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Sony 11mm F1.8 Wide Angle Prime Review | DA
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Jul 19, 2023
Photographer Dustin Abbott shares a thorough, real world review of the new Sony 11mm F1.8 wide angle prime for Sony APS-C mirrorless. | This video is sponsored by Fantom Wallet. Visit https://store.fantomwallet.com and use code DUSTIN15 to get 15% off | Read the text review: https://bit.ly/Sony11mmDA | Visit the Image Gallery: https://bit.ly/Sony11mmPics | Watch Craig's Video Review: https://bit.ly/Sony1811LTLI | Purchase the Sony E 11mm F1.8 @ B&H Photo https://bhpho.to/3GcQSli | Amazon https://amzn.to/3aqdAL5 | Camera Canada https://shrsl.com/3jth6 | Amazon Canada https://amzn.to/3LX3xu8 | Amazon UK https://amzn.to/38kvoGG | Amazon Germany https://amzn.to/3LX3H4I Check out the DA Merch here: https://bit.ly/TWIMerch | Become a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/dustinabbott | On the Web: http://dustinabbott.net/ | Sign up for my Newsletter: http://bit.ly/1RHvUNp | Instagram: http://bit.ly/DLAinsta | Facebook: http://on.fb.me/1nuUUeH | Flickr: http://bit.ly/1UcnC0B | 500px: http://bit.ly/1Sy2Ngu Follow Craig @ https://www.instagram.com/craigstoffersen/ Want to support this channel? Use these affiliate links to shop at: B&H Photo: http://bhpho.to/1TA0Xge Camera Canada: http://bit.ly/DLACameraCan Amazon: https://amzn.to/3HrY64d Amazon Canada: https://amzn.to/3qG1p18 Ebay: http://bit.ly/DustineBay Make a donation via Paypal: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/dustinTWI ============================= Table of Contents: ============================= 0:00 - Intro and Concept 3:00 - Build and Handling 6:50 - Autofocus Performance 8:45 - Image Quality Breakdown 15:00 - Conclusion and Pricing
View Video Transcript
0:00
Hi, I'm Dustin Abbott, and I'm here today to give you my review of the final of the three new lenses that Sony has just announced and will soon release
0:20
And those include the 10 to 20 millimeter F4 power zoom G lens, the 15 millimeter F1.4 G lens
0:29
and then the lens we're reviewing today, which is the 11mm F1.8
0:33
Now, this is the only lens out of the three that did not receive the kind of higher grade G designation
0:39
And while it's true that compared to the 15 millimeter F1.4, it lacks the aperture ring
0:44
and that kind of finite control over aperture that that lens has, and of course it doesn't have the power zoom
0:50
obviously, that the 10 to 20 millimeter has. But the truth of matter is that it really doesn't lack a whole lot behind those two things
0:58
And as we're going to see in today's review, it actually shares more similarities than differences
1:03
but it comes in at a lower price point. And in some ways, despite it being the only one that is a non-G lens
1:10
it is, I think, maybe one of the most intriguing of these three new lenses
1:14
all of which are excellent in different ways. So today we're going to break down the strengths and weaknesses of the lens
1:20
and whether or not you should consider adding it to your own kit. First of all, however, a word from our sponsor
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to check out. So the Sony 11mm F1.8 is obviously an APSC lens. It is designed for APSC
2:21
mirrorless bodies. I've tested it primarily on the A6400, Craig on the A6600, and I have shot with
2:28
it a little bit in video modes on both my A74 and my Alpha 1. Of course, this is a lens that is
2:35
designed with hybrid shooters in mind. And when Sony says hybrid, what they mean is what defines a lot
2:41
of modern photographers and that they do a mix of both photography and video. And of course
2:46
really the truth of matter is that Sony's camera bodies have been this kind of hybrid
2:51
approach for some time now. Being quite robust video cameras, along with being excellent stills camera
2:58
these new lenses are designed to really take advantage of that. This has a focal length
3:03
equivalent with the 1.5 times crop factor of Sony's APSC bodies. It means that we have got a full
3:09
frame equivalent of about 16 and a half millimeters, which puts this in right in
3:13
the middle of wide angle territory, a truly wide angle of view
3:18
And as we're going to see in our image quality breakdown, I think the lens is actually probably wider than that because it needs to be wider than that to correct for what is
3:26
the main optical flaw, which is heavy barrel distortion, a trait that is shared, unfortunately
3:30
across all three of these lenses. This is a truly compact lens, however
3:35
It is, as you can see, really tiny. It is only 66 millimeters in diameter, leaving a 55 millimeter front filter thread, and it is only 57.5 millimeters in length
3:46
making it truly compact, and it weighs in at only 181 grams
3:50
I'm going to have a subsequent video where I compare it to what I consider its chief competitor
3:55
the Sam Yang AF 12mm F2, but even though the Samyang is a really compact lens and their form factor is roughly similar
4:02
the Sony is lighter in basically every metric. And so it is a really compact lens, particularly for one that is so high performing
4:10
What's interesting is though the while it is so compact, it actually has a fairly fully featured build quality
4:18
including a thorough weather ceiling. and as you can see from this diagram there are actually eight seal points throughout And so for not getting that G designation it actually got a pretty great build quality And that also includes an AFMF switch along with the focus hold button
