Sony FE 16 mm f/1.8 G review - Image resolution

Have you rated your lenses yet?

Sony FE 16 mm f/1.8 G

27 February 2025

Maciej Latałło

4. Image resolution

Our resolution test (resolution meaning the MTF50 function values) of Sony FE lenses is based on RAW files from the 42.4 Mpix sensor of the Sony A7R II, the Sony A7R III, or the Sony A7R IIIa camera. In the case of this kind of detector the decency level we set about 39-41 lpmm and the best fixed focal lenses have been able to reach about 80 lpmm; record-breaking devices exceed 85 lpmm, getting even close to 90 lpmm. So far, our lists of lenses with the best results goes as follows: the Sony FE 85 mm f/1.4 GM II (85.8 lpmm), the Meike 85 mm f/1.4 FF STM (90.2 lpmm) and the Sony FE 50 mm f/1.4 GM (90.9 lpmm).

Let's see how the Sony FE 16 mm f/1.8 G compares – its results in the frame centre, on the edge of the APS-C sensor, and on the edge of full frame presents a graph below.

Sony FE 16 mm f/1.8 G - Image resolution

For such a small lens that offers you a very good aperture speed and an ultra wide angle of view, the results in the field centre are excellent. Already at the maximum relative aperture you deal with a very good level of almost 60 lpmm and on stopping down the aperture the results improve even further. The peak of the performance with very impressive results of 76-77 lpmm is recorded by f/2.8 and f/4.0.

Please Support Us

If you enjoy our reviews and articles, and you want us to continue our work please, support our website by donating through PayPal. The funds are going to be used for paying our editorial team, renting servers, and equipping our testing studio; only that way we will be able to continue providing you interesting content for free.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - advertisement - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

It's worth to compare these results with the results of the 1.8/14 GM and the 1.8/14 GM models with the help of the graph below.

It's clear that the 16 mm device goes head to head with the bigger and more expensive 14 mm lens. At the maximum relative aperture the older model is a tad better but on stopping down the aperture the 16 mm device prevails slightly. Still the differences are so small that in practice both lenses perform very much alike and in real life photos it would be difficult to find any of them. The 20 mm lens is a class of its own, performing distinctly better than both models with wider angles of view.

Let's return to the tested Sony FE 16 mm f/1.8 G and its performance on the edge of the APS-C sensor. The results are very good – already at the maximum relative aperture the lens reaches 50 lpmm and on stopping down the aperture the MTFs increase approaching a very good level of 60 lpmm.

If you expected that limiting dimensions and weight of a lens with parameters so difficult to design as the 1.8/16 has to have its drawbacks it's enough you look at the demanding edge of full frame. Here the maximum relative aperture provides a result a tad below the decency level but, fortunately, up from near f/2.0-2.2 you can enjoy images with a sensible quality. To be honest I expected here weaker performance so, in my opinion, this compromise is rather moderate. It's important that in the aperture range from f/2.8 to f/8.0 you can enjoy good, momentarily even very good, image quality and literally in every place of full frame.

To sum up I am very pleasantly surprised: a construction very moderate when it comes to weight and price fared in our resolution test very well. One small compromise at the maximum relative aperture and on the very edge of the full frame detector is not able to change our positive assessment. A round of applause Sony!

At the end of this chapter, traditionally, we present crops taken from photos of our resolution testing chart which were saved as JPEG files along the RAW files, used for the analysis above.

A7R IIIa, JPEG, 16 mm, f/1.8