Sony 16-35mm Vario-Tessar T FE F4 ZA OSS E-Mount Lens

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Product Specifications

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Ideal for landscapes and the a7 series of full frame cameras, ZEISS T (T star) coating to reduce flare and ghosting
Minimum Focus Distance : 0.92 ft (0.28 m), Maximum Magnification ratio : 0.19x, Focal-Length : ⁵⁄₈ - 1-³⁄₈ Inches
Three ED glass elements to suppress chromatic distortion, constant F4 maximum aperture throughout the zoom range
Built-in Optical Steady Shot image stabilization, dust and moisture resistant design
Angle of View (35 mm)107°-63° Angle of View (APS-C) 83°-44°

Product Description

Configuration:Base Vario-Tessar T FE 16-35mm F4 ZA OSS

Product Reviews

A glorius Super-wide with a very few compromises.

If you own any of the E-series Sony digital cameras, stop looking around: this is your ultra-wide zoom. It’s got the Zeiss pop, the tack sharpness, and great bokeh. Stopped down, and pushed to the super-wide portion of the zoom the depth of field goes on forever. On the full frame it covers every wide angle option, if with the normal amount of distortion typical of a ultra-wide zoom. No pain, no gain gentle reader.If you own the APSC series of Sony cameras, this is still a worthy walk about lens that goes from normal to fairly wide with the penalty of a one stop over the competition. Over a prime 1.4 it gets a whole lot more painful, at F 4 this is nobodies idea of a night shooter. The compromise here is that the lens is rather slow, and you quickly run out of options in the dark because the APSC series cameras get noisier quicker than their full-frame stablemates. Pumping up the ISO on the 6000 / Nex series cameras (or any of the SLTs series other than the full frame A99) is just not the same as doing the same on the full frames. Sorry kiddies, physics is physics and photons are photons, there’s no way around this. One stop can be the difference between a usable photo and something less so. Two stops, even more so.Placed on a solid Tripod and used for its designed purpose, sweeping landscapes and architectural shots, this lens is just awesome. Jammed into a tight spot, you can zoom out and get shots that more “normal” wides just are unable to supply. You can get up close and personal with this lens and there hangs a tale. This means that cropping a marginal photo in post is not necessary, you can get it right in camera and without having to put life and limb in danger. This is a real world problem when things like barbwire and twisty roads power packed with motorcycles and zooming cars get in your way. It is also a real issue when working is super-tight environments where you subject is is in one place and a big honking obstruction like a wall or building is right next to it. I can not tell you how many images were possible only because of the reach of the lens.This lens is one of my go-to lenses in my goody bag, there are almost no shoot where this little gem does not get placed on my full frame and the whole business get placed on a tripod. This is my weapon of choice when shooting landscapes and architectural shots, it gets more work than my 24-70 and spends more time on the camera than it’s bigger brother. Because it almost always is on a camera, on a tripod it creates more considered and well composed shots. Your mileage may vary from mine but if you have a full frame this lens not only belongs in your bag or backpack but deserves pride of place. On a APSC shooter it’s very worthy, if more limited, walk about option than the G series 2.8. It’s sharper, has better pop, and all that deliciousness that Zeiss brings to the table but it is a full stop slower and has no telephoto reach to speak of. As a “normal” lens for the APSC cameras, it’s a bust, get it’s purpose-built brother the 35mm 1.4 or 35mm 2.8 if you are looking for a “normal” in APSC format. For the smaller format the lens is a sold four stars, maybe even four and half, but there are too many compromises here to give it five stars on the NEX / 6000 series cameras, that is a bridge too far; it’s too slow, and lacks too little reach, any discussion of bokeh is a very mixed bag as the F 4 brings a bit too much depth of field to the game in even in full format. the bokeh is great, don’t get me wrong it’s typical Zeiss buttery, creamy goodness with just a touch of nervousness, but forget trying to erase either your foreground or background to nothingness, that is a job for the prime 1.4. This lens is in it’s element stopped down to an 8 or 11, even 5.8 is more than decent. Opened up, meh, it’s a little soft in the corners and still provides more depth of field than you probably want in most situations. In that it is a very standard super-wide with all the baggage that entails, the distortion that has to be fixed in post, the softness when fully open, serious weirdness in your shots when not absolutely level when at the widest part of the zoom. If you know about super-wides, you know the drill. If you love this type of lens this particular example is one of the best, and for Sony Full Frame Cameras– it is the best, full stop; until Sony gets around to making a G Master 16-35 that clocks in at a 2.8.