4:34
Now, the only ring on the barrel is the manual focus ring, and it moves nice and smooth, though with all three of these lenses
4:40
I find that the damping is a little bit on the light side. And so while it is linear
4:45
which means you have repeatable focus throws that are regardless of the speed that you use
4:50
which is great for video purposes and getting something that is repeatable, what you're going to find is that the feel of focus is not as exceptional
4:57
as what you'll find on the very best manual focus lenses. This lens, of course, does not have image stabilization built in
5:05
which is true of basically all of these prime lenses, and so you're going to have to rely on image stabilization
5:10
if you have it in your camera body. If you don't, you're going to end up with some more shaky handheld video
5:15
which was the reason why I enjoyed this lens less for video on my A-16
5:20
400 than I did when using it on my A74 or Alpha 1 in APSC mode because both of those bodies
5:26
have in body image stabilization. We've got seven rounded aperture blades here and the aperture does a good job of kicking
5:32
a circular shape as you stop it down a bit. Our minimum focus distance here, like all of these lenses, varies whether or not you're
5:39
in autofocus or manual focus mode. And so if you're in autofocus mode, you can focus as closely as 15 centimeters and you have
5:47
a maximum magnification of around 0.1. 1 2 times. If you manually focus, however, you can focus in closer all the way down to 12 centimeters, right under 5 inches
5:59
and that allows you to get a much higher magnification of 0.20 times, though I'll warn you, you're basically right on top of your subject by the time that you do that
6:09
And so it isn't practical for all situations, but again, for video purposes, I think that the chief advantage of all of these lenses is that you really hardly have a focus limit
6:20
I find that sometimes when doing video shots, you can get a little too close and you lose proper focus because the lens can only focus so close
6:28
But with all these lenses, that really small minimum focus distance means that that's going to very rarely, if ever, be a problem
6:35
And so that makes for a useful lens. This lens is the cheapest of the trio by several hundred dollars at about $548 U.S. dollars
6:43
And so I think that at that price point, it's actually a really high performer
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and that is even truer when you consider the excellent, excellent auto focus that comes with this lens
6:53
Like the 15mm F1.4G, this lens is equipped with dual linear focus motors, which is surprising
6:59
I'm surprised that it has the dual focus motors considering they didn't give it the G designation
7:05
And, you know, in the fact that before the 15mm F1.4, they had never put dual linear motors in any of their APSC lenses
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And so that means you get a really high performance here when it comes. comes to that video. And that means that it does a great job of, you know, of doing focus
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pools that are nice and smooth and they're well damped and so they're not abrupt or anything
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And they are made even smoother by the fact that you have such low focus breathing that you
7:33
hardly see focus changing other than the fact that some other subject has come into focus
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And so it really does give you a very smooth, you know, byproduct of that. And that's something
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I think that video shooters are really going to appreciate. It also did do. just fine with my test when I was trying to track my eye and I would block focus with my hand
7:51
and then allow focus to come back. I also found that I got really good focus results when tracking
7:56
action. And so, for example, I'll show you this burst of shots and I shot this on the alpha
8:03
1 in APSC mode. You can see I had zero problems tracking the action as the subjects came
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toward the camera. And also when shooting in 4K 120, you can see this slow motion shot that there's
8:15
great tracking of action and I was able to get some really great looking shots as a part of those
8:19
bursts do the fact that autofocus was really just excellent all around. In fact, whether I was
8:25
focusing on up close objects, medium objects or distant objects, I got really great autofocus in all
8:31
tested situations and I never heard one bit of focus sam throughout the whole time. So obviously that
8:37
is going to add up to a lens that is very usable for both stills and video purposes, which is
8:43
kind of the point here So outside of one exception that we detail in just a moment this lens is also a really high performer optically So let dive in and let break down that performance bit by bit So let start with the bad news This is a lens that definitely really suffers from barrel distortion
9:00
Now, you can see that Sony has designed for correction in mind and that when I frame this in camera, this actually was filling the frame as that's the way that I frame things up to try to get in tight there
9:12
And you can see that there's a lot of room that's left over for correction. But you can tell that there's a lot of barrel distortion
9:18
