Sony FE 24mm f/2.8 'G' lens review with samples 

I have compared it to the Sigma 24mm 3.5 and the Voigtländer 21mm. The Sony 24mm is actually wider than a typical 24. My guess is that that is partly to compensate for breathing correction because I have seen this phenomenon in most recent Sony lenses. They are all just a little bit wider than they should be. These tiny lenses are real gems though. Optically more than solid, all the features of a GM, tough, fast AF, silent and properly sealed. Not a combination of attributes you find every day.

Would be interesting to see this compared to the Samyang 24mm f2.8. I've got no doubt that the Samyang is far far better value for money, but still, it would be fun to see them side by side.

Always reliable reviews…thanks!

Your review is now a year old. I bought the 24mm F2.8 and the 40mm f2.5 from the official Sony store in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia a year ago for the local equivalent of £350 each. That was the regular- non-discounted- price. The price is about the same today, though the Malaysian Ringgit (the local currency) is weaker than it was a year ago. I am an Irishman retired in Malaysia. The people are welcoming, the food is amazing and the weather is a bit warmer than Wales. The camera equipment is obviously a lot cheaper than in rip-off Britain. (The lenses are both great on my A7RIII)

I picked one of these up a while ago to run with my FX3 on a Crane M3. And you know what, it's no GM (or at least my copy isn't) but it definitely scratched the size itch for me. Still use it when I want to be a little more low key with my videos.

Great review Chris. This is literally the first lens that I have bought recently that hasn't come highly recommended from one of your excellent review vids. However, I do love this lens. I picked up mine 2nd hand so the price wasn't such an issue, and I guess the small amount of softness at the corners that are usually out of focus doesn't really bother me. Modern day lenses are so good across the board anyway, and I think this one has to be one of the most beautifully built and sized lenses that Sony have ever made!

The Samyang 24 f1.8 seems to be the best value. It's AF is decent enough and it also has the weather sealing. It also has some neat extra features. At £430, it is much cheaper than the Sony 24f2.8.

So professional review 😍 I benefited from it very much

Weird little question, can you use the 24mm f/2.8 lens hood, on either the 40mm or the 50mm lens? Tbh I dont like the look of either lens hood and the 24mm lens hood looks gorgeous and I´m curious if you can, yeah I know the lens hood won´t do it´s perfect job on either the 40mm or the 50mm, but I´d rather get that little compromise just for the looks or even worse, not use the lens hood.

The corners are a bit of a disappointment. Not awful, but for the $ you'd expect a little better detail.

We need more FE pancake, om nom nom

*¡Hola Christopher me gustaría que probarás la lente Meike 50mm f0.95!*

Can the hood still be used if a filter is attached to the lens?

Thanks for the review

hi Chris, I am a skydiver , do you recommend me this skydiving photo and video works?

I own this lens and I’m about to sell it. Don’t waste your money. I love the size and build quality but the image quality and slow f/stop are what’s really disappointing. I shoot a lot of landscapes and thought this would make a great hiking lens but the lack of sharpness in the corners even at f/8 and f/11 is very disappointing. Way too much distortion and vignetting also.

Thanks for the great review! 👍 But unfortunately slow aperture, longitudinal ca and lots of distortion. This lens is not for me.

I compared your review of this lens to 24mm f2.8 Samyang. The distortion with this expensive lens is much worse than the Samyang. Considering the greater cost...that is very disappointing. Yes, the Sony is sharper at wider openings. But, that is to be expected. Also compared it to the f1.8 Samyang. Even here the distortion was much better than the Sony. Any comments?

