2021 has been the year that Tamron has adjusted their aim to include a very important (and oft-overlooked) space – Sony APS-C E-mount. There are a LOT of Sony APS-C mirrorless shooters out there, and despite the large audience, there are relatively few APS-C specific releases. Not from Sony or from third parties other than the multitude of cheap manual focus lenses that pop up every few months. That seems to be changing, though. At the beginning of 2021, Tamron released their 17-70mm F2.8 Di III-A VC RXD fast aperture standard zoom lens, which I noted in my review might now be the biggest advantage for Sony in the APS-C space. The B070 (as Tamron refers to the lens) is a well made, fast focusing, optically excellent zoom that pretty much has it all. But Tamron clearly wasn’t done, as we now see a new APS-C for the middle of the year, this time a wide angle zoom that continues the tradition of a constant fast aperture of F2.8. The Tamron 11-20mm F2.8 Di III-A RXD (which Tamron calls the B060) is another intriguing addition to the Sony APS-C mirrorless space.
Tamron loves its initials in their lens names, so let’s sort out that alphabet soup. Di III is their designation for a mirrorless lens design, and, in this case, the addition of -A at the (Di III-A) refers to their development for APS-C mirrorless. RXD refers to the focus motor. I’m a fan of the RXD motors, as in every application I’ve tested, I’ve seen quiet, fast, and precise autofocus.
There are few legitimate alternatives to this lens, as there are few wide angle lenses on Sony APS-C E-mount, and only one comparable zoom. The Sony E 10-18mm F4 OSS has a similar though not identical zoom range, a smaller maximum aperture of F4, but compensates by having optical stabilization. The two lenses are priced similarly, though the Tamron is more of a premium lens due to having a “professional-grade” maximum aperture, a stronger optical performance, and having a weather sealed build. Outside of the Sony 10-18mm, there really aren’t many options. There’s some overlap in focal range in the E 16-55mm F2.8 G, which is Sony’s premium player in this group, though that lens is more of a standard zoom and doesn’t go particularly wide. It is also priced about $500 higher, so I see that lens more as a competitor to the 17-70mm F2.8 from Tamron. On the lower end of the price spectrum there is another new option – the Samyang AF 12mm F2 that I recently reviewed. That lens might be a legitimate alternative if you don’t need the zoom range and want to save some money. But Tamron knows its business, and I like that they are utilizing a lot of their skills honed on their very well received Sony full frame zooms for these new lenses in the APS-C space, as this is another premium option for Sony shooters. It is a lens worth its roughly $830 USD price tag? Check out either my text review or video reviews to find out.
Thanks to Tamron USA for sending me an early loaner of the lens. As always, this is a completely independent review. I used both my Sony a6400 and Sony Alpha 1 in APS-C mode to do this review.
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I had mixed feelings about some of Samyang’s (also sold under the Rokinon brand) early full frame lenses, but I really loved their compact APS-C primes whose design language was in many ways a precursor to their full frame “Tiny Series”. I love the tiny series, and the newest lens in the series (the Samyang AF 24mm F1.8 which I reviewed here) was the best yet. But fortunately Samyang has not abandoned APS-C shooters (who are perennially overlooked), and has released an updated autofocus version of one of my favorite lenses of the earlier series – a 12mm F2 (which I reviewed here). That lens was manual focus only, but I loved the compact, handsome build, and in many ways it had really excellent optics. I liked it well enough in my review that I bought one for my Canon EOS M cameras and only sold it when I moved from Canon to Sony on the APS-C mirrorless front. The new Samyang AF 12mm F2 is an autofocus version of this formula for Sony E-mount (APS-C mirrorless), and also comes with a new build and fresh design language that is slightly different than anything I’ve seen from Samyang before. It’s great to see Samyang give some fresh love to APS-C, and the 12mm F2 gives an approximately 18mm full frame angle of view (99.1°). The AF12 (as we’ll call it for brevity) can be mounted on a full frame Sony camera since the E mount is for both full frame and APS-C, but, as we can see, there is a significant amount of mechanical vignetting if you try to use the lens on a full frame camera.
The AF12 simply isn’t designed to cover the full frame image circle. In this case the APS-C crop isn’t far off. If I manually crop the full frame image (on the right, below), I end up with roughly 25MP of resolution vs the natural 21MP of the Alpha One’s APS-C crop.
If you didn’t happen to own a full frame wide angle lens, that might work in a pinch, though I certainly wouldn’t buy it specifically for that. The Samyang AF 18mm F2.8 is the full frame equivalent in the “Tiny Series”. But I’ve always enjoyed this focal length on its native APS-C, though, where it delivers nicely dynamic images with a great angle of view:
Samyang states that this becomes the widest autofocusing lens on Sony APS-C, though that’s not entirely true. The Sony 10-18mm F4 OSS lens does exist, and it is an autofocusing lens, though with a much smaller maximum aperture that is a full two stops slower. The Samyang AF12 is the widest autofocusing prime lens on Sony APS-C at the moment, though, and is certainly a better choice for low light situations or astro than the F4 zoom (which also costs more than twice as much!). That makes it a very welcome lens, and, there are a number of positive upgrades here that mean that things are looking up for this lens.
The AF12 has been updated with a some of Samyang’s recent design updates, including linear STM autofocus, weather sealing, and a few design element updates. What isn’t new, however, is the optical formula. This was always a strong lens optically, though it is a little less strong relative to the competition these days. Still, at $399 USD, it’s hard to point to a stronger wide angle option that goes this wide. You can get all the details by either watching the definitive (long format) or standard video reviews below…or just keep reading.
Thanks to Samyang for sending me a test copy of the lens. As always, this is a completely independent review.
Samyang AF12 Build, Handling, and Features
I love the compact design of the first Samyang manual focus 12mm F2 lens, though I did encounter a bit of sample variation. My loaner copy for review was mechanically good, with good manual focus action. I decided to by one, and my first copy had a stiff focus ring. I had the Canadian distributor of Rokinon (Samyang lenses are sold under both brands) replace it with a second copy, and it was similarly good to the review copy. It was not unusual to see a bit of inconsistency with early Samyang lenses, though I’ve seen a lot of maturity in that regard from them. I’ve reviewed about 10 Samyang lenses in the past few years, and they have all been functionally sound. The new AF12 has similar dimensions to the earlier manual focus lens, but they aren’t identical. The two lenses are about the same length (right over 59mm), but the new lens is slightly narrower at only 70mm. The original lens had a slimmer lens barrel that flared out considerably near the front element. The new lens has a more consistent diameter and thus a very different profile (see the third photo).
They’ve debuted a new look here, with a slightly more matte finish and a new diamond pattern texture to the manual focus ring. Samyang’s signature red ring (which they, ahem, “appropriated” from Canon) is a little more discreet in the current design, and mostly disappears if the lens hood is attached. They call it the “hidden red ring”.
I was surprised to find that the new lens was actually lighter than the manual focus version. It is only 213g (7.5 oz), which is over 30g lighter than the earlier MF lens (245g). The Sony 10-18mm is also very lightweight (225), though the Sigma 16mm F1.4 with its larger maximum aperture weighs in at a heavier 405g. Here’s a look at the basic spec comparisons across these four choices.
Though the body is mostly engineered plastics, the lens doesn’t feel cheap in the hand. The branding is a little more discrete than typical on this lens, with lens designation on the top near the lens mount (etched, not printed). The only Samyang branding is on the right side of the lens, and it pretty much disappears behind the lens grip. There is a bit more barding on the front fascia of the lens, but it reserves itself to the lens designation, minimum focus distance, and filter thread size (62mm rather than the 67mm on the manual focus version). I would personally prefer the 67mm filter threads, however, as 62mm is far less common.
Everything is based around a metal lens mount, which does have a weather sealing gasket. Samyang seems to indicate that there is at least one other seal point inside, too. Samyang touts something about the rear element and that it helps seal the lens as well.
There are no external switches. You’ll have to select manual focus from within the camera. The focus action feels good. I like the texture of the focus ring, and damping is nice. Focus seems mostly linear, from what I can determine, so you should get some repeatability.
The AF12 does include both a nice case and a lens hood, which is great to see in a reasonably priced APS-C lens. The only negative on that front is that the current physical design doesn’t allow the lens hood to be fully reversed for storage. There is a slight bevel narrower towards the front of the lens, which is the place where the lens bayonets on, meaning that the lens hood is slightly narrower than the diameter of the focus ring. I don’t find it to be a huge thing for the simple reason that the lens and hood are short enough that the overall length of the lens is still very compact with the hood attached. I just leave it in place all the time.
There are seven rounded aperture blades in the new design, which is a definite upgrade over the six blades in the older lens. I knocked the boring looking sunstars in the older lens, but the new lens has much better looking sunburst effects, which always add that extra bit of goodness to images:
As for the circular shape of the aperture when stopped down, that’s not overly relevant here. There will be few situations where you will be able to create much of a defocused background with the lens stopped down, and those mostly when at or near minimum focus distance. Here’s a look at F2.8, which still looks fairly round in the bokeh highlights.
Speaking of that minimum focus distance, it is 19cm (about 7.5″), and the magnification level is a fairly pedestrian 0.10x, though its worth noting that the new AF lens can focus about one centimeter closer and should give a slightly higher magnification figure than the older MF lens. Here’s what MFD looks like:
The magnification figure isn’t particularly high, obviously, but the plane of focus is relatively flat and close up performance is quite good. That translates to good results in real world close up work:
Here’s another example:
All in all, this is a nicely executed package that combines light weight and compact size with good handling, howbeit without much in terms of features outside of the weather sealing. Samyang’s most recent lenses for full frame have included some additional features like a custom switch and even, most recently, a focus hold button. It is worth noting that neither the Sony 10-18mm nor the Sigma 16mm F1.4 lenses mentioned as comparisons have any kind of switches or buttons either. Samyang has actually exceeded the Sony lens in having weather sealing. This lens is an excellent value when you consider that the Samyang AF12 has weather sealing, a lens hood, and a case at its $399 USD price tag. That price, incidentally, is exactly the same as the manual focus version of the lens that I tested back in 2014, and so you are getting a lot of additional value for no additional money. Hard to argue with that!
