A Look at the New Sony FE 14mm f/1.8 GM Lens

Sony's new FE 14mm f/1.8 GM lens is here, and it stands as one of the widest-aperture ultra-wide angle lenses ever made, giving photographers and videographers unique creative capabilities. If you are interested in what this new lens can do, check out this excellent video review that examines the sort of performance and image quality you can expect from it in practice.

Coming to you from Julia Trotti, this great video review takes a look at the new Sony FE 14mm f/1.8 GM lens. A while ago, I reviewed Sigma's 14mm f/1.8 Art lens, and I was a huge fan of it, as the combination of the ultra-wide focal length and the extremely wide aperture made for creative opportunities that made you excited to pull the lens out of the bag to find things to shoot. Granted, such a combination is difficult to shoot with (though it is an astrophotographer's dream), but when you find the right subject and composition, it is the kind of thing that can make you rediscover that pure fun of photography. And beyond just the enjoyment of it, such a lens does have some particular niches, such as low-light events coverage, weddings, and astrophotography, as mentioned. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Trotti. 

Alex Cooke's picture

Alex Cooke is a Cleveland-based portrait, events, and landscape photographer. He holds an M.S. in Applied Mathematics and a doctorate in Music Composition. He is also an avid equestrian.

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The best test of the ultra wides is a star capture, and you did great at choosing SS and ISO. The clouds add some drama or just a added subject. But a little history on ultra wides is the pincushion distortion, keeping vertical lines straight But what happens is sides go wider making doors/windows wider than they appear to the eye and even ceiling fans and light figures twist in different directions and are bigger if lens is off center! Sony lenses have always been superb without the distortions. Example the Rokinon 14mm f/2.8 pincushion distortion has star elongation in both corners and worse with the 500 rule of 35s but at 30s, todays NPF rule per camera model of accurate or default should be used, your selections were even faster, great!! The only advise to Sony A7iii is to install the March 2021 firmware, gets rid of dove stars! From what I have done at the accurate setting for both A7iii and A7Siii is there are pinpoint stars in the corners. The biggest plus is everything on the ground to the horizon (cities with lights and ships at sea many many miles away are in focus and have great detail at 400x (pixel peeping) even in the darkest of places. With the ability to lower ISO but get more light highlights are controlled with detail along with sharp shadows when brought out in post. All this is unheard of with other makers lenses.