Sometimes I Miss the Sony Kit Lens

The kit lens is easily one of the most underated pieces of camera equipment. It’s not a wonder of image quality, it’s not fast enough for reliable low-light photographies. However, it just is a good way to learn how to use a camera. Mine was the Sony E Mount pancake: the 16-50mm f/3.5-5.6 OSS.

On paper it’s aweseme: a 24 to 75 full frame equivalent, small, light, it even had Power Zoom and OSS for video work. I wasn’t particularly fond of mine. I didn’t like the distortion and the vignetting at 16mm. It might have been the reason I ended up buying a used Sony E 16mm f/2.8. Just like the prime pancake, it was great for those wanting a compact and somewhat versatile lens.

Nowadays I mostly shoot with the big and (much) heavier Sony 18-105mm f/4. Sure it’s a great piece of equipment and the only lens I would use if forced to, but having a light camera sometimes beats having greater versatility. The 16-50mm is good for fooling around, for trying new things, for selfies and for handheld videos. I don’t need pristine image quality for that. A simple search on Flickr will reveal great photos taken by people who learned how to properly use it. And that should be the expectation when buying this lens.

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