Sony 35mm F/2.8 ZA Review

Sony 35mm F/2.8 Zeiss Real world images:

Sony 35mm f/2.8  review:

35mm is an extremely popular focal length, well suited for general use, street photography, event photography, and group portraits. The Sony 35mm F/2.8 Zeiss was one of the first lenses Sony launched for full frame, an extremely compact lens probably meant to show off the potential small size of the first full frame mirrorless camera. Following suit, Canon and Nikon also both released 35mm lenses with the launch of their mirrorless systems but they both released lenses with 1.8 aperture. 

A 2.8 aperture is a very small aperture for a 35mm prime lens, limiting its advantage compared to other prime lenses. Remarkably, Sony charges around $750 to $800 for this lens.  Using March 2019 pricing, this is how the price of the Sony 35mm F/2.8 Z stands out against others within the system and rival systems:

• Sony 35mm F/2.8 – $750  (see on Amazon / Adorama)
• Nikon Z 35mm F/1.8 – $850 (See on Amazon / Adorama) 
• Canon Rf 35mm F/1.8 macro – $450 (See on Amazon / Adorama) 
• Canon EF 40mm F/2.8 STM – $180 (See on Amazon / Adorama)
• Samyang 35mm F/2.8 – $270 (See on Amazon / Adorama)
• Rokinon 35mm F/1.4 – $600 (See on Amazon /Adorama)

While it’s not surprising that third party lenses would be cheaper than the Sony branded lenses, it is remarkable that the high quality Rokinon 35mm F/1.4 (review here) is cheaper while being two stops faster. The Samyang 35mm F/2.8 is about one third the price of the Sony version. The Canon 40mm F/2.8 is very comparable, meant to be a small compact general purpose prime for the EF system, and it’s about 75% cheaper than the Sony. While one stop slower, the Sony 35mm F/2.8 is priced at  the same level or more than most other 1.8 aperture 35mm lenses.

Notably, the Sony 35mm F/2.8 carries the “Zeiss” branding logo, but it is not a true Zeiss lens. Sony has a branding partnership with Zeiss which allows them to use the brand name on some Sony designed and manufactured lenses. The exact amount of input Zeiss has into these lenses is not publicly known, but it likely not very much.

It’s clear that Sony charges a significant premium for this lens. In this review, we will examine whether it’s worth the cost and whether it really brings any advantages beyond a small size. If you’re going to charge $800 for a 35mm 2.8 lens, then I certainly would hope for breathtaking image quality.

Body and Handling

The Sony 35mm F/2.8 is tiny, weighing only 120 grams. Sony clearly designed this as one of their first lenses in order to emphasize the compactness of the Sony mirrorless system.

Other than the small size, the only thing that stands out is the “hood/cap.” Instead of a traditional flower-petal type hood, you get a small hood that can double as a lens cap. It is convenient in the sense that you never really have to think about removing the lens cap or putting on the hood, you can just keep the hood-cap permanently attached.

There isn’t much to the body. It’s a solid metallic-feeling design, with a ribbed focus ring. There are no buttons or switches. The entire lens feels sturdy.

When looking at this lens, you notice the lens sports a really small iris, almost looking like what you expect in a point and shoot camera, not a full frame ILC. The question is whether this design impacts the image quality.

Below, we can look at some lens size comparisons. The Sony 55mm F/1.8 is a small lens but looks fairly large in comparison to the Sony 35mm F/2.8. Weighing 281 grams, the Sony 55mm F/1.8 always feels small to me but the Sony 35mm F/2.8 is half that already low weight. Meanwhile, the Rokinon 35mm F/1.4 is definitely significantly bulkier and heavier (weighing 645 grams). 

Autofocus is smooth, quick and silent. 

Stabilized Effect

The Sony 35mm F/2.8 does not have optical stabilization but it benefits from the in-body stabilization found on most current Sony bodies. Below are some cropped samples at low shutter speed on the Sony A7riii. They are representative of multiple images taken for testing.

Your results will vary based on your hand holding technique and personal stability. For me, at 1/20th of a second and faster, the keeper rate was close to 100%. I continued to get mostly sharp images between 1/10 and 1/20. Slower than 1/10, it became much more challenging to get sharp images. 

Image Quality

At the price point of around $750-$800 for a 2.8 aperture prime, I’m going to be expecting and demanding very high image quality. One can get the Samyang/Rokinon 35mm F/1.4 lens for significantly cheaper than the Sony 35mm F/2.8. The Rokinon 35mm F/1.4 is two stops faster and has excellent image quality. So the question is whether the Sony 35mm F/2.8 is offering any advantages other than small size. 

Vignetting and Distortion

I’m disappointed right off the bat. This may be an effect of that small lens iris. The vignette is poor. Vignette is pretty significant and noticeable at F2.8. While the effect dissipates as you stop down, there is still some vignette present at F5.6. While vignetting is easily correctable in post-processing, correction will add noise to the corners, especially if you were already pushing up the ISO. 

Below we look at the distortion. As with most prime lenses, distortion is minimal. Certainly, distortion will not negatively effect your images. But you will again notice the significance of the vignetting. 

