Sony FE 20 mm f/1.8 G review - Summary

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Sony FE 20 mm f/1.8 G

16 May 2022

Maciej Latałło

11. Summary

Pros:

solid, weather-sealed mechanical construction,
moderate dimensions and low weight, taking into account offered parameters,
brilliant image quality in the frame centre up from the maximum relative aperture,
good image quality on the edge of the APS-C sensor,
acceptable image quality on the edge of full frame,
very good correction of longitudinal chromatic aberration,
negligible lateral chromatic aberration,
lack of any serious distortion problems,
low astigmatism,
nice out-of-focus images for these parameters,
moderate vignetting on the APS-C sensor,
fast, silent, and accurrate autofocus.

Cons:

very high vignetting on full frame.

I have to admit I didn't expect to be charmed by the performance of the Sony FE 20 mm f/1.8G. Still, I had an opportunity to check out that lens not only during a studio session and my traditional session outside but also during a week-long trip to Iceland and it performed wonderfully well (several sample shots from that trip I post below). The lens is small, lightweight, handy, but it allows you to use ordinary filters with a diameter of 67 mm, a really moderate value for this angle of view. It's a joy to use in landscape photography and its great aperture fastness provides additional advantages when it comes to wide angle astrophotography.

In fact, the lens has just one flaw, something you could anticipate and expect. After all it would be foolish to think an instrument with such dimensions and parameters would be able to correct vignetting in a perfect way. Well, all I have to say the final result of this testing category still was lower than our expectations so it wasn't a complete disaster.

Taking it all into account I award the Sony FE 20 mm f/1.8G our Editor's Choice badge without any qualms. The lens deserves it.

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