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Features

9 Bang for Your Buck Weather Sealed Prime Lenses for Sony’s E Mount

Brett Day
No Comments
06/12/2020
4 Mins read
Sony 35mm f1.8 FE review weather sealing test image

Last Updated on 06/14/2020 by Mark Beckenbach

These affordable lenses are great all-around performers that don’t mind playing in the rain.

It wasn’t long ago that you had to spend a pretty penny to get great lenses with weather sealing. But now, thanks to advances in technology and cheaper manufacturing costs, you can get some truly spectacular weather sealed prime lenses for a fraction of what they used to cost. If you want to add some weather sealed primes to your collection, and don’t want to go bankrupt doing it, you should check out the weather sealed prime lenses we have rounded up for Sony Mirrorless cameras after the break.

Captured with the Sigma 16mm f1.4 Contemporary

Third-party lens manufacturers have been leading the charge when it comes to offering quality lenses with excellent optics and weather sealing at prices that won’t make your heart skip a beat. If you own one of Sony’s weather-sealed cameras, and want to be able to take it out in the rain, the snow, or the howling winds that blow dust and who knows what else around, you need a weather-sealed lens. The weather-sealed prime lenses we showcase below are top performers. They all have excellent optics, fast focusing abilities, are weather-sealed, and not one of these lenses costs more than $800 (amazingly). In fact, most of them cost much, much less. Check out the affordable weather-sealed prime lenses we recommend for your Sony E mount camera below.

Sigma 16mm F1.4 DC DN Contemporary

E Mount Lenses

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: $379

Rent one: $31 for 7 days

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

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

Rent one: $30 for 7 days

Tamron 24mm F2.8 Di III OSD M1:2

Here are the pros and cons from our full review:

Pros

  • Small footprint
  • Lightweight (7.6 oz / 215g)
  • Very robust weather sealing
  • Excellent image quality overall
  • Close minimum focusing distance

Cons

  • Plasticky build quality
  • Quite a bit of optical distortion (although correctable in Capture One)
  • Subpar autofocus performance under low light and low contrast conditions

Buy now: $299

Rent one: $30 for 7 days

Sony 35mm F1.8 FE

weather sealed prime lenses

Here are the pros and cons from our full review:

Pros

  • Small
  • Cost-effective and under $800
  • Weather sealing
  • Sharp, very sharp
  • Beautiful bokeh
  • The best colors we’ve seen from a Sony lens
  • Can focus very closely
  • Fast aperture
  • With AF-C on the Sony a7r III, it is fast enough for street photography

Cons

  • Though this is minor, we wish Sony gave us a working distance and zone focus scale for street shooting

Buy now: $748

Rent one: $49 for 7 days

Captured with the Tamron 20mm f2.8 Di III OSD M1:2

Pro Tip: All lenses get dirty over time, that’s just a fact of life, but you can be sure that these weather sealed prime lenses will need to be cleaned just a little bit more than usual if you continually take them into the wind, rain, and the snow. If you plan on shooting out in the elements, be sure to keep an affordable lens cleaning kit in your camera bag or pocket so that you can wipe away any dirt or watermarks.

Tamron 35mm F2.8 Di III OSD

weather sealed prime lenses

Here are the pros and cons from our full review:

Pros

  • Compact
  • Lightweight
  • Class-leading weather sealing
  • Excellent image quality overall
  • Very affordable

Cons

  • Plasticky build quality
  • Low light autofocus can be a tad slow

Buy now: $299

Sigma 45mm F2.8 DG DN Contemporary

weather sealed prime lenses

Here are the pros and cons from our full review:

Pros

  • Small
  • Lightweight
  • Feels like a Leica. A cheap Leica lens
  • Fast autofocus
  • Sharp image quality when stopped down
  • Fun to use!
  • Some weather sealing

Cons

  • For an f2.8 lens, this should be a bit smaller
  • I wish it were f2 or f1.8
  • Softer wide open than we’d like

Buy now: $449

Rent one: $45 for 7 days

Sigma 56mm F1.4 DC DN Contemporary

weather sealed prime lenses

Here are the pros and cons from our full review:

Pros

  • Excellent sharpness
  • Gorgeous bokeh
  • Lightweight & compact design
  • Fast and accurate autofocus
  • One of three widest maximum aperture (f1.4) lenses currently available for Crop Sensor Sony E Mount (besides Sigma’s own 16mm and 30mm offerings)
  • Dust and splash proof design with a rubber gasket integrated found around the lens mount
  • 35mm equivalent focal length of 84mm very nearly matches the 85mm focal length preferred by many portrait photographers
  • It’s less than $500

Cons

  • Lacks optical stabilization
  • Pincushioning is especially noticeable in RAW files, although correctable during post-production

Buy now: $409.99

Rent one: $33 for 7 days

Sony 85mm F1.8 FE

weather sealed prime lenses

Here are the pros and cons from our full review:

Pros

  • Great image quality
  • Fast focusing with the Sony a7r II and in good lighting it will focus quickly with the Sony a7
  • Nice feel; though not as great as the G Master 85mm f1.4 lens.
  • Weather resistance built in
  • Compact size

Cons

  • Honestly, not a darn thing

Buy now: $598

Rent one: $41 for 7 days

Camera bags - Domke Chronicle

Pro Tip: Before you head out into the rain with your gear, make sure you have a camera bag that can stand up to the elements too. If you’re not careful, any lenses or camera bodies you own that aren’t weather-sealed could be damaged while in the bag. Check out our camera bag reviews section and take a look at the weather-sealed bags we have tested out. It’s never a bad thing to be more careful.

Rokinon 85mm F1.4 AF FE

weather sealed prime lenses

Here are the pros and cons from our full review:

Pros

  • More affordable than Sony’s higher-end option: it’s $699
  • Good image quality
  • Smooth bokeh
  • Sharp image quality
  • Nice colors

Cons

  • Sometimes the autofocus performance takes a small hit

Buy now: $549

Rent one: $60 for 7 days

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