Sony 12-24mm f/4

Performance Compared

Usage

113º horizontal angle of view (122º diagonal) means you can see all four walls in one shot! 23 June 2017. Sony A9 with Sony 12-24mm f/4 G at 12mm at f/4 at 1/8 second hand-held at Auto ISO 1,250. bigger.

Fine Home with Coffered Ceilings, 22 June 2017. Sony A9 with Sony 12-24mm f/4 G at 12mm at f/4 at 1/2 second at ISO 100. bigger or camera-original © file.

Ultra-sharp corner-to-corner wide-open at f/4 at 12mm. Bravo!

Crop from right side of above: super sharp on the sides wide-open at f/4! bigger or camera-original © file.

This is what separates the real lenses like this from the rest: it doesn't have to be stopped down to be sharp at the sides.

Fine Home with Coffered Ceilings, 22 June 2017. Sony A9 with Sony 12-24mm f/4 G at 12mm at f/8 at 2 seconds at ISO 100. bigger or camera-original © file.

Stopping down to f/8 merely increases depth of field; sharpness is so good that it's already optimum wide-open at f/4.

Mexican Restauant, 23 June 2017. Sony A9, Sony 12-24mm f/4 G at 12mm, f/4 at 1/8 hand-held at Auto ISO 1,250. bigger or full-resolution © file.

Introduction

Performance Compared

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This Sony 12-24mm f/4 G is an extraordinary full-frame ultra-ultrawide lens. It is a special-purpose lens for when you need ultra-ultra wide angles, which are mostly for interiors, real estate listings and special effects. For most uses a 16-35mm lens is more practical as it takes protective filters and covers a more usable focal length range, but if you know How to Use Ultrawide Lenses, this is one of the world's best along with the Canon 11-24/4 L (2016-). Nikon makes nothing close; the Nikon 14-24/2.8 ED (2010-) is bigger and heavier and more expensive, but nowhere near as wide.

The reason you need a lens this wide is to make spaces look bigger. Especially if you're shooting real estate listings, rooms or land shot at 12mm will look as if they have twice the square footage as if they were shot at 16mm. If your photos make spaces look bigger than the other photographers, you're the guy who gets hired to shoot the next listing — not some amateur with his 16-35mm.

Good

● World's widest serious mirrorless lens.

● Ultrasharp at every setting, especially wide-open at f/4.

● Very fast and essentially silent autofocus.

● Focus lock button also programmable to other functions.

● Dust and moisture resistant.

Bad

● Can't take any kind of filters either for front element protection or for special effects.

Missing

● No focus or depth-of-field scales.

● No infra-red focus indices.

Sony FE 12-24mm f/4 G. bigger.

Format

Performance Compared

This is a full-frame lens and I'm reviewing it as such.

It works great on APS-C cameras and you may make the usual inferences for them.

This full-frame ultra-ultrawide lens is foolish to use on APS-C because you're paying a huge premium in size and money for this full frame ultrawide, which on APS-C is simply a unstabilized wide zoom. 56% of its image area is simply wasted with the cropped sensors of APS-C cameras. For APS-C cameras, an APS-C lens is the best idea. This 12-24 offers no image quality advantage over an APS-C lens of the same focal length.

Compatibility

Performance Compared

This works on all Sony E-mount cameras, 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

Performance Compared

Name

Sony FE 12-24mm f/4 G. bigger.

Sony calls this the FE 12-24mm f/4 G:

FE: Full-frame coverage, E-mount.

G: means Sony's nearly best, but not quite as physically tough as the GM G Master lenses.

Optics

Sony 12-24/4 construction. Aspherical, ED and Super ED elements.

17 elements in 13 groups.

4 aspherical elements.

3 ED extra low dispersion elements.

1 Super ED extra low dispersion element.

"Nano" anti reflection coating.

Focus is internal.

Zoom moves the front and rear groups inside the barrel with no movement of the outer barrel itself; bang the lens on something and you're not hitting anything delicate.

Diaphragm

Sony FE 12-24mm f/4 G. bigger.

7 rounded blades.

Stops down to f/22.

Focal Length

12 ~ 24mm.

When used on APS-C, it sees the same angles of view as an 18 ~ 35mm lens sees when used on a full-frame camera.

Autofocus

Floating internal focus driven by a Direct Drive Super Sonic Wave Motor (DDSSM).

No external movement as focussed.

One focus lock button.

Close Focus

0.92 feet (0.28 meter).

Maximum Reproduction Ratio

1:7.14 (0.14×).

Stabilizer

None; use the one in your camera.

Front Cap

Front cap, Sony FE 12-24mm f/4 G. bigger.

Inside front cap, Sony FE 12-24mm f/4 G. bigger.

