography.

@whit3fox

5 жыл бұрын

totally agreed, very informative and clear supports & evidence of the len!!

@JeremyCook

4 жыл бұрын

Well said.

@blendrock4974

3 жыл бұрын

Could not agree more

I used this lens in few years now and i must say that there is nothing like it for travel and video on the go. I really love this lens. With Sony fantastic digital zoom you can go to 300mm eq with this little lens. Which is 12x zoom. There is no smartphone that can do that at this quality.

Quite simply the best made video I’ve watched. No waffle, just facts, facts backed up by images. You’ve got a new subscriber

@Aemilindore

4 жыл бұрын

one more because of that.

Your thoroughness and insight are brilliant, good sir. Thank you, kindly... the info you've painstakingly provided is super valuable to people like me who are researching this very subject... Thanks again!

Fantastic review, love the details you put in. Your hard work is greatly appreciated!

I've actually been looking for something like this for a while. No-one cuts the cake like Christopher Frost!

I love the way you talk man! It's so calm 😂

This explains everything all along about the lens. However, the dynamic range and details of those pictures are impressive. Thank you.

I own sony a6000 and i am using the same lense, i am very happy with the picture and video quality, its best recommended for the beginner 😇

@KingCoCo

4 жыл бұрын

i just got one this a6000 morning with this lens for $500 bucks only done 900 shots, sweet deal!

Very good and to the point clear review. Thanks for this. And its nice to see that you traveled to Turkey and get a beautiful shot of Izmir from the ancient lift.

you really make great and very clear reviews about lenses

Very nicely done. Specially the part where you talked about why the corners were very soft. I haven't seen that in any review. Thanks for the tip on what f stop to use on close up.

While unlike the general "hate" for this lens, I think it's small size is a bonus that enables you to be compact and lightweight. I mean is that the reason why to shoot mirrorless in the first place?! I know it may not win awards but the 16-50 kit lens is pretty unique in its portability and practically.

@christopherfrost

6 жыл бұрын

I note that as a strong positive thing in this review

@HAlariousInc

4 жыл бұрын

Vintage Pictures There are a bunch of other reasons to shoot mirrorless other than “size”

@HAlariousInc

4 жыл бұрын

Mike D better access to af tech (hybrid solutions), evf, large raw buffer, image stabilization, better access to video centric tech. I personally like dslr sized mirrorless cameras. Dslrs just feel nicer in the hand

@kaushaltiwari9773

2 жыл бұрын

My guess is that at this size, only the Olympus and Panasonic collapsible kit lenses are better. It is time for version 2 of this lens.

The little kit lens is a very useful lens. It is a perfect focal length for vlogging, and is a very versatile lens for riding a gimbal. Good review!

One of the best lens review formats. Wow.

Brilliant reviews just what I needed thanks.

Thanks so much for revealing the actual appalling barrel distortion at the wide end! Not nice of Sony to try to conceal it!

As my first camera a friend of mine (an experienced engineer photographer) suggested me to buy an Alpha 6400 but he told me to avoid the SEL1650 in kit, for this reason I bought a SEL18135. Thanks for this useful review

Great review. Sums up why I find the lens both indispensable and why I don't use it much. I really wish Sony had a kit lens alternative for E-mount without going to the $$$$ 16-70 Zeiss and absurdly large 18-105PZ. It is excellent for video and travel though, but I tend to use my Sigma 19mm+FE 28/2+50/1.8 OSS combo more often due to the 1650PZ's sacrifice in image quality.

@stevestruthers6180

Жыл бұрын

I am also puzzled by why Sony hasn't seen fit to update the 16-50, as its design dates back to the earliest NEX-series cameras, which had maximum resolutions of 14 and 16MP. But I guess there's no money in do-it-all pancake lenses, Sony would rather position itself as the Mercedes or BMW of the camera world and charge big dollars instead.

Thanks for sharing your experience. I also did a short video with sample shots made with the kit lense. But i did my shots more cinematic. The lense isn´t that bad for starting but i prefere my sigma 16mm 1.8

Thanks for uncovering the truth about this lens! Very detailed review.

Very detailed review. Thanks! I believe I am willing to trade-off the image quality at the corners for its compact size.

