I always feel that some lenses are a better fit for individual camera bodies than others, even when there are similar models in the line-up. To choose the best lenses for the slimline and budget-friendly Sony A6400, the size, weight and price of lens a lens are strong contributing factors for whether or not it makes it onto my hit list. For my money, the A6400 is one of the best Sony cameras because I think it delivers such a great combination of features and versatility at a keen price. It’s a compact and affordable camera, so its lenses should be as well.
I’ve regularly used the Sony A6400 and I’ve tested all the lenses featured in this guide. If I was spending our own money, these are the options I would consider first. You can also check out my list of the best lenses for Sony A6000 cameras generally if you like, and many of the best Sony lenses will also be a good match for the A6400.
Photographers specialize in a wide range of genres, so I’ve tried to cover plenty of interests, from travel photography to portraiture, sports and wildlife. As you’ll see, I’ve also taken A6400 video shooters into account, with the inclusion of a couple of affordable prime lenses which are great for stills photography but also give hassle-free gimbal shooting with a lightweight build and rebalancing issues that can be caused by zoom lenses that physically extend as you sweep through the zoom range. Above all, I’ve aimed to give full consideration to each lens’s suitability for the A6400’s size, its performance in relation to the camera’s 24MP sensor, and the kind of value for money that reflects the price of the A6400 itself.
Rod is an independent photography journalist and editor, and a long-standing Digital Camera World contributor, having previously worked as DCW's Group Reviews Editor. He has used practically every interchangeable-lens camera launched in the past 20 years, from entry-level DSLRs to medium-format cameras, so he has the expertise to select the best Sony lenses for you.
The Quick List
This is a terrific step up from your kit lens, with a handy focal length range, a constant f/2.8 aperture and near-silent autofocus. Read more below…
With a huge 7.5x zoom range from shortest to longest, this is a great option when you can only take one lens with you. Read more below…
The focal length range is ideal for landscapes and buildings, but the power zoom feature makes this lens ideal for video too. Read more below…
Although this is an alternative 'trinity' f/2.8 telephoto zoom for full-frame cameras, I think it's small, light and absolutely ideal for the A6400. Read more below…
This zoom is a bit of a monster size-wise, but it’s lighter than it looks, and its 5x zoom range is handy for sports and wildlife. Read more below…
When you take the A6400’s crop factor into account, this prime makes a capable street lens, and there’s a macro facility too. Read more below…
View the full list ⤵
You could use this prime as a decent-enough portrait lens, but its real strength is getting you close to small objects or creatures. Read more below…
The f/1.4 aperture rating for this very affordable model means you can get some lovely blurred backdrops in your portraits. Read more below…
Best lenses for the Sony A6400
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Best everyday lens for the A6400
The Sony A6400 is usually sold with Sony's 16-50mm power zoom kit lens, which is very compact and convenient but optically a bit poor. If you want a step up in quality, one option is Sony's rather massive and expensive 16-55mm f/2.8 G, but I would pick this instead.
The Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 DC DN offers a constant f/2.8 aperture, just like the Sony lens, with classic 3x zoom range for a standard zoom. The Sigma is smaller than you’d expect given its constant maximum aperture (our shot shows it fitted to our Sony A7R III, but you'll get the idea), yet the build quality is very good – and it’s weather-resistant as well. The autofocus system is super-fast and virtually silent, and we were impressed by the quality of the images.
Read more: Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 DC DN | C review
Most versatile lens for the A6400
Frustrated by the short focal range of the standard Sony 16-50mm kit lens? Get this! With an equivalent focal range of 27-200mm in full frame terms, the Sony E 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 OSS is practically a superzoom, but remains compact, neat and affordable and – unlike almost every other long-zoom lens – it holds its performance even at full zoom.
What I like about this lens is its neat, cylindrical design, its fuss-free exterior, easy operation and in-built image stabilizer. Like a lot of modern mirrorless lenses, it does rely on digital as well as optical corrections, but the result is a long-range kit lens with far better image quality across the range than we would normally expect from a lens of this type.
