The Sony 55mm f1.8 FE is one of the system’s most unique lenses. It’s small, lightweight, weather resistant, sharp, fast to focus, and delivers in ways that so many other lenses lack. We love it, and years ago, I purchased one to keep in my stable of Sony gear. But we recently revisited the review to add in more information about weather resistance.
Essentially, we believe that Sony is keeping the fullest weather resistance only for their G Master lenses. And you can see more in our full review of the lens here at this link. Overall, it’s still an excellent lens for the price point. But we’ve needed to clarify the issues around weather resistance for sure.
Update 2023
Years ago, when the Phoblographer first tested this lens, our standards on weather resistance and clarity around it weren’t what they are today. In fact, no other publication really took it all that seriously. But it’s a problem overall in our industry when talking about transparency around the issue.
Sony’s current wording on their website says nothing about weather resistance. For transparency on this, we’ve linked to the listing and we’ve also screenshotted what we can find there. One could say that Sony never said anything about it. But the truth is deeper than that.
Our review has talked about weather resistance. So has B&H Photo as soon in the screenshot above. If a retailer is saying this, then it’s got to be true, right? Sure, retailers get things wrong. But other websites say it, too. The Digital Picture, Sony Artisan Brian Smith, and Camera Labs all quote it as being weather-resistant. All of them are credible places for information on this, with Camera Labs even being the inspiration for why I went into photography journalism.
However, the big problem has to do with Sony’s mount. The sealing just isn’t there. And as a result, you’ll get issues around dust resistance and weather resistance.
Sure, this lens is old. And in some ways, it’s been superseded by Sony’s own 50mm f1.4 G Master. But it’s still a very good lens overall and quite small.
During weather resistance tests with various cameras we’ve used, it couldn’t hold up to the rain because of Sony’s lack of putting a rubber gasket at the mount. For years, I thought that it was issues with the hot shoe. But it turns out the problem is at the mount instead.
This is probably one of the other reasons why Nikon, Panasonic, Leica, and Canon all talk about the advantage of their mount being so large. All these brands provide durability that we trust.
Of course, none of this affects the image quality of the lens in good conditions and without dust in the air. But it could surely affect the autofocus performance and you’d need to clean the lens contacts far more often.
Because of the era this lens was released, and how long it has really lasted, we’re keeping the Editor’s Choice award with this lens. But we recommend not using it in a lot of rain for a prolonged period of time.