Large high-speed primes such as the 85mm F1.4 G Master are nice to have, but they are pricey, large, and sometimes intimidating. When it comes to moderate-speed lenses, it sometimes seems that manufacturers put price before outright optical performance. That’s not the case here. While not exactly cheap, the Sony FE 85mm F1.8 costs less than its premium G Master sibling or even the rival Zeiss Batis 85mm F1.8, yet it has a real nice balance of performance, with excellent sharpness and low lateral color and distortion. Apart from a little vignetting, with its unobtrusive size and low weight, this new lens looks to be an excellent alternative for all the right reasons.
This is troubling news for Zeiss as it seems there is little reason to buy the more expensive Batis unless you really need in lens stabilization. And for most people the 85mm GM will not be worth the much higher cost. The new 85mm G is a nice lens and I can only highly recommend it!
I was impressed with this lens for the one day I had it.It simply is a lens many of us have been waiting for, and once more proves that Sony is very serious about where they are heading in the Pro-Photography market.I have placed my order for this lens to add to my Sony kit. I’ll do a follow-up review with a production unit when I receive my lens later this summer.We were told that the lenses we were using were the final release products.
For anyone interested in playing around with RAW Sony A9 Files (Astro and Daytime) with the 16-35mm F2.8, 12-24mm F4, and 24-70 – download my images directly from here: dropbox.com/sh/ ***You’ll need Capture One V10.1 to view/edit them and I’ll only have the folder live for the next 5 hours***
Sigma issued a new firmware update for the MC-11 adapter. The improvements:
● It has become compatible with the SIGMA 17-70mm F2.8-4 DC MACRO OS HSM | Contemporary in SIGMA mount (firmware version 1.02).
● It has become compatible with the SIGMA 18-200mm F3.5-6.3 DC MACRO OS HSM | Contemporary in SIGMA mount (firmware version 1.01).
● It has become compatible with the SIGMA 18-300mm F3.5-6.3 DC MACRO OS HSM | Contemporary in SIGMA mount (firmware version 1.01).
※ Before updating the MC-11 firmware, please ensure SIGMA Optimization Pro has been updated to ver. 1.4.1 or later for Windows, and ver. 1.4.0 or later for Macintosh.
Some of you might have missed that for around two hours Amazon was selling the 16-35mm for $1,698 (screenshot below). I don’t know if Amazon will honor this or cancel your preorders. Just to be sure place another preorder Bhphoto, Adorama, BestBuy if you don’t want to get a bad surprise. Still, fingers crossed you might got some luck this time :)
William J. Claff posted the graph above showing the revised Estimate of Sony A9 Photographic Dynamic Range (PDR). It shows that at low ISO the A9 is around 1 stop behind the A7rII but 1.2 stops better than the much more expensive direct competition from Nikon (D5).
Yesterdays Dpreview article created some surreal discussions on the web. If you think cool minded it is obvious the A9 doesn’t have the same A7rII Dynamic range performance. With double the pixels the A7rII is also the class leader in the FF world.
Moreover: The A9 is made for sports photography! And sports cameras are by nature trimmed to perform best at mid ISO settings because they mostly use the camera at fast shutter speed. If you complain about the A9 not having a good performance as the A7rII at ISO 100 it would be like complaining the A7sII has no 50 megapixel :)
What matters is that REAL professional photographers shooting with the Nikon D5 or Canon 1D now can have a camera with much higher dynamic range and speed…the Sony A9!
Some more good news: Jeremy Smith tested the A9 under condition he would typically see banding. And his quick and dirty conclusion is that the A9 has no banding issues (see video below). But I would hold on judgments until we see more because some other tester reported some minimal banding in mixed light conditions.
Support SAR! I would appreciate if you would use those affiliated links to preorder the lens. I get a small commission and you don’t pay any cent more than the normal price. It’s the best way to finance my work on SAR. Thanks!
Note that since October all our lens rumors proved to be correct (Click on the lens name to read the rumor): 100mm STF, budget 85mm, 100-400mm FE, 16-35mm GM. Thanks sources!
A more detailed coverage of the lenses can be found on SAR here (16-35) and here (12-24). To sum up some of the lens highlights:
16-35mm:
– It is the first Sony lens with a new fly by wire mechanism. It allows reliable manual focusing!
– Unusual for a wide angle zoom is that it has a 11-blade circular aperture which contributes to even greater bokeh quality
– The new GM lens weights only 160g more than the slower Zeiss 16-35mm f/4.0 lens. Good job Sony!
12-24mm:
– The lens weights half as much as the Sigma 12-24mm or Canon 11-24mm lens! And MTF graph is on par with the Sigma…promising!
– It is only priced $100 more than the Sigma. This is just to say that unusual for Sony pricing seems to be fair in this case :)
– Just like the new 16-35mm GM also the 12-24mm lens has a new fly by wire focus mechanism
– In first testings this lens is surprisingly resistant to flare. Unusual for such a wide angle zoom.
Of course we have to see some more reviews from independent sources. But so far I am impressed about what I saw from these lenses. And also the price of the lenses is pretty reasonable compared to the competition. While the 16-35mm GM is probably the one lens I will buy I have to admit the 12-24mm is very tempting too mainly because of the very low weight (I am a hiker).