This was such a good video good catch with the 16mm distortion

Very good your videos! How do you achieve so much sharpness with such different lenses? This is incredible!

Hmmm, I wonder why you mostly choose use your A5100 over your A6300 when reviewing your more recent Sony lens review videos 🤔 Awesome video though, looking forward to more Sony lens reviews!

Thank you for the review. I am going to buy the lens for my Sony-s.

I like this honest lens review. I have plan to buy Sony a6300, but now I know that I should to spare more money for better lens, especially for 4K filming.

It's not a perfect lens if you look at the individual features but it's a perfect lens overall. You really do everything with it without having to change lenses and without carrying around a backpack full of stuff. I will never sell it!

Thanks for posting reviews! Sony 10-18 review would be great!

Very interesting and revealing review. Thanks.

Your reviews are amazing.

Great Review. Very informative. Thank you.

I wonder how lens compares to the Sony kit lens 18-55, please make a review :) Love you’re reviews, my go to before choosing lens.

Very interesting! I can’t wait for your upcoming review of Samyang’s latest 35mm f1.4 for e mount

@lazerman121

6 жыл бұрын

^^^^I second^^^^.

Man i love your voice its perfect for photography reviews I dont mean it in a weird way :)

You should test also this first copy of your lens, becouse in my opinion this model has really problem with quality (5 different lenses will have 5 different images quality). My lens has image quality similar to your first copy, so it was immposible to use it becouse of images quality. Your second copy of this lens looks really good as a kit lens, I am really surprised that this model can produce such nice and sharp images. I bougth sigma 18-50 2.8 and now my pictures are always clear and sharp:). Your youtube channel is really valuable.

Can I get blurry background in videos with A6400 with 16 -50mm? *Please reply* . I very confused between 16 -50mm and 18 -135.

@junkmansobbligato

5 жыл бұрын

whether you have a a6400 or a6300 won't change the blurryness, that's the lens. It will look very much the same as the photos and videos in this video! Both the lenses you're referring to only goes down to f/3.5, so their ''blurryness'' is the same!

@Mosttechy

5 жыл бұрын

@@junkmansobbligato Thanks! I bought A6400 with 18-135.

The point about this lens to me is that it makes for a pretty incredible pocket camera. It's just tiny yet performs well in both photo and video with very few fatal weaknesses. EVERY SINGLE supposedly better lens than this one is 2, 3, 4, 5 times as big. And that just ruins the pocketability of the package. I mean, by all means, get a nice fast prime or a big old honking zoom, but I will still geek out at having a phenomenal capable camera that can get the shot making a small bulge in a coat pocket.

@webdaddy

Жыл бұрын

My cellphone makes a pretty capable pocket camera and it's sharper than this lens.

@-MrEVIL-

6 ай бұрын

​@@webdaddywhat phone

@sidha22

5 ай бұрын

I have S23 ultra and have just ordered a6700 with this kit lens. Well, the reviews in looking at web , I would guess, is on par with s23 ultra. Will do comparison pics after I recieve the camera. I do want to keep the lens because of its size. But if it's just equal to my phone than not worth it.

@-MrEVIL-

5 ай бұрын

@@sidha22 only the main camera would compete well, Samsung has quite bad secondaries

@-MrEVIL-

5 ай бұрын

@@sidha22 only the main camera would compete well, Samsung has quite bad secondaries

Nicely done. Thanks I would like to see some examples of INTERIOR shots of houses ... since that is my main need for a {inexpensive} 16mm lens.

Very good and deep review!

Thanks. Very useful and we'll done review.