Samyang AF 12mm F2 Autofocus and Video Performance
I watched Samyang really grow by leaps and bounds over the past three years in their perfecting of autofocus. The earliest focus motors were a bit crude, but that improved when they switched to linear focus motors. They’ve continued to improve on their focus accuracy and focus confidence as well, and at this point I have a lot of confidence in their capabilities. The AF12 is equipped with a Linear STM (stepping motor) that provides fast, silent, and accurate autofocus. I had very good focus accuracy during my review, even when shooting more challenging narrow depth-of-field shots, like this:
I also had excellent “stickiness” in tracking human eyes when shooting my video tracking test. Focus smoothly traveled with me as I approached the camera (lens aperture wide open at F2), then moved rapidly forward and backwards. There was no drama or big, abrupt focus changes. All wide angle lenses are helped by the fact that depth of field is typically pretty deep due to the nature of the focal length, but it was obvious that tracking was accurate even when I moved very close to the camera and less was in focus.
Samyang has come a long way in “unlocking” quality autofocus:
My focus pull test produced silent, accurate focus pulls without any sound or drama in focus at all. Focus settled quickly and accurately without any pulsing or hunting. No focus noise was apparent…at all. This lens would work nicely for vlogging or working from a gimbal. It’s a great angle of view, very compact and lightweight, and will offer up a lot of flexibility for stylized shots commonly called “inception mode” or similar because the lens is small enough to never hit anything during full 360° rotations.
Here’s another shot from a low angle, and once again autofocus grabbed the right spot and focused accurately.
Kudos to Samyang for developing growing maturity in their autofocus design and execution!
Samyang AF12 Image Quality
Samyang lenses frequently “punch above their weight” optically, and that’s certainly true here. Don’t let the light weight of the lens deceive you; this is a very sharp lens! We have a fairly high end optical construction here of 12 elements in 10 groups, with 5 of those being special elements, including 1 High Aspherical, 1 Aspherical, and 3 Extra Low Dispersion elements. If you understand MTF charts, you will see that the lens is very sharp in the center but has significant drop-off in the corners.
We’ll break down how the AF12 operates in real world conditions along with chart testing. As noted in the intro, I was very impressed with the optics of original lens in 2014, but standards have changed since then. Wide angle lenses in particular have gotten a lot better. My first reaction when I saw that the optics were the same as the older lens, I shrugged, thinking, “it was already a good lens”. That’s true to some extent, but I’ve also found my expectations are higher these days. At the same time, I also recognize that I spend a lot of time with expensive full frame lenses, which influences my perceptions, but this lens is still quite good relative to direct competitors on APS-C. It’s certainly capable of detailed, punchy images.
So let’s jump into the technical side of things. The Samyang has mild amount of barrel distortion that is fortunately very linear in nature and easy to correct for…even manually. I used a +7 on the Lightroom distortion slider to correct it. What’s interesting is that if I tried using the preset for the earlier manual focus lens, I end up with a slightly overcorrected result, so it is possible that in the tweaking of the optics for the new lens, Samyang managed to clean things up a little.
Vignette is moderate (right over two stops), which isn’t bad for a wide aperture, wide angle lens. A +60 and moving the midpoint slider to zero did the trick, though we can see a slight amount of color variation in the recovered vignette area.
Longitudinal CA (LoCA) isn’t too bad, with a bit of purple (before) and blue/green fringing (after) the plane of focus.
You’ll see this a bit in certain high contrast real world situations like this one.
Most commonly it will probably manifest as a hint of green around bokeh highlights.
There is also a bit of LaCA (Lateral CA) which shows up on the fringes of images on either side of high contrast areas – like the transition from white to black on my test chart:
This is another deviation from the original lens that my tests revealed. The original lens really suffered from lateral chromatic aberrations, and that’s much less the case here. I went through a number of real world images where I expected to see significant fringing, but really didn’t find it. It was there every now and then, but not like what I saw previously.
So, on the basic optical flaw front, the AF12 is doing quite well for a wide angle lens. Distortion, vignette, and chromatic aberrations are relatively under control, and certainly not pronounced enough to cause any real issues.
So how about resolution?
Here’s the whole test chart. Tests are done in the APS-C mode on the 50MP Alpha 1 (21 MP of resolution in APS-C mode) on a tripod with a two second delay.
Here are the crops from the center, mid-frame, and corner at F2:
Resolution and contrast are fairly good, but acuity isn’t sky-high. Textures aren’t mushy or blurred, but neither are they pin-sharp. You can see some significant drop-off in the extreme corners.
Real world images tend to be a little more forgiving, as they aren’t viewed at such high magnification (I do my test chart at 200%), and also corner sharpness is only important in some (not all) images. Image quality fairly close up at F2 was impressive here:
I did note, however, that the corners were never quite pin-sharp, even when I stopped down a bit to F5.6.
In 2014, this was no at all unusual, but these days there are certainly lenses that are extremely sharp even in the extreme corners. For many landscape images, however, having good sharpness all across the frame (but not necessarily into the corners) is going to matter more. The AF12 fairs better if that is the criteria, delivering nice image sharpness here:
I felt like most of my images were quite sharp overall. Textures on the side of this barn at F4 looked nice and crisp:
Returning to chart examination, I found that sharpness and contrast improved mildly at F2.8, with the improvement most noticeable in the corners. Stopping on down to F4 made for further improvement, with the greatest improvement showing from F4 to F5.6, where the lens seems to show peak sharpness in most of the frame. Stopping on down to F8 didn’t really improve things further. Still, you can see how much progress is made in the corners by comparing F2 and F8. Contrast, in particular, has really picked up.
Shoot at F5.6 and F8 to get nice sharpness across most all of the frame.
Normally a wide angle lens is not where you look for bokeh, and that’s mostly true here. The aperture is a little wider than many wide angle lenses, and so you can get reasonably close and blur out backgrounds a bit. The quality of the bokeh varies according to the complexity of the background (wide angle lenses almost never completely blur everything out) and the ratio of the distance to the subject and then to the background. In some situations, I found the bokeh looked quite nice:
The transition zone can get a little “jittery” though. You can see the midpoint of the image on the moss/bark of the tree is “nervous”, but the distant background looks nice.
You’ve seen a number of “bokeh images” in this review already, but here’s a few more to help you determine whether or not you like the rendering from the lens.
I would call this at most a tertiary concern in a wide angle lens, but you can take creative shots with a wide angle lens that show a foreground object close to the camera in focus while not quite blurring out the whole scene. It is hinted at enough to give the image more context than a longer focal length that tends to blur everything.
Flare resistance was mostly quite good, with some minor ghosting artifacts that were never too strong or noticeable. Contrast remains good, and, as noted, the sunburst effect is noticeably improved over the previous lens when stopped down.
Coma performance was also quite good. This has always been a relative strength for the lens, as star points stay quite crisp and precise even towards the edge of the frame. The lens has an advantage in aperture relative to many wide angle lenses for APS-C, so being able to shoot at F2 allows you to keep ISO down (less noise) along with having shorter shutter speeds (less chance of star movement).
This is a solid choice for astrophotography.
Truth be told, there are few lenses like this on Sony APS-C. The combination of better-than-average build, autofocus, wider maximum aperture, and fairly strong optical performance make this lens quite unique. I’ve enjoyed the manual focus version of this lens in the past, and I was reminded why during this review. Check out the image gallery here if you would like to see more images.
Conclusion:
Sony APS-C shooters are only rarely blessed with quality new lenses, but so far there have been at least a couple of really positive new additions. The Tamron 17-70mm F2.8 was a really nice professional grade zoom option (my review here), and this Samyang AF 12mm F2 provides a nice wide angle counterpart. Both lenses have weather sealing, quality autofocus, and strong optical performance. The weather sealing, in particular, is not something often seen on older APS-C lenses, mostly because many APS-C mirrorless cameras have not had weather sealing in the cameras themselves. Fujifilm has been the exception to that rule and take the idea of pro-grade APS-C cameras more seriously, but I suspect we’ll see more of that from Sony in the future.
This is a great option for those wanting a wider angle when traveling, working on a gimbal, or just to compliment a zoom lens. It has a great angle of view that is right in the sweet spot for landscape, city, or architecture. It has low enough distortion that the latter is a possibility, which further adds to its travel credentials.
It’s a nicely made lens that has great autofocus and a strong optical performance (minus the extreme corners). Images have a lot of pop to them, and I suspect you’ll have fun shooting with this one. Perhaps most importantly, though, is that Samyang has once again given us a great lens at a great price. $399 USD isn’t a pittance, obviously, but you would be hard-pressed to find a better value in the wide angle department if you want autofocus.
Here’s hoping that this is just the beginning of a new series of autofocusing lenses targeted at Sony’s APS-C mirrorless cameras. I know many, many photographers who would welcome just that!
Pros:
An excellent update of a well loved lens
Incredibly lightweight
Weather sealed
New design is clean and elegant
Autofocus is fast, quiet, and accurate
Quite sharp in the center and midframe wide open
Coma well controlled
Improved aberration control
Low distortion
Good flare resistance
Good coma performance
Includes hood and case
Awesome price to performance ratio
Cons:
Corners a little soft
Samyang lenses don’t seem to get full in-camera correction support
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Keywords: Samyang AF 12mm F2, Samyang, AF, 12mm F2, FE, Samyang 12mm F2 Review, Samyang AF 12mm Review, Samyang AF 12mm F2 Review, Sony Alpha 1, Sony A1, Sony a6400, Sony a6600, Review, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, Astrophotography
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I had mixed feelings about some of Samyang’s (also sold under the Rokinon brand) early full frame lenses, but I really loved their compact APS-C primes whose design language was in many ways a precursor to their full frame “Tiny Series”. I love the tiny series, and the newest lens in the series (the Samyang AF 24mm F1.8 which I reviewed here) was the best yet. But fortunately Samyang has not abandoned APS-C shooters (who are perennially overlooked), and has released an updated autofocus version of one of my favorite lenses of the earlier series – a 12mm F2 (which I reviewed here). That lens was manual focus only, but I loved the compact, handsome build, and in many ways it had really excellent optics. I liked it well enough in my review that I bought one for my Canon EOS M cameras and only sold it when I moved from Canon to Sony on the APS-C mirrorless front. The new Samyang AF 12mm F2 is an autofocus version of this formula for Sony E-mount (APS-C mirrorless), and also comes with a new build and fresh design language that is slightly different than anything I’ve seen from Samyang before. It’s great to see Samyang give some fresh love to APS-C, and the 12mm F2 gives an approximately 18mm full frame angle of view (99.1°). The Samyang AF 12mm F2 can be mounted on a full frame Sony camera since the E mount is for both full frame and APS-C, but, as we can see, there is a significant amount of mechanical vignetting if you try to use the lens on a full frame camera.
