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I own a Sony a6500 camera and I bought one lens Sony 18-105mm f4.

I plan a trip to Iceland and I would to make some good landscape photos.

I saw the first season of "Photographing the World" where they take pictures there with full frame camera and they show the differences between taking pics with 16-24mm.

I started to think that my 18mm (which equivalent to 24mm+) wont capture what I wanted.

I thought to get a new more wider lens for it where the options are:

1) Sigma 16mm f1.4

2) Sony 10-18mm f4

Now im not sure what should I get since I dont think the differences from 16mm in the sigma to my 18mm is that big but maybe the low f number will add some effects while the sony offers wider lens but little worried it will be dark.

I also heard about an option of using Sony 16mm f2.8 and using adapter to 12mm.

Thank you!

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Do you intend to do night shots, or just day? \$\endgroup\$
    – Tetsujin
    Commented May 1, 2020 at 10:30
  • \$\begingroup\$ I wouldnt say night shots but from what I saw there are many days in Iceland where the sun and clouds wont make it look too bright. Of course the f1.4 will allow mw to do astro photos as well but for this trip it is not the main porpuse. \$\endgroup\$
    – Ben
    Commented May 1, 2020 at 10:53
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    \$\begingroup\$ another possibility would be to use the lens you have and if you feel that it's not wide enough, you can combine multiple pictures to a panorama \$\endgroup\$
    – jng224
    Commented May 1, 2020 at 13:41
  • \$\begingroup\$ I took a 16-35mm f/4 for a full frame camera to Iceland. Also rented an 85mm f/1.2 and was happy with both. For landscapes, make sure you have some filters: square kit if you have the cash. Definitely get a polarizer...and ND’s if you will want daytime long exposures. \$\endgroup\$
    – OnBreak.
    Commented May 1, 2020 at 16:03
  • \$\begingroup\$ Can you tell how many times you actually used the 16mm? because if a lot than the sigma 16mm cropped wont be enough for me unfortunetly. \$\endgroup\$
    – Ben
    Commented May 1, 2020 at 16:41

2 Answers 2

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To clarify: 18mm on this camera mean 27mm on FF.

I owned A6000 with 18-105/F4 some time a go and I was very happy with this combination. In very rare cases I found I need wider lens. And IMO Sigma 16mm is not much wider than 18mm. Also when you make landscape photos you usually close aperture to F8-F11 to get bigger depth of field. So Sigma with F1.4 will give you no benefits in this direction.

I do not have experience with Sony 10-18 lens, but what I see from my crop sensor camera I rarely use 10-18, maybe no more than 15% of photos of landscape (same number for 16-35 FF combination).

So if you can/want to spend money for second lens will be better to be Sony 10-18.

But if you have idea to make night photos (aurora borealis for example) will be better to get Sigma 16mm/F1.4 and tripod (if you do not have one)

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Thank you for the detailed answer. I just saw in the show that moat of the photos were taken in 16mm FF in order to catch the whole mountain/waterfall etc so ye maybe after that trip I really wint have that much use of so wide angle but I kind of dont want to photo mountain without it's top =) \$\endgroup\$
    – Ben
    Commented May 1, 2020 at 11:14
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I visited Iceland in 2018. I shot with Fuji's- XT-2 and XT-3.

I just looked at the metadata for the 1000+ pictures I took there. 3% were shot with a 10-24, 13% were shot with a 100-400, and 84% with an 18-135.

Your esthetic will be different of course. There are times where an extreme wide angle will come in handy, and you may need to generate a panorama to fit everything in, but I found that a lot of what I shot seemed to work better in detail. You can fit a mountain into the frame with an extreme wide angle, but I got a better sense of the immensity of the landscape if I could include some feature for scale against the cliffs and waterfalls, and it's difficult to do both at the same time.

Having said that, I think you'll be using your 18-105 a majority of the time, and I'd recommend the 10-18 as a second lens.

I'd also recommend being very careful about cleaning and changing lenses there. Volcanic ash is extremely abrasive and Iceland can be extremely windy. Try to change lenses in a protected location, and don't rub a dirty lens to clean the dust off.

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