The lens works very well on my Sony A7II camera …

The lens works very well on my Sony A7II camera. Its color, contrast, and details are all superb. Ultra Wide Angle lenses are harder to use and one has be very careful when taking pictures. I read a few comments about distortion and chromatic aberration. But these can be corrected by the camera or post processing.

Great, sharp lens

This lens is terrific. It is sharp, grabs amazing color, and handles low light well. I am not a professional, but it sure made it feel like it using this lens. I used it with a Sony a7rii. While I have several prime lenses, using this zoom in northern Arizona allowed me the greatest range to take sharp, high-quality pictures at sunset and sunrise. I highly recommend it.

Beautifully sharp

First of all, I purchased this lens along with the Sony A7II. My first impression of this lens is that it is well made. It has a solid build. Better then any DSLR lens I have ever owned. I have used this lens for approx the last 9 months.I really do not have any complaints about this lens. A few things that I love about this lens. The build quality is amazing. This lens also has beautiful glass. Its sharp as well. (I would hope so since its a Zeiss Lens) This lens is my favorite lens that I own and I would highly recommend it.One thing I would want to tell everyone though, is this lens is kind of on the heavy side. But it is one sharp beautiful piece of glass.

One of the must have lenses for the Sony A7 series bodies.

I recently switched my DSLR kit over to all Canon 1D series bodies. The biggest downside of this is that the DSLRs are no longer anywhere near convenient for travel photography. For a while, I was using the Canon 16-35 F/4 IS on my A7R with an adapter, but that’s not really an optimal solution in the long run so I picked up a copy of this lens for a recent vacation. First let me start off by saying that this lens is not quite up to the amazingly high standard set by Canon’s latest 16-35 F/4 IS, especially at the long end, but the gap between the two is not enormous.The Good:- Excellent performance at the wide end, almost as good as the Canon everywhere except the extreme corners. Nobody will be anything but thrilled with how sharp this lens performs at 16mm.- Fantastic build quality. The lens is all metal and feels extremely solid and smooth, well done Sony.- Excellent control of flare. You can shoot directly into the sun and not experience any flare. Good luck doing that with a Nikon 14-24.The Mediocre:- The AF with this lens on the A7R is not very fast. I also found it seems to miss more often than the 35 2.8 and 55 1.8, but I thinks that more of an A7R issue than a problem with the lens.- The OSS is there but it’s not terribly effective at the wide end. I’d give it somewhere between 1-2 stops effectiveness at 16mm, as compared to the Canon versions which is easily at 3 stops.- The price of this lens is noticeably higher than the competition while performing a bit worse.The Bad:- The image sharpness at 35mm is fairly poor, even stopped down to f/8. For travel photography this doesn’t matter, but I wouldn’t expect to make giant prints based on images taken with this lens at 35mm.Overall, despite some minor flaws (most notably performance at 35mm) this lens is pretty much a must have for anybody shooting a Sony A7 series body. The weakness at 35mm can be pretty easily overcome by adding either the FE 35 2.8 to your kit or even the FE 24-70. Highly recommended.

LANDSCAPE CHAMPION!!!

This lens makes the A7Rii a landscape photography Dynamo!!! If you want perfection buy this lens you will not be disappointed.

this thing gives the super light A7RII a nice weight to it

I thought this thing had a huge focus line. The auto focus on this is 100% silent! even with your ear up against it. nothing… the outside of the lens does not spin making it harder to detect when its auto focusing. (I use it for film)Made of metal, no plastics. and its HUGE! this thing gives the super light A7RII a nice weight to it. the only lens you need

I love this lens

I love this lens! I got it from the amazon warehouse deals and it finally arrived! Took it to the park at night and it did NOT disappoint!

Not worth the price

Coming from Canon with a 16-35 f/2.8 L that you can find for a similar price this lens is a joke. f/4 for this price??? And there is crazy vignetting with that!

Five Stars

Very good, sharp lens. Just expensive …

Sony lens quality control problem

I am writing the review, not to comment on the image quality of the lens, which has been judged to be excellent in many other reviews, but to talk about poor quality control from…