This dedicated plastic front cap goes on at any angle, and seals much better than Canon's cap for it's ultra-ultrawides. The Sony front cap "catches" on a ridge around the front element and holds on very well; you have to press both releases to get it off. The Sony cap also covers the entire front of the lens, not letting any part lie open as Canon's caps do, and the Sony cap has six sections of synthetic felt to ensure that the cap doesn't wear the outside of the lens, as Canon's and Nikon's caps do. Here's the awful cap Canon includes with the11-24mm, the garbagy one included with the Canon 14/2.8 L II and Nikon's sad excuse for the cap included with the 14-24mm f/2.8 ED.

Filters

None.

Hood

None; protective petals are a permanent part of the lens barrel.

Case

Basic sack included.

Size

3.43" maximum diameter × 4.62" extension from flange.

87.0 mm maximum diameter × 117.4 mm extension from flange.

Weights

19.790 oz. (561.0g), actual measured weight.

Cap only: 1.540 oz. (43.6g), actual measured weight.

Lens rated 19.9 oz. (565 g).

Announced

19 May 2017.

Promised for

31 August 2017.

Sony Model Number

SEL1224G.

Included

Lens.

Special front cap and standard ALC-R1EM rear cap.

Sack.

Price, USA

$1,698, June 2017.

Performance

Performance Compared

Overall Autofocus Manual Focus Breathing

Bokeh Distortion Ergonomics Falloff Filters

Flare & Ghosts Lateral Color Fringes Macro

Mechanics Sharpness Spherochromatism

Stabilization Sunstars

Overall

This Sony 12-24 4 G is the best and only ultra-ultrawide available for Sony.

It's ultra sharp, focuses super fast, has a programmable focus lock button and can make pretty good sunstars.

Autofocus

Use the right camera, like the Sony A9, and autofocus is super fast.

No worries here; other ultrawides almost always focus quickly as well.

Autofocus is also completely silent unless you hold it to your ear. You can shoot with a silent camera in restricted, sensitive and prohibited areas without being noticed.

Hold the unmarked focus lock button (near the AF/MF slide switch) to lock focus. What's weird is that on my Sony A9 that the camera's busy green AF indicators don't extinguish instantly, but the system seems to work fine.

Manual Focus

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The manual focus ring is merely an encoder to the camera's computer, which in turn may or may not focus the lens based on your input. Set the lens to MF for it to work.

For manual-focus override, set the camera to DMF, which puts the camera in AF-S mode, and overrides it if you turn the focus ring.

Focus Breathing

Focus breathing is the image changing size as focused in and out. It's important to cinematographers 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.

The image from the Sony 12-24/4 gets only slightly larger as focussed more closely.

Bokeh

Bokeh, the feel or quality of out-of-focus areas as opposed to how far out of focus they are, is very good, but with a lens this wide and this slow, almost nothing is ever that far out of focus.

Here are samples at headshot distance:

Davis 6250 weather station, 17 June 2017. bigger or camera-original © file to explore on your computer (mobile devices rarely display full resolutions images properly).

Distortion

If you deactivate the camera's automatic correction, the 12-24 has strong barrel distortion at 12mm, not much distortion from 14mm to 17mm, and then moderate pincushion distortion from 18mm to 24mm. It's easy to correct with Photoshop's lens distortion filter, or just set your camera's lens corrections to correct automatically.

These aren't facts or specifications, they are the results of my research that requires hours of photography and calculations on the resulting data.

Correction factors with uncorrected images on full-frame	at 10' (3 meters)
12mm	+5.00**
14mm	+1.00*
16mm	-1.60
18mm	-2.20
21mm	-2.30
24mm	-1.70

* Some slight waviness remains after correction.

** Some waviness remains after correction.

Ergonomics

Sony FE 12-24mm f/4 G. bigger.

This Sony 12-24/4 G handles well.

Zooming is internal and the zoom ring is easily adjusted with a single fingertip. It has some damping. It's just as easy to zoom even if pointed directly up or down.

There is no zoom creep and zooming is perfectly spaced; it's easy to set precise framing anyplace in the range.

Focus is an electronic encoder, not as good as a real mechanical focus ring because the lens doesn't always respond when you turn it depending on your settings.

The dedicated plastic front cap goes on at any angle, and seals much better than Canon's cap for it's ultra-ultrawides.

Falloff

Falloff is invisible with the camera's default "Shading Correction" ON.

Filters, use with

performance top

Forget about it.

There is no front thread; what you think might be is simply a grip ridge for the special cap, and even if you cross-threaded something to it, the front element would interfere with it as you zoom.

There is no slot for rear gels, so your best bet is taping gels to the back of the lens.