The AF 12mm F2 simply isn’t designed to cover the full frame image circle. In this case the APS-C crop isn’t far off. If I manually crop the full frame image (on the right, below), I end up with roughly 25MP of resolution vs the natural 21MP of the Alpha One’s APS-C crop.
If you didn’t happen to own a full frame wide angle lens, that might work in a pinch, though I certainly wouldn’t buy it specifically for that. The Samyang AF 18mm F2.8 is the full frame equivalent in the “Tiny Series”. But I’ve always enjoyed this focal length on its native APS-C, though, where it delivers nicely dynamic images with a great angle of view:
Samyang states that this becomes the widest autofocusing lens on Sony APS-C, though that’s not entirely true. The Sony 10-18mm F4 OSS lens does exist, and it is an autofocusing lens, though with a much smaller maximum aperture that is a full two stops slower. The Samyang AF12 is the widest autofocusing prime lens on Sony APS-C at the moment, though, and is certainly a better choice for low light situations or astro than the F4 zoom (which also costs more than twice as much!). That makes it a very welcome lens, and, there are a number of positive upgrades here that mean that things are looking up for this lens.
The AF12 has been updated with a some of Samyang’s recent design updates, including linear STM autofocus, weather sealing, and a few design element updates. What isn’t new, however, is the optical formula. This was always a strong lens optically, though it is a little less strong relative to the competition these days. Still, at $399 USD, it’s hard to point to a stronger wide angle option that goes this wide. You can get all the details by either watching the definitive (long format) or standard video reviews, read my text review, or just enjoy the photos below.
Purchasing your gear through B&H and these links helps fund this website and keeps the articles coming. You can also make a donation here if you would like. Visit my Amazon page for some of my gear of choice! Thank you for your support.
Great News! I can now offer a 5% discount on all purchases at Amplis Foto, Canada’s Leading Photographic Supplier. Please enter discount code: AMPLIS52018DA in your cart. It is good for everything in your cart, and is stackable with other coupons, too! It will take 5% off your entire order! Proceeds go towards keeping this site going and providing you with new reviews!
Purchase the Samyang AF 12mm F2 @ B&H Photo https://bhpho.to/3wj0K78 | Amazon https://amzn.to/3v3xQaH | Amazon Canada https://amzn.to/3bBu40E | Amazon UK https://amzn.to/2S9dNZG | Amazon https://amzn.to/3eZSDX4
Keywords: Samyang AF 12mm F2, Samyang, AF, 12mm F2, FE, Samyang 12mm F2 Review, Samyang AF 12mm Review, Samyang AF 12mm F2 Review, Sony Alpha 1, Sony A1, Sony a6400, Sony a6600, Review, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, Astrophotography
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It’s always intriguing to me when two very similar lenses come to the market at the same time. I was just wrapping up my coverage of the Viltrox AF 24mm F1.8 (my review here) when I got wind that Samyang also had a compact 24mm F1.8 prime lens in the pipeline. When Samyang sent me the information about this new lens, I was really pleased, as it showed both some real innovation but also a growing sophistication in lens design. When I reviewed the Samyang AF 75mm F1.8, I was pleased to see them introduce a function switch that allowed direct manual focus control along with aperture control through the manual focus ring. Last year’s Samyang AF 35mm F1.8 added weather sealing into the formula. But this newest lens, the Samyang AF 24mm F1.8 (also sold under the Rokinon brand), adds a focus hold button that has a uniquely Samyang flavor. In many ways, I feel like the new Samyang AF24 (as I’ll refer to it for brevity) represents the best lens yet in the series, with both more features along with a truly impressive optical performance. I like the direction that Samyang’s path is going!
The Samyang AF 24mm has the distinction of being just the second lens that I’ve reviewed on my new Sony Alpha 1. Thus far I’ve been impressed with both of the first lenses I’ve reviewed on this camera, so I’m hoping it’s a trend! I’ve really enjoyed what Samyang calls their “tiny series”, which is a group of very compact full frame prime lenses for Sony FE. These include the AF 18mm F2.8, the new 24mm F1.8, the 35mm F1.8, the 45mm F1.8 (one of my favorites optically!), and the compact telephoto 75mm F1.8.
Samyang is definitely refining the “tiny series” formula, and I’ve been glad to see them unafraid to add features as the series progresses rather than sticking with the original formula just for consistencies sake. These lenses are fairly unique, in that they offer moderately wide aperture values at their respective focal lengths while staying very compact and very light. I’m not aware of any other camera platform that has anything quite like this, but what I find is that very often it is one of these tiny primes that goes into my bag to supplement a larger lens at a different focal length or focal range. The 45mm F1.8 has come along a number of times when I’ve traveled as a lightweight street/fast aperture prime to augment a travel zoom, for example, and I can see the AF24 serving a similar purpose if I go out with a telephoto zoom. It’s a tiny, lightweight lens (only 230g!!!), but it packs a serious optical punch.
The Samyang AF 24mm F1.8 has relatively few flaws, and can do a little bit of everything. Landscapes? Of course! Astrophotography? A specialty! Even close up photography is all part of the equation.
As I have worked through my review period, I’ve been increasingly impressed with the performance of this little lens. The AF24 seems to have most all of the bases covered and has relatively few weaknesses. You can get all the details by either watching the definitive (long format) or standard video reviews below…or just keep reading.
Thanks to Samyang for sending me a test copy of the lens. As always, this is a completely independent review.
Samyang AF24 Build, Handling, and Features
I’ve been very connected during Samyang’s genesis on Sony. It started with the AF 50mm F1.4, one of their very earliest autofocusing lenses on Sony, and I’ve covered 8 other lenses since. Samyang lenses have always been about a strong optical performance at a great price, but traditionally that meant putting up with a cheap build and sometimes rough, inconsistent handling. The early Samyang autofocus lenses sported nothing other than the focus ring, but the past three releases have shown a steady evolution of features and a growing confidence that Samyang lenses can compete on merit rather than just price.
I’ve always been partial to Samyang’s visual aesthetic. It is minimalist and clean, and, while they total ripped off Canon’s “red ring”, Canon also programmed me to think that the red ring means something! Samyang is managing to keep a clean aesthetic even as they add more things to the barrel. I like the fact that the focus hold button, for example, is just there without text on the lens cluttering things up. The satin finish on the lens barrel is a handsome match to the Sony bodies that we mount the lens on, and the compact lens looks good on my cameras from all angles.
Many lens makers are using more and more metals in the construction of their lenses, but Samyang is prioritizing light weight for their “tiny series”. The Viltrox 24mm F1.8 STM is not heavy by any measure (340g), but it is about 48% heavier than the AF24, which is a svelte 230g (about 8 oz). The Samyang is also more compact in all its dimensions, only 65mm in diameter and 71.5mm in length. This is definitely an easy lens to throw in your bag and bring it along. Here’s a comparison to some other options on the market.
Though the body is mostly engineered plastics, the lens doesn’t feel cheap in the hand, and I’ve actually had good success with the other “tiny lenses” that I own in terms of them holding up both cosmetically and operationally. Everything is based around a metal lens mount, which does have a weather sealing gasket. Samyang states that the AF24 is sealed in a total of five spots, which would also cover the button, switch, and either side of the ring. This is one build advantage over the Viltrox 24mm F1.8.
Samyang developed a unique custom switch for their recent lenses that allows you interact with the manual focus ring in a few different ways. By default Mode 1 functions as “Normal Mode”, which is a bit silly, as it essentially does nothing. You need to select manual focus on the camera body. By default Mode 2 functions as Aperture Control, so if you click the switch to Mode 2, the manual focus ring now becomes an aperture ring, which I really like. My only complaint is that I find the rotational direction of the ring to be opposite of what I would expect, so I almost always go the wrong way initially and have to correct and rotate the ring in the opposite direction when I see aperture decreasing rather than increasing or vice versa. I would suggest to Samyang that they create a menu setting in their LensManager software that would allow you to choose the preferred rotation of the ring. My preferred application for Mode 1 is that it becomes manual focus, so if you switch into Mode 1, manual focus is automatically engaged, overriding whatever camera setting is in place. This can be programmed to that function (which I do with all these Samyang lenses), but it does require the Samyang Lens Station and the LensManager software to change these settings. I would recommend getting the Lens Station (it costs right under $60 USD), as it is also the way that you apply firmware updates.
Early on, Samyang was very reliant on firmware updates to continue to tweak (and, to be frank, develop) their autofocus performance on the fly. Many earlier Samyang lenses became much more stable and usable via firmware updating. I have voiced appreciation for Samyang’s commitment to developing and supporting their lenses, but also criticized them for often releasing lenses before they were fully operational. Fortunately Samyang has taken that to heart, and I’ve found recent lenses to be fully functional when they arrive to me even though I often review them ahead of public release. Still, having the Lens Station is valuable for the simple reason that cameras and their protocols change either through new models or by their own firmware updates, and having a way of quickly applying firmware updates to the lens is a way to assure ongoing compatibility when using a third party lens.
Once I tweak the functionality of the custom switch to my preferred settings, I find it to be a very useful addition to the lens, as it gives me quick aperture and manual focus control on the fly.
