Introduction
Sometimes when new lenses are being announced they sound too good to be true and here that was certainly the case: the Sony FE 16mm 1.8 G has a lower MSRP than the already amazingly great Sony FE 20mm 1.8 G while being similarly sized. But not enough: it is “only” 2 mm less wide than the higher priced and much bigger Sony FE 14mm 1.8 GM which doesn’t even feature a filter thread. Is this the perfect ultra wide angle prime for fullframe Sony E-mount cameras? Let’s find out in this review.
Sample Image
Most of the sample images in this review can be found in full resolution here.
Contents
Specifications
The Sony FE 16mm 1.8G has the following specifications:
-
- Diameter: 74 mm
- Field of view: 107° (diagonally)
- Length: 75 mm
- Weight: 304g (without hood and caps)
- Filter Diameter: 67 mm
- Number of Aperture Blades: 11 (rounded)
- Elements/Groups: 15/12
- Close Focusing Distance: 0.13 m
- Maximum Magnification: 1:3.5 (MF, measured)
- Mount: Sony E
buy from amazon.com | amazon.de | ebay.com | ebay.de | B&H (affiliate links) for $798
Disclosure
Right around release a long term reader contacted me offering me to buy this lens for a review if I would be willing to sell it on afterwards. Sadly that sample of this lens was decentered and hence had to be returned. As I read from a lot of other early adopters having similar issues, I decided not to hunt for a good copy. Some other people did though and I contacted one of them if he would be willing to part with his handpicked sample for two weeks and he actually agreed to do it, thanks a lot!
Because of these experiences I would not advise to buy this lens from shops where you cannot return it or test it before buying.
Handling/Build Quality
In terms of build quality this lens is a near exact match to the Sony FE 20mm 1.8 G.
The rubberized focus ring has okay damping and a linear coupling which means it always takes 180° from the minimum focus distance (0.13 m) to infinity no matter how fast you turn the focus ring.
When you turn your camera off the lens will remember the last focus position and will still be there when you turn the camera on again.
The aperture ring has 1/3 of a stop click stops – which you can declick by using a lever on the lens.
You can also set the ring to “A”(utomatic) and let the camera choose the aperture value or use the camera dial to change the aperture value instead of using the aperture ring.
On the left side of the lens there is a programmable button and an AF-MF switch as well as an iris lock switch.
The outer casing seems to be made from a high quality polycarbonate and all markings are engraved and filled with paint.
The hood is simpler than those of the GM lenses, it is only attached via a bayonet, no fancy lock button and also no rubberized front bumper like on the Sony FE 35mm 1.4 GM or FE 85mm 1.4 GM – again very similar to the Sony FE 20mm 1.8 G.
All in all the build quality is about as good as it gets when it comes to modern AF lenses. One thing that should be noted though: the focus group moves around freely when the camera is turned off or simply when the lens is detached from camera, this is normal and not something you need to worry about.
From the comparison above you can see this Sony FE 16mm 1.8 G is impressively small – especially compared to the Viltrox 16mm 1.8 AF, which shares the same specifications. But also compared to the Sony FE 14mm 1.8 GM we see a significant decrease in size while also getting a normal filter thread – the price to pay for being 2 mm wider is high these days.
I also tried this lens on the Nikon Zf via the Megadap ETZ21pro adapter. Generally all lens functions I tried worked flawlessly, but be sure to have a look at the sharpness section before buying this lens for your Z-mount camera.
AF performance
I am not shooting sports or fast moving animals/humans so if you want to know if the lens is fast enough for this or how it compares to other lenses in this segment you may have to look for a different review with a more detailed assessment of this aspect.
In everyday use I found the AF to be very fast, perfectly usable and also silent.
Vignetting
| distorion uncorrected | distortion corrected | |
| f/1.8 | 3.3 | 3.0 |
| f/2.8 | 2.6 | 2.3 |
| f/4.0 - f/16 | 2.4 | 2.1 |
Similar to some of Sony’s other recent lenses (e.g. the Sony FE 20-70mm 4.0 G) also this 16mm is pretty much unusable without distortion correction, so we have a look at the vignetting figures after distortion correction as well.
You may think that because of its small size this 16mm 1.8 shows higher vignetting figures than its bigger competitors, but to my surprise that isn’t the case. The vignetting figures are actually lower than those of the Sony FE 14mm 1.8 GM and the Viltrox 16mm 1.8 AF. The similarly sized Laowa 15mm 2.0 E shows similar vignetting figures.
It is recommended to have a look at this article first to get an idea how this brightness graph works.
