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 p.5 #3 · Sony FE 16mm f/1.8 G Lens (Sony E) | |
I’ve had the 16 mm for a few days now and have tested it extensively. I also own the 14 mm f/1.8 GM. Unfortunately, you can only use large rectangular filters with it—and you need a cumbersome adapter attached to the lens body—which is quite annoying. Aside from that, the 14 mm GM is an excellent lens. About 40 % of my best photos were taken with it, though that frustrating filter limitation is a major drawback.
I mainly bought the 16 mm for my smaller magnetic round filter—kind of a crazy solution just for the filter. In the center, it’s slightly sharper than the already very good 14 mm, whether wide open or stopped down, which is a bit surprising. Stopping down increases sharpness slightly, and the corners improve marginally. The 14 mm, however, is noticeably sharper in the corners, making it more balanced overall. Digital corrections are also much less aggressive on the 14 mm than on the 16 mm.
This is unfortunately the 16 mm’s weakness: uncorrected, it shows noticeably stronger vignetting and more distortion. After correction, a lot is cropped, and the edges are heavily brightened, which slightly affects corner quality. During the day, this isn’t a big problem and is manageable. I would almost give up my 14 mm if I only shot in daylight.
For night photography—Milky Way, auroras, stars, or high ISO shooting—this heavy digital correction becomes a problem. Here, the 14 mm clearly performs better. During the day, when exposure latitude is generous and ISO stays low, it’s fine. But at very high ISOs, image noise increases, and heavy digital corrections worsen the results. At night, every bit of image quality counts, so I wouldn’t be happy using the 16 mm in those conditions.
It’s a shame it wasn’t a 15 mm GM—then it would be about 100 g heavier, slightly larger, and much better corrected. That way, you would have the best of both worlds: the 16 mm’s filter capability and the 14 mm GM’s corner image quality. Maybe such a lens will come in the future; until then, I’m stuck carrying both. If you don’t shoot at night, the 16 mm is an excellent choice.
By the way, the 16 mm is almost like a 14 mm before correction. After digital correction, a lot is cropped. If it were slightly larger with more glass, Sony could have made a 15 mm GM with filter options—then neither the 14 mm nor the 16 mm would be necessary.
I was a bit concerned about lens centering but found no issues. Either I got lucky, or Sony has improved. Previously, there were recurring problems with the 16 mm. For what it is, though, it’s a great lens—just with some weaknesses at night. Ideally, you want as little digital correction as possible, but without it, the 16 mm wouldn’t deliver acceptable results. One more thing: I always disable in-camera digital corrections, yet Lightroom still applies them. I’ve never seen this with any other lens. Without this correction, the lens simply doesn’t make sense—it’s absolutely necessary.
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