The new feature here is the focus hold button, which is a first for a Samyang lens. The focus hold button has become a staple on Sony lenses (and also on some third party lenses like Sigma), and its use can change according to whatever you program it to be in the camera. It’s one more control point, so it is automatically valuable because of that. Samyang has added their own unique twist, however, and that is in designing the lens around astrophotography. If you hold the focus hold button down with the camera off and then power the camera on, the lens will automatically enter “star shooting mode”. It will focus to the correct distance for stars or other distant points of light, and light up a small LED parallel to the focus hold button near the lens mount. This LED will show green if everything has been successful. Manual focus mode is also automatically engaged if you want to make tweaks to focus, and the LED will turn red if there has been focus input to let you know that focus has been changed.
Here’s the instructions that were sent to me by Samyang that give more details:
■ How to enter the astrophotographic shooting function (Custom mode)
• Automatic infinity focus setting function (Custom mode) specializing in astrophotographic shooting and LED index are added to the Samyang 24mm F1.8 FE.
• There are two methods to enter the custom mode, as follows:
– When the camera is turned on: With the focus hold button pressed, mount the lens.
– When the camera is turned off: With the lens mounted, press the focus hold button and turn on the camera.
※ When the camera body is turned off, or the camera is operating in the sleep mode, astrophotographic shooting mode will be canceled.
■ How to use the astrophotographic shooting function (custom mode)
• When the camera enters the custom mode, the camera focusing mode will change to MF.
• When the camera enters the custom mode normally, the LED index will blink red once, will move to the infinity position (factory default value) automatically and the LED will light in green.
• If the focusing position is changed due to the adjustment of the focus adjustment ring while using the lens, the LED will light in red.
When you press the focus hold button briefly once, focus will return to the infinity position automatically and the color of the LED will change to green.
※ Calibration method in case the focus cannot be set to infinity accurately due to a deviation in the camera body
1. Find and focus on a subject in infinity by turning the focusing ring.
2. When you press and hold down the focus hold button for approximately 3 seconds, the LCD screen on the camera will become dark and then brighten and the infinity value will be calibrated according to the current focal point.
The calibrated value will be saved in ROM within the lens.
I tested it out, and, sure enough, focus was accurate for shooting the night sky:
I then manually focused as I typically would for shooting astro, and then compared the two results in post.
I found that focus was identical, so this mode worked properly and provides a really simple way to assure proper focus, which eliminates one of the challenges for astro work. You’ll note from the instructions above that there is a workaround if there is some variance in your camera/lens combination and you need to make a slight tweak to the preset focus distance. In my case that was unnecessary. This is a genuinely useful feature, however, and has also given Samyang a great way to market this lens as a specialist tool for astrophotography.
The focus ring has a fairly good amount of damping (just slightly on the heavy side), and, while the feel isn’t amazing, the precision is quite good.
Inside we have an aperture iris with 9 rounded blades, though I don’t find the stopped down shape as circular as the best lenses. Here’s a look at F1.8, F2.8, and F4:
Up front we have a 58mm front filter thread, a size that four out of the five tiny lenses pictured in the intro share. I’m not necessarily recommending a slavish devotion to always having the same filter thread, but having multiple lenses with the same filter thread is certainly nice for filter sharing.
Our minimum focus distance is just 19cm (about 7 1/2 inches), and the resulting 0.21x magnification at MFD is a very useful figure:
The focal plane is not particularly flat, as you can see, but the detail and contrast at MFD is quite good. It is rare for a wide angle lens that focuses very closely to produce a flat focal plane, so that part is not surprising at all. The magnification figure is a welcome addition, however, as that hasn’t always been a strength for this series or Samyang lenses in general. That blows away the Viltrox’s magnification figure of just 0.10x, and is even slightly better than what we saw from the excellent Sony FE 20mm F1.8 G lens (my review here).
The lens comes with a basic lens hood (petal shaped) that reverses and stores nice and tight to the lens body along with a really nice little molded case. I certainly wouldn’t call the build quality premium here, but the feature set is, and the focus on being small and light while having a nice degree of build leaves me very satisfied with the overall package.
Samyang AF 24mm F1.8 Autofocus and Video Performance
I watched Samyang really grow by leaps and bounds over the past three years in their perfecting of autofocus. The earliest focus motors were a bit crude, but that improved when they switched to linear focus motors. They’ve continued to improve on their focus accuracy and focus confidence as well, and at this point I have a lot of confidence in their capabilities. The AF24 is equipped with a Linear STM (stepping motor) that provides fast, silent, and accurate autofocus. I had very good focus accuracy during my review, even when shooting more challenging narrow depth-of-field shots, like this:
I also had excellent “stickiness” in tracking human eyes whether shooting video or portraits. I shot a devotion episode for my church with the lens in an outdoor setting where the wind produced constant motion in the background. Throughout the nearly 12 minute video it tracked my face almost flawlessly (I saw one split second focus cycle). That’s the kind of reliability that I just didn’t see with earlier lenses. In my video test where I walk towards the camera, look away, then move quickly backwards and forwards, I felt like the lens did a good job of picking up my face/eyes and staying locked throughout the sequence. Eye AF tracked perfectly during a brief portrait session, and produced very well focused results even at F1.8:
My focus pull test produced silent, accurate focus pulls without any sound or drama in focus at all. Focus settled quickly and accurately without any pulsing or hunting. Things were so quiet is that all you could hear was Loki scampering around in a distant room. No focus noise was apparent…at all.
Speaking of Loki, he is about four months old now and doesn’t stay still for long. He is very interested whenever I point a camera at him, but the problem is that he always wants to move towards the camera. Despite his constant movement, the AF24 tracked his eyes just fine and produced accurately focused results:
Here’s a close-up of one of those images.
Autofocus is more stable here than what we saw on the Viltrox, and I saw nothing but good things from the autofocus during my review period.
Kudos to Samyang for developing growing maturity in their autofocus design and execution!
Samyang AF24 Image Quality
Samyang lenses frequently “punch above their weight” optically, and that’s certainly true here. Don’t let the light weight of the lens deceive you; this is a very sharp lens! We have a fairly high end optical construction here of 11 elements in 8 groups, but 7 of those are special elements, including 2 Aspherical, 3 High Refractive, and 2 Extra Low Dispersion elements. If you understand MTF charts, you will see that the lens is very sharp and with high contrast basically across the frame even at F1.8, and near to perfect at smaller apertures.
We’ll break down how the AF24 operates in real world conditions along with chart testing, but they say a picture is worth a thousand words. Let’s just say I love this one:
I shot in this area with the Samyang along with two new top tier lenses – the Sony 35mm F1.4 G Master and the Sony 14mm F1.8 G Master. Neither of these are direct competitors, obvious, but I will say this: I liked the images from Samyang in that setting just as well…which is saying something!
So let’s jump into the technical side of things. The Samyang has mild amount of barrel distortion with just a hint of a mustache pattern. It doesn’t correct perfectly via manual correction (though not badly), but when the RAW correctio profile arrives we’ll probably see a slightly cleaner fix. I used a +8 on the Lightroom distortion slider to correct it.
Vignette is moderate (right under two stops), which isn’t bad for a wide aperture, wide angle lens. A +48 and moving the midpoint slider to zero did the trick. Nothing too bad here, and the distortion is much less complex than the competing Viltrox lens.
I found that chromatic aberrations were also well controlled, with minimal amounts of LoCA (Longitudinal CA), which shows as fringing before and after the plane of focus:
…and also no evidence of LaCA (Lateral CA) which shows up on the fringes of images on either side of high contrast areas – like the transition from white to black on my test chart:
So, on the basic optical flaw front, the AF24 is doing well. How about resolution?
Here’s the whole test chart. Tests are done on the 50MP Alpha 1 on a tripod with a two second delay.
Here are the crops from the center, mid-frame, and corner at F1.8:
We see the reality promised by the MTF charts. The sharpness across the frame is excellent, and contrast is good as well, with only a mild drop in the corners.
I retested the Viltrox on the Alpha 1 to have an apples-to-apples comparison. I found the Samyang the easy winner at wide apertures across the frame.
But where things got very interesting is when I compared with the downright excellent Sony FE 20mm F1.8 G lens (which costs nearly twice as much). I found the 20mm G lens to be one of the best wide angle primes I’ve ever used, and while the focal lengths aren’t identical, in some ways it is a more logical competitor to the Samyang than the 24mm F1.4 GM lens. I tested the 20mm G on a slightly lower resolution a7RIII (42MP), but I was honestly shocked to see that the Samyang looks better wide open than the Sony in the center and mid frame, and roughly similar (perhaps a tiny bit better) in the corner. Here’s the look at the rather startling center advantage:
Um, wow! That I did not expect.
I was simultaneously testing the new Sony FE 35mm F1.4 G Master lens, and while the Samyang isn’t quite on the same level in terms of contrast, the side by side difference between these lenses is not nearly as big as you might expect:
This is a very sharp lens even at F1.8:
Contrast improves further even at F2 (I don’t often see a big improvement with only a one-third stop closing down of the aperture). By F2.8 the lens is fantastically sharp and has rich contrast all across the frame:
That translates into excellent resolution at smaller apertures, even when out near the edge of the frame:
Good contrast also lends itself to excellent looking monochrome images as well.
The Samyang AF24 packs a lot of punch into a small, light, and relatively inexpensive package! Here’s a few other landscapes:
Normally a wide angle lens is not where you look for bokeh, but the wide aperture combined with the close focus abilities will allow you to blur out backgrounds in some situations. The quality of the bokeh varies according to the complexity of the background (wide angle lenses almost never completely blur everything out) and the ratio of the distance to the subject and then to the background. In some situations, I found the bokeh looked quite nice:
In other situations a more complex background got a little busy for my tastes:
Overall, however, I would say that I saw more pleasing images than busy ones. Here’s a few more:
Flare resistance was mostly quite good, though I did get a ghosting blob in this one:
I shot the same scene with the two aforementioned GM lenses, and neither of them produced any ghosting artifacts in the same scene (Sony is really nailing their coatings in their premium lenses right now!) Still, it wasn’t terribly destructive, and in other images my results were better. In this stopped down image, contrast and veiling are well controlled, and the sunburst effect from the nine-bladed aperture looks fairly good.
