Chad Wadsworth tested the Sony FE 16-35mm f/2.8 G Master: “My eyes and my gut tell me that this is a lens that will be deservedly well regarded by Sony shooters.”
Looking at the test images that I’ve shot below it’s easy to see that this lens performs well to lock on focus with good colour reproduction. The lens does suffer a little from barrel distortion which is evident in the picture of the stone columns taken at St George’s Hall in Liverpool. However, this may well be down to the optics in the pre-production lens that I was given to test but is nevertheless easily corrected in Lightroom or Photoshop. The sharpness and overall image quality of this lens is pretty good but not on par with the other Samyang AF lens that I’ve tested (50mm f1.4). However, the AF 50mm f1.4 is very much a more substantial lens in terms of size and with that the construction contains more optical components therefore the images differ in quality. There is very much a gap in the market right now for a more affordable line of full-frame, autofocus lenses for the Sony A7/A9 series FE mount cameras. Samyang has spotted this and are taking full advantage while producing great value lenses that perform well whereas other third party lens manufacturers are left falling by the wayside.
Some lenses are a real pleasure to use, and the Samyang AF 35mm f/2.8 FE falls into this category. The technical quality is excellent, the AF is fast and accurate and the results look punchy with superb colour rendition. In terms of value, it’s hard to argue with such a modestly priced lens when it performs so well. Weather resistance would be nice, as would full-time manual focus in AF mode, but apart from that the lens pretty much hits the spot. It is certainly an excellent match for the Sony mirrorless range for which it has been designed.
Lensrentals tested the MTF performance of the new Sony 12-24mm lens and concludes:
The MTF results tell you if the lens should be a sharp lens, and the results here indicate that it should. That makes it worth further investigation for those of you interested in this focal length. It’s one of the more impressive Sony offerings that have come out; reasonable price, excellent MTF, reasonable sample variation. There is something that is more interesting to me in the bigger picture, though. Sony has made this lens smaller than the others in this range, which will be nice sitting on an FE camera. And they’ve done that without the customary ‘Sony surcharge’, which is nice on your wallet. At this point, I can’t help but be very impressed.
The new lens is in Stock in Europe! Just check the links below:
This FE12-24 G is winning a well deserved place in the Sony lenses lineup Light , well built, its optical quality is excellent in practice. Very consistent center to border, no chromatic aberration , low distortion , very good flare resistance, fast and reliable Af, quiet operation, unlimited creative possibility for wide angle fans It is a must for Architectural shooters. For landscape shooters it will go along the 16-35 but will not replace it. The 16-35 has still a little edge in term of sharpness and contrast if you have a >40Mpix camera and if you need to do very large prints (100 * 150cm)
Sports Photographer Hugh Hastings tested the Sony A9 on a Premier League game:
The feature set is outstanding, not just a whole lot lighter, but more useful too, such as the silent shutter that I was able to use in the press conference. Now I can’t wait to try the longer prime lenses and also the camera grip, I shot all these images without a grip as the new battery grip had yet to ship, which is pretty amazing from a handling point-of-view. So, I think it’s absolutely fair to say that the A9 is the start of a whole new ball game for sports photographers, action and wildlife shooters, right here, right now.”
Dmitry: “I tested Sony A9 with 8 Canon EF Mount lenses and both Sigma MC11 and Metabones IV adapter. Some of the lenses are tested are obscure, like Canon 85L Version 1 for example, so maybe interesting for someone. I am not a professional reviewer, just someone who loves the gear. Conclusion is that neither adapter works that great with A9, both Metabones and Sigma need to make firmware updates for A9. Here is a link to my review https://youtu.be/t_4luTllM6s”
