The new 16-35mm and 12-24mm lenses

Kevin Raber from Luminous Landscape tested the new 16-35mm GM lens and wrote this:

I was impressed with this lens for the one day I had it.  It simply is a lens many of us have been waiting for, and once more proves that Sony is very serious about where they are heading in the Pro-Photography market.  I have placed my order for this lens to add to my Sony kit. I’ll do a follow-up review with a production unit when I receive my lens later this summer.  We were told that the lenses we were using were the final release products.

And Drew Geraci from out Sony A9 facebook group (join here) shared a set of RAW images shot with the new lenses:

For anyone interested in playing around with RAW Sony A9 Files (Astro and Daytime) with the 16-35mm F2.8, 12-24mm F4, and 24-70 – download my images directly from here: dropbox.com/sh/
***You’ll need Capture One V10.1 to view/edit them and I’ll only have the folder live for the next 5 hours***

16-35mm GM at Bhphoto, Adorama, BestBuy, Focus and Amazon. In EU at Calumet DE, WexUK, Jessops.
12-24mm G at Bhphoto, Adorama, BestBuy, Focus and Amazon. In EU at Calumet DE, Amazon IT, WexUK, Jessops.

Image by J.Claff from photonstophotos.net

William J. Claff posted the graph above showing the revised Estimate of Sony A9 Photographic Dynamic Range (PDR). It shows that at low ISO the A9 is around 1 stop behind the A7rII but 1.2 stops better than the much more expensive direct competition from Nikon (D5).
Yesterdays Dpreview article created some surreal discussions on the web. If you think cool minded it is obvious the A9 doesn’t have the same A7rII Dynamic range performance. With double the pixels the A7rII is also the class leader in the FF world.
Moreover: The A9 is made for sports photography! And sports cameras are by nature trimmed to perform best at mid ISO settings because they mostly use the camera at fast shutter speed. If you complain about the A9 not having a good performance as the A7rII at ISO 100 it would be like complaining the A7sII has no 50 megapixel :)
What matters is that REAL professional photographers shooting with the Nikon D5 or Canon 1D now can have a camera with much higher dynamic range and speed…the Sony A9!

Some more good news: Jeremy Smith tested the A9 under condition he would typically see banding. And his quick and dirty conclusion is that the A9 has no banding issues (see video below). But I would hold on judgments until we see more because some other tester reported some minimal banding in mixed light conditions.

Focus Numerique tested the A9 noise performance:

You can easily push to 1,600 or even 3,200 ISO without any hesitation and even at 6,400 ISO, the pictures are really impressive.

There is also a field test from London Camera exchange:

Sony A9:
Sony A9 at BHphoto, Adorama, Amazon, BestBuy. FocusCamera. Calumet.de. Park UK. Wex UK. Jessops.
Sony A9 with Grip Extension Kit at BHphoto, Adorama and Amazon.
Note: US readers preordering the A9 at BHphoto or Adorama using our links (and our affiliated links only!) have a chance to win a Sony A9.

100-400mm GM:
Sony 100-400mm GM at BHphoto, Amazon, Adorama, BestBuy. Calumet.de. Park UK. Wex UK. Jessops.

Sony A9 accessories:
Sony A9 battery grip at Adorama, Bhphoto, Amazon. Wex UK. Jessops.
Sony A9 Glass screen protector at Adorama, BHphoto, Amazon.
NP-FZ100 battery for the A9 at Adorama, BHphoto, Amazon. Jessops.
GP-EX1 grip at Adorama, BHphoto, Amazon. Wex UK.
FDA-EP18 eye cup at Adorama, BHphoto.
MQZ1 multi battery charger at Adorama, BHphoto, Amazon. Wex UK.
BCQZ1 Z-series Battery Charger at Adorama, BHphoto, Amazon.

Join our new Sony A9 Facebook group!

Jason Lanier posted this short A9 buffer test which once agains shows the impressive speed of the camera:

And Marc Galer posted a video preview of the A9 with a set of full size images on Flickr:

This is a new A9 video from Sony:

Sony A9:
Sony A9 at BHphoto, Adorama, Amazon, BestBuy. FocusCamera. Calumet.de. Park UK. Wex UK. Jessops.
Sony A9 with Grip Extension Kit at BHphoto, Adorama and Amazon.
Note: US readers preordering the A9 at BHphoto or Adorama using our links (and our affiliated links only!) have a chance to win a Sony A9.

100-400mm GM:
Sony 100-400mm GM at BHphoto, Amazon, Adorama, BestBuy. Calumet.de. Park UK. Wex UK. Jessops.

Sony A9 accessories:
Sony A9 battery grip at Adorama, Bhphoto, Amazon. Wex UK. Jessops.
Sony A9 Glass screen protector at Adorama, BHphoto, Amazon.
NP-FZ100 battery for the A9 at Adorama, BHphoto, Amazon. Jessops.
GP-EX1 grip at Adorama, BHphoto, Amazon. Wex UK.
FDA-EP18 eye cup at Adorama, BHphoto.
MQZ1 multi battery charger at Adorama, BHphoto, Amazon. Wex UK.
BCQZ1 Z-series Battery Charger at Adorama, BHphoto, Amazon.

Join our new Sony A9 Facebook group!

Base image via CameraSize with Sigma lens addition from me:
Sigma 12-24mm on the left, Sony 12-24mm and Nikon 12-24mm on the right (The Nikon is quite an old lens)

Preorders:
Sony 16-35mm f/2.8 GM at Bhphoto, Adorama, BestBuy and Amazon. In EU at Calumet DE, WexUK, Jessops.
Sony 12-24mm f/4.0 at Bhphoto, Adorama, BestBuy and Amazon. In EU at Calumet DE, WexUK, Jessops.

Let’s focus on the new 12-24mm FE G lens. Specs and image samples can be found at Sony.net. Helpful hands-on videos of this lens by Max Yuryev and Dan Watson.

Curiosities:
– The lens weights half as much as the Sigma 12-24mm or Canon 11-24mm lens! And MTF graph is on par with the Sigma…promising!
– It is only priced $100 more than the Sigma. This is just to say that unusual for Sony pricing seems to be fair in this case :)
– Just like the new 16-35mm GM also the 12-24mm lens has a new fly by wire focus mechanism
– In first testings this lens is surprisingly resistant to flare. Unusual for such a wide angle zoom.

Our reader Joe noted that: “Sony 12-24/4.0 + Sony A7r2 weigh 1.19kilos Sigma 12-24/4.0 alone weighs 1.15 kilos 🤣” Image via Wei:

And here is the comparison with the Canon 11-24mm lens which costs $2,700 and weights twice as much. At last we can say Sony is cheap compared to a Canon lens :)