Coma performance was also quite good. Samyang is really marketing this lens for astrophotography due to the unique feature set, but they have backed that up with a crisp rendering of the sky even at F1.8 and very minor coma smear or stretching near the edges. There is a little bit of comatic aberration near the edges, but it is fairly well controlled.
All in all, we have a very strong performer here. I like pretty much everything here, including the color rendition. Samyang lenses have a reputation for rendering a bit warm, but I found color out the AF24 to be nicely neutral and not dissimilar from what I saw from the GM lenses. 24mm is not incredibly wide, but I’ve tested enough 24mm lenses to know that it is still a somewhat complicated focal length to engineer…particularly if you also have to design for a wider aperture. F1.8 is not as dramatic as F1.4, but the Samyang AF24 does a credible job of competing with the F1.4 options on the market…and at a much lower price point. Check out the image gallery here if you would like to see more images.
Conclusion:
I’ve personally enjoyed the Samyang “Tiny Series” because they offer a solid optical performance in a small, portable package. In many ways they seem more like the kinds of lenses you might find on APS-C, but these are fully realized full frame lenses that can handle the rigors of higher resolution full frame cameras. I’m a little more tolerant of optical shortcomings in lenses that offer tradeoffs like size (check!) and price (also check!), though with the Samyang AF 24mm F1.8 no real tolerance is needed. It is so good in basically every area that it can compete on merit, and the fact that it is incredibly lightweight and very reasonably priced is just icing on the cake.
This is a lens that will come along with me in the future. It’s easy to throw into the bag to augment other lenses, and it has no problems handling my high resolution (50MP) camera. 24mm is a great street and landscape lens, making it a nice travel companion.
I can say with confidence that this is the best lens in the Samyang tiny series thus far, and, in many ways, it is one of the best lenses Samyang has ever made. No, it doesn’t feel like a Zeiss lens in the hand in terms of build quality, but it does have weather sealing and will probably hold up just fine. But what it does have is great autofocus, fantastic optics, and, at 230g, can fit into your bag or even your pocket and never make you regret bringing it along. If you don’t have a G Master budget, the Samyang AF 24mm F1.8 is a pretty fantastic consolation prize.
Pros:
Ever evolving features makes this the most complete Samyang yet
Incredibly lightweight
Unique astro application for focus hold button genuinely works
Weather sealed
Autofocus is fast, quiet, and accurate
Extremely sharp wide open
Coma well controlled
Low aberrations
Low distortion
Good coma performance
Awesome price to performance ratio
Cons:
Distortion is a slightly complex
Samyang lenses don’t seem to get full in-camera correction support
Lens Station needed for firmware updates or customization
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Keywords: Samyang AF 24mm F1.8, Samyang, AF, 24mm F1.8, FE, Samyang 24mm 1.8 Review, Samyang AF 24mm Review, Samyang AF 24mm F1.8 Review, Sony Alpha 1, Sony A1, Sony Alpha 1 Review, Sony A1 Review, ILCE-1, Sony, Alpha 1, A1, Review, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, Astrophotography
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It’s always intriguing to me when two very similar lenses come to the market at the same time. I was just wrapping up my coverage of the Viltrox AF 24mm F1.8 (my review here) when I got wind that Samyang also had a compact 24mm F1.8 prime lens in the pipeline. When Samyang sent me the information about this new lens, I was really pleased, as it showed both some real innovation but also a growing sophistication in lens design. When I reviewed the Samyang AF 75mm F1.8, I was pleased to see them introduce a function switch that allowed both direction manual focus control along with aperture control through the manual focus ring. Last year’s Samyang AF 35mm F1.8 added weather sealing into the formula. But this newest lens, the Samyang AF 24mm F1.8, adds a focus hold button that has a uniquely Samyang flavor. In many ways, I feel like the new Samyang AF24 (as I’ll refer to it for brevity) represents the best lens yet in the series, with both more features along with a truly impressive optical performance. I like the direction that Samyang’s path is going!
The Samyang AF 24mm has the distinction of being just the second lens that I’ve reviewed on my new Sony Alpha 1. Thus far I’ve been impressed with both of the first lenses I’ve reviewed on this camera, so I’m hoping it’s a trend! I’ve really enjoyed what Samyang calls their “tiny series”, which is a group of very compact full frame prime lenses for Sony FE. These include the AF 18mm F2.8, the new 24mm F1.8, the 35mm F1.8, the 45mm F1.8 (one of my favorites optically!), and the compact telephoto 75mm F1.8.
Samyang is definitely refining the “tiny series” formula, and I’ve been glad to see them unafraid to add features as the series progresses rather than sticking with the original formula just for consistencies sake. These lenses are fairly unique, in that they offer moderately wide aperture values at their respective focal lengths while staying very compact and very light. I’m not aware of any other camera platform that has anything quite like this, but what I find is that very often it is one of these tiny primes that goes into my bag to supplement a larger lens at a different focal length or focal range. The 45mm F1.8 has come along a number of times when I’ve traveled as a lightweight street/fast aperture prime to augment a travel zoom, for example, and I can see the AF24 serving a similar purpose if I go out with a telephoto zoom. It’s a tiny, lightweight lens (only 230g!!!), but it packs a serious optical punch.
The Samyang AF 24mm F1.8 has relatively few flaws, and can do a little bit of everything. Landscapes? Of course! Astrophotography? A specialty! Even close up photography is all part of the equation.
So check out the wide variety of images you’ll find from this versatile little lens in the galleries below. You can see my findings on performance in either the video reviews or by reading my text review, or just enjoy the photos below.
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Keywords: Samyang AF 24mm F1.8, Samyang, AF, 24mm F1.8, FE, Samyang 24mm 1.8 Review, Samyang AF 24mm Review, Samyang AF 24mm F1.8 Review, Sony Alpha 1, Sony A1, Sony Alpha 1 Review, Sony A1 Review, ILCE-1, Sony, Alpha 1, A1, Review, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, Astrophotography
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Tamron released their new 28-78mm F2.8 RXD lens for Sony full frame mirrorless (FE) last year to great fanfare, as it provided a legitimate alternative to the very large and very expensive Sony 24-70mm F2.8 G Master lens. The 28-75 RXD went on to be the best selling lens of the year (period!) in its first year of release, which is a pretty stunning endorsement of its blend of solid build, good autofocus, and great optical performance. This year Tamron has introduced a second lens in a presumed trilogy of fast zoom lenses for Sony. They’ve tackled the wide end of things with the Tamron 17-28mm F2.8 RXD (A046). Like the 28-75mm, they’ve chosen a slightly less conventional zoom range. In this case, it is a little narrower than, say, the Sony 16-35mm F2.8 GM lens. Tamron undoubtedly made this choice to allow them to create a smaller, lighter lens with excellent performance across its limited zoom range. While I have seen a few comments from some viewers in my audience complaining about the somewhat restrictive zoom range (it is only a 1.6x zoom ratio), many more are delighted by the balanced approach that covers portability, performance, and price. Has Tamron found another winning formula with the A046 (Tamron’s code for the lens)? Read on to find out!
Prefer to watch your reviews? You can see my full video review here:
As noted, this is a not a big zoom range, but it is enough to give one some flexibility in framing a landscape scene. Here’s a look at 17mm:
And the same scene at 28mm:
No one will confuse that kind of zoom range with a superzoom, but since many of us are used to shooting landscapes with primes, that’s enough zoom range to really impact the way you can frame a scene. I’m not terribly put out by the short 28mm “telephoto” end (and comparisons with the 28-75mm show that there is probably a milliliter or two of overlap, with the A046 giving a wider framing at 28mm than the 28-75 [A036]). I wouldn’t have minded a little wider angle of view on the wide end, however, though that would have necessitated a larger lens and changed the dynamic of the nicely compact 67mm filter thread up front (which is shared with the 28-75). Ultimately you will have to decide whether the zoom range suits your purposes, but if it does, you will probably find little else to complain about.
A046 Build, Design, and Handling
The best way to get the full picture of the build, handling, and feature set is by watching this video episode:
It is a breath of fresh air to handle lenses that consider the reality that photographers have to actually carry, handle, and transport lenses. It seems like the size of lenses has been ever-growing, and while I appreciate the optical performance of many such lenses, I also know the reality of when I’m packing my personal photography bag for a trip and that I tend to choose lenses that are reasonably sized. That’s definitely the case here, as while the A046 has a identical diameter to the 28-75 (2.87″/73mm), it is considerably shorter at 3.9″ (99mm). That’s nearly 20mm shorter than the 28-75 (117.8mm), and also considerably shorter than the Sony 16-35mm F2.8 GM lens (121.6mm). The lens is also lightweight for an F2.8 zoom lens at only 14.82oz (420g). The Sony G-Master lens weighs in at 680g and the Sony 16-35mm F4 weighs 518g. Now, to be fair, both those lenses have a larger zoom range, though the latter has a smaller maximum aperture.
The Tamron actually employs mostly lightweight metals and engineered plastics in the barrel, and includes premium features like weather sealing (with not only a rear gasket but internal seals at 7 different spots according to this diagram from Tamron) along with an expensive fluorine coating on the front element.
The only real physical limitation, in my opinion, is a lack of any kind of switch on the barrel for AF/MF. I enjoy a physical button like this on Sony FE mount lenses because it saves going into the menu and allows you to make this change on the fly. The upside of the lack of any switches is that the 28-75 RXD has a very clean and modern physical appearance. The barrel has a satin black finish interrupted only by the focus and zoom rings and the accent ring near the lens mount which Tamron euphemistically calls “Luminous Gold”. It has a very common 67mm front filter size. This feels like a lens purpose-designed for Sony FE, and is a much more natural fit than what many of the Sigma FE lenses will be, as they were first designed for DSLRs (where they were already on the large side, anyway).
The lens zooms internally (the length does not change either when zooming or focusing), though you will see some minor movement of an inner barrel during zooming if you look from the front. At some positions this appears to open up a space into the interior of the lens, but I don’t believe this is actually true as Tamron’s diagram of the weather sealing shows multiple seals at these transition points.
The zoom action is smooth and nicely damped (fairly common with internally zooming lenses). I’ve seen a few reports of the zoom ring being a bit stiff, but that wasn’t the case with my review copy. The zoom ring is fairly wide, tightly ribbed, and has a rubberized texture that is easy to grip.
