First Look: Sony Announces Two New E-Mount Lenses: the 12-24mm F/4 and 16-35mm F/2.8

Starting with just one percent of the full frame market share at the time of the A7 announcement three years ago, Sony has now has close to 30% of the full frame market (according to Sony's product presentation this week). As Sony's E-mount becomes more and more popular amongst emerging filmmakers and pro photographers, the only thing slowing the pace of adoption has been a lack of lens choices. Adapting to E-mount can be difficult because of the flange distance, and other manufacturers are slow to make native E-mount lenses.

However, as other manufacturers are catching on to the advent of the E-mount market (including release of the recent Fuji MK zooms), Sony dropped two of their own new wide angle lenses today: an ultra-wide zoom and a wide-medium zoom.

The FE 16-35mm F/2.8 GM zoom:

• Covers 35mm full frame
• Aperture from f/2.8 to f/22
• Aperture blades: 11
• Minimum focus 0.28 m (0.92 ft)
• 82mm filter thread
• Weight: 24oz
• Corner-to-corner sharpness (not just sharp in the center)
• $2,200
• Shipping in August

I was able to do a very very quick & dirty test of this lens, below:

https://vimeo.com/217897245

First Impressions:

Filling out Sony's trinity of G Master lenses, the 16-35mm is really nice and it feels like something that filmmakers who are already using Sony cameras will love. It covers a utilitarian range, yet I wouldn't exactly call the image character utilitarian. It's sharp and clinical, yet the out-of -focus elements are pleasing and organic, especially at F/2.8 through F/3.5—not something I expected from this lens. The distortion is definitely present but minimal even at 16mm, and even then I would characterize the distortion as relatively “pleasing". Zooming feels solid and responsive, and I found myself able to do decent slow, paced zooms mid-shot even operating handheld with no support.

Though the lens isn't technically parfocal, it maintains a reasonable focus while zooming, less drastic than expected. Breathing is also present, but minimal. Like the 12-24mm, the insanely close minimum focus is probably my favorite feature and allows for a wide variety of foreground/background staging. Each of these lenses also has incredible flare reduction; even when pointing the lens directly at the sun, I barely got any flaring.

The FE 12-24mm F/4.0 G zoom:

• Covers 35mm full frame
• Aperture from f/4 to f/22
• Aperture blades: 7
• Minimum focus 0.28 m (0.92 ft)
• Weight: 20oz
• Corner-to-corner sharpness (not just sharp in the center)
• $1,700
• Shipping in July

First Impressions:

I got a chance to play with the lens at a Sony event in Southern California this week, and I think this one will be really popular for photographers. It's incredibly sharp, has pleasing distortion, insane flare reduction and works very well with super fast autofocus on the Sony A9. I wasn’t able to test it for video properly as I didn’t have the correct ND with me (aka Mattebox) to expose the 12-24mm for motion, but I still get the impression it’s mostly going to serve still photographers for landscape and other ultra-wide applications. The minimum focus on this lens is quite impressive—the specs say close to 1ft but in my brief time with it, it felt even closer to me. The photos I took with this lens turned out really nicely and I look forward to testing it in a more ideal setup for video.

At 12mm on the Sony A9 (Full Frame mode).Credit: Micah Van Hove

At 12mm on the Sony A9 (Full Frame)Credit: Micah Van Hove

More lens options for the burgeoning E-mount format can't be a bad thing, and these two new wide angle lenses from Sony are a welcome addition to the current lineups. Stay tuned for the first footage from these lenses as they trickle out on the internet.