Read more: Sony E 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 OSS review
Best wide-angle lens for the A6400
Sony also makes an older E 10-18mm f/4 OSS lens, which is a little cheaper than this one and also worth considering. The 10-18mm has optical stabilization, which is good for stills photography, but this newer E PZ 10-20mm f/4 G has a power zoom, which is ideal for video, so take your pick.
The Sony E PZ 10-20mm f/4 G is especially good for vloggers who need to film themselves and their background, because it gives a wider angle of view than a regular zoom. It's also a great travel lens, ideal for narrow city streets, tall landmarks and spectacular interiors. None of the ultra-wide lens options for the Sony A6400 is cheap, but this is such a useful lens to have that we recommend it anyway.
Read more: Sony E PZ 10-20mm f/4 G review
Best telephoto lens for the A6400
I love using this lens on both A7-series full-frame cameras and APS-C format Sony bodies. It’s much more compact and lightweight than conventional 70-200mm f/2.8 ‘trinity’ telephoto zooms, which I feel is always a good thing when shooting with slimline mirrorless bodies. Sure, it doesn’t quite stretch to 200mm at the long end but it comes pretty close, while retaining that all-important constant f/2.8 aperture throughout the entire zoom range. Pop it on an APS-C format body like an A6000-series camera or the ZV-E10 and you get an ‘effective’ zoom range of 105-270mm. Either way, it works a treat for weddings and events and even for sports and wildlife photography, while keeping the weight off.
And there’s more. While the original Tamron 70-180mm was a great lens, I love that the G2 adds optical image stabilization, uprated handling and revamped optics. And it delivers all this at a more inexpensive launch purchase price than the original lens. I find that in-body image stabilization fitted to recent Sony (and other makes of) cameras tends to be less effective in telephoto shooting, so the addition of optical stabilization is particularly welcome.
Autofocus is super-fast, based on a VXD (Voice-coil eXtreme-torque Drive) system, and well able to do justice to the Fast Hybrid AF, Eye AF and advanced tracking options in Sony’s recent mirrorless cameras. The proof of the pudding is in the image quality and I like that the optical layout has been redesigned to include an XLD (eXtra Low Dispersion) element, a hybrid aspherical lens element, three LD (Low Dispersion) elements and two GM (Glass Molded aspherical) lens elements. Tamron’s BBAR-G2 (Broad-Band Anti-Reflection Generation 2) coating is also applied to minimize ghosting and flare. All in all, it’s a terrific lens and a bargain at the price.
Read more: Tamron 70-180mm F2.8 Di III VC VXD G2 review
Best super-telephoto lens for the A6400
For longer-range subjects you need a lens with big magnifying power, but also the optical quality for sharp results. So while there is a cheaper and smaller Sony E 55-210mm lens, this is the one we would recommend for sports and wildlife fans.
The Sony E 70-350mm f/4.5-6.3 G OSS is a fairly big and expensive lens, but it sports a 5x zoom range, equating to 105-525mm on a full-frame body, so it's practically in super-telephoto territory. It might not have an ultra-fast maximum aperture, but the modest f/4.5-6.3 aperture rating enables a much more compact, lightweight build, and it does have Sony's OSS optical image stabilization system. It's a biggish lens, but offers huge range at an affordable price.
Read more: Sony E 70-350mm f/4.5-6.3 G OSS review
Best street photography lens for the A6400
I said in the introduction that I wanted to include a couple of prime lenses, and this is the first. The Tamron 20mm f/2.8 Di III OSD M 1:2 is actually a full-frame lens, so if you decide later to upgrade to a full-frame Sony, this lens will work just fine.
On a full-frame camera it's a wide-angle prime, while fitted to a Sony A6400 it's equivalent to a 30mm lens – perfect as a semi wide-angle 'street photography' lens, in other words. Not only that, its 1:2 close up capability means it's halfway (literally) towards a full macro lens, so it does two jobs, not one. Best of all, it's not too big and not too expensive, despite first-rate optical performance, so it's a great buy for Sony A6400 owners.