The manual focus ring is narrower and has a different texture pattern to help to distinguish it from the zoom ring by touch. Like all mirrorless autofocusing lenses, the manual focus action is a “focus by wire” system where input on the manual focus ring is routed through the focus motor to actually produce focus changes. There is no mechanical coupling to the elements. I’ve actually been fairly happy with the implementation of “focus by wire” on many Sony lenses (including this one), as the damping is fairly good and input lag (a lag between your input on the focus ring and the actual focus action) doesn’t seem to be an issue. I find it easy to refine focus, and, if you are in MF or DMF focus modes, the camera will detect when focus input is made and will automatically magnify the image on the LCD or in the viewfinder to help you visually confirm correct focus. This is accompanied by an on-screen distance scale. If you aren’t in MF or DMF modes, input on the focus ring will do nothing.
The A046 is a fully native lens on Sony, and as such receives firmware updates via the camera like a Sony branded lens. JPEG files receive correction for vignette, distortion, and chromatic aberrations. At the time of this review no RAW profile was yet available in Adobe Lightroom/ACR, but that should soon be rectified.
Like the 28-75, the A046 has two different minimum focus distances for each end of the focal range, with the higher magnification figure once again available at the wider end. At 17mm one can focus down to 7.5″ (0.19m) and get a maximum magnification figure of over 0.19x (1:5.2):
At 28mm the minimum focus distances becomes 10.2″ (0.26m) and the maximum magnification figure is 0.166x (1:6).
The close up performance is excellent, though a bit better on the wide end (better contrast). Your biggest challenge on the wide end is that the minimum focus distance is only a few inches longer than the lens itself (MFD is measured from the camera’s sensor), so there’s a high risk of shading your subject. Removing the lens hood helps a bit. Still, the figure on either end of the focal range is useful for creating unique images and doing some visual storytelling. I’m always happy to have a lens with a decent close focus performance.
All in all there is a lot of good things going on with the build and design of this lens. It’s a nice blend of build quality, weather sealing, and compact size and weight. The only thing I could really wish for would be an AF/MF switch for convenience sake.
A046 Autofocus Performance
The A046 is the second lens from Tamron to employ their Rapid eXtra-silent stepping Drive (RXD) focus motor in. It is essentially everything a mirrorless autofocus system should be. It’s extremely fast, extremely silent, and locks on quickly and confidently. It feels akin to Canon’s excellent Nano-USM technology in speed and silence.
Tamron issued a firmware update for the 28-75 shortly after its release that fixed a few minor issues, and since that point it has become my mainstay for filming on my YouTube channel because the autofocus is just excellent. I had high expectations for the 17-28mm (A046) to be more of the same…and that’s pretty much what I’ve found. My one complaint was that there have been at least one low light situations where I found the lens didn’t want to autofocus. Sony isn’t quite as good as Canon in these type situations, and, while the lighting was very challenging, it was a situation where (from experience) I expected autofocus to take place. This is what autofocus produced:
…where manual focus produced this:
So far that was an isolated instance. I’ve tried intentionally shooting in very low light situations and gotten fine results. Focus will slow down a little in those conditions (and AF-S is slightly better than AF-C), but I got accurate focus lock. Here’s a beautiful image (wink, wink) taken at 1/10th of a second, ISO 25,600 in an essentially dark storeroom:
So, while I did want to note the one instance, it doesn’t seem to follow a pattern and I have no concerns over autofocus performance. All Sony focus technologies are supported, from focus modes to Eye AF to the Hybrid Phase Detect/Contrast AF focus that is Sony’s unique approach to autofocus. It supports continuous AF in all drive modes, including Hi+. I got good Eye AF results during a portrait session even with heavy backlighting.
Wide angle lenses often don’t show as much pinpointing of the eye during focus acquisition (particularly if you aren’t close to the subject), but depth of field is also a lot larger. What matters in the end is getting well-focused results, and that was my experience.
I had good results in my general purpose shooting where I will sometimes isolate a subject even with a wide angle lens like this one:
Autofocus during video was excellent. Focus pulls happen quickly, smoothly, and utterly silently. I didn’t encounter any issue with pulsing. This would be a nice lens to mount on a gimbal due to the light weight, internal zooming, and excellent autofocus. It’s a great focal range for video work, and things like distortion and vignette are corrected real-time in camera…a big plus.
Tamron’s RXD drives are a great fit for Sony mirrorless. I’m very happy with the behavior of the autofocus.
Tamron 17-28mm F2.8 (A046) Image Quality
The A046 has a lot to live up to. The A036 (28-75) in an excellent optical instrument across the zoom range, typically showing equal (and even slightly better) performance at some focal lengths when compared to the much more expensive G Master lens. While I haven’t yet tested the Sony 16-35mm F2.8 GM personally, I have noted that other reviewers have already found that the A046 performs similarly well against the GM competitor…particularly at landscape distances (arguably the most important). I break down the image quality in detail in this video and make some comparisons to the Laowa 15mm F2 Zero D, the Viltrox 20mm F1.8, and the Tamron 28-75mm at the overlapping (or near-overlapping) focal lengths.
My “brick wall” test revealed some of the typical shortcomings for wide angle zooms, namely some barrel distortion at 17mm and some vignette. The vignette is moderately heavy, though lighter than a number of other similar lenses that I’ve reviewed (and less than either of the primes I compared it to). There is a noticeable amount of barrel distortion that is exaggerated by the close test distance. Both of these issues are corrected in-camera for both JPEGs and video, though at the time of the review there (surprisingly) isn’t a matching Adobe profile for RAW images yet (often that profile is embedded in the RAW files on Sony). This is something that will surely get corrected in the near future.
The nature of the barrel distortion unfortunately has a “mustache” pattern and isn’t entirely linear, but fortunately the in-camera profile corrects for it quite well. Here’s a look at a couple of uncorrected RAW files (on the left) and the JPEG versions that have been corrected in camera.
As is often the case, the amount of distortion at landscape distances is much less obvious.
This isn’t really an issue for landscape or general purpose work, but if your shot includes a lot of complex lines you (and you have the room), you may want to zoom in a bit towards 20mm where there is considerably less distortion. If your primary purpose is shooting architecture or real estate, you might want to choose another lens with less barrel distortion. My favorite combo on Sony for shooting interiors is the Laowa 12mm F2.8 Zero D in a Canon EF mount used in conjunction with the Laowa MSC (Magic Shift Converter) that gives you a 17mm F4 lens with 10 degrees of shift in any direction and no vignette. I reviewed that combination here. Outside of the scope of real estate, however, I don’t think the distortion is anything to worry about. This forest scene has not had any kind of correction, and looks fine.
At 17mm the A046 is extremely sharp. Most of the frame is extremely sharp from F2.8 on, with high contrast and great acutance (ability to resolve fine details). The corners lag a bit behind at F2.8, though some of that is due to the uncorrected vignette and distortion in my test shots.
Where the A046 shows its superiority is when compared to other lenses, however. At the closer focus distance it shows better corner performance than the Laowa 15mm F2 (both lenses at F2.8) and at landscape distances it particularly stands out for having better clarity, richer color, and more microcontrast and acutance in resolving the distant textures.
The lens is perfectly usable at 17mm, F2.8, delivering images with good contrast, low CA, and high detail:
Stopping down a bit improves corner performance a bit further (center performance is already near perfect):
The A046 is a fantastic landscape lens on my 42MP a7RIII when stopped down. Images are richly colored, high contrast, and have great detail across the frame.
At 20mm both distortion and vignette are naturally corrected for, leaving this as a better focal length for shooting architecture or straight lines. It shows roughly the same amount of distortion and a bit less vignette than the Viltrox 20mm F1.8 lens that I compared it to (both lenses at F2.8). At the brick wall distance the two lenses performed fairly similarly, with incredibly sharp centers and a gradual dropoff into the corners. But in the third image, at infinity, the A046 once again shows its merit. It delivers a clearer, brighter, richer image with better microcontrast in the textures and richer colors.
Those of you who spotted the difference in shutter speed will be relieved to know that I added the one-third stop of exposure back into the Viltrox image in post (they metered slightly differently).
Stopping the lens down will slightly improve performance, with a little better contrast and resolution, but mostly a vignette lift.
20mm is a great landscape focal length, and the A046 delivers here:
Performance at 24mm is roughly similar to the performance at 20mm, so we’ll move on to the end of the focal range where another comparison awaits. While both the A036 and the A046 techically cover 28mm, the focal lengths don’t quite match up. It’s likely that the 28-75mm is mildly narrower than 28mm and the 17-28mm is mildly wider than 28mm (lens makers use standard focal lengths so we don’t get a 16.8-27.6mm lens). They both produce quite a different look at 28mm due to the fact that this represents the telephoto end of the wide angle zoom (17-28) and the wide end of the standard zoom (28-75). The 28-75 shows pronounced barrel distortion at 28mm while the 17-28mm shows very mild pincushion distortion.
The 17-28mm shows a slightly wider perspective along with a little more neutral color (the 28-75 is ever so slightly warm). Both lenses are very sharp in the center, though the 28-75 shows slightly more contrast. It also wins in the corners, where it shows a bit more resolution and contrast:
If we take things out to infinity we find the same truths remain. The 28-75 retains the edge over the A046 with slightly better microcontrast and resolution at 28mm. Stopping down to F5.6 (third image) evens out the resolution difference though the 28-75 retains slightly better contrast.
So, despite not getting every win, the 17-28mm comes out of this comparison looking very good. It delivers sharp results with great color and contrast throughout the zoom range. Here’s some real world 28mm shots:
The A046 gets good marks for flare resistance, which is often a weakness for wide angle lenses. It shows only minor ghosting artifacts, which present in a fairly artistic, non-destructive fashion, and the lens delivers a beautiful sunburst effect from the nine-bladed aperture when stopped down.
