Sony E 16-55mm 2.8 G

Let's get the elephant in the room out of the way immediately - the Sony E 16-55m f/2.8 G is not meant to be used without image auto-correction - Sony is making this clear in the settings as well. You can't switch off distortion correction for JPGs. While this may be disappointing at this price point, most users won't really care about this question anyway. With activated image auto-correction, it's probably the best APS-C standard zoom lens there is on the market today. It shows no weakness in terms of image resolution, and there are no CAs to speak of. The corrected distortions are - obviously - nothing to worry about. There is still some visible vignetting at f/2.8, but it's not excessive and stopping down helps, of course. The quality of the bokeh is on a decent level for a standard zoom lens. Out-of-focus highlights are a bit busy but mostly circular, and the general rendition is impressively smooth actually. The build quality is very high, but we expected no less from a G-class lens. Sony used quality materials and implemented sealing against the elements. The lens extends during zooming. This may not be ideal, but if you want to achieve decent optical quality, it's still the way to go for all manufacturers. The AF is pretty speedy and silent. The biggest drawback is probably the lack of an image stabilizer. If you own an A6500/A6600 you won't care, but the vast majority of Sony APS-C users can't use in-camera stabilization. That being said ... if you can afford the rather expensive Sony E 16-55mm f/2.8 G, you probably tend to have the latest and greatest camera body anyway. While Sony's APS-C lens lineup is still far from being complete, it has now assembled an interesting gang of quality zoom lenses - the Sony E 10-18mm f/4 OSS, E 16-55mm f/2.8 G, and E 70-350mm f/4.5-6.3 G OSS represent a quite compelling compact and low-weight combo.

The Sony E 16-55mm f/2.8 G is a fast standard zoom lens with a constant F2.8 aperture for Sony APS-C E-mount mirrorless cameras such as the flagship A6600. It offers a versatile zoom range that provides a 24-82.5mm equivalent focal range in 35mm full-frame terms. It features 17 elements in 12 groups including two AA (advanced aspherical) and two aspherical elements and has a near-circular 9 blade diaphragm which creates an attractive blur to the out-of-focus areas of the image.

The Sony E 16-55mm f2.8 is the unashamedly high-end general-purpose zoom the better Alpha cropped APSC bodies have been crying out for. I really enjoyed shooting with it on the A6600 - like other lenses of a similar specification, it delivers a useful general-purpose range from wide to short telephoto, covering you from landscapes and interiors to close-ups and portraits. The constant f2.8 focal ratio allows you to shoot in low light and achieve attractive shallow depth-of-field effects and the rendering looks good - sharp where you want it and buttery where you don’t. In my tests so far (and I hope to do more) the optical quality is outstanding in terms of detail across the frame at all focal lengths and aperture values, and while there are also solid options on rival systems, the Sony managed to out-perform them at least to some degree. Impressively it’s also smaller and lighter than most 16-55mm f2.8 lenses without compromising on build quality, and this is important when mounting it on one of Sony’s equally compact A6000 bodies - I’m relieved it didn’t feel unbalanced in use. But it’s also the most expensive 16-55mm f2.8 lens to date, a little pricier than the Fujifilm version, and much more so than the Canon and Nikon 17-55mm f2.8 DSLR models, although these are considerably older designs. So the Sony E 16-55mm f2.8 is priced high, doesn’t have optical stabilisation and again I wish it focused closer, but there’s no arguing with its quality and portability. Certainly the price will have you contemplating if now is the time to switch to full-frame, but if you’re sticking with a Sony APSC body and are looking for the best quality general-purpose zoom to go with it, the E 16-55mm f2.8 is the one for you and comes Highly Recommended.