Sony 35mm f/1.8
Full-Frame E-Mount
Format Compatibility Specifications
Performance Compared Recommendations
Sony FE 35mm f/1.8 (55mm filters, 9.8 oz./279g, 0.73'/0.22m close focus, $748. bigger or fit screen. I'd get mine at Adorama or at B&H.
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July 2019 Better Pictures Sony Sony Lenses Zeiss Nikon Canon Fuji LEICA All Reviews
Sony vs. Nikon vs. Canon Full-Frame
Why Fixed Lenses Take Better Pictures
Sample Images
Top Sample Images Introduction
Format Compatibility Specifications
Performance Compared Recommendations
Shot hand-held as Standard JPGs; no RAW or FINE JPGs or tripods were used or needed:
Mercedes SL500, 10 July 2019, 9:20AM. Sony A7R Mk III, Sony FE 35mm f/1.8, f/7.1 at 1/500 at Auto ISO 100. bigger or full-resolution.
Canary Palm, 08 July 2019. Sony A7R Mk III, Sony FE 35mm f/1.8, f/11 at 1/40 at Auto ISO 400, Perfectly Clear. bigger, full-resolution or camera-original © file.
Introduction
Top Sample Images Introduction
Format Compatibility Specifications
Performance Compared Recommendations
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The Sony FE 35mm f/1.8 is a small, sharp and super-fast focusing normal to wide lens for Sony's full-frame E-Mount cameras.
I'd get my Sony FE 35mm f/1.8 at Adorama or at B&H.
Good
Focus-lock button, programmable to other functions:
Sony FE 35mm f/1.8. bigger or fit-to-screen.
No focus breathing.
Super-fast autofocus care of an internal linear-drive focus & motor mechanism.
Low distortion.
Sony claims dust and moisture resistance.
Small.
Sharp.
Light weight.
Bad
Offshored to China; not made domestically in Japan.
Vivid spherochromatism.
About $750.
Missing
No Image Stabilization, use your camera's own stabilization if it has it.
No switch for the camera's Image Stabilization
No scales of any kind; but you can see all this in the finder.
Sony FE 35mm f/1.8. bigger or fit-to-screen.
Format
Top Sample Images Introduction
Format Compatibility Specifications
Performance Compared Recommendations
I'd get my Sony FE 35mm f/1.8 at Adorama or at B&H.
This is a full frame lens and I'm reviewing it as such.
It also works great APS-C cameras, on which you may make the usual inferences — but you're much better off with the APS-C 35mm f/1.8 lens for half the price if all you're going to do is shoot it on APS-C.
Compatibility
Top Sample Images Introduction
Format Compatibility Specifications
Performance Compared Recommendations
I'd get my Sony FE 35mm f/1.8 at Adorama or at B&H.
This works on all Sony E-mount cameras, both full-frame and crop-sensor. This includes all the variations of NEX, A9-, A7-, A6xxx and A5xxx series cameras.
It will not work on any Sony A-mount DSLR or any Minolta MAXXUM 35mm SLR of any kind. Those use the old A mount which was actually the Minolta MAXXUM mount from 1987.
Specifications
Top Sample Images Introduction
Format Compatibility Specifications
Performance Compared Recommendations
I'd get my Sony FE 35mm f/1.8 at Adorama or at B&H.
Name
Sony FE 35mm f/1.8. bigger or fit-to-screen.
Sony calls this the Sony FE 35mm f/1.8:
FE: Full-frame coverage, E-mount.
Sony's model number: SEL35F18F.
Optics
Sony FE 35 1.8 internal optical construction. Aspherical element.
11 elements in 9 groups.
One aspherical element.
Multicoated.
Filters
Plastic 55 mm filter thread.
Coverage
Full-Frame and APS-C.
Diaphragm
Sony FE 35mm f/1.8. bigger or fit-to-screen.
9 rounded blades.
Electronically actuated.
Stops down to f/22.