It also is highly effective in limiting chromatic aberrations of either the longitudinal or lateral types. I saw essentially no issues in real world shooting. You can even shoot challenging subjects like this without any real issues:
This contributes to being able to shoot high contrast images with a lot of punch:
Good flare resistance, the ability to focus closely, and low chromatic aberrations combine to allow you to shoot some creative shots like this:
One doesn’t buy a lens like this for its bokeh, but in most situations the bokeh quality is decent from the A046. At 28mm you can get a bit of the well defined edge look that the 28-75mm sometimes shows, but I think my real world results look pretty good.
One final important metric for a lens like this is the ability to control coma for bright lights against dark backgrounds (like stars). I would call the performance here good but not exceptional (I’ve seen better in a few lenses). Star points are nice and crisp (as befits a sharp lens like this), but you will see a little deformation in the corner of the bright star points.
This is a good performance, however, and I think the lens will work well for those who like to shoot the night sky:
All in all the lens comes out of this section looking pretty strong. The distortion and vignette are expected in such a lens and are fairly easily corrected (particularly once the lens profile arrives in Adobe!). The A046 shines in its delivery of great color and contrast, however, and aberrations are well corrected for.
Tamron gave us an abbreviated zoom range in the A046, but the trade off is a compact, lightweight zoom lens that packs a lot of optical punch that is by the report of others (I haven’t tested it yet) the equal of the much more expensive G Master lens.
Conclusion
The Tamron 17-28mm F2.8 RXD packs a lot of goodness into a compact package. Many would agree that this is the type of lens that helps round out the Sony ecosystem with a competent yet affordable third party alternative to the much more expensive G Master lens. This is exactly what third parties should offer, and it’s great to see Tamron (and soon Sigma) stepping into that role on the Sony FE platform. Tamron has struck a nice balance with the A046 between a nice, weather sealed build and light weight and portability. While the zoom range is somewhat abbreviated, the compensation is very strong optical performance, a reasonable 67mm front filter thread, and the aforementioned size. The autofocus is also excellent, with truly silent focus, a lot of speed, and good accuracy. That combined with the fact that the lens receives in-camera corrections during video recording should make the A046 an attractive lens for videographers.
The main objection that photographers will raise is the limited focal range. That’s a fair point, as Tamron chiseled off both ends of the typical 16-35mm zoom range. Others have noted that they are satisfied with adapting the less expensive Tamron 17-35mm F2.8-4 OSD. Fair enough. Still, this is a lot of lens for the MSRP of $899 USD, particularly when the G Master lens clocks in at $2199. I suspect that Tamron has another lens on their hands that will sell very, very well and make them a lot of fans. Count me as one of them.
Pros:
Beautiful build with thorough weather sealing
Excellent autofocus performance: silent, fast, and accurate
Beautiful color and contrast
Good acutance and microcontrast in rendering fine textures
Good flare resistance
Good chromatic aberration control
Native lens support – lens corrections for JPEGs and Video
Purchasing your gear through B&H and these links helps fund this website and keeps the articles coming. You can also make a donation here if you would like. Visit my Amazon page for some of my gear of choice! Thank you for your support.
Great News! I can now offer a 5% discount on all purchases at Amplis Foto, Canada’s Leading Photographic Supplier. Please enter discount code: AMPLIS52018DA in your cart. It is good for everything in your cart, and is stackable with other coupons, too! It will take 5% off your entire order! Proceeds go towards keeping this site going and providing you with new reviews!
Keywords: Sony, Tamron, withmytamron, A046, Tamron 17-28, Tamron 17-28mm, RXD, F2.8, 17-28mm, Di III, Sony FE, Tamron 17-28mm Review, Tamron 17-28 Review, 17-28mm F2.8, Dustin Abbott, Autofocus, Sample Images, Video, Video Test, review, Video review, Real World, Wide Angle, Sony a7RIII, Sony a7RIV, Astrophotography, Coma, Sharpness, Resolution, Bokeh
DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Tamron released their new 28-78mm F2.8 RXD lens for Sony full frame mirrorless (FE) last year to great fanfare, as it provided a legitimate alternative to the very large and very expensive Sony 24-70mm F2.8 G Master lens. The 28-75 RXD went on to be the best selling lens of the year in its first year of release, which is a pretty stunning endorsement of its blend of solid build, good autofocus, and great optical performance. This year Tamron has introduced a second lens in a presumed trilogy of fast zoom lenses for Sony. They’ve tackled the wide end of things with the Tamron 17-28mm F2.8 RXD (A046). Like the 28-75mm, they’ve chosen a slightly less conventional zoom range. In this case, it is a little narrower than, say, the Sony 16-35mm F2.8 GM lens. Tamron undoubtedly made this choice to allow them to create a smaller, lighter lens with excellent performance across its limited zoom range. I’ll see how well they did in my tests. I’m doing these tests and comparisons on the Sony a7RIII. Stay tuned for my review of the lens!
Purchasing your gear through B&H and these links helps fund this website and keeps the articles coming. You can also make a donation here if you would like. Visit my Amazon page for some of my gear of choice! Thank you for your support.
Great News! I can now offer a 5% discount on all purchases at Amplis Foto, Canada’s Leading Photographic Supplier. Please enter discount code: AMPLIS52018DA in your cart. It is good for everything in your cart, and is stackable with other coupons, too! It will take 5% off your entire order! Proceeds go towards keeping this site going and providing you with new reviews!
Keywords: Sony, Tamron, withmytamron, A046, Tamron 17-28, Tamron 17-28mm, RXD, F2.8, 17-28mm, Di III, Sony FE, Tamron 17-28mm Review, Tamron 17-28 Review, 17-28mm F2.8, Dustin Abbott, Autofocus, Sample Images, Video, Video Test, review, Video review, Real World, Wide Angle, Sony a7RIII, Sony a7RIV, Astrophotography, Coma, Sharpness, Resolution, Bokeh
DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
It’s not an easy job to carve out a slice of the competitive camera lens market, but in recent years we have seen a few companies do just that. One of those is Venus Optics, a Chinese lens maker, who entered the market first with some innovative macro options – making lenses no one else was. Unlike some companies, however, Venus Optics was not content to stay in the “budget” lens category, and quickly moved on to more premium lenses sold under the Laowa brand. I’ve previously reviewed several of those, including the Laowa 105mm f/2 STF (Smooth Trans Focus) lens and the ultrawide 12mm f/2.8 Zero D lens. I found them to be premium, manual everything lenses whose all-metal construction reminds me of Zeiss in some ways, but even more of some of my favorite vintage lenses. The most recent Laowa lens is one for Sony full frame mirrorless (FE), the Laowa 15mm f/2 Zero D.
Prefer to Watch Your Reviews? Check out my video review here!
Laowa 15mm f/2 Build, Design, and Handling
I recommend that you watch this video to get a hands on, close look at the lens and its handling.
The Laowa 15mm bears many similarities to the 12mm f/2.8 Zero D lens, but with a few key improvements. If you don’t actually need the incredible nearly 122 degree field of view of the 12mm (and few do – 12mm is often too wide in many situations and presents a lot of compositional challenges) and shoot Sony E Mount, the Laowa 15mm f/2 makes a lot more sense. For one, it provides a full stop brighter maximum aperture of f/2 vs f/2.8. This allows you to have better results in low light conditions and will also give you more flexibility for shooting stars. A second key advantage to the 15mm f/2 lens is that it can use traditional screw on filters in a common (and inexpensive) 72mm size. Combine these advantages with the fact that the 15mm lens runs a hundred bucks cheaper and you’ve got a lens that is more practical for many shooters.
The 15mm f/2 is unquestionably a beautiful lens. It has a very sleek anodized metal body where markings are etched rather than just painted. Everything feels very premium to the touch and bears a lot of similarity to classic Zeiss lenses. The lens weighs 500g/1.1lb (about 110g less than the 12mm), and balances nicely on the Sony a7R III body I was using for testing. The lens is 66mm (2.6”) in diameter and 82mm (3.23”) long. While the lens wouldn’t be called small, it is certainly compact when one considers the wide focal length and large maximum aperture. I consider size and weight to be plus here.
The included lens hood is also made of metal and ribbed inside. It is fairly shallow, and I would suggest its primary value is for protection from dings more than shading the front element. Despite this the lens shows a high degree of flare resistance when shooting into the sun or backlit conditions, which I attribute more to the optical formula and coatings than the hood. Right before the transition to the hood there is a tasteful deep blue accent ring that evokes Zeiss to me. It’s subtle yet elegant.
The focus ring (this is a manual focus lens) has beautiful damping and glides smoothly with just about the right amount of resistance. There is about 140 degrees of focus throw, with about 80% of that focused on the range from minimum focus (15cm) to one meter. That’s right – 15cm. The lens focuses down very closely, allowing you to achieve a 1:4 magnification ratio (0.25x), which is exceptionally high for this kind of focal length. This will allow you to do some creative things, and, combined with the large maximum aperture, even throw a background reasonably out of focus if you are close to your subject.
Just note that perspective distortion increases as you get closer to your subject while trying to include the environment:
Because of this close focus ability a lot of the focus throw is in that early range, leaving a small amount from 1 meter to infinity, so in many normal cases only minimal focus changes will be required. For landscape shooting you can often just set the focus and leave it. There are hyperfocal markings on the lens barrel at f/5.6, f/11, and f/22 (minimum aperture value).
The aperture ring is interesting as well, with standard aperture “clicks” or detents at the full stop values (f/2, f/2.8, f/4, etc…) What’s interesting is that you also have a switch on the side of the lens that allows you to “declick” the aperture, which means you can smoothly open or close the aperture to any position. Videographers appreciate this feature, which allows them to do aperture “racking”.
An investigation of the rear of the lens produces both good and bad reactions from me. On the positive side the quality of the engineering extends to the rear of the lens, which looks very premium. It is designed that even as the rear elements move (the lens’ focus is all internal) there is never a gap that opens into the interior of the lens. I’m less excited by what’s missing: 1) any weather sealing and 2) any kind of electronic coupling to communicate with the camera. I recommend the former to Laowa because wide angle lenses are often used outdoors. There’s umm, weather out there! I recommend the latter because, unlike Canon and Nikon, Sony is very accommodating to third party lenses by allowing embedded profiles that can correct for things like vignette, distortion, or chromatic aberrations. While distortion isn’t an issue with this lens, vignette is, and I’m left making manual corrections to the vignette in post and essentially stuck with it if I shoot JPEGs or video. One also loses out on information like the aperture value that was chosen or even the lens designation and focal length in the metadata. I think that this should be Laowa’s next step in their lens design.
