if you could only have one lens what lens would it be what is up people Dunna
here and today we are talking about my go to all-around lens for the sony a6500
a6300, a6000 or any sony e-mount camera
you guys seem to ask me this all the time if I could only have one lens for
my camera what lens would it be and I'm a big believer of building out your kit
that you should have tools for different purposes but it definitely got me
thinking if I was headed somewhere if I was let's say going traveling and all I
could bring was one camera and one lens what lens would I bring and that lens is
the sony 18-105 f4 g OSS lens I've had this lens for just over a year now
and it probably stays on my camera more than any other lens that I own so I
figure it's got to be worth talking about now like all my reviews here's
what we're gonna go through today some of the good things about this lens some
of the not-so-good things and what you can do about them some of the uses for
this lens I'm going to answer a whole bunch of your questions that you asked
me over on Instagram and of course because it's never enough to just talk
about it I'm going to show you photos and videos so that you can see just how
this thing performs but before we head out and take a look at what this thing
is capable of I'd like to give a huge shout out to the sponsor for this video
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calorie meal replacement shake that has 32 grams of protein in it I've been
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free vegan GMO free it's just a really awesome thing that you can have
especially if you're a person who's on the go it comes in these bottles that
have powder in them so you can fill them with water they're great if you have to
go on planes and kind of thing so you don't get hit with
taking liquids on the plane and like I said I've been drinking these for about
a month now and it's such an awesome product really great people there's
gonna be a link in the description if you want to go check it out if you've
ever been interested in having a meal replacement I definitely suggest this
and a huge thank you to VitalHouse for sponsoring this video I guess we better
get back to the lens hey let's go see what this thing's capable of
Sony 18-105 F4 Review
so first thing we need to talk about is the focal length of this lens the 18 to 105 focal
length gives you quite a broad range and makes this a very versatile lens the
full-frame equivalent to that is 27 to about 152 so it's got a pretty standard
kind of wide end as well as a decent telephoto in not super long but you know
long enough for most cases at @Jawaher_al_housani I'm totally sorry if I'm saying
that terrible over on Instagram asked what kind of shots is it ideal to get
and because of that focal range from 18 all the way up to 105 it could be used
for a whole bunch of things on the wider end you could do landscape and
architecture photography in the mid-range somewhere in that 50 to 85 you
could take some awesome portraits and on the long end if you're doing events and
that kind of thing this will give you the ability to stand back from your
subject and kind of be out of the way whenever you're talking about zoom
lenses like this especially this one that has such a wide range you're gonna
also get a wide range of ability as far as what you can shoot with it another
thing that I really love this lens for is vlogging because of that 18
millimeter wide end when you're holding it at the end of a Joby Gorillapod or
whatever you vlog with it's gonna give you a good surrounding of what's going
on as well as being able to get yourself right in the middle of the
and as far as that 105 long end if you're using clear image zoom so if
you're shooting JPEGs or video it's also really cool because you actually get a
two times crop on that as well with very little loss in quality turning this from
an 18 to 105 into a 18 to 2/10 that's a pretty wide range now @locusdraheim
dra-heem? something like that I'm terrible with these names asked would
you rather have a zoom lens that covers the whole range or would you rather have
a bunch of primes that do the same thing if money was no object now this is the
big question between zooms and primes which one do you want what's gonna be
better for your situation and this is a really hard question to answer
technically primes usually give better quality images but zooms are far more
versatile you don't have to carry as many and you can cover a wide range
without ever having to take it off the body so if I really had to pick between
one or the other I would probably go with the zoom provided that it had the
same kind of quality that I expect to get out of my prime lenses does that
zoom exist I don't know now talking about the build quality of this it's
made of mostly metal it's got a separate zoom ring and focus ring so you've got
the two separate rings on there which is kind of cool
it doesn't you crazy squirrel
it feels good especially paired up with the a6000 sixty three hundred and
sixty-five hundred as far as the size of it it's almost perfectly the same size
as a pop can or soda pop can or soda can or whatever you call it it's not a
superlight lens but it's definitely heavier than something like the kit lens
that comes with these cameras one of my favorite things about the build of this
lens is that the zooming is all done internally so the lens doesn't extend at
all when you're zooming this makes this lens really great for gimbals and
stabilizers because you won't have to keep rebalancing if you're changing your
focal length now one of the things that's really great about this lens is
that unlike a lot of zoom lenses it has a constant aperture now the aperture is
only f/4 so you're not going to get the same low-light capabilities and you're
also not going to be able to do the same kind of crazy shallow depth of field
that you would on some of those other lenses but it's still pretty darn good
f/4 let's in quite a bit of light and the fact that it's constant throughout
your zoom range means that it's really good for video work for example if you
want to zoom during a shot you don't want it to be changing apertures as you
zoom because it's gonna change how much light is coming into the lens and it's
also gonna be changing your depth of field I found in most situations f/4 let
in enough light especially with the new sensor technology that allows you to
bump up the ISO with very little noise involved now @that_atomz asked on
Instagram what the best settings are for street photography at night with this
lens again that comes back to that f/4 aperture it's a little tough to get
low-light shots and not introduce a whole bunch of grain keep it on that
aperture of f/4 to let in as much light as possible bump up your iso only as far
as you have to go and if you can introduce some of your own light or just
try and be smart about your light now other than how much light and f/4 lens
will let in the other thing is the depth of field nowadays it seems like
everybody wants that 1.8 1.4 super shallow depth of field and this
especially at the wide end is just not going to give that to you