Focal Length
35 mm.
When used on an APS-C camera, it sees the same angle of view as a 50 mm lens sees when used on a full-frame.
See also Crop Factor.
Angle of View, Full Frame
63º diagonal.
38º vertical.
54º horizontal.
Autofocus
A linear motor drives an internal group of elements directly forward and back on rails. It doesn't use spinny motors driving gears and helicoids; it uses voice coils to move the elements back and forth to exactly where they need to go, just like the voice coil motor that drives a loudspeaker cone or MAGLEV bullet train.
No external movement as focussed, so no air or dust is sucked in.
Focus Scale
No.
You can see this in the finder of many cameras, but not on the lens.
Infinity Focus Stop
No.
Depth of Field Scale
No.
Infrared Focus Index
No.
Close Focus
0.73 feet (0.22 meters).
Maximum Reproduction Ratio
1:4.5 (0.22×).
Reproduction Ratio Scale
No.
Image Stabilizer
None.
Caps
ALC-F55S front and ALC-R1EM rear cap.
Hood
ALC-SH159 hood for FE 35mm f/1.8. bigger or fit-to-screen.
Size
2.58" Ø maximum diameter × 2.87" extension from flange.
65.6 mm Ø maximum diameter × 73 mm extension from flange.
Weight
9.850 oz. (279.2 g) actual measured weight.
Rated 9.9 oz. (280 g).
Quality
Made in China.
Announced
09 July 2019.
Promised for
August 2019.
Included
Lens.Hood.
ALC-F55S front and ALC-R1EM rear cap.
Sony's Model Number
SEL35F18F.
Price, USA
$748, July 2019.
Performance
Top Sample Images Introduction
Format Compatibility Specifications
Performance Compared Recommendations
Overall Autofocus Manual Focus Breathing Bokeh
Distortion Ergonomics Exposure Falloff Filters
Flare & Ghosts Lateral Color Fringes
Lens Corrections Macro Mechanics
Sharpness Spherochromatism Sunstars
I'd get my Sony FE 35mm f/1.8 at Adorama or at B&H.
Overall
The Sony FE 35mm f/1.8 is a great little lens. It's fast, focuses super-fast and is very sharp.
Autofocus
Autofocus is fast! It uses an internal linear focus motor and system so the focusing elements move directly forward and back; there's no rotary or twisting motion as in most lenses and with most AF motors.
Manual Focus
Manual focusing is entirely electronic; the manual focus ring isn't connected to anything other than a digital encoder.
Once in manual-focus mode it works great, however a core incompetancy of the Sony system is that very few lenses offer instant manual-focus override. You usually have to move a switch as with this lens, or try the DMF focus mode which offers instant override, but not with continuous autofocus.
Focus Breathing
Focus breathing is the image changing size as focused in and out. It's important to cinematographers that the image not breathe because it looks funny if the image changes size as focus gets pulled back and forth between actors. If the lens does this, the image "breathes" by growing and contracting slightly as the dialog goes back and forth.
This 35 1.8 has no focus breathing, bravo!
Bokeh
Bokeh, the feel, character or quality of out-of-focus areas as opposed to how far out of focus they are, is fair. Backgrounds never really melt away; they stay a bit busy.
Here are photos from headshot distance wide-open. Click any for the camera-original © 42MP A7R III files:
Davis 6250 weather station, 08 July 2019. Click any for the camera-original © 42MP A7R III files.
As always, if you want to throw the background as far out of focus as possible, shoot at f/1.8 and get as close as possible.
Distortion
Distortion Correction OFF:
Walkway, 10 July 2019. Sony A7R Mk III, Sony FE 35mm f/1.8 with NO distortion correction, f/11 at 1/100 at Auto ISO 100, Perfectly Clear. bigger.
The Sony FE 35/1.8 has some barely-visible pincushion distortion if left uncorrected as shown above, and with the camera's distortion correction turned ON this turns into an invisible amount of barrel distortion.
