When the first few generations of mirrorless cameras began arriving on our shores, they weren’t taken seriously by wedding photographers, due to sluggish autofocusing (compared to DSLRs) and, more importantly, the dearth of lens options.
That’s no longer the case. Today, Sony offers an attractive selection of fixed prime and zoom lenses to go along with its greatly improved mirrorless cameras. Though designed for Sony’s full-frame E-mount cameras (the most likely choice for wedding shooters) they are equally at home on Sony’s APS-C format mirrorless cameras, albeit with a 1.5x crop factor.
Fixed Primes
New this past year is the widest fixed focal length wide-angle lens available from Sony for its mirrorless camera line—the Sony FE 24mm f/1.4 GM. Sony’s new high-speed 24mm G Master lens features dual XA lens elements and three ED elements. It also features Nano AR and Fluorine coatings, a Focus-hold Button, dust- and moisture-proof construction, an 11-bladed aperture, and unparalleled image quality.
The Sony FE 28mm f/2 features dual aspherical elements, dual ED elements, and a single AA element, Sony’s dust and moisture-resistant 28mm f/2 lens also sports a linear AF motor, 49mm filter threads, and a 9-blade circular diaphragm for sweet bokeh. Other features include internal focusing, a linear AF motor, and optional 21mm ultra-wide and fisheye converters for times you need to go wider yet.
A stop faster but slightly narrower in the field-of-view department, the Distagon T* FE 35mm f/1.4 ZA has some of Sony’s most advanced lens features, including a single AA lens element and 3 spherical elements, Zeiss T* Anti-Reflective coatings, a Direct Drive Super Sonic Wave AF system, and a de-clickable aperture ring for smoother, quieter video capture. Sony’s 35mm f/1.4 Distagon is dust and moisture resistant, has a 12" minimum focus distance, 72mm filter threads, and a 9-blade circular diaphragm. At wide aperture, Sony’s high-speed 35mm Distagon is ideal for selective focusing when shooting in tight quarters.
Normal lenses are standard issue among wedding photographers, and Sony offers a trio of options starting with the base model, the Sony FE 50mm f/1.8. This nifty fifty has a double-Gauss-type lens design, featuring a single aspherical element, a DC autofocus motor, and a 7-bladed diaphragm.
A step up is the Zeiss-designed Sony Sonnar T* FE 55mm f/1.8 ZA, which in addition to Zeiss T* anti-reflective coatings, has a 9-bladed diaphragm and dust- and moisture-resistant construction.
Sony’s flagship normal lens is the Sony Planar T* FE 50mm f/1.4 ZA, a hefty dust- and moisture-resistant lens containing a single AA element, an ED element, Zeiss T* coatings, and a 7-bladed aperture. Other noteworthy features found on this workhorse include a Ring Drive Super Sonic Wave autofocus motor (whew!), a de-clickable aperture ring for smooth video operation, internal focusing, and an AF/MF switch.
Last among Sony’s standard prime lenses, we have the Sony FE 85mm f/1.4 GM, a short telephoto portrait lens featuring an XA element, 3 ED elements, and Nano AR coatings.
Other goodies designed into Sony’s short-tele portrait lens include a linear SSM focus system, internal focusing, a focus-hold button, a manual aperture ring, an AF/MF switch, an 11-blade iris diaphragm for truly über bokeh, and dust- and moisture-resistant construction.
Macro Lenses
Macro lenses enable you to capture all the little details of the wedding day up close, and Sony has a choice of two macros for you. The Sony FE 50mm f/2.8 Macro is a normal focal length macro lens that features an ED element, an aspheric element, and focusing down to 1:1 (6.3"). Sony’s 50mm macro also features a focus range limiter, a focus-hold button, a rounded 7-blade aperture, and dust- and moisture-resistant construction.
If a longer focal range, image-stabilized macro lens is on your wish list, Sony has you covered here too. The Sony FE 90mm f/2.8 Macro G OSS focuses down to 11" from the film plane for life-size imaging and contains internal focusing, aspherical, ED and Super ED lens elements, Nano AR coatings, and a Direct Drive Super Sonic Wave AF motor (whew again). Sony’s 90mm macro also features a focus range limiter, a focus-hold button, and a slide focus ring than makes it that much easier to switch between auto and manual focusing.
Zooms
For speed and accuracy, you can’t beat a fixed prime lens, but there are times during the wedding when zoom lenses are preferable. The Achilles heel of zoom lenses is their maximum apertures, which rarely exceed f/2.8. Sony offers zoom lenses in 3 focal lengths: 16-35mm, 24-70mm, and 70-200mm, the latter of which are available in a choice of maximum apertures of f/2.8 or f/4.
The widest of the batch is the Sony Vario-Tessar T* FE 16-35mm f/4 ZA OSS, which can come in very handy when shooting in the tightest of spaces or in the midst of a dance-floor frenzy. Sony’s 16-35mm zoom contains 4 aspheric elements, 3 ED elements, and an AA element. It also features Zeiss T* coatings, a linear AF motor, internal focusing, and to help compensate for its slower (f/4) maximum aperture, Optical SteadyShot Image Stabilization.
Sony offers a choice of two dust- and moisture-resistant 24-70mm zoom lenses. One has a faster f/2.8 maximum aperture, while the other tops out a stop slower, at an image-stabilized f/4.
Sony’s FE 24-70mm f/2.8 GM features dual aspheric elements, an XA Element, an ED element, a Super ED element, dual aspheric lens elements and Nano AR lens coatings. This lens also has internal focusing, a focus-hold button, a zoom lock switch, and for all the bokeh lovers out there, a 9-bladed diaphragm.
The second choice is the Sony Vario-Tessar T* FE 24-70mm f/4 ZA OSS, which in addition to Zeiss-engineered optics and Zeiss T* lens coatings, sports 5 aspheric elements, a single ED element, a linear AF motor, internal focusing, dust- and moisture-resistant construction, and a 7-bladed diaphragm.
As with its 24-70mm offerings, Sony manufactures two versions: one opens up to a maximum aperture of f/2.8, and the other f/4, and both are image stabilized.
The faster of the two, the Sony FE 70-200mm f/2.8 GM OSS, features an exotic lineup of lens elements, including an XA Element, dual aspherical elements, 4 ED Elements, and dual Super ED elements topped off with Nano AR and Fluorine Coatings.
Add to that a linear SSM AF system, Optical SteadyShot Image Stabilization, internal focusing, Focus Range Limiter, dust- and moisture-resistant construction, and an 11-blade diaphragm for hoo-ha bokeh.
A stop slower but certainly no slouch in its own right, the Sony FE 70-200mm f/4 G OSS also features an interesting cocktail of lens elements including dual ED and AA elements, an aspherical element and a Super ED element. Other features include Nano AR coatings, a Dual linear motor AF system, Optical SteadyShot Image Stabilization, a focus-hold button, a focus range limiter, internal focusing, a removable tripod collar, and dust- and moisture-proof construction.
Do you have any experience with these or other Sony E-mount-compatible lenses? We’d love to hear about it below, in the Comments section.
1 Comment
I would have thought the Sony 16-35 2.8 would have been mentioned?