Sony FE 20mm f/1.8 G field test by Nate Luebbe

 

Sony 20mm f/1.8 FE G at BHphoto, Amazon, Adorama. FocusCamera. Amazon DE, Calumet DE. Amazon UK. Parkcameras UK. Amazon FR. Amazon IT. Amazon ES.

The following is a guest post from Nate Luebbe (original article here).

Sony FE 20mm f/1.8 G field test

Early adopters of the Sony mirrorless system have watched with glee as the native lens lineup has grown over the last few years. What was once one of the biggest criticisms of the system is now one of the largest strengths, with more and more incredible glass released every month! Understandably, a lot of this growth has been focused on the “classic” primes like the nifty-50, portrait lenses, and super-telephoto wildlife lenses.

For the landscape and astrophotography lovers, until recently, the list has been a bit bleak, with the only wide-angle, fast-aperture lenses being made by 3rd party manufacturers. The Sony 28mm f/2 lived in my bag for several years, and the 24mm f/1.4 is an absolute blessing. However, landscape lovers in search of a true super-wide prime have been left wanting – until today. The brand new Sony 20mm f/1.8 perfectly fills the biggest missing gap in the Sony lineup, and does it with style: the lens is exactly wide enough for dramatic nightscapes and daytime landscape shots, but still maintains a distortion-free rectilinear image projection. The fast f/1.8 aperture is a full 1.3 stops faster than the 16-35mm f/2.8 GM. All of this is accomplished in a lens smaller and lighter than any similar competitors in the class – nearly 20% lighter than the 24mm f/1.4, and 24% lighter than the Tokina 20mm f/2).

Specifications

    • MSRP: $899 USD / $1,199 CAD
    • Dimensions: Φ2.89” x 3.33“(Φ73.5 x 84.7 mm
    • Weight: 373g
    • Field of view: 94.5° (diagonally)
    • Minimum Focus Distance: 7.5″
    • Magnification: 0.22x
    • Aperture Range: f/1.8 – 22
    • Filter Diameter: 67 mm
    • Optics: 3 ED Glass elements, 2 Advanced Aspherical Elements, Nano AR coating.
    • Number of Aperture Blades: 9 (rounded)
    • Mount: Sony-E

Sample Images

Read more

New Tamron 70-180mm f/2.8 FE Hands On by Matt Granger!

Matt Granger just posted the first hands-on video with the 70-180mm f/2.8 FE lens. As Matt points out, these Tamron lenses offer great value which is important for anyone who is working as a photographer.

Additional note: Matt is part of a business sale at the moment which is giving away over $10,000 in computers and software, free entry at https://geni.us/photobusiness – offer ends March 10th.

Here are two screengrabs from the video that do not tell much about the image quality (Click on it to enlarge):

Sony 20mm f/1.8 G Review at Photographyblog: “outstanding lens”

 

Sony 20mm f/1.8 FE G at BHphoto, Amazon, Adorama. FocusCamera. Amazon DE, Calumet DE. Amazon UK. Parkcameras UK. Amazon FR. Amazon IT. Amazon ES.

Photographyblog tested the new Sony 20mm f/1.8 G lens and concluded:

The Sony FE 20mm f/1.8 G is an outstanding ultra-wide-angle prime lens with a fast maximum aperture at a more attractive price-point than the comparable FE 24mm F1.4 GM lens.
This very compact, lightweight optic delivers excellent sharpness in the centre of the frame throughout its aperture range, even performing well wide-open at f/1.8, with performance at the edges not too far behind.
The near-circular 9-blade aperture in conjunction with the 18cm minimum focusing distance makes it possible to create some appealing bokeh effects, despite the ultra-wide-angle nature of the lens.
Coupled with a high-resolution camera like the Alpha A7R III that we tested it with, it’s capable of producing incredibly detailed, very sharp images when stopped down.
The Sony FE 20mm f/1.8 G delivered fast, near-silent and reliable auto-focusing on the A7R III camera, with the Click switch for the aperture ring making it well-suited to both stills and movies.
It offers an acceptable level of build quality, plus it’s usefully weather-tight too.
In summary, the Sony FE 20mm f/1.8 G is a fantastic ultra-wide-angle prime lens that is another great addition to the Sony Alpha range.

Fuji published this odd X-T4 vs A7rIV autofocus comparison….

During the various press events for the Fujifilm X-T4 launch, Fujifilm has shown this video comparing the autofocus between their flagship camera and the Sony A7rIV. But as noticed by some it looks like the settings on the Sony camera where off.

First:
I do own the A7rIV and did never experience the tracking to be so bad as show in the video.

Second:
Readers of Fujirumors themselves noticed that settings of the camera seems to be off. For example they didn’t lock in the AF on the Sony

Third:
As a principle the more depth of field you have the easier it is for the camera to focus. So it should have been more proper to set the A7RiV lens aperture to match the X-T4 depth of field (in the video both cameras are at f/2.8)

But please check out the video. maybe you will find more odd things…

First short Tamron 70-180mm autofocus test shows it works extremely fast!


all Tamron FE lenses side by side via ValueTech

The new Tamron 70-180mm f/2.8 FE lens uses an improved AF motor that works faster than the one used on the current 28-75mm FE. And today we can finally see it in action!

The German youtuber Valuetech posted the first quick autofocus test (watch from minute 2):

Seems to work very fast and accurately! Not bad if you consider they used the “older” Sony A7rIII af system and a prototype lens.