If you want a lens that will allow you to capture the beauty of nature, or the hustle and bustle of a city, you need to see these Sony E-mount ultra-wide lenses.
There are a plethora of lenses available for Sony cameras, but until recently, options were a little on the thin side when it came to E-mount ultra-wide lenses. Now, though, photographers who use Sony cameras have more choices than ever in this specialty category. If you’re a landscape photographer, a cityscape photographer, or if you like to dabble in astrophotography, and you’re in the market for some Sony E-mount ultra-wide lenses, the ten we rounded up after the break are the ones you should check out first.
What’s considered to be an ultra-wide lens? Anything 24mm or wider on Full-Frame cameras can be considered ultra-wide. All of the E-mount ultra-wide lenses listed below seriously impressed us when we put them through our real-world tests. The lenses are well made, feature stunning optics, and all produce life-like colors, which can be a blessing to photographers who mainly shoot landscapes. We have rounded up E-mount ultra-wide lenses that vary in price, so you’ll be sure to find one below that will meet your shooting and financial needs. Grab a chair and take a look at these ten stunning E-mount ultra-wide lenses.
Venus Optics Laowa 15mm F2
Here are the pros and cons from our full review:
Pros
- Lightweight
- Good metal exterior
- Clicky aperture
- Not a large lens at all
- Feels nice in the hand
- Sharp image quality
Cons
- Something about it doesn’t feel solid
Buy now: $849
Sigma 16mm F1.4 DC DN Contemporary
Here are the pros and cons from our full review:
Pros
- Fast aperture
- Weather sealing to a point
- Fast autofocus performance for the most part
- Nice bokeh
- Sharp, surprisingly sharp
Cons
- To be honest, nothing
Buy now: $364
Zeiss 18mm F2.8 Batis
Here are the pros and cons from our full review:
Pros
- Very sharp image performance
- Low profile look on the outside
- Fast to focus even on an old Sony a7 camera
- Pretty nice bokeh
- Weather sealing; it survived a downpour of rain and then tea that was spilled on it
- Distortion is fairly well controlled
- Manual focusing amazingly doesn’t tend to drain the battery of the Sony a7
Cons
- Expensive
- The rubber focusing ring could use better gripping design
Buy now: $1,298
Tamron 20mm F2.8 Di III OSD
Here are the pros and cons from our full review:
Pros
- Well built
- Affordable
- Nice colors
- Tamron is embracing Mirrorless with a small and lightweight offering
- Weather sealed very well; it survived a few hours in the rain.
- Autofocuses quickly
- Priced at only $349
Cons
- This is one of the most heavily distorted lenses we’ve tested in a while. You can use that to your advantage, or you can correct it in post.
Buy now: $299
Pro Tip: A lot of the E-mount ultra-wide lenses in this roundup feature weather sealing, but there are a couple that do not have this feature. This, however, does not mean you can’t go out into inclement weather to get some great shots. Carry a few of these weatherproof camera and lens covers with you in your camera bag, and if the weather takes a turn for the worse, simply cover your gear and shoot away.
Sony 20mm F1.8 G
Here are the pros and cons from our full review:
Pros
- Nice and light (0.82lbs)
- The small footprint makes it easy to carry around for long periods
- Super fast, silent focusing
- Weather sealing
- Very sharp optics
- Colors rendered are pleasing, and the bokeh isn’t too shabby either
- The aperture ring can be de-clicked so that it can be used for video
- The large, smooth manual focus ring
Cons
- A slight amount of purple fringing is evident in some images
Buy now: $898
Zeiss 21mm F2.8 Loxia
Here are the pros and cons from our full review:
Pros
- Weather sealing
- Smooth focusing but not too smooth to prevent you from focusing quickly
- The option to have a clickless aperture
- One of the best lenses to work with Sony’s focus peaking
- Solid image quality
- Small size
- Makes your Sony A7 series camera seem like an old school SLR in some ways
Cons
- Expensive
Buy now: $1,298
Sony 24mm F1.4 G Master
Here are the pros and cons from our full review:
Pros
- Compact and lightweight
- Weather sealed
- Superb image quality
- Outstanding edge to edge sharpness, even when shooting wide open
- Dreamy, circular bokeh
- The Impressive minimal focus distance of 0.79 feet (0.24 meters)
Cons
- Slight color fringing (easily mitigated in post-processing)
Buy now: $1,398
Sony 12-24mm F4 G FE
Here are the pros and cons from our full review:
Pros
- Lightweight and compact
- Fun to use
- Good image quality
- Close focusing
- Fast-focusing
- Slight weather sealing
Cons
- Very difficult to use it with lens filters of any sort
Buy now: $1,773
Pro Tip: We always talk about the importance of cleaning your lenses for good reasons. Lenses are a huge investment, so it’s always a good idea to protect and clean them as often as possible. Cleaning your lenses is easy, and it doesn’t take a lot of time; you don’t even need an expensive lens cleaning kit to keep them in prime condition. Clean your lenses as soon as you notice anything on the front element, and give them a more thorough cleaning at least bi-weekly. Doing this will ensure that your lenses will keep on working for years to come.
Tamron 17-28mm F2.8 Di III RXD
Here are the pros and cons from our full review:
Pros
- Weather sealed
- Sharp image quality
- Fast autofocus – nearly on the same level as Sony’s
- Compact
- Lightweight
- Overall pretty useful
Cons
- My qualms aren’t as much with this lens as they are with Tamron’s f2.8 zoom trinity
Buy now: $849
Sony 16-35mm F2.8 G Master FE
Here are the pros and cons from our full review:
Pros
- Sharp image quality
- F2.8 is nice for low light situations
- Good autofocus, as expected from a wide-angle lens
- Weather resistance
- Feels good in the hand
Cons
- Pretty darned expensive
Buy now: $2,198