now that being said if you zoom in if you're using it from let's say 50 85 or
even all the way in at 105 you're gonna get a nice creamy bokeh in the
background this thing does a great job the aperture blades give you a nice
rounded bokeh balls in the background and so it can still be really useful for
those shallow depth-of-field shots now a couple of you guys over on Instagram had
to ask of course is it sharp and one person said if it's not is it noticeable
I like this question because it's not the sharpest lens out there and this is
again something that you trade off of when you get a zoom lens versus a prime
lens zoom lenses are harder to make super sharp and super high quality that
being said I have never had any problem with the sharpness of this lens if
you're posting photos on Instagram you're not going to have any problem
with this where most people are looking at
on a mobile that's a super small screen size the sharpness is just fine the
quality and the colors that come out of this thing are super nice definitely
can't complain about that like I said it's not a sharp as something like my
Sigma 30 millimeter but it definitely gets the job done and in a real world
situation where someone's not going to be zooming in and pixel peeping you're
not even gonna notice the difference now @nicospanagel asked if this was a good
upgrade from these 16 to 50 kit lens and @nyc_pictures asked if them getting the
16-50 and the 55-210 was the right choice or if they should have just went
with this now as far as it being an upgrade from the kit lens I do highly
suggest it that's what I did i had the kit lens and i was using that for a
while and then i upgraded to this i got a lot more range and i got a higher
quality image out of it not to mention like i said before that
constant f/4 aperture is awesome whereas the kit lens is a 3.5 to 6.3 i think so
if you're using it for video as you zoom in you're gonna have that problem of the
light going down now as far as getting those 2 kit lenses the 16 to 50 and the
55 to 210 versus getting this there is something there as far as having the 55
to 210 sometimes I do catch myself missing the extra range of having all
the way up to 200 there is an 18 to 200 out there but again it's that 3.5 to 6.3
aperture that I wasn't into I really wanted something with a constant
aperture considering how much video work I do now that being said I don't know if
you made the right choice or the wrong choice necessarily it's good to have all
of your ranges covered for any situation that you might be in and those lenses
are going to do a fine job of that this is a bit more expensive than those and
so maybe that was just something that you can do to tide you over until you
can afford something more like this and speaking of expensive lenses this
thing's about 750 dollars Canadian which is about 600 American I think it's even
on sale right now I'll leave a link in the description if you're interested in
buying it go click that link it helps me out and doesn't cost you any extra it's
not a super expensive lens but it's definitely not cheap either
@julievwanner and a couple of you guys actually asked if I thought that this
lens was worth the price tag now when I first bought this lens I thought that it
was a really expensive lens too because all the other lenses
that I've been looking at were two or three hundred dollars they were fairly
inexpensive lenses now that I've been kind of diving more into the world of
lenses and I understand what's truly out there I realized that this is actually
probably on the inexpensive side when it comes to what's available to you the 70
to 200 you're looking at a couple of grand for something like that whereas
this guy again that kind of $750 Canadian $600 American it's a you know
reasonably inexpensive lens especially considering the wide range of focal
lengths that you're covering now Julie also asked if I thought that this was a
must-have for aps-c sensors and I think so this is the one like I said that I
recommend if I could only have one lens so I think everybody should definitely
be at least considering having a good zoom lens like this one in their arsenal
now one of the cool things about this lens as well is that it's got optical
steadyshot built into it so inside the lens it's going to be stabilizing your
footage or if you're someone who shoots photos it's going to allow you to slow
down your shutter speed without getting the hand jitters in there you'll be able
to get crispy or looking shots and not blur out your photos because your hands
are moving it also makes this a great lens for vlogging like I mentioned
before because you can hold it at the end of a Joby Gorillapod and point it at
yourself and while you're walking and those kinds of things especially for
those people who are on the a6300, a6000, a5100, and a5000 the cameras that don't have the
in body built-in stabilization so then the question comes what can you use this
lens for it's something that I always end my lens reviews with now this lens
in particular being a zoom lens and being a zoom lens with such a wide range
there are so many things that you can use this for but what I highly suggest
it for and what I use it for is less of a specific photography or videography
style and more of a situational thing anytime that I'm going out and I need to
shoot but I don't know exactly what kind of situation I'm getting into for
example if my wife and I are going out and I think I might want to get some
shots but I'm not quite sure what the situation is as far as like where I'll
be shooting or how long of a lens I'm going to need I throw this on the camera
and it covers me most of the time or if I'm shooting an event or something
where I need to be quick on my feet to get the shot and sometimes I might need
a wide lens and sometimes I might need a telephoto lens this is great because I
have both of them right at my fingertips so that's why I would say that if I had
to pick any one lens to keep on my camera and that was the only lens I was
allowed to have I would say that the 18 to 105 would be my go-to again I really
wish that it had better than an f4 aperture but again that's gonna cost you
an arm and a leg and it would probably make the thing a whole lot bigger as well
I forgot to talk about focus
Autofocus = Great
Manual Focus = Pretty good
focus by wire isn't everyone's favorite but this one is pretty good
back to the show
but I really want to turn it over to you guys if you could only have one
lens and it had to stay on your camera all the time what lens would it be would
it be the 18 to 105 or do you have another favorite let me know if you have
any more questions that I didn't answer in this video about this lens I love
chatting with you guys I love trying to answer your questions make sure to hit
me up on Instagram if you want to ask questions for future videos that my
handle is at dunna did it @dunnadidit if you want to be friends click the little circle you
can subscribe to this channel hit the bell notifications so you don't miss
anything if you want to watch another video there's one right here I think
you'll really like it thanks so much for watching and I'll see
you next time
Sony 18-105 F4 Review