It cost 600 dollars in America before the tax .in America every single product priced without the tax added .that's why every time I watch your lens review you mention in usa it's cheaper but its not .it's exactly the same

Strange....is it RU-vid's video compression or you're just being kind in your review? I don't think the image quality at the centre is anywhere near "razor sharp". It's at best average to barely good. I'm rating it based on your descriptions of other better lenses. Please refer to any Canon RF L lenses you reviewed in the past what is considered "razor sharp". At the corners, images from this tiny 24mm are just plain soft. For such a performance, I really don't understand why people would pay many hundred $$$ for the Sony lens. You buy a mirrorless full frame camera because you want to fully utilise and push its performance by pairing it with a good lens. If anyone feels they want to get away with carrying a big and heavy setup by buying any of the 3 tiny Sony lenses, perhaps they have made the wrong decision to get a full frame camera. They should be looking at the Sony A6xxx APS-C camera, or perhaps the excellent Fujifilm X-T30.

Looks like Sony cheated off Sigmas answers in the i series test😂

The distortion is terrible. It can be hidden but not really corrected. That's just sloppy design.

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I think the 24mm is the least attractive of the 3, simply because the Samsung 24mm is both smaller, cheaper and likely not that far behind in terms of IQ.

I am honestly so tired of Sony putting out these garbage lenses with zero distortion correction. Yes you can fix it in post but "fixing it in post" is a bit of a joke when overdone, and fixing this fisheye-level horror is indeed one of those cases. My 17mm f/1.4 TTartisan lens will give me an equivalent of 26mm f/2 with way less distortion for one sixth of what this costs. Actually inexcusable to leave this much distortion in a lens that acts as if it is a premium product.

I’m glad I got the Sigma 24 f3.5.

Oddly enough I went with the darkest 24mm prime available, Sigma 24 f3.5! Was a better value in my opinion and still I think it is. I'm quite happy with it, I miss the 2/3 of a stop brightness but couldn't convince myself to buy this one price wise or even the sigma 24mm f2 because of it's bigger size. The only thing I don't like is it's overkill lens hood. It's rather a military grade equipment! Lol

Happy to see that your money tree got better 😊 I'm considering buying an a7c II with the 24 mm f2.8 G lens!

Great review. Wonder how this compares to a Sony 24-105mm @ 24mm?

Hey Christopher, thank you for your very helpful lens reviews, I just watched two of them. Interested to see Brother Andrew's book in your tests. He was an amazing man, I saw him in one of the meetings in Holland. Keep up the good work my friend.

Totally happy with my Sigma 24 3.5. Great size for hiking and kayaking. Handles 61MP as well as you'd expect.

These lenses should suit me fine. I don't shoot at night.

what do you think compared to batis 25mm?

Thank you. I was debating this lens, I may just get it for the ZVE10. However, I did test the 11mm, 16mm equivalent, in Bath and that was a very good lens to have

Think you for your review. I was considering this lens. I'm curious what you view as a better value lens in 24 or 35mm AF? I have a new Sony e-mount A7IV. I have many A and MD mount lenses I can use with adapters. I'm looking for my first native e-mount lens that will be good for video and photo-- small lightweight prime preferred. The AF does not work with video when using their new adapter with legacy A mount glass which is such BS by Sony.

Thanks Sony, but I'm happy with my Samyang 24mm f/1.8...

I missed hearing "due to the effects of diffraction." 🥺

Kiitos!

I wish they were all F1.8

I was just in Bath! Fun to see the picture of the weir.

At such a price and with a maximum f/2.8 the lens should have decent barrel distortion. The similar Samyang FE 24mm f/2.8 is a better option. Digital correction of optical problems are fine as long as the lens is really affordable to anyone.

I'd like to love these lenses but it seems that you're paying for build quality and asthetics instead of top of the line quality. This level of distortion, vignetting, chromatic aberration mixed with only good sharpness (lackluster at short distance even) and some coma is just not cutting it at f2.8. Good autofocus, size and build quality are not enough for me to be interested in buying this expensive lense.

Seems like unless someone needs their lenses to be comically small or really wants it to be made of solid metal, the Samyang AF 24mm f/1.8 is the better option for $100 less.

Part of the problems with this lens is that it may not be the best option for a high Mega Pixel sensor, when Fujifilm released its XT5 AND XH2 40mp cameras they released a few updated prime lenses that were designed for the high resolution camera so these lens might be best suited for the 24mp sensor bodies.