New Sony 16-25mm G reviews by Jeven Dovey and Marc Alhadeff

Preorders at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, FotoErhardt, FotoKoch, Calumet, WexUK, Amazon.

Marc from SonyAlphaBlog tested the lens and concluded:

The Sony FE 16-25mm F2.8 G (1399) euros is an excellent lens . It offer very similar performance to the Sony FE 16-35mm F2.8 GM II : excellent sharpness , AF, ergonomics, color rendition with on top lightweight, small size and “reasonable” price vs GM II. Its only weaknesses are the resistance to flare and distortion/vignetting

Its limited range is perfectly ok for landscape usage vs a 16-35mm. If you own the Sony FE 24-70mm F2.8 GM II it will be a very nice complement without overlap. Globally the 16-25mm F2.8 make more sense than the recent Sony FE 24-50mm F2.8 G

Alternatives

The Sony FE 16-35mm F2.8 GM II is the best in all domains except resistance to flare, it will offer more range, smoother background blur , less distortion less vignetting but similar sharpness
The Sony PZ 16-35mm F4 G is maybe the best one for video.
Sigma 16-28mm F2.8 DG DN Contemporary and Tamron 17-28mm F2.8 Di III RXD are clearly below on 61Mpix except maybe for resistance to flare.

The price of the Sony 16-25 F2.8 (1399 euros) allow to get the performance of the GMII (2700 euros) at half of its price and considering the improvement over the Sigma and Tamron in term of sharpness, AF, ergonomics, color rendition it is worth the price difference (1400 vs 900 euros)

Highly recommended

And here is Jeven Dovey’s review:

Some images of the upcoming Viltrox 135mm f/1.8 FE AF lens on the Sony A7cR

At the NABshow Viltrox displayed the 135mm f/1.8 FE autofocus lens. They still did not disclose the exact release date and pricing of the lens. But here you can see the lens mounted on the Sony A7cR.

You can see the LED display and all manual controls. Looks like a solid build. We will have to see if the image quality will match the one of the Sony 135mm GM.

One more thing: The Viltrox 30-300 mm t/4.0 costs $65,000, but you get this additional giant pillow for free:)

via Weibo

Sigma 500mm FE lens review by SonyAlphaBlog: “provides ultimate image quality in a light and small form factor”

500mm f/5.6 at BHphoto, Amazon, Adorama, FotoErhardt, Calumet, WexUK.

SonyAlphaBlog tested the Sigma 500mm lens and concluded:

The Sigma 500mm F5.6 DG DN Sports (3200 euros) is an excellent lens and a very good news for animal shooters. It provides the ultimate image quality in a light and small form factor, much more usable than a 500mm F4 or 400mm f2.8 or the big telephoto zooms at a very reasonable price of 3200 euros. It can fit in a standard backpack

It AF, optical stabilisation , ergonomics, build quality is excellent. Bokeh , color rendition , distortion, Resistance to flare , level of CA are also excellent
The only weak point is the very long min focusing distance of 3.2m and the limitations imposed by Sony : max 15fps and no TC allowed

Highly recommended