And if you just try to manual correct it, which fortunately you're never really going to have to do
9:22
because in-camera profiles for JPEGs and video will take care of that
9:27
And then raw profiles will be here, I'm sure, at any time since this is a first-party lens
9:32
So I've had to manually correct it because I was doing a pre-release, but you're not going to have to do that
9:38
As far as correction, however, it was a plus 40, which is a lot
9:43
And you can also see that I wasn't able to perfectly correct for it because there is a bit of a mustache pattern, which means that if you fully correct some of these lines, you're going to start to develop a pin cushion distortion along the edge. Not great
9:56
And so Vignette also quite heavy plus 69, though that's less of an issue I would say than the distortion
10:02
So you can see without correction, you're definitely going to see those curved walls
10:06
And my manual correction helps, but it's not perfect. Again, the profile will help to produce a better looking result after correction
10:13
Things immediately start to look a lot better as we look at other things. So, first of all, up close, beautiful amount of detail
10:20
But I'm here mostly to look at longitudinal chromatic aberrations, and we can see nothing really in these transition areas
10:27
And then if we look at the fringing or, excuse me, at the bouquet circles, we can see only very minor amounts of fringing
10:34
with most of it being quite neutral. And so overall, a nice result on locust
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and then on lateral chromatic aberrations that show up along the edge of the frame
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you can see that there is really next to nothing that I can see in any of these transition areas
10:50
It looks very clean up there, and of course, as you can see at smaller apertures
10:55
the detail here is fabulous. So we'll take a look at resolution and contrast here
11:00
So this is at F1.8, 24 megapixels, Sony, A6400. center of the frame looks fantastic. Very sharp, great contrast. Mid-frame looks very good
11:12
As we pan down here across other mid-frame areas, it looks excellent. The corner looks excellent
11:17
I mean, really, this is a fantastic result all across the frame. So that was at a 200% magnification, and it looked great, but we can see here, if we compare
11:25
at 100% magnification, F-1.8 to F5.6, we can see that the truth of matter is, is that they look really
11:33
really similar. There is a edge, you know, just a little bit more contrast on the F5.6 result
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but frankly, the results don't look radically different anywhere that I look in the area of the
11:44
frame. And so you can get very close to peak results from F1.8 on. Another real world example
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here. So if we look towards the center of the frame, it looks great at F1.8. It looks great at F5.6
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Maybe a hair better at 5.6, but frankly, I don't really see a major amount of difference. You
12:03
see that even at F1.8, because depth of field is so deep, you've really got very close to the
12:09
same kind of performance right up until depth the field starts to affect this front corner
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whereas at F5.6, it remains in focus. But everywhere that's actually naturally in focus
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right off to the edges of the frame, it looks nearly as good at F1.8 as it does stop down significantly
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So stopping down just to F2 produces very little, maybe a hair a little more contrast, but very
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similar, very similar there, very similar pretty much everywhere that we look. It looks pretty much the same
12:39
Stopping down on to F2.8 gives us, as you can see, a little bit more brightness and maybe a little bit
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more contrast onto F4. And we can see maybe a little bit more improvement, but frankly, it doesn't
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look all that much different. And if I move on to F5.6, the same remains true there. And that
13:00
you're getting very close to optimal performance right from wide open and you get only a little bit more when you stop it down
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If we compare to the samying both of the lenses at F2 we can see that they very similar in the center of the frame maybe a hair more contrast for the Sony If we move towards the midframe however the Sony remains stronger and then if we move into the corner the advantage for the Sony is very clear at that point
13:27
So as noted, if you manually focus, you can get a really high magnification level
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And in the sweet spot of focus, that barrel distortion is delivering a less than perfectly flat field of focus
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So in the sweet spot, it looks really good, but you can, as noted, it is that barrel distortion
13:44
is allowing some of the edge to not be as sharp, even though it doesn't really look too bad
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but you can see over on this side that there's a little bit of loss of contrast due to that
13:54
In the real world, you can get up close, and obviously here, I think that that detail looks great