Correction ON or OFF I doubt anyone would ever see this. This is excellent performance
These aren't facts or specifications, they are the results of my research that requires hours of photography and calculations on the resulting data.
On Full Frame |
Correction factor with uncorrected images |
Correction factor to use with images made with correction ON in A7R III |
30'/10m |
-1.00* | +0.50 |
10/'3m |
-1.00* | +0.50 |
3'/1m |
-1.00* | +0.50 |
© 2019 KenRockwell.com. All rights reserved.
* Some waviness remains after this correction.
Ergonomics
|
|
About half the lens is the electronic focus ring, which works well, when it's working. It only works when the camera is set just right.
Sony FE 35mm f/1.8. bigger or fit-to-screen.
The programmable button, usually set to focus lock, is a nice touch, but unfortunately there's no Image Stabilization switch. Even though this lens has no optical stabilization it would be nice to have a switch for the camera's stabilization on the lens.
The programmable button is on the side of the lens. In this photo I've rotated this side of the lens up a bit for clarity; if you saw the lens on a camera the button is pointing directly out to the side and the AF/MF switch is below this.
The worst thing is that the AF/MF switch is in the wrong place: on the lower half of the barrel. It's not on the top of the barrel where my thumb rests; instead I have to stop and grope around for it.
Exposure
Exposure is uniform at all apertures. f/1.8 is only slightly darker than the other apertures as shot on my A7R III in aperture-priority exposure mode.
Falloff
Falloff on full frame is somewhat visible wide-open at f/1.8 with falloff correction ("Shading Comp") left at its default of AUTO (MENU > CAMERA 1 > Lens Comp > Shading Comp > Auto), and goes away as stopped down.
I've greatly exaggerated the falloff by shooting a gray field and placing these on a gray background; it will not look this bad in actual photos of real things:
Falloff on full frame at infinity, Shading Comp. AUTO.
© 2019 KenRockwell.com. All rights reserved. |
Of course if you turn off correction and go looking for it, you'll find strong falloff:
Falloff on full frame at infinity, correction turned OFF.
© 2019 KenRockwell.com. All rights reserved. |
Filters, use with
There's no need for thin filters. I can stack three or four regular 55mm filters with no vignetting on full frame.
Go ahead and use your standard rotating polarizer and grad filters.
Flare & Ghosts
Flare and ghost performance is minimal, like most modern lenses. See samples at Sunstars where I show what they look like if you out of your way to force them.
Lateral Color Fringes
There are little to no no color fringes when shot with Chromatic Aberration Correction left at the camera's default setting of AUTO (MENU > CAMERA 1 > Lens Comp > Chro. Aber. Comp. > Auto).
Turn this OFF and there are some minor blue-yellow lateral color fringes.
There is vivid spherochromatism, which will cause color fringes on things that aren't in perfect focus. Spherochromatism is a completely different aberration in a different dimension than lateral color fringes.
Lens Corrections
My A7R Mark III corrects for any or all of falloff, distortion and lateral color fringes, any of which you may turn ON or OFF at MENU > CAMERA 1 > Lens Comp.
By default, the A7R III is set to correct for falloff and lateral color fingers, but distortion correction is OFF.
Sony calls falloff "Shading."
Sony calls lateral chromatic aberration simply "Chromatic Aberration."
Set these as you wish.
Macro Performance
Macro gets reasonably close, but isn't that sharp at f/1.8. Spherochromatism makes it nearly impossible to avoid color fringes, but so what: you shouldn't be shooting macro at f/1.8 and expect anything in focus.
Wide-open at f/1.8
Casio G-Shock Solar Atomic Watch at close-focus distance at f/1.8, 08 July 2019. bigger or camera-original 42MP © file.
1,200 × 900 pixel crop from above. bigger or camera-original 42MP © file.
The color fringes are spherochromatism on things that aren't in perfect focus. The texture you're seeing is on the watch face.
