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Archive 2017 · Sony 16-35 F4 Corners

johnahill
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Sony 16-35 F4 Corners

At what aperture should I expect sharp corners on the 16-35 (say at 16 and 21mm)

I'm on my second copy of this lens and can't see in anyway that its corners match the Canon 16-35/4.
Could be due to field curvature or the fact that i find focusing by wire at very wide angle a complete PITA.

Could be that I've got a stellar copy of the canon and less so of the sony or the sony could be decentered.

Feb 25, 2017 at 01:46 PM

Fred Miranda
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Sony 16-35 F4 Corners

johnahill wrote:
At what aperture should I expect sharp corners on the 16-35 (say at 16 and 21mm)

I'm on my second copy of this lens and can't see in anyway that its corners match the Canon 16-35/4.
Could be due to field curvature or the fact that i find focusing by wire at very wide angle a complete PITA.

Could be that I've got a stellar copy of the canon and less so of the sony or the sony could be decentered.

John,
A good copy will give you the sharpest corners at infinity using these apertures:
(stopping down makes no difference)

16mm (f/5)
21 (f/5.6)
24 (f/5.6)
28 (f/6.3)
35 (f/9)

At 24-28-35 it may need a contrast boost in post.

From

Feb 25, 2017 at 02:01 PM

Viramati
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Sony 16-35 F4 Corners

I find with mine that at 16-18mm if I want near foreground corners and the infinity to be sharp I stop down to f8 and beyond and place the focus point near to the corners in the lower left or right of the frame that way I get an image with equal sharpness across the frame. I find that focussing with this lens does take some practice and it can take some time to understand its characteristics at different focal lengths. A good copy is worth its weight in gold

Feb 25, 2017 at 02:11 PM

johnahill
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Sony 16-35 F4 Corners

A quick test, on tripod.

Canon @ 16mm f5.6 scene

sony @ 16mm f5.6 scene

Canon @16mm f5.6 center

Sony @16mm f5.6 center

Feb 25, 2017 at 02:40 PM

johnahill
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Sony 16-35 F4 Corners

Canon @16mm f5.6 Right

Sony @ 16mm f5.6 Right

Canon @16mm f5.6 Mid right

Sony @ 16mm f5.6 mid right

Feb 25, 2017 at 02:42 PM

Aztatlan
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Sony 16-35 F4 Corners

Are the Canon shots taken on the Sony body, or on a Canon body? If Sony, which adapter?

Your Sony 16-35 looks very similar to how mine performed on the edges - that is to say, not well. Field curvature is an issue to work around on the lens but even when focused for the edges I was not satisfied with mine.

Feb 25, 2017 at 11:27 PM

johnahill
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Sony 16-35 F4 Corners

The canon was shot on the a7r using Metabones v4

I have realised that some shots with the Sony may have been made with steadyshot on without realising it, that might not help if on a tripod.

Had same issue today, turned steadyshot off in the menu, then later switched to 70-200 and turned on steadyshot on the lens and it defaulted back to on when I put the 16-35 back on. I've not assigned a custom button for activating/deactivating steadyshot.

Don't know how much this would have affected the images

Feb 26, 2017 at 09:48 AM

Gary Clennan
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Sony 16-35 F4 Corners

johnahill wrote:
The canon was shot on the a7r using Metabones v4

I have realised that some shots with the Sony may have been made with steadyshot on without realising it, that might not help if on a tripod.

Had same issue today, turned steadyshot off in the menu, then later switched to 70-200 and turned on steadyshot on the lens and it defaulted back to on when I put the 16-35 back on. I've not assigned a custom button for activating/deactivating steadyshot.

Don't know how much this would have affected the images

My experience shows that turning OSS on or off on a tripod with the 16-35mm f/4 makes no difference (although I always switch it off).

Feb 26, 2017 at 02:04 PM

TakenWild
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Sony 16-35 F4 Corners

I've used the Sony 16-35 f4 over the last two years and loved it, but now I've moved to a Canon 16-35mm F4.
With the Sigma MC-11 now available the adapter QC isn't as big a problem with Metabones (as least for me).

I moved to Canon for a few reasons:
The Canon is sharper in the corners.
The Canon has a better manual focus experience.
The Canon you can lock down the f-stop, take off the lens and put it on a high quality dumb adapter to get full zoomed in live view at that fstop to better judge depth of field (or the Metabones can do this in advanced mode).

For me these things are more important than better AF and smaller.

Edited on Feb 26, 2017 at 07:37 PM · View previous versions

Feb 26, 2017 at 05:47 PM

walts.photo
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Sony 16-35 F4 Corners

Like TakenWild, I loved the Canon, but sold it when I switched to Nikon. Rented the equivalent Nikon version but was disappointed with the sharpness. Then got a Sony A7rii with a 16-35 f4 and am happy enough with it. But not as happy as with the Canon corner sharpness.

Canon 16-35 f4 --- wonderful images in the corners (6D body)
Nikon 16-35 f4 --- very soft compared with Canon (D750 body)
Sony 16-35 f4 ---- good enough for me (A7ii and A7rii)

Take it with a grain of salt, only one copy of each and only my opinion.

