Wide angle lenses are popular because of their versatility, but the right one needs to strike a balance between portability, sharpness, and performance. The Sony FE 16mm f/1.8 G promises just that, aiming to be the lens you take everywhere, from landscapes to city streets, even vlogging setups.
Coming to you from Stefan Malloch, this insightful video gets straight to the heart of how the Sony FE 16mm f/1.8 G performs in real-world scenarios. Malloch highlights its standout features, particularly the fast f/1.8 aperture that enables impressive low-light capability, a shallow depth of field for creative backgrounds, and compact dimensions making it perfect for travel photography or videography. One significant strength of this lens is its autofocus performance. Fast, precise, and consistent, the autofocus pairs seamlessly with the latest Sony cameras, meaning you can depend on it in most situations. Although it lacks built-in stabilization, Malloch explains that with the wide 16mm focal length, this feature isn’t missed much, as modern camera bodies typically cover stabilization adequately.
However, Malloch also points out some issues you’ll want to consider. The lens exhibits noticeable distortion and vignetting at its widest aperture, f/1.8. While distortion can easily be corrected with lens profiles in post-processing, it may matter more if your work involves precision, like architectural photography. Sharpness, on the other hand, is a strong suit. The lens delivers excellent center sharpness wide open, though stopping down slightly provides improvements in corner sharpness and reduces vignetting. The best sharpness, as Malloch demonstrates, lands around f/5.6. He notes chromatic aberration does appear occasionally in high-contrast scenes wide open, although it's minimal and manageable.
Key Specs
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Focal Length: 16mm
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Aperture Range: f/1.8 to f/22
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Lens Mount: Sony E (Full Frame)
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Angle of View: 107°
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Minimum Focus Distance: 5.9" / 15 cm
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Maximum Magnification: 0.25x (1:4 Macro)
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Optical Design: 15 Elements in 12 Groups
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Aperture Blades: 11
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Stabilization: None
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Filter Size: 67 mm
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Dimensions: ø 2.91 x L 3" (7.38 x 7.5 cm)
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Weight: 10.7 oz / 304 g
Malloch also explores the physical design and usability. Despite a plastic build, the lens feels robust and thoughtfully designed, featuring practical details such as a manual/autofocus switch, customizable focus hold button, and a de-clickable aperture ring for video work. Its weather-sealed metal mount offers extra confidence when shooting outdoors. He praises the tactile manual focus ring, though he notes autofocus is so reliable you may rarely need it.
One standout creative aspect Malloch covers is the close focusing ability, which allows for inventive perspectives uncommon with typical wide-angle lenses. He demonstrates how combining this with a wide aperture yields distinctive images, though he cautions about softness when getting too close. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Malloch.
1 Comment
I am a landscaper and a astro Milky Way capturer. One thing most all reveries never cover is the difference in wide open during day and night. Day time you look for those bokeh balls when wide open. Also at night with city lights BUT wide open doing astro capture you will fine sharpness and clarity from objects close to the camera all the way to the horizon like city buildings on the horizon or say buoy lights on the horizon with water all when focused on the stars.
Another the f/22 setting is best to see dust on your sensor when doing a long exposure in a circular motion.
Also for those doing sunrise and sunsets and on a beach the f/22 setting will bring out detail unseen by ones eyes like #1 with a pirate in the sand in the foreground with my boot prints that seem to float over the pirate, did not see till edit, the sun is small due to a bracketed capture!
The small size and lightweight of the lens will be best for Astro Milky Way Arch's for the lens will be atop a panorama rig on top of your tripod. The FE 12-24mm f/4 and f/2.8 as well as the 14mm f/1.8 require filter holders and glass filters added on. What panorama astro is all about is very tight turned knobs and levelness for about 200 + degrees so looking at the leveling bubble the whole range is done a few times.
Also we look at the time of year April to August when the arch is high and the wider the lens in portrait view the higher the capture and the more stars above the arch so more pinpoint stars also above and that will give a non panorama look but a normal looking photo image when all is merged.
Another subject is Shutter Speeds of Super Wide Open lenses like this f/1.8 and your camera selection like the A7SM3 and the A7RM5 examples looking at PhotoPills Spot Stars NPF Rule Accurate choice.
A7SM3 with a 16mm f/1.8 9.18s
A7RM5 with a 16mm f/1.8 5.20s due pixel numbers and height
Both will capture the same image but what camera do you choice for speed of capture?
You will capture with camera Noise Reduction ON and when in that black out mode that is the same number of seconds as the capture you will move to the next spot where you hear that click of the degree setting. The faster each image is captured means things like waves crashing or reflection of stars on the water of a lake will marry up. Like #2 using the FE 12-24mm f/2.8
But in August I would probably use the new 10mm f/2.8 for the height of the arch
If anyone ever used a f/4 lens when they were the widest opening I would and could go 30s for a normal capture with pinpoint stars but really could go faster.
Lastly the threads for up front filters is great for night light of colors but next month starts the leafing from north to south and there are a number of filters to bring out all those colors and at a 16mm view.
I do not think many indoor architectural will stay at 16mm but use their 16-35mm's for the different room sizes.
#3 using the old FE 16-35mm F4 ZA OSS on A7SM1 at 35mm but a close up at a very little subject the extra mm helps when on ones belly, seen on cold nights with warm ground temps.
#4 just info another really small lens is the Sony APS-C E 10-18mm (15-27mm) f/4 OSS that can be used in full frame mode in 12-18mm a 2013 lens also great for Astro Milky Way Arch's as as small as the 16mm and with threads for filters.