Sharpness
infinity (42mp Sony A7rII)
The pictures used here have been corrected for distortion.
As already said before this lens (actually almost all the fast ultra wide angle lenses I came across so far) has some issues with sample variation.
This handpicked sample of the Sony FE 16mm 1.8 G shows an amazing performance. There is hardly a midzone dip and also the corners look very good at f/1.8. If we compare this to the samples of the Sony FE 14mm 1.8 GM, Laowa 15mm 2.0 E and Viltrox 16mm 1.8 AF I reviewed, this one is actually the best performer while being the most compact lens which is astonishing.
The first sample I tried of this Sony FE 16mm 1.8 G however was worse than all those other lenses mentioned before. For many applications this might not even be relevant to you, but if you are an astrophotographer (and if you are looking for a 16mm lens as fast as this: chances are high you are) this will be very relevant to you.
I also checked the performance on the Nikon Zf with its thinner filter stack. Complex ultra wide designs like this are visibly affected by differences in filter stack thickness. For the performance in the center as well as the midframe this is negligible here, for the corners to look as good at f/1.8 on the Sony FE camera the lens needs to be stopped down to at least f/5.6 on the Nikon Z camera though.
close 0.13 m, 1:3.5 (42mp Sony A7rII)
100% crops from center, A7rII
Usually Laowa’s ultra wide angle lenses were the closest focusing ones, but this time Sony beat their 15mm 2.0‘s maximum magnification of 1:4.1, offering an even more impressive 1:3.5. The Laowa does perform better at its maximum aperture though, whereas with this Sony it is a good idea to stop down to f/2.8.
The Sony FE 14mm 1.8 GM and the Viltrox 16mm 1.8 AF are no comparison here, they only offer a maximum magnification of 1:9.
Flare resistance
Many of Sony’s latest lenses have been great performers in this category. Will that again be the case here?
At the maximum aperture hardly any artefacts appear and even with the sun in the frame the contrast stays on a high level.
Stopped down to f/11 with a strong point light source close to the center of the frame we can see a line of small ghosts.
I think the Sony FE 14mm 1.8 GM performed a little bit better here, but if that is actually the case is hard to say without a direct side-by-side comparison. The Viltrox 16mm 1.8 AF performed a little worse as I did encounter some artefacts in the field. For a lens this wide and fast this is certainly a very good performance.
Coma
One of the main applications of a lens with these parameters is landscape astrophotography and here good coma correction is of notable importance.
100% crops from extreme corner, Sony A7rII, focus on center
At the maximum aperture of f/1.8 we only see minor coma in this demanding city scene. A similar performance as the Sony FE 14mm 1.8 GM and clearly better than the Viltrox 16mm 1.8 AF and the Laowa 15mm 2.0 E.
Sony A7rV | Sony FE 16mm 1.8 G | 100% crops from extreme corner
When looking at actual stars the performance looks even more impressive with hardly any artefacts showing up. And here the owner of the lens provided me with some pictures taken with his 61mp A7rV. A truly impressive performance.
It should be no surprise anymore that this lens worked great for landscape astrophotography.
Distortion
One price that had to be paid for making this lens as small as it is while even allowing for a standard filter thread surely has been a high amount of wavy distortion. The same was already the case for the Sony FE 20mm 1.8G. Luckily the lens has an embedded profile for Jpeg shooters and there is also a correction profile for Lightroom/CameraRAW available that is doing a good job.
For almost all the sample pictures in this review I used the correction profile in Lightroom.
Bokeh
The f/1.8 maximum aperture may sound impressive, but when it comes to ultra wide angle lenses you can only blur the background in close focus scenarios and you also need to watch out for the strong perspective distortion typical for a 16mm lens, this limits the range of possible applications a bit.
The quality of the bokeh is nice for an ultra wide angle lens though and under the right conditions you can create pretty impressive results.
Sunstars
Also here I was surprised: many of Sony’s G lenses like the Sony FE 40mm 2.5 G or Sony FE 50mm 2.5 G feature only 7 aperture blades and even the Sony FE 14mm 1.8 GM as well as the Sony FE 12-24mm 2.8 GM only feature 9, this Sony FE 16mm 1.8 G received the higher end diaphragm made of 11. The alignment of the blades is pretty good, so we see nice sunstars from f/8.0 to f/22. If you want to know more about sunstars have a look at this article.