Flare – Chromatic Aberration/Purple Fringing 

Flare control is pretty decent on the Sony 35mm F/2.8. I rarely see any multi-colored blob effects. In photos with a strong light at the edge of the frame, we see definite loss of contrast. When dealing with harshly backlit situations, is also when we are most likely to see color fringing or aberration. Color fringing is often an issue with fast aperture. Considering that the Sony 35mm F/2.8 prime is not a very fast aperture lens, I was hoping to avoid color fringing:

 

At f2.8, in high contrast images, we see notable purple and green fringing. It’s not horrible compared to some other lenses and it mostly disappears by F4. I can neither label this an exceptional nor awful result. I hoped for a bit better, but it’s really not terrible. 

Bokeh

I’m not particularly concerned with bokeh considering that 35mm is fairly wide. Combined with the relatively slow 2.8 aperture, you really need to get close to your subject for much appreciable bokeh.

To the extent you can use the Sony 35mm F/2.8 Z for it’s bokeh effect, it’s a pretty nice bokeh. Background blur is small. Out of focus highlights (bokeh balls) are clean and well rounded. 

Sharpness

I’ll spare the suspense: The Sony 35mm F/2.8 is a sharp lens. But then again, the Sony 35mm F/1.4 (reviewed here) and Rokinon 35mm F/1.4 (reviewed here) are also exceptionally sharp at f/2.8.  Let’s dig in more and see just how sharp…

Center Sharpness

Starting with center crops (click for large):

Before commenting, Center crops from closer focus distance:

There is nothing to complain about in the center of the frame. The Sony 35mm F/2.8 is essentially tack sharp at all apertures, probably reaching peak sharpness at F4. 

Border Sharpness

Some comparisons to the Sony 35mm F/1.4:

And borders from closer focus:

The borders are generally good news: Acceptably sharp at all apertures. It’s right at the edge of what I would personally consider “tack” sharp. The negative is that it doesn’t really improve when stopped down. It basically exhibits very good sharpness at all apertures, but never becomes ultra sharp. 

Corner Sharpness

And close focus:

The extreme corners are much like the borders in that they don’t see much change by stopping down the lens. As one would expect, the corners of the Sony 35mm F/2.8 are a tad softer than the borders. In real world shooting, the corners are sharp enough at all apertures. But the Sony 35mm F/2.8 isn’t breaking any sharpness records. 

In sum, the Sony 35mm F/2.8 is capable of delivering acceptably sharp images across the entire frame, at all apertures. But the results aren’t any better than you would get from a faster aperture lens stopped down to 2.8. 

Overall:

The Sony 35mm F/2.8 really has just one major selling point: size. Sony doesn’t make a smaller lens for its system. The image quality is quite good overall, but not great. Vignetting is quite poor, chromatic aberration can be a moderate issue, and while the lens is sharp, it’s not razor sharp. Meanwhile, the aperture is slower than most of the other 35mm choices. 

If you’re looking for the best image quality, you can get a Rokinon/Samyang 35mm F/1.4 for cheaper. It’s two stops faster than the Sony 35mm F/2.8. The only advantage of the Sony 35mm F/2.8 is the size.

My readers know I do place value on keeping lenses small. I often prefer F1.8 primes and F4 zooms for their size advantages over F1.4 primes and F2.8 zooms. If this was an ultra compact F1.8 lens, I could see the price being more justifiable. While a 1.8 prime would be expected to be bigger, it could still be a very manageable size. The Canon rf 35mm F/1.8 is a mere 305 grams and the Sony 50mm F/1.8 is a mere 186 grams. I’d gladly haul around an extra 100 grams for an extra stop of light. 

For those willing to compromise on the aperture to keep the size down, there is the Samyang 35mm F/2.8, a near clone of the Sony 35mm F/2.8 but weighing even less, at 86 grams.

I try to avoid other reviews until I’ve completed my own. As I finished my testing and started writing up this summary, I did some research on the Samyang 35mm F/2.8. Other reviewers have found that it delivers image quality superior to the Sony 35mm F/2.8, while being even smaller and one third the price. (See the review by Lenstip.com here). 

An ultra compact normal prime lens can certainly have value. But I can’t recommend anyone pay full price for the Sony 35mm F/2.8 when there are so many other options that offer better image quality at a lower price. 

If you bought this lens early on before there were other options, nothing wrong with keeping it. If you can find a good price used, it’s a decent lens to keep in your bag. But as I simply cannot recommend buying it new, it gets the lowest score I’ve given any Sony lens. If the Sony 35mm F/2.8 was priced under $200, I’d probably score it a 7 or higher, but the major over-pricing makes me reduce the score significantly:

Rating (1-10):  Score: 5

(About my scoring:  9-10 is a superb lens which could have a place in the bag of almost every photographer.   6-8:  recommended with caveats.   3-5:  A compromised lens that may still be suitable for some shooters and situations.  1-2:  Just stick to your phone camera)

If you’re going to ignore my advice, you can get the Sony 35mm F/2.8 from Amazon / Adorama. If you’re looking for a good lens around 35mm at a better price, I would recommend these options:

• Sony 35mm F/2.8 used from Amazon for around $400
• Samyang 35mm F/2.8 from Amazon / Adorama
• Sony 28mm F/2 from Amazon / Adorama
• Samyang Rokinon 35mm F/1.4 from Amazon / Adorama

This blog has nearly completed its review of every full frame Sony FE lens. As of March 2019, I am currently working on reviews of the Sony 28mm F/2 and Sony 70-300g. Accept notifications from this blog and/or follow me on twitter for updates.

Thank you for reading.