In this guide we will see how to set our Sony a6000 for manual lenses, vintage or modern ones. But also why you may need a modern or a vintage manual lens. This guide will be useful even if you own a modern lens and you need to focus manually.
Why you may need to buy a modern manual lens
You just bought your new camera. Maybe with the kit lens or even with a good prime lens. Suddenly you realize that you need more lenses for different types of photography. Maybe for portraits or for landscapes. Or maybe you are not happy with the image quality of your kit lens. But you can't afford to buy a new one. Modern prime lenses have electronic components to provide features such as auto focus and in some cases image stabilization and that makes them expensive. Usually a good modern lens costs more than the camera body! On the other hand manual lenses are not such complicated designs and can be bought at extremely low costs even if it is a high quality construction.
Why you may need to buy a vintage lens
Talking about prices, vintage lenses can be even cheaper. Some of them were mass produced with million of units out there. A good example are the German (DDR) and Russian lenses of the Soviet era. A good copy can be found for less than 50$.
But price is not the only reason. Vintage lenses have a lot of character. They have imperfections and flaws that makes them unique. Maybe you want to add that swirly bokeh and a vintage feeling to your shots. Or maybe you need them for video. Vintages lenses tend to have a more cinematic and filmic look. Some sellers or users modify them so that they can produce anamorphic bokeh and flares.
Another reason is portraiture. Modern lenses are so sharp that they reveal many details of the skin that even the human eye can not see in real life. Why should you reveal skin pores and other blemishes? On the other hand vintage lenses produce softer images so usually you do not have to edit images later in Lightroom.
More reasons to buy a manual lens
You may own many camera bodies from different manufacturers or with a different sensor size. Its safer and cheaper to invest to manual lenses. Its easier to adapt them to other mounts. All you need is an adapter. Modern glass may not be compatible and if it is you may encounter problems such as slow or no autofocus etc.
Most of all you will become a better photographer or content creator. You will be forced to learn how to use manual focus in videos and stills like most professional cinematographers do. There will not be any auto aperture mode and you will soon understand how a different aperture value affects the amount of light then enters your camera. Or how it affects your depth of field.
It is a fact. Manual lenses will make you a better photographer and video creator.
Personally i enjoy more using manual and vintage lenses. I use modern glass (mainly telephoto and zoom lenses) when i am in a hurry or i want to shoot an airshow or wildlife and i need fast autofocus and bigger reach. Manual lenses are not the best choice when you want to shoot action and fast moving objects.
Sony a6000 settings for manual lenses
If you buy a manual lens for the Sony E mount system it is already compatible and all you need to do is to attach the lens to your camera body. If it is a lens for another mount or a vintage lens you will need to buy an adapter and attach it between the camera body and the lens. For example, to use an M42 lens you will need to buy an M42 to NEX adapter.
There are also some settings that you need to change inside the menu of your camera otherwise you will get an error message.
If you don't enable this option manual lenses will not work
- Go to menu, tab 3 and enable “Release W/O Lens”.
Another setting that will help you with manual focus, especially when recording a video is Peaking Level. I set this to mid and red but feel free to choose whichever works better for you.
Second Tab - Peaking level
Focus Magnifier is the best and most accurate method to focus manually. Assigning the C1 button to focus magnifier will make things easier and you will focus much faster. C1 is right next to the shutter button so it will help you a lot.
C1 is next to the shutter
Press C1 and select the part of the image that you want to zoom and adjust focus
If you press C1 again it will zoom 5.9 times. Pressing a third time and the zoom will become 11X.
That was it. Now you know how to set your Sony a6000 for a manual lens (modern or vintage). Have fun!
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