Here is a newer review from this week that goes in depth in the sharpness and astro aberration correction. His copy definitely seems to have some decentering, but still a very strong performance. Note it is in spanish, but the youtube auto-dubbing translation is pretty good.
First the FE 28-70 f/2 GM and now this 16mm, Sony is on a roll. It's about time honestly. Looks good so far, something that outperforms the budget Canon RF 16mm 2.8 STM, another nice touch for photographers choosing Sony over Canon.
eriet30 wrote:
Crap this video has me wanting to sell my 14 and 20...... i hate selling lenes
TBH that review (and more than a few others) came off a bit too hype-fueled to me. Lenstip's close range testing may have it's issues, but I kinda agree with their conclusion on what it is, although I don't necessarily want it to be something else. I don't think we'll get a good comparison with the Viltrox until someone like Fred or Bastian has their hands on it.
To be more specific, I own the 20G and an UWA zoom and I'm still very interested in the 16G, in fact I'll probably end up with it by this summer... But I'm under no delusion that it's as good as the 20G, or even as optically good as the Viltrox. It is much smaller though, and lighter, and uses smaller filters, and it focuses closer.
From Lenstip's data I think it even has less vignetting (possibly cause some of it is cropped away by corrections), but field curvature and general rendering don't seem as smooth as the 20G's or the Viltrox's. Does that matter for a 16mm though? Only when cropping heavily into it IMO... It also has much better flare resistance which combined with the MFD would make me favor it regardless of weight/size.
The difference in the corners may be harder to ascertain until more direct comparisons show up. In Lenstip's coma test it clearly looks better than the Laowa 15/2 which was one high benchmark until the Viltrox came out, and they measured astigmatism pretty low... So even if it isn't *quite* as good, it's far from useless. I think that's the subtle context missing from a lot of reviews...
Too many are eager to bash or crown it rather than figuring out where it fits in the pecking order of available options. I'm totally keeping the 20G though, it's just as good a 30/2.7 as it is a 20/1.8, really flat field with minimal cat's eye and a really short MFD in it's own right.
Any regular people have their hands on this lens yet? I'm interested, mostly due to its size, but as always, that comes with some compromises. The distortion and field curvature seem to be the big ones here. I'm interested to hear if those compromises are acceptable or not, particularly on real world use on stars and landscapes.
I'm in NYC for the weekend and a quick walk to B&H...really afraid if I go in there and check this lens out I'm gonna see how well it handles on the A7cR I have with me and buy the damn thing.
gocolts wrote:
I'm in NYC for the weekend and a quick walk to B&H...really afraid if I go in there and check this lens out I'm gonna see how well it handles on the A7cR I have with me and buy the damn thing.
gocolts wrote:
I'm in NYC for the weekend and a quick walk to B&H...really afraid if I go in there and check this lens out I'm gonna see how well it handles on the A7cR I have with me and buy the damn thing.
I'm pretty sure it's closed till Monday. Also since the lens was just released a few days ago, it's not yet in stock there anyway.
This looks like a wonderful option given the size, performance, speed and focal length. And the price is pretty friendly too.
3-4 years ago I would’ve picked this up instantly because I was shooting a lot of Astro. The G20 was always too close to my GM 24 and Contax G 21/2.8. And I didn’t like it as much as either of them.
This spacing is far better. Maybe Sony will update the FE 28/2 soon-ish
This is a very nice lens.Better than I expected.Sharp,compact,well built,manual aperture ring.Barrel distortion with lens profile applied is only slightly visible in most cases.F1.8 is also an asset in dim interiors.I have it for a couple of weeks now.Here are some real life pictures: https://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1255248/5013/
I used my 16mm multiple times on my recent trip to Theodore Roosevelt NP and Badlands NP and am very happy with the results. It was an excellent match for my 20-70 f/4 G and 70-200 f/4 G when I wanted low weight for hiking. I tried astro with it (I am a complete novice at that) and was surprised with the quality of the images. I also used it to sweep a pano one morning resulting in a very satisfying image. Overall, it is a keeper.