Chromatic aberration
lateral
This Sony FE 16mm 1.8 G features a built-in lens correction profile for lateral CA that will also be recognized in most raw converters, so in the end: you won’t see any.
longitudinal
At the maximum aperture we can see a low amount of bokeh fringing as green outlining in the background and magenta in the forergound. Stopped down to f/2.8 hardly any is left. Here the Sony FE 20mm 1.8 G performed a bit better, but in my opinion that is hardly a field relevant difference.
Purple fringing is non-existent.
Conclusion
good
|
average
|
not good
|
If you read my review of the Sony FE 20mm 1.8 G you may remember it proved to be an amazing fast wide angle lens. A 16mm 1.8 is way harder to design than a 20mm 1.8 yet this 16mm 1.8 is every bit as good – for some applications even better – while even being a bit cheaper. I have honestly no idea how Sony’s engineers pulled this off.
But there is more: this sample of the 16mm 1.8 actually performed better than the Sony FE 14mm 1.8 GM I reviewed in almost every category while offering a lot of additional benefits (smaller, cheaper, filter thread).
The vignetting figures are high but actually a bit lower than those of the competition and the distortion can be easily corrected, so these are only minor flaws. The only actual issue I have with this lens is the high sample variation. While this can be an issue with all of these fast ultra wide angle lenses, I have the feeling here there is a higher chance ending up with a dud.
Still, if you look for a fast ultra wide angle lens for your E-mount camera – especially if you want to use it for astrophotography – this Sony FE 16mm 1.8 G is my clear recommendation from now on.
buy from amazon.com | amazon.de | ebay.com | ebay.de | B&H (affiliate links) for $798
Alternatives
Most of the alternatives are covered in our Guide to 9-18mm ultra wide angle lenses for E-mount, so I will only talk about the most obvious ones in detail here.
A word of caution: it seems to be quite difficult to manufacture these fast ultra wide angle prime lenses as there is a higher degree of sample variation here compared to longer lenses. As I pointed out several times already that was also the case here.
Buy from places where you can thoroughly inspect/return the lens and check if it works properly for your applications before comitting to it.
AF
Viltrox AF 16mm 1.8 FE:
The Sony 16mm 1.8 has better flare resistance and better Coma correction and is noticeably smaller. The Viltrox is only half the price though, so if you can live with its minor shortcomings it can still be an interesting option.
buy from manufacturer’s shop (use the code PRnet for 8% discount) | B&H | ebay.com (affiliate links) for $549
Sony FE 14mm 1.8 GM:
The 2mm difference in focal length are a more than they sound like on paper. However, this sample of the 16mm 1.8 actually proved to be a slightly better performer than the 14mm 1.8 I reviewed. Taking into account the several other benefits of the 16mm (smaller, lighter, cheaper, normal filter thread) the 14mm got a lot harder to recommend.
buy from amazon.com | amazon.de | B&H | ebay (affiliate links) for $1598
Sigma 14mm 1.4 Art DG DN:
Specifically marketed as a lens for astrophotography. It is huge and heavy, I haven’t used it personally and there are no reviews from sources I trust out yet, so I am very curious to see what its performance will actually be like.
buy from B&H (affiliate link) for $1599
MF
Laowa 15mm 2.0 Zero-D FE:
This lens has been my choice for landscape astrophotography and whenever I needed an ultra wide angle lens in places where I couldn’t use a tripod since 2017. Now in 2025 this Sony FE 16mm 1.8 G, the Viltrox 16mm 1.8 AF FE and the Sony FE 14mm 1.8 GM are better performers in most categories though. The Laowa might still appeal to you if you simply prefer manual focus or you want an ultra wide angle lens with more distinct sunstars.
buy from manufacturer | amazon.com | B&H | amazon.de (affiliate links) for $649
Sample Images
Most of the sample images in this review can be found in full resolution here.
Further Reading
- All Lens Reviews
- How to take better pictures?
- Review: Laowa 10mm 2.8 AF
- Review: Irix 11mm 4.0 Firefly
- Review: Zeiss 16mm 8.0 Hologon
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Excellent test, Bastian. Thank you.
My selected 14mm GM has the same performance as this 16mm. It’s possible, but even with the 14mm, careful selection is necessary, unfortunately.
Without you it wouldn’t have been possible, thanks again!
Thank you so much!
Based on the mixed reviews out there I didn’t expect coma performance to look that good, or overall sharpness for that matter… Most impressive. This was already the very last lens left on my wishlist (supplanting the Viltrox), but the review made me want it even more… Thanks for the gear lust heh, tho at the same time it’s a useful warning to only jump on it when I’ve got the time to test my sample thoroughly.