Sony FE 16 mm f/1.8 G review - Summary

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Sony FE 16 mm f/1.8 G

27 February 2025

Maciej Latałło

11. Summary

Pros:

solid, weather-sealed mechanical construction,
slight dimensions and weight for offered parameters,
excelent image quality in the frame centre,
good image quality on the edge of the APS-C sensor,
properly corrected longitudinal chromatic aberration,
negligible lateral chromatic aberration,
lack of problems with spherical aberration,
very low astigmatism,
moderate vignetting on the APS-C sensor,
sensible performance against bright light,
slight focus breathing,
fast, silent, and accurate autofocus.

Cons:

huge distortion on RAW files,
very high vignetting on full frame.

Lately we've seen a real offensive when it comes to Sony lenses and I have to admit there are plenty of well-put-together, interesting constructions among them. The launch of the Sony FE 16 mm f/1.8 G fits this trend very well. This lens features a long list of very serious assets and just one meaningful flaw – vignetting. Of course, if you take physical dimensions of this lens and its demanding parameters into account this flaw was only to be expected. What's more, the producers decided to keep the price rather moderate and the Sony FE 16 mm f/1.8 G is going to be sold in European shops for 1000 Euro.

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The tested lens doesn't deserve any kind of criticism in the summary but I would like to make a digression or two. I think the reduction of physical dimensions went a bit over the top in this case. Personally I wouldn't mind it at all if the tested 16 mm lens was as big as the 20 mm lens, or even a tad bigger. If such an increase of dimensions allowed to correct distortion better, limit vignetting a bit, and achieve a bit better resolution results on the edge of the frame I would be more than willing to accept it. Of course it doesn't change the fact that this lens, even as it is, is an outstanding instrument that will be a joy to use. I played with it and enjoyed it thoroughly. I would like to take it with me on my next arctic trip for sure.