Forget about adapting large rectangular filters to the front unless you also have a big matte box to ensure that this ultra-ultrawide is kept in shadow so it doesn't see reflections behind you from the rear of the filter!

Flare & Ghosts

There are no ghosts under anything but the silliest conditions. If you point the lens directly at the sun and put something dark opposite it, this is the worst I could do. As you'll see, stopping the lens down makes any ghosts brighter and smaller and thus more obvious. At large apertures the ghosts are more diffuse and dimmer.

Click any to enlarge:

You'll never see ghosts or flare in normal use; don't worry about it. Many people want ghosts, and even use software to add them back in to modern lenses like this!

Lateral Color Fringes

There are no color fringes as shot on Sony cameras, most of which by default correct for any that may be there.

This is excellent.

Macro

Are you kidding? Macro with a 12-24mm lens?

While it focuses to within inches of the front of the lens (the 0.9'/0.28 meter rating id from the image sensor), this lens is so wide it doesn't seem very close.

The good news is that it is super-sharp at close distances, even wide-open at f/4, which is better than many lenses:

Kienzle Flieger Automat 800/2843, 17 June 2017. Sony A9, Sony 12-24mm f/4 G at 24mm at close focus distance at f/4 at 1/4,000 at Auto ISO 100. bigger or camera-original © file.

1,200 x 900 pixel crop from above. bigger or camera-original © file.

If this crop is about 12" (30cm) wide on your screen, then the complete image printed at this same extreme magnification would be about 40 x 60" (1 x 1.5 meters). You're seeing the actual texture of the watch face and case.

If this crop is about 6" (15cm) wide on your screen, then the complete image printed at this same extreme magnification would be about 20 x 30" (50 x 75 cm).

Mechanical Quality

Sony FE 12-24mm f/4 G. bigger.

This Sony 12-24 is pretty well made of mostly plastic on the outside and plenty of metal on the inside.

Sony claims a sealed dust- and moisture-resistant design.

Dedicated Front Cap

Plastic.

Front Protective Hood Petals

Heavy plastic.

Focus Ring

Rubber-covered plastic.

Zoom Ring

Rubber-covered plastic.

Rear Barrel

Plastic.

Internals

Look like mostly metal.

Moisture Seal at Mount

None.

Mount

Dull chromed metal.

Markings

Painted, except for the zoom ring whose numbers are engraved (or molded) and filled with paint.

Date Code

None found.

Identity

Little raised silver-lettered plate glued to top of barrel.

Dark gray paint on bottom rear of barrel:

Sony FE 12-24mm f/4 G. bigger.

Serial Number

A sticker glued to the bottom of the barrel, perfectly OK for a CD player but not acceptable for a piece of gear expected to receive heavy handling in the field on a daily basis.

Noises When Shaken

Virtually silent, one of the tightest autofocus lenses I've ever shaken.

Made in China

Sony FE 12-24mm f/4 G. bigger.

It's made in China, which is hidden in black letters molded into the black plastic flare guard at the back of the lens. It's only visible on close inspection with the lens off a camera and no rear cap on the lens.

Sadly Sony puts a more legible silver sticker on the outside of the lens near the certifications and model numbers that says Sony Corp., Japan.

Sharpness

It's super-sharp, even wide open at any zoom setting in the corners on full-frame.

The only limitations will be your skill as a photographer. If you can't make a super-sharp shot with this lens, fix your technique.

Here are Sony's MTF charts at 10 cyc/mm and 30 cyc/mm:


MTF at 12mm at f/4.	MTF at 24mm at f/4.

Spherochromatism

I see no spherochromatism in this lens, and didn't expect to since it's usually seen in faster, longer lenses.

Spherochromatism, also called "color bokeh" by laymen, can cause colored fringes on out-of-focus highlights, usually seen as green fringes on backgrounds and magenta fringes on foregrounds with fast, long lenses shot wide open.

It is an advanced form of chromatic aberration in a different dimension than lateral color.

Image Stabilization

This lens has no stabilization, but most Sony cameras have internal sensor-shift stabilization.

The gotcha with this scheme is that while it works fine with longer lenses and works great for stabilizing the center of an ultrawide image, the physics are such that sensor-shifting can't correct the edges at the same time for ultrawide images because the edges move at different rates. To correct an ultrawide image for camera shake we need more shift at the edges than at the center, and to do that would require a rubber sensor.

Therefore this system can eliminate camera shake in one central area of the sensor (the Coronia sign in this sample), but can't correct the sides. Look at the full-resolution © file for the image below and you'll see a sharp Corona sign, but blurry left and right sides. This isn't an unsharp lens as you've seen at Sample Images; it's simply a limitation of the sensor-shift system.