If this 1,200 × 900 pixel crop is about 6" (7.5cm) wide on your screen, then the complete image printed at this same extreme magnification would be about 13 × 20" (33 × 50 cm).
If this 1,200 × 900 pixel crop is about 6" (15cm) wide on your screen, then the complete image printed at this same extreme magnification would be about 27 × 40" (67 × 100 cm).
If this 1,200 × 900 pixel crop is about 12" (30cm) wide on your screen, then the complete image printed at this same extreme magnification would be about 53 × 80" (1.35 × 2 meters).
At f/5.6
As all lenses do, it's much sharper at f/5.6:
Casio G-Shock Solar Atomic Watch at close-focus distance at f/1.8, 08 July 2019. bigger or camera-original 42MP © file.
1,200 × 900 pixel crop from above. bigger or camera-original 42MP © file.
The texture you're seeing is on the watch face.
If this 1,200 × 900 pixel crop is about 6" (7.5cm) wide on your screen, then the complete image printed at this same extreme magnification would be about 13 × 20" (33 × 50 cm).
If this 1,200 × 900 pixel crop is about 6" (15cm) wide on your screen, then the complete image printed at this same extreme magnification would be about 27 × 40" (67 × 100 cm).
If this 1,200 × 900 pixel crop is about 12" (30cm) wide on your screen, then the complete image printed at this same extreme magnification would be about 53 × 80" (1.35 × 2 meters).
Mechanical Quality
Sony FE 35mm f/1.8. bigger or fit-to-screen.
This is a made-in-China lens that's mostly plastic and covered with a metal vanity shell.
This is a lens to be used and shot. It's not intended to be an heirloom passed from father to son like the LEICA.
Hood
Plastic bayonet.
Front Bumper
None.
Filter Threads
Plastic.
Hood Bayonet Mount
Plastic.
Trim ahead of Focus Ring
Metal.
Focus Ring
Metal.
Slide Switch
Plastic.
Rear Barrel Exterior
Metal.
Identity
Printed around front of lens between front element and filter threads, also printed on top of barrel.
Sticker on bottom of barrel.
Internals
Probably mostly plastic.
Dust Gasket at Mount
Yes, very thin but it's there.
Mount
Dull chromed metal.
Serial Number
Sony FE 35mm f/1.8. bigger or fit-to-screen.
Sticker glued on bottom of the lens barrel, neither an acceptable nor a permanent way to do this for a product that's handled all day.
Date Code
None found.
Noises When Shaken
Strong clunking.
It's normal to feel something flopping around inside; those are the floating lens groups of the focus system. They don't cage(lock) when the lens isn't working.
Made in
Made in China.
Sharpness
Lens sharpness has nothing to do with picture sharpness; every lens made in the past 100 years is more than sharp enough to make super-sharp pictures if you know what you're doing. The only limitation to picture sharpness is your skill as a photographer. It's the least talented who spend the most time worrying about lens sharpness and blame crummy pictures on their equipment rather than themselves. Skilled photographers make great images with whatever camera is in their hands; I've made some of my best images of all time with an irreparably broken camera! Most pixels are thrown away before you see them, but camera makers don't want you to know that.
If you're not getting ultra-sharp pictures with this, be sure not to shoot at f/11 or smaller where all lenses are softer due to diffraction, always shoot at ISO 100 or below because cameras become softer at ISO 200 and above, avoid shooting across long distances over land which can lead to atmospheric heat shimmer, be sure everything is in perfect focus, set your camera's sharpening as you want it (I set mine to the maximum) and be sure nothing is moving, either camera or subject. If you want to ensure a soft image with any lens, shoot at f/16 at ISO 1,600 at default sharpening in daylight of subjects at differing distances in the same image.
This lens is super sharp all over except that on a 42MP A7R III it's not quite as sharp in the lab wide-open at f/1.8 in the far corners, but so what, it's super sharp for real-world picture taking under all conditions. This isn't 1968 anymore; lenses are super-sharp today.