Despite these missing features, this is a beautifully crafted lens that has a build quality near the top of the heap. It’s a beautiful lens that manages to also balance nicely on the Sony a7R3 body I tested it on.
Laowa 15mm Image Quality
The best way to get the details on the image quality performance is to watch this interactive image quality breakdown video.
The Laowa 15mm f/2’s optical formula has 12 elements in 9 groups, and this lens lives up to the “Zero D” (distortion) claim. When I compared it to a popular zoom that covers this focal length I was surprised by just how much of a difference there was between the two lenses. The Laowa produces nice, straight lines. Any wide-angle lens will provide a keystoning effect if the lens is tilted up or down (trees or buildings will begin to “lean”), but if the sensor is level you can expect next to no barrel distortion. I did some direct comparisons to the Tamron SP 15-30mm f/2.8 VC lens (hardly the worst offender in the distortion department that I’ve ever seen), but the difference in barrel distortion at 15mm is fairly startling. Look at this comparison (both without any correction).
The byproduct of this for someone who, for example, shoots interiors, is that not only is the Laowa wider at short to medium distances (see the photo below), you also won’t have to lose even more of the image to distortion correction. To me another big factor is the fact that less work is involved in processing images as you don’t have to work to get the lines straight!
I’ve previously mentioned that the lens is also nearly impervious to flare, even with the bright directional sun right in the frame. I consider this to a hugely important metric for landscape lenses, as there will be many backlit scenarios where you will want to use the lens. Another great bonus here is that the lens produces a lovely sunburst effect when stopped down.
The lens does show a minor amount of lateral chromatic aberrations in high contrast areas along the edges of the frame, but fortunately this is the easy kind to fix. Clicking the “Remove Chromatic Aberrations” box in your favorite editing software should eliminate it. This isn’t a major issue with the lens at all.
At f/2 the lens has a usable amount of resolution, but fairly weak contrast. The sharpness profile is fairly even across the frame, though, so while the lens isn’t exceptionally sharp or contrasty wide open, the corner performance is comparatively strong. Here’s a look at wide open crops from across the frame, left, center, and right.
Stopping down to f/2.8 provides a notable uptick in resolution and particularly in contrast. It’s as if the veiling has lifted, and all the textures are much crisper. This is very obvious in the center, but less so in the corners, which are improved but were already relatively good. There’s less vignette, more contrast, and little more resolution. I would say that critical sharpness begins at f/2.8. Here is a comparison between f/2 and f/2.8 along with the f/2.8 crops:
At f/4 there is a bit more improvement. Here’s a look at the crops:
At f/5.6 the illumination is much more even across the frame and is probably the optimal aperture for landscape shooting. The corners look pretty good here, but the biggest advantage is how even the result is in terms of vignette, contrast, and resolution. Here’s the crops to prove it:
When I compared the lens directly to the aforementioned Tamron at 15mm, f/2.8, I found the Laowa was certainly wider in framing, and the low distortion means that it won’t lose even more width during the distortion correction (and the Tamron will). The difference between the two is night and day. The Laowa also showed superior light transmission. The Tamron showed less vignette, more contrast, and better center resolution. The even performance of the Laowa means that the Tamron’s advantage is lost by the time you reach the corners. f/2.8 Edge comparison then Center comparison.
When I stopped the lenses down the Tamron’s resolution and contrast advantage in the center shrunk to near nothing, so at landscape apertures there won’t be a significant difference (though ironically now the Tamron’s corners are a little better).
If shooting landscapes, however, I favor the Tamron’s color rendition and contrast. Out at infinity the Tamron has superior contrast and sharpness across most of the frame save the very edges of the frame:
One caveat, though: the Laowa can use traditional filters; the Tamron can’t. That could really close the gap on color and contrast. Here’s one of the last shots I took with the Laowa 15mm, handheld, and I love both the look of the shot and the great detail in all of the pine needles.
If you want to shoot interiors or architecture, however, the Laowa is clearly a better choice. That low distortion is a huge difference maker, as I detailed earlier. Here’s a few interior shots with the Laowa:
The lens doesn’t show exceptional contrast, and I find colors slightly undersaturated, but these can be easily remedied to taste in post. Here is a case in point:
This focal length is an excellent one for landscape work; it is wide enough to be used creatively but not so wide that composition becomes extremely challenging. The low distortion increases the usefulness for shooting architecture or interiors, so this might be an appealing option for those that do real estate photography. Here’s a few other real world images:
There is a fairly pronounced vignette at f/2 which diminishes a fair bit by f/4 but with only a very slight improvement at f/5.6. There is definitely still a little left by traditional landscape apertures like f/5.6 and f/8. Whether or not this is an issue will depend on the scene. If you are shooting snowy scenes you will still notice some vignette at these apertures, and you can get a weird blue-green tint to the vignetted area. You can see what I need in this corrected result:
Because there is no standard profile in Adobe yet, and not in camera profile due to the lack of electronics in the lens, you are left manually correcting the vignette in post…and just having to deal with it with JPEGs or video. I consider this unfortunate considering how “open source” Sony is with third party lenses. Update: if you are willing to invest a minor amount of work, you can download a profile for the lens from Venus Optics here. I find the vignette correction a little too aggressive in the extreme corners, but it works fairly well. I made some minor tweaks to mine. Here’s a look at the before/after of the f/2 image of our brick wall from above:
There’s a secondary issue with this profile for a camera without electronics – the profile has no way of adjusting for changed aperture, so it will apply just as much vignette correction to an f/11 image as an f/2 one. Bottom line is that for me I’d rather make some quick manual adjustments than use this profile.
I also tested the coma performance of the lens, as this is a lens pretty much begging to be used for astrophotography. That combination of a great, wide focal length, good light transmission, and unusually wide maximum aperture makes this an appealing option on paper. In practice, there are some mild disappointments, as the lens does suffer from some comatic aberrations. While star points look nice and crisp in the center of the frame, as you move towards the edges the stars elongate and appear to grow wings. One constellation reminded me of a flock of ducks flying. The upside is that you pretty much have to be looking at the image on a pixel level to see this (so if I owned the lens I wouldn’t hesitate to use it in this application), but I’ve seen much better performances in controlling coma than this. The best lens I’ve reviewed in the past few years for astro is the Samyang XP 14mm f/2.4 lens, though that only comes in a Canon mount and would have to be used via adapter on a Sony body. Here’s a look at the Tamron result (left) compared to the Laowa result (right). Full Laowa image below.
There are some strengths and weaknesses here, but the near lack of distortion makes this a uniquely compelling lens for some shooting situations.
Good Option for Video?
I’ve had the question, “Is this a good lens for video?” asked of me several times. In many ways the answer is a solid yes. I used it a fair bit on a Moza Air Cross Gimbal with the a7R3, and got some fantastic footage. While there is no autofocus, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing for video with a lens like this. In many cases it will have been better to prefocus in such a way that everything will be in focus at all times, allowing you to not worry about focus shifting during your recording. The low, low distortion makes this lens a real winner for doing something real estate walkthroughs or city shots where you want to avoid distortion of straight lines. Potential negatives might include the vignette, though if stopped down a bit this won’t be a problem. It isn’t an issue if you shoot Super 35, either, though you will have a less wide field of view, obviously. Still, a 15mm lens with a 1.5x crop factor puts you right under the classic 24mm, which is very, very useful. The lens has a very smooth focus ring, so if you are using a geared focus follow system or even something simpler, you should get smooth pulls. Finally, you do have the option of declicking the aperture ring, which further extends the usefulness of the lens. You can see some video work in my final video review here.
It is worth noting that for video work the fact that the lens doesn’t have high native contrast may not be a bad thing.
Conclusion
In conclusion, this lens fills a niche that is relatively unfilled by other lenses in the Sony FE lineup. There are few quality wide angle lenses available for the system, and no others that combine this wide a focal length with this wide of an aperture. Furthermore, I’m not aware of any tilt/shift lenses available for Sony E mount, so this lens also fills a gap for work where very low distortion is required. If you don’t mind manual focus (which is much easier on Sony mirrorless!) you will discover a well-made, premium quality lens. I would like to have seen more contrast from the lens, and a little more saturated color, but that is a taste issue. I also would love to see some electronics in the lens, particularly for Sony FE, but that hasn’t been a part of Laowa’s designs as of yet (though at a price tag of $899 USD, it’s easy to argue that it should!) On a positive front, though, the close focus ability of the lens gives you some creative license, as does the extra bright aperture. All told this is the kind of lens with which you can have a lot of fun…and its reasonable size and weight make it easy to bring along. Venus Optics has given us another compelling option in the form of the Laowa 15mm f/2 Zero D!
Pros:
Beautiful construction with a very “Classic Zeiss” aesthetic
Lives up to the Zero Distortion claim
Very good flare resistance
Chromatic aberrations very minor
Usable image quality wide open; very good image quality stopped down
Can use screw in filters in a reasonable 72mm size
Wider maximum aperture than competing lenses
Aperture can be declicked
Cons:
Colors a little flat
Fairly heavy vignette
In some settings the vignette has a greenish-blue tint to it
Purchasing your gear through B&H and these links helps fund this website and keeps the articles coming. You can also make a donation here if you would like. Visit my Amazon page for some of my gear of choice! Thank you for your support.
Great News! I can now offer a 5% discount on all purchases at Amplis Foto, Canada’s Leading Photographic Supplier. Please enter discount code: AMPLIS52018DA in your cart. It is good for everything in your cart, and is stackable with other coupons, too! It will take 5% off your entire order! Proceeds go towards keeping this site going and providing you with new reviews!
DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Sony FE 50-150mm F2 GM Gallery 
Sony FE 50-150mm F2 G Master Review 
Viltrox AF 35mm F1.2 LAB FE Gallery 
Viltrox AF 35mm F1.2 LAB FE Review 