14:01
and the background is surprisingly blurred out because of the high magnification
14:05
Just so you know, though, you're basically on top of your subject by the time you're shooting like that
14:10
I felt like the lens delivered very nice-looking color out in the real world and colors are accurate, but as you can see, nicely, deeply saturated
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Again, here, colors look nice and rich. I got picture of Craig taking picture of other things
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and everything looks good there. This is another image that I really liked. I felt like colors
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looked natural, but also had nice levels of saturation, and of course, if you zoom in, the detail is
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nice as well, and that makes the image even more special. Finally, as far as flare resistance goes
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in this kind of situation where I've just, you know, got the sun coming through the trees
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Flare resistance was really strong. I saw in other situations and we'll break down a little bit more in our comparison with the Samyang comparison video
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that flare resistance was definitely stronger on the Sony than the Samying
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Here's another, you know, very bright early sun. And so you can see that little bit of a ring there
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I frankly think that's kind of artistic, but your mileage may vary. And we can see a little bit of ghosting artifacts here
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overall, however, I found that flare resistance was quite good from the lens
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So as you can see, that barrel distortion is the one fly in the ointment, along with some heavier vignette
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But the vignette is less of an issue in my mind than what the distortion is. Fortunately, as a first-party lens, this is going to be well corrected for both JPEGs and video and camera
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and it will receive great profile support in post-s and software because of being a first-party lens
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So I don't know that the barrel distortion is going to be a big issue
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and as we saw, I think that Sony has left extra room there for correction
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to make sure that you're still getting that very wide angle of view that the lens is supposed to deliver
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So at the end of the day, I think that I'm actually surprised by one thing
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and that is that outside of lacking an aperture ring and that kind of finite aperture control
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I don't really see why the 15mm F1.4 ended up with a G designation
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and the 11mm F1.8 did not. In many ways, they seem to be very very
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similar, delivering similar levels of optical performance. They both have the same kind of
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auto-focused system, and outside of the difference I've already detailed, they have basically
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the same build quality. So at the end of the day, I feel like the 11mm F-1.8 remains a really
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intriguing option and maybe offers up a stronger value. If you're more interested in the wider
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focal length than you are at the slightly larger maximum aperture of F-1.4 versus F-1.8. And so I think
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that this is a lens that both stills photographers and also video photographers or, you know
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this kind of hybrid video shooter should really consider because this is a lens that does a lot
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of things really, really well. And at the end of the day, I was really happy with the images and
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the video footage that I got out of the lens. I'm Dustin Abbott. And if you look in the description
17:01
down below, you can find linkage to my full text review. You can also find linkage there to
17:05
a Craig's video review that is obviously focused on the video side of things and more detail than
17:11
what I've offered here, more footage. And beyond that, there is linkage to my image gallery
17:16
There's also buying links if you'd like to purchase one for yourself. And beyond that, there's linkage to follow myself or Craig on social media or check out our new channel at the
17:24
light and TV. There's also link there where you can get channel merchandise. You can become a patron
17:29
And of course, if you haven't already, please click that subscribe button right here on YouTube
17:33
Thanks for watching. Have a great day. and let the light in
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