Since I received the FE 28-60mm, I've been impressed by its resolution and contrast, especially when we factor size and price.
I will be testing it against some of my lenses and today I will start comparing it to a lens I've been using for landscapes for a long time, the Voigtlander 40/1.2.
It's incredible that the Sony 28-60mm @42mm not only comes close to the prime, it actually does better in the corners.
Yes, the Voigltander is actually a 42mm lens at infinity distance.
Here is the full image thumbnail showing the area demonstrated at 1:1 magnification.
Distance: Infinity
Camera: Sony A7R IV (61MP)
Focus: Center - Best of three @ 12.4x magnification
I have been very happy and also very surprised with the results I have been getting from the little zoom. It's images also appear to me at this point to have excellent microcontrast. Colors and contrast also seem nice to me.
Mounted on the A7C, it makes for an extremely light and small kit that is capable of getting excellent images. The main limitation I have run into is for low-light shooting or for images where I want a large aperture. And, of course, the zoom range is limited.
But it is quite a nice lens, and the combined kit is special for walk-around, take-anywhere, having-handy, and for travel. The set-up doesn't intimidate and doesn't draw attention to itself. And, of course, the A7C provides superb image quality and excellent autofocus.
It seems to me that Sony has come up with excellent optical formulas that allow them to introduce superb optics, fast apertures and smallish footprints. They started it with the GM 24mm f/1.4. Now, regardless of the designation, non-G, G or GM, the newer crop of lenses is just excellent. I am not referring to the GM 35mm f/1.4 but also the newish G 20mm f/1.8 is great. The other phenomenon I noticed, Sony seems to be doing that on their own. What I meant is without the Zeiss label. Case in point, when was the last time the Zeiss label is incorporated into a Sony lens? The last one dates back to a few years already, the 50mm f/1.4, I believe. And it is huge and heavy although optically superb, too. Just an observation...
Just a thought. I think we need to recognize that the days of wide lens variation and the need for large lenses to achieve "almost perfection" are over. (Perfection still requires some size.) The sophistication of the design and manufacturing techniques now is so far above anything available even 20 years ago that nobody is going to introduce a mediocre lens anymore. The only frontiers are (a) making optics that are "interesting" and not just perfect, and (b) size (which the development of things like flat lenses using metasurfaces will eventually give us pancake-size lenses with perfect performance). We are approaching asymptotes in both the camera (sensor and autofocus) and the lenses (at least in terms of aberration correction - "character" is another thing), such that images in the hand of any decently competent photographer will be practically indistinguishable across the leading brands. We have only ourselves to blame if our images aren't great - there are *very* few photographers who are actually technology-limited in their image-making (i.e. camera, lens, or PP) !!!
When I bought the A7C I could have grabbed the lens as well. Kind of wished I did. Look forward to more tests. Maybe I still will and I really like the A7C. I used it last week on my big job and file looks nicer than the A7III
The Sony 28-60/4-5.6 is a great improvement over the old kit lens, the 28-70/3.5-5.6. Sony finally has a good kit lens to sell. I’m keeping mine, it’s about as small as an Olympus OM 35-70/3.5-4.5 film SLR lens I once had. Though the old Olympus lens was a bit faster, modern sensor tech means Sony is ahead in noise performance.
Me too... I ended up ordering the new kit lens as a stand-alone (I got some discounts but it would have been cheaper to buy in a kit). It gets released in Japan as stand-alone on 1/29.
GMPhotography wrote:
When I bought the A7C I could have grabbed the lens as well. Kind of wished I did. Look forward to more tests. Maybe I still will and I really like the A7C. I used it last week on my big job and file looks nicer than the A7III
May be that this lens is sharp and has good rendering. Fine, OK.
But I don't have an expensive FF camera only to have only MFT-like capabilities in regards to blurring the background. f3.5 (like in my vintage Minolta and Zeiss 35-70 zooms) is the "pain threshold" (as we Germans like to put it) for me.
bjornthun wrote:
The Sony 28-60/4-5.6 is a great improvement over the old kit lens, the 28-70/3.5-5.6. Sony finally has a good kit lens to sell. I’m keeping mine.
That doesn't seem possible to me. I find my 28-70 is somewhat better than the 24-105G in the mid range.
Reality check: I bought 28-60 from all this hype. If anything it seems a bit worse than the 28-70 OSS overall but especially at the wide end. Sony may have improved their manufacturing since the bad experiences people have had. The older lenses do often have issues. I just returned a misaligned 24-70 ZA.
hasenbein wrote:
May be that this lens is sharp and has good rendering. Fine, OK.
But I don't have an expensive FF camera only to have only MFT-like capabilities in regards to blurring the background. f3.5 (like in my vintage Minolta and Zeiss 35-70 zooms) is the "pain threshold" (as we Germans like to put it) for me.
Well there are so many applications where you don’t need to blur the background... the key thing about this lens is that it weighs <170g which is insane for a FF zoom lens.
I‘m surprised by this level of performance - Sony doesn’t really have a history of good kit lenses
Looking forward to seeing results at other focal lengths
Thanks again Fred for a meaningful “Compared-to-What.” That the CV looks good stopped way down to F5.6-8 is typical. That a modestly priced zoom is it’s equal close to max aperture is not.
A $300 kit price implies that prices will be somewhat below that used. There always seems to be an oversupply once the novelty wears off and buyers seek to trade up. So, in a bit, a compact exterior travel lens for $250 or less?
bjornthun wrote:
The Sony 28-60/4-5.6 is a great improvement over the old kit lens, the 28-70/3.5-5.6. Sony finally has a good kit lens to sell. I’m keeping mine, it’s about as small as an Olympus OM 35-70/3.5-4.5 film SLR lens I once had. Though the old Olympus lens was a bit faster, modern sensor tech means Sony is ahead in noise performance.
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QuietOC wrote:
That doesn't seem possible to me. I find my 28-70 is somewhat better than the 24-105G in the mid range.
The FE 28-60mm @40mm is already optimal at f/5.6 which is wide open starting at 40mm.
tsdevine wrote:
Would love to see other FLs......does it maintain this quality across the range?
The optimal apertures for my copy which is surprisingly well centered at 28/40/60:
28mm (f/4.5)
40mm (f/5.6)
60mm (f/7.1)
At these apertures, the 28-60mm maintains similar IQ throughout the range. I would not hesitate using it for serious landscape photography. So far I have not seen issues with flare resistance and I do not know how its sunstar looks like. CA is well controlled.
