You won’t have to worry about your Sony 35mm f1.8 FE out in the wind, rain, or snow.
We recently reviewed the new Sony 35mm f1.8 FE, and we quickly fell in love with this lens thanks to its fantastic image quality, gorgeous color reproduction, and excellent overall performance. This lens is also weather-sealed, which is a nice feature seeing as this lens will retail for under $1,000. A recently revealed schematic shows just how much weather sealing this lens has, and we have to say we’re impressed. Join us after the break for all the details.
The schematic of the 35mm f1.8 FE recently appeared on the DPReview forums. While the lens may not offer the same level of weather sealing as Fujifilm’s lower-cost lenses, the Sony 35mm f1.8 FE is certainly light years ahead of Canon’s and Nikon’s lower-cost offerings which usually offer no protection.
As you can see from the image above, there are six points of weather sealing in the lens. The auto and manual focus control switch is sealed, and so is the custom function button. The rest of the dust and moisture resistant seals are located on the inside barrel. It might not seem like a lot, but we can tell you from our time with the lens, this piece of glass can stand up to some severe downpours. We took the lens out on the street during our review; the rain was coming down hard, but the lens didn’t miss a beat.
Per Sony, the 35mm f1.8 FE is only rated as being dust and moisture resistant, so your mileage may vary. We don’t necessarily recommend taking the lens out in the strongest storms, but it’s nice to know that if you get caught out in the rain, the lens has enough sealing to protect it until you can find some cover. The lens is expected to be released at the end of August, and will have a price of $749.99.