Feb 26, 2017 at 07:20 PM

Schlotkins
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Sony 16-35 F4 Corners

My canon was sharper than my Sony 16-35 in the corners as well. From 16-24 I thought the sony was sharper in the center, but from 24-35 canon was the clear winner.

Chris

Feb 27, 2017 at 01:58 AM

Viramati
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · Sony 16-35 F4 Corners

I have never owned or used the Canon but from what I have heard overtime I should imagine it is slightly better than the Sony BUT in real world shooting and with a good copy of the Sony I wonder if most people would see any difference unless you do huge prints or spend your time pixel-peeping. For myself I'm happy with mine and wait to see if a GM version is on the way

Feb 27, 2017 at 03:16 AM

johnahill
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · Sony 16-35 F4 Corners

I'm looking at images in LR at 50% and the softness in the corners is clearly visible.
I wonder if some of it is due to field curvature, i did check focus in the corners but i'm really not liking focus by wire at this wide angle.

Feb 27, 2017 at 05:58 AM

Viramati
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · Sony 16-35 F4 Corners

I would try to experiment with your focal point. I believe at 16-19m there is quite a bit of field curvature so one need to be aware of this. At 21mm I can get very sharp images across the frame while focusing in a normal way.

Feb 27, 2017 at 08:13 AM

TakenWild
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · Sony 16-35 F4 Corners

The Sony is a great lens, but if you are a corner pixel peeper and printing large, get the Canon with a Sigma mc-11.

For me, I'm a corner pixel peeper landscape person. I had the Sony for two years and really liked it when I wasn't using my Canon 17TSE. Then recently I tested a copy of the Canon 16-35 f4 against my Sony. I loved the Sony even if the focus by wire annoyed me when I was making focus stacks. But I'm 'corner pixel peeper', so I sold the Sony and no regrets. The Canon is a better lens as far as the overall frame sharpness goes.

I know a lot of people were thrown off by tony Northrup testing this setup and saying there wasn't much difference, but I can't agree with his findings as far as my two copies go. I'm getting as good results as Canon DSLR users are. I'm not sure if some of these big name reviewers are as much of a pixel peeper as I am and they also don't seem to take into account lens to lens copy variations (particularly with zoom lenses).

Feb 27, 2017 at 08:36 AM

TakenWild
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p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · Sony 16-35 F4 Corners

Are you taking about the Canon or the Sony?

I had more field curvature with my Sony at infinity.

Viramati wrote:
I would try to experiment with your focal point. I believe at 16-19m there is quite a bit of field curvature so one need to be aware of this. At 21mm I can get very sharp images across the frame while focusing in a normal way.

Feb 27, 2017 at 08:44 AM

tylerdurden801
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p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · Sony 16-35 F4 Corners

I think you might have a bum copy of the Sony, keep trying. I went through four copies of the Sony before I got one that was pretty close to my Canon. In the end I was willing to trade a bit of sharpness at the extreme borders for the native AF and size advantage. With the adapter the lens/body combo wouldn't fit well in my favorite walk around bag so I sold it. I think the Sony that I kept was actually a little better from 18-24 than the Canon, but the Canon was noticeably better at 16 and 35. Ah well. If they come out with a version II of the Sony I hope they focus on those focal lengths for improvement.

Feb 27, 2017 at 10:33 AM

Gunzorro
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p.1 #18 · p.1 #18 · Sony 16-35 F4 Corners

I was unimpressed when trying a friend's copy of the Sony. It was a fine lens and well centered, but just "blah" in most of its focal range compared to the Canon UWA's I've been used to. Needed extra contrast compared to other Sony lenses (notably the 24-70/4) and didn't have punchy colors in hazy overcast.

I chose the Canon 16-35L IS and am glad I did. Not only does it give cross-brand versatility, but I'm much happier with sharpness and "pop". The only down side is a bulkier adapted lens, but that's a small price. Small size is not a top criteria for me in camera choice. If anything, I lean toward heavier gear for hand held stability at shorter focal lengths, UWA to around 100mm.

Feb 27, 2017 at 11:35 AM

Schlotkins
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p.1 #19 · p.1 #19 · Sony 16-35 F4 Corners

tylerdurden801 wrote:
I think you might have a bum copy of the Sony, keep trying. I went through four copies of the Sony before I got one that was pretty close to my Canon. In the end I was willing to trade a bit of sharpness at the extreme borders for the native AF and size advantage. With the adapter the lens/body combo wouldn't fit well in my favorite walk around bag so I sold it. I think the Sony that I kept was actually a little better from 18-24 than the Canon, but the Canon was noticeably better at 16 and...Show more →

This is very true - the size of the canon on my A7r is much bigger than the Sony. That's why I have dibs on Fred's FE 16-35. I'm sure the 16-35 2.8 GM will be a winner but at what weight/size?

Chris

Feb 27, 2017 at 11:45 AM

chez
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p.1 #20 · p.1 #20 · Sony 16-35 F4 Corners

For large prints of landscape, I shoot primes. For a nice walk around, the Sony is just fine, especially at the wide end.

Feb 27, 2017 at 11:46 AM

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