Since this, like all kit lenses, is for the general public, I'll just add that *one's choices regarding the F stop* should take into account the effects of changes in *ISO* and *shutter speed* . In other words, *you may get a better image shooting at f/3.5 or even f/5.6 than you do at f/8* if you can therefore shoot at a *lower ISO* and/or *faster shutter* speed. This is especially the case if you don't care so much about the corners. For intermediate shooters, I'll just point out that since this lens has serious barrel distortion issues below 30mm, if you want to use it for a wider shot that's still sharp you can do the following: Set it in manual mode and with manual ISO. Take *several shots* at the *distortion free* length of around *42mm* , each photo being next to the last. Use Microsoft ICE (a free download from MS) to stick together the individual shots "automagically." Enjoy! petapixel.com/2015/02/05/microsoft-unveils-image-composite-editor-v2-0-auto-completion-video-panorama/

@jonphoto5078

6 жыл бұрын

Yes, absolutely, as long as you're okay with sacrificing some image quality. And in the case of this lens, there's no "spare" image quality to lose! :) Moreover, software cannot address every possible combination of lenses and add-ons -- not even LR/PS. Even worse, at least per my impression, distortion affects objects differently based upon their distance from the lens, something no software has an ability to consider in its automatic settings. Therefore, my preferred solution (which is not always practical), is to use the measured (by DXOMark) relationship between distortion and focal length for my lens and choose the zoom level with the least distortion. If the shooting conditions (or my composition preferences) require me to use a different focal length, then yes, using the distortion-modifying (and quality reducing) features of photo editing software may be necessary. Having said that, in many of the examples in this video it's not.

@dtraint3524

6 жыл бұрын

I found my sweat spot at 35mm f/8 but of course depend on the situation it changes. A lot of people ditching the kit lens because they didn't give it a chance or too lazy to learn to how bring the best of the lens in certain situation. Sure it kind of suck in low light setting and not the sharpest (then again doesn't cost me an arm and/or leg). I use the kit lens for street and landscape with great results

@pizzablender

5 жыл бұрын

The distortion is the same for any object no matter what the distance is. (If it wasn't, it would 'bend' things in the foreground away so you could look 'around' them - obviously that is not the case. I think distortion correction is great: doing it on our high-res sensors is better than using more glass. For vignetting it is more a compromise. Lens is smaller, cheaper (which means other things are improved for that price and size point) but compensation leads to noise in the corners.

So stick to f8 or f11 and try to avoid 16mm.... still getting it as the size is a massive plus for me as I tend to shoot at wider angles as I take a lot of travel / adventure photos and don't like bulky lenses, time to buy that travel tripod I have been meaning to get, thanks for the great review

I, too got one of these with my a6300 and I cannot complain too much about it. I'm amateur when it comes to photos and I use mine mainly for video. The native AF is very nice, but the vignetting is terrible. I tend to shoot outdoors at 7.1/8/11. It's really difficult to get any sort of bokeh, like you said. This lens is good but no great for video, and kind of poor for images. Great review, Christopher.

Just about exactly my thoughts about the lens.

A very useful video - thanks!!

This was an excellent review.

Think you sum up this lens very well! I find my copy really inconsistent and frustrating. Every now and then get really soft images or it will just miss focus. Obviously very different cameras but can't help thinking maybe something like an RX100 would be sharper than a A6000 and this kit lens.

@mercury1747

6 жыл бұрын

You'd be right about the RX100, I bought my a6000 without the kit lens because its quality is so damn bad. I snagged a pile of old canon FD primes and an adapter for 50 bucks and they blow it out of the water.

great video as usual. my girlfriend has this combination as well and I didn't know what to think of the lens as it didn't seem bad but also doesn't really impress me. your review was on point about the shady stuff sony is doing behind the screens to disguise the poor performance on 16mm

Thanks for the great review, Chris! Does the kit lens present the same limitations in video? Or is it much better for video than photography? Cheers!

@christopherfrost

5 жыл бұрын

It's quite nice for video IMO

@steveloudon7491

Жыл бұрын

@@christopherfrost Curious. Why would it be better for video that stills? Thanks.

Really nice review!

F/8 make, sharp image for this lens.. thank you so much 🙏

Hello Christopher, I notice when comparing this video to the video of the Nikon Z 16-50 that the colors of your test board look much more washed out through the Sony lens. Is this because of the lens? Or did you change something in your setup in the 2 years between the reviews?

Hi Chris. Any chance when you do the performance against bright lights bit you could also stop the lenses down so we can see how the sunstars look?

Thank you for this enlightening review.

