I’ve been utilizing the Sony FE 16-25mm f/2.8 G and I prefer it. Eventually Sony is providing an alternative choice to its big and massively costly G Grasp lenses. In all probability the closest equal to that is the Sony FE 16-35mm f/2.8 GM II, which is twice the worth and over 30% heavier.
Each lenses may, in their very own means, be thought of among the many greatest Sony lenses for landscapes, structure and journey.
However the 16-35mm G Grasp has one thing the FE 16-25mm f/2.8 G doesn’t have – an additional 10mm of focal size on the lengthy finish of the zoom vary. Leaving apart any optical benefits the G Grasp lens might need, that’s a fairly large sensible benefit proper there.
Does it matter, although? My first response was to assume that 16-25mm zoom vary was foolish. That’s barely a 1.6x zoom vary on a lens that isn’t even fantastically huge. Up to now we’ve accepted 14-24mm f/2.8 lenses from Nikon and Sigma with a 1.7x zoom vary, however they’re a great deal wider. Zooms beginning at a focal size of 16mm have at all times been 16-35mm lenses or thereabouts, which is greater than a 2x zoom vary.
Perhaps 16-25mm is definitely wonderful?
So I finished to surprise if I used to be simply being a slave to conventions of lens classes, versatility and worth. I’ve used and owned loads of 16-35mm lenses prior to now and shot with them virtually at all times on the shorter focal lengths and really hardly ever at 35mm. I don’t often exit capturing with an ultra-wide zoom with out taking an ordinary zoom too, so a 16-35mm lens provides me a great deal of overlap on focal lengths that I’ve obtained coated anyway.
Which was precisely the expertise I had with the FE 16-25mm f/2.8 G. Sure, that zoom vary is brief, but it surely covers virtually all of the pictures I would like an ultra-wide zoom for. Typically it’s helpful to go even wider, even so far as the astonishing Canon RF 10-20mm f/4 L IS STM can go, however a 16mm angle of view could be arduous to deal with in itself (maintaining verticals straight, for a begin), and might be as huge as I repeatedly want.
So the underside line is that the FE 16-25mm f/2.8 G goes nearly as huge as I would like it to, and since I often have an ordinary zoom with me, it’s lengthy sufficient too. There’s solely a 1mm overlap in focal lengths in comparison with the 11mm overlap I’d get with a 16-35mm lens, however the level is I nonetheless haven’t any hole in my focal vary.
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‘Small’ is relative
My downside with this lens is definitely just a little totally different. It’s definitely smaller than the FE 16-35mm f/2.8 GM II, and fairly small for lenses on this class, but it surely’s not small in any absolute sense. I’ve been testing it on a Sony A7C II, the place it doesn’t appear small in any respect. Having stated that, on an A7 physique, it’s quite a bit higher. Nonetheless, it appears to me that to attain a helpful discount in dimension, Sony has traded a whole lot of focal vary.
I applaud the sunshine weight of the brand new Sony FE 16-25mm f/2.8 G, its spectacular options and controls and its equally spectacular price ticket. It will make a terrific pairing with the equally new and compact Sony FE 24-50mm f/2.8 G customary zoom. It’s nice that Sony is popping its consideration to smaller and lighter lenses which can be maybe a greater match for the stability of its A7 cameras and the budgets of non-professional customers. However it’s not been with out price, and that price is the zoom vary and adaptability we’ve come to count on from zoom lenses.