Sony FE 35 mm f/1.8 review - Summary

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Sony FE 35 mm f/1.8

2 November 2020

Maciej Latałło

11. Summary

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Pros:

solid and sealed mechanical construction,
excellent image quality in the frame centre,
sensible image quality on the edge of the APS-C sensor,
moderate lateral chromatic aberration,
lack of problems with spherical aberration,
negligible distortion,
very low astigmatism,
good performance against bright light,
very nice out-of-focus areas,
silent and accurate autofocus.

Cons:

image quality near the maximum relative aperture on the edge of full frame could have been a tad better,
huge vignetting that reacts weakly on stopping down,
significant coma,
noticeable longitudinal chromatic aberration.

Our summary will be short because there is no need to write at lenth about obvious things. The tested lens performs as it should; all flaws, listed by us, are only to be expected from a construction of this type. A small, wide angle lens that is fast aperture-wise, will always have distinct vignetting and it will have to compromise in some places.

Still, apart from fully expectable disadvantages, you get also a long list of significant assets. Overall, when it comes to the performance of the lens, there are practically no serious reservations.

If I wanted to complain a bit, I would carp only and solely about the price. Smaller f/1.8-2.0 instruments are often chosen by amateur photographers, professionals tend to focus on f/1.4 or even f/1.2 lenses. If a lens is supposed to be popular among less advanced photography fans you have to set its price very wisely. In this case the purchase will mean you have to spend almost $700 and, in my humble opinion, this sum of money is a bit too high. That's why, I suppose, many people will look for cheaper equivalents of third-party producers.