Great review! Thankyou

I have this lens with sony a6000, I'll just try to use this lens at f8 and between 20-40mm

Great video man love it❤️

Great info. So what do u suggest, whether we should go with the kit lens or not for the begginer, starting videography with Sony zv-e10 TO SHOOT head on YT VIDEO wide angle. Or should we buy additional or replacement lens?

Always a great video. The 16-50 isn't perfect, but I think it fills a nice niche for those who are looking for a decent video lens at a low budget.

Great review!

Whoa, you’re doing Sony now?? FINALLYYY!

@FinalLugiaGuardian

6 жыл бұрын

He has already been doing Sony lenses.

Very good vid. Thanks!

I like this lens for family travel. I can work around it's limitations.

Wow! Fun investigation :) I was happy to get rid of my copy.

The fact that it is sharp at the dead center and middle area is great. The softness on the corner might be preferred by some people rather than sharp corner.

Well the copy I have of this lens is great. I don't take pics of brick walls and often add vignettes to most of my images anyway. It's all good here. Its a fab go anywhere lens for a stunning little camera ( A6000)

glad to see you reviewing sonly glass

Sony 16-50mm F8 GM OSS PZ

This lens may not be the greatest, but for me it is really useful to have. On those occasions when you are just taking casual JPEG shots (family and friend gatherings etc) it transforms the a6000 or a6300 into something akin to an easy to carry around compact point and shoot and is less intimidating to people than something like the 18-105. In those circumstances some corner softness is usually not significant in practice and, since distortion is handled in-camera, it's a non-issue. Practical lens for amateur casual use.

The 16-50PZ is all about appealing to what people want: small size. The 18-55 OSS makes more sense to me with the A6x00 series, but that is not a kit option. The A3000 is the only camera to come with the 18-55 OSS since the 16-50PZ came out with the NEX 6.

It's an ok lens. Good for travel to keep your kit compact. It's pretty good for 1080p video. It definitely does not bring out the best of my A6000 sensor. It's a handy lens to have but don't expect to be dazzled by it. Build quality is poor. I'll keep mine as it is useful at times.

Wait for meike 35mm f1.7 review! Good review!

@danialmuhammad7954

6 жыл бұрын

Agung kumala me too

Exceptional video

I'd love to see you test the Sony 28-60. I think it's in a different league to its apsc brother.

Wow, I think I learned a lot from this.

greAT review.... loved it!

I'm pretty make-do about lenses, if I want sharp, bright corners I'll go manual & mount a Mamiya 645 55/2.8, or for pretty bokeh & no vignetting then a Nikkor pre-AI 50/1.8, etc. No doubt this 16-50 is inferior in IQ, & Clear Image Zoom probably won't carry the day on an A7r, but then we won't be afraid to carry it around in rough conditions either. Sometimes what you want is a beater, and this this cheap little pip'll fit in your pocket.

Hi I really love your review and I would like to see a review of the game lens 18-105mm f4 it will be great to see how it performs

07:41 the cat tho, says it all 😅. Nice video btw, mate.

Video at 1:18 looked amazing!! Did you shoot in slog or anything? Can you show how you graded/edited?

@christopherfrost

6 жыл бұрын

Didn't really shoot in SLOG. I don't have the skills or the decent editing software to do so! Just normal kinds of settings, a little added contrast and colours

For this size paired with an A6xxx you get a mighty performance in a small package for everyday use, despite it's problems. If you get a decent one that is.

Many people actually forget the fact, that we are talking about financially very $ cheap lens, so for the price it performs well. Very nice review.

@OttosTheName

3 жыл бұрын

When I bought it a month ago body+lens was only €25 more than just the body. That's ridiculous. I think it's a great all-round lens, not because it's that good, but because it's hella tiny and has fast autofocus and if you steer clear from landscape photography and step down to more typical apertures it's sharp enough. I kinda like it for street photography. But yeah I'd definitely love to upgrade to the 18-135. And for full retail (€299) I couldn't recommend it though.

Looking at purchasing the a5000 and 16-50mm lens as a start up for my frequent traveling. Is this a good entry level package? what else would you recommend?

barrel distortion means the lens is capturing wider angle than the 16mm one. As all the lenses with a design based on the corrections at the wider end , you cannot conclude that they don’t cover the format based on uncorrected results. This lens is capturing probably the field of a 14 or 13mm. The excellent FE 24/105 has excatly the same issue at 24mm. Uncorrected the corners are simply black ….but we don’t use them.