Sony's MTF charts at 10 cyc/mm and 30 cyc/mm, radial (solid) and tangential (dotted).
Spherochromatism
Spherochromatism, also called "color bokeh" by laymen, is an advanced form of chromatic aberration in a different dimension than lateral color. It can cause colored fringes on out-of-focus highlights, usually seen as green fringes on backgrounds and magenta fringes on foregrounds. Spherochromatism is common in fast lenses of moderate focal length when shooting contrasty items at full aperture. It goes away as stopped down.
This lens has vividly strong green-magenta spherochromatism that's easy to see if you know how to look for it. It's so strong that I see some even at f/5.6 (not shown here).
Mondaine A132.30348.11SBB at close-focus distance at , 08 July 2019. bigger or camera-original © file.
1,200 × 900 pixel crop from above. bigger or camera-original © file.
If this 1,200 × 900 pixel crop is about 3" (7.5cm) wide on your screen, then the complete image printed at this same extreme magnification would be about 13 × 20"(33 × 50 cm).
If this 1,200 × 900 pixel crop is about 6" (15cm) wide on your screen, then the complete image printed at this same extreme magnification would be about 27 × 40" (67 × 100 cm).
If this 1,200 × 900 pixel crop is about 12" (30cm) wide on your screen, then the complete image printed at this same extreme magnification would be about 53 × 80" (1.35 × 2 meters).
Sunstars
With a 9-bladed rounded diaphragm I get 18-pointed sunstars on brilliant points of light mostly at the smallest apertures.
Ignore the vertical smears at the largest apertures, these are sensor artifacts called interline transfer smears; they're not lens defects.
Also ignore the crazy rainbow effects at the smallest apertures, these are different sensor artifacts caused by taking a picture directly of the sun and exposing for the dark underside of a palm tree!
Compared
Top Sample Images Introduction
Format Compatibility Specifications
Performance Compared Recommendations
I'd get my Sony FE 35mm f/1.8 at Adorama or at B&H.
Sony FE 35/1.8 |
|||
| Announced | 7/2019 |
9/2014 |
8/2019 |
| Filter size | 55mm |
72mm |
62mm |
| Filter threads | Plastic |
Metal |
Plastic |
| Aperture ring? | No |
Yes |
No |
| AF Speed | Fast |
Fast |
Moderate |
| AF Lock button? | Yes |
no |
no |
| Sharpness | Excellent |
Excellent |
Excellent |
| Sharpness in the corners wide-open | Very good |
Good |
Excellent |
| Spherochromatism | Strong |
Strong |
Minimal |
| Weight | 9.8 oz. 279 g |
22.2 oz. 640 g |
12.8 oz. 363 g |
| Price, 7/2019 | $749 |
Recommendations
Top Sample Images Introduction
Format Compatibility Specifications
Performance Compared Recommendations
I'd get my Sony FE 35mm f/1.8 at Adorama or at B&H.
This is a great little lens that does exactly what it's supposed to do. For most uses it replaces the Sony Zeiss 35/1.4 for half the price and less than half the weight.
Personally I prefer the 24-105mm f/4 G for everything and never use a fixed lens in this range since that would be duplication, but for people who want smaller, lighter, or faster, here you go. Just leave you're zoom at home when you carry this lens.
I use a clear (UV) protective filter instead of a cap so I'm always ready to shoot instantly. I only use a cap when I throw this in a bag with other gear without padding — which is never. The UV filter never gets in the way, and never gets lost, either.
The very best protective filter is the Hoya multicoated HD3 55mm UV which uses hardened glass and repels dirt and fingerprints.
For less money, the B+W 55mm 010 is an excellent filter, as are the multicoated version and the basic multicoated Hoya filters, but the Hoya HD3 is the toughest and the best.
Filters last a lifetime, so you may as well get the best. The Hoya HD3 stays cleaner than the others since it repels oil and dirt.
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