Read more: Tamron 20mm f/2.8 Di III OSD M 1:2 review
Best macro lens for the A6400
This is both a ‘nifty fifty’ and an affordable macro lens with 1:1 magnification. It’s not a Zeiss or a G Master, so it’s designed as an affordable workaday lens for amateurs and enthusiasts. That’s not to say it’s a poor performer – far from it – but with no aperture ring and a modest f/2.8 maximum aperture, I would characterize this more as a macro lens than a 50mm (even though that is the focal length).
If what you want is a fast 50mm prime for regular use, you would probably cross this off the list – but a great choice if you want to photograph insects, flowers or anything else where you want to get in really close for big magnification. Be warned that this lens is showing its age in terms of its autofocus performance!
Read more: Sony FE 50mm f/2.8 Macro review
Best portrait photography lens for the A6400
Portraiture and still-life can be a struggle with a crop-sensor camera, especially if you want nice creamy bokeh, giving a sumptuous smoothness to defocused areas. With an ‘effective’ focal length of 85mm on a Sony A6400, this becomes a classic lens for portrait photography.
The f/1.4 aperture rating of this Sigma 56mm f/1.4 DC DN | C lens gives you full control over depth of field, allowing to create beautifully blurred backgrounds, to isolate your subject, at a very competitive price. In my tests, I liked that it’s a compact lens, so it goes well together with a mirrorless camera. Build quality is solid despite its lightness. I also enjoyed the speedy autofocus and tremendous images.
Read more: Sigma 56mm f/1.4 DC DN Contemporary review
Lab data and comparisons
The graphs below show the comparative performance of the lenses in this guide, based on our in-house lab tests. You’ll see that the Tamron 70-180mm has standout performance for sharpness, especially for a zoom rather than prime lens. By contrast, the Tamron 20mm shows pretty extreme barrel distortion but as with many lenses designed for mirrorless cameras, it relies heavily on automatic in-camera correction to put things right.
Scores for sharpness and color fringing are averaged from data taken across the entire image frame, from the center to the edges and corners, throughout the aperture range. For zoom lenses, the scores are also averaged from data measured at all marked focal lengths, and the same applies to distortion. Bear in mind that these average values don't fully reflect specific areas of performance. For example, a zoom lens might have noticeable barrel distortion at its shortest focal length, which is less obvious when everything is averaged out. For more detailed graphs of each lens's performance, take a look at the graphs published in our full standalone reviews.
How to choose the best lens for the Sony A6400
The A6400, like all A6000-series cameras, uses the Sony E lens mount. Sony’s own E-mount lenses have either FE or E in their model names: all work on the A6400. Very broadly speaking, an FE lens will be heavier and more expensive than an equivalent E lens, but deliver better image quality. E lenses (again very broadly) will tend to be smaller and lighter.
For shooting at shorter focal lengths and wider angles of view – specifically kit lenses or ultra-wide zooms – you are probably better off with an E lens. The APS-C crop factor of the A6400 means that FE lenses offer a reduced angle of view, curtailing their wide-angle capability with the smaller sensor.
If you are buying a third-party E-mount lens, check whether the lens is designed for use with APS-C Sony cameras like the A6400, or with full-frame Sonys.
Check out our guide to the best Sony lenses if you want to know more
How we test lenses
The lens experts in our testing lab run a range of tests under controlled conditions, using the Imatest Master testing suite. Photos of test charts are taken across the range of apertures and zooms (where available), then analyzed for sharpness, distortion and chromatic aberrations.
We use Imatest SFR (spatial frequency response) charts and analysis software to plot lens resolution at the centre of the image frame, corners and mid-point distances, across the range of aperture settings and, with zoom lenses, at four different focal lengths.
There's more to it than just the technical side, though! Beyond the lab, our reviewers test lenses in real-world environments – and sometimes on professional shoots! We work with lenses both indoors and outdoors, in studio conditions and in natural light, with as many different subjects as is possible (or appropriate – there's no point testing a landscape lens' ability to shoot a portrait!).
We take into account everything from handling and ease of use to speed of autofocus and the overall quality of the images produced.
Find out more about how we test and review on Digital Camera World