I use this lense but only for 16mm on the video side,i might just get a prime lense for sharpness but ain't checked out the best one to get yet

I got this with my camera for like 30$. Where to download that test image that you use? Really nice review as always!

@christopherfrost

5 жыл бұрын

The test image is not available for download I'm afraid!

Could you please review the sony 18 - 105 f4 for the apsc e mount . It seems like the perfect lens for traveling and it would be really helpful to know how it really performs. Thanks

@slr7075

6 жыл бұрын

Ignore what Landofdispair said. Coming from SOMEONE with real world experience with the 18-105 F4, it's is one of the best performing/value Sony APSC lens available. I find it sharp and purposeful for wide angle to telephoto especially with the constant F4, which is very nice for its price point. It's not too heavy and with internal zoom, you don't ever need to worry about pumping in dust or debris from traveling. It's the definite travel zoom.

I agree with the conclusion of this report. This lens has been tested many times and nobody tells what is the minimal focal lens to get corners with some sharpness. So it is just another review.

Which lenses do you recommend for a6400. Let me be very clear the quality of image that I got of animals was so so so dissatisfying! Everything felt flat and soft

"softer than a Pillsbury doughboy" :D . For non-UK people like me: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pillsbury_Doughboy

@samartography

6 жыл бұрын

i eat pilsbury .flower

hi- would this fit with my camera Sony a6500? if yes do u recommend this lens to a6500? and would that cause any serious vignette? cheers

Hello Christopher, thank you for the video. I will be a new parent and this will be my first camera more impressive than iPhone 7 Plus. Even as a complete newbie, I’d like to ensure my lens is not decentralized like your first one.. in BHphoto (NYC) the a6300 w this lens set me back $925 (just for your data). A dumbed down process of checking would be appreciated. I can imagine it starts with taking pictures :)

@christopherfrost

6 жыл бұрын

Take a picture of something flat, like a brick will :-)

@emilfrank5437

6 жыл бұрын

Christopher Frost Photography wife and me laughed. Love the dry delivery. Will be watching the videos for entertainment. Though I’ve been warned that getting too much into this hobby gets real expensive, real fast 🙈 I think I understand what I need to do. Brick wall and then look at the corners. Hope that softness/sharpness will show even absent text/detail. Cheers!

Nice review I just bought the Sony A6100. I still don't know how to figure out the camera hehehehe

I recently found out there is a seemingly rare variant which is even cheaper and worse (plastic mount, slower aperture) which was released with the A3500 as a kit lens outside North America. The Sony E 18-50mm F4-5.6. It looks absolutely terrible and would be a really funny review if you can track one down. :D I've got my eye out on eBay for one.

Chris, does the Samyang af f2.8 raw photos do these automatic in camera corrections like this Sony kit lens does? I did like the fact the Samyang af f2.8 had no distortion at all, but my thoughts would change if that lack of distortion for the samyang af lens is simply due to sony's in camera corrections. Thanks and have a good day.

@FinalLugiaGuardian

6 жыл бұрын

Can you say a bit more please? Thank you.

@pizzablender

6 жыл бұрын

In-camera distortion correction is not a bad thing. If the resulting sharpness is good, that is. And actually one doesn't lose a lot of sharpness: look at teh lines of the grid, they will only be stretched by a few %. So a few % loss of sensor resolution, is not much compared to how poor "most" lenses are in the corners.

:D AHAHAHA Been Waiting for this review. You should Do their 18-55 Kit I hear It is A LOT BETTER. Also I think I have asked this before but where is that location at 8:34?

@christopherfrost

6 жыл бұрын

Pamukkale, Turkey :-)

Good brefing thanks

Hey Chris, can you review the Sony 18-105 F/4 and the Sony (Zeiss) 16-70 F/4?

@christopherfrost

6 жыл бұрын

I'll be reviewing more E-mount lenses in the new year (as well as continuing with Canon EF-mount lenses)

2:28 - DVD's! I haven't seen this for quite a while.