Mexican Restaurant, 23 June 2017. Sony A9, Sony 12-24mm f/4 G at 12mm, f/4 at 1/8 hand-held at Auto ISO 1,000. bigger or full-resolution © file.

Crop from above: Sharp Corona sign. bigger.

Crop from above: uncompensated camera shake at the sides. bigger.

THe lens is sharp; crop from right side of similar shot at f/4 holding the camera more steadily: you can see every hair. Sony A9, Sony 12-24mm f/4 G at 12mm, f/4 at 1/8 hand-held at Auto ISO 1,250. bigger or full-resolution © file.

Sunstars

Due to its rounded diaphragm blades, this 12-24 doesn't usually make sunstars until it's stopped down to about f/16 or smaller. See also the samples above at Flare & Ghosts. If you have some genuinely brilliant point sources as seen in the full-resolution Mexican restaurant shots, even at f/4 you can get sunstars.

Click any to enlarge:

Compared

Performance Compared

Overall

There is no comparison. No one else makes a serious lens this wide optimized optically for Sony.

Versus 16-35mm lenses

Either of the Sony 16-35/2.8 GM (2017-) and Zeiss 16-35/4 OSS (2014-) are much more practical choices.

This 12-24mm is a special purpose ultra-ultrawide. It's zoom range goes from completely insane (12mm) to still pretty wide (24mm).

A 16-35mm covers a generally much more useful range (ultrawide 16mm to relatively normal 35mm), and just as importantly, can use a filter on the front to keep the lens clean and protected. With this Sony 12-24, Canon 11-24mm or Nikon 14-24mm, you're always watching out for dirt or damage to the bare front element, or having to keep its cap on most of the time for the same reason. You can't just carry this lens around your neck all day ready to shoot, but you can with any 16-35mm and a UV filter.

Versus other brands

While others make spectacular ultra-ultrawide lenses, none of them work well adapted to Sony's cameras.

This is because their AF systems aren't optimized for Sony's newest live systems, and just as importantly these other lenses, while ultra-sharp on their own brands of cameras, look fuzzy at the sides on Sony cameras because their optics haven't been optimized for the virtual curved-fields and rear nodal point positions required for good results on Sony's ground-breaking full-frame mirrorless cameras.

This Sony 12-24mm is optimized for Sony, and focuses much faster and is much, much sharper than any other lens adapted to Sony.

Versus Laowa

Laowa 12mm f/2.8.

I seriously doubt that the Laowa manual-focus 12mm f/2.8 would perform well on the Sony cameras, which require specially optimized curved-field lenses for optimum sharpness in the corners.

Versus the Voigtländer 12mm f/5.6

Voigtländer 12mm f/5.6. bigger.

The Voigtländer manual-focus 12mm f/5.6 has its rear nodal point so close to the image plane that it's got to look horrible on Sony, with shifted colors at the sides and very fuzzy results. The good news is that it has so much vignetting, which the Sony cameras can't correct automatically, that the crummy side performance will be hidden.

Skip this idea; this Voigtländer lens isn't much less expensive than this good 12-24mm lens, and this Sony is a stop faster and autofocuses, too.

Versus the Canon 11-24mm

Canon 11-24mm f/4 L.

The Canon 11-24/4 L is the world's reference ultra-ultrawide. It's the widest, but bigger and heavier and twice the price of this Sony.

The Canon 11-24/4 L has only half the distortion of this Sony 12-24, but so what: you can set Sony cameras to correct this automatically.

Regardless of how great is the Canon 11-24mm, adapted to a Sony camera I very much doubt that it will perform well either optically or for autofocus; it hasn't been optimized to the special requirements of the Sony cameras for ultrawide lenses.

Versus the Nikon 14-24mm

Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8 ED.

The Nikon 14-24/2.8 ED is a giant lens twice the speed and size and weight of this Sony, but it goes nowhere near as wide, and if adapted to Sony, I seriously doubt that its AF or optical performance will work well.

Nikon's out of this race; they no longer make any competitive lens wider than 14mm; their 13mm f/5.6 is a collectors' item that sells north of $30,000 used.

Usage

Performance Compared

Sony FE 12-24mm f/4 G. bigger.

AF | | MF

Leave the top slide switch at AF (autofocus).

Use the MF, Manual Focus position, only if you want to lock-out autofocus.

There's no manual-focus override in AF-C mode; use DMF or AF-S.

Focus Lock Button

This is the unmarked round button under the big "G."

Hold it to lock autofocus.

It can be used for recomposition, or if your target runs behind an obstruction for a moment.

This button would be extremely useful on Canon and Nikon where we often have to recompose since they only have AF sensors in the middle of their frames, but since most Sonys like the Sony A9 have AF sensors that cover the entire frame, we don't need these as much.

Recommendations

Performance Compared