It’s here! It’s here! The lens that will complete my photography kit! And take awesome pictures while I’m traveling! Hooray!
“Ok calm down Andy,” I can hear you saying exasperatedly, “but yeah tell me about the lens WAIT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT THE NEW SONY 12-24 OMG I’M EXCITED TOO!”
See? Enthusiasm spreads quickly.
I picked up my copy of the Sony 12-24 F4 G lens (link to an affiliate partner who may pay me a commission should you make a purchase) today at my local camera shop (Competitive Cameras in Dallas, Texas) and I am pumped.
It’s not a cheap lens by any means, coming in hot at $1,698 in US dollars, but I think it’ll be worth it. As I told you when I shared news of the new lenses, I had a lot of photographic redundancy from the 24mm-35mm focal length. What I didn’t mention is I wanted something that was wide not only on my full frame a7rII but could also be wide on my APS-C a6500. So what I’ve done is sold the Sony Zeiss 16-35 f4 lens to a buddy (and I will miss it, it was a fantastic lens), which gets rid of that focal length redundancy, and will move forward with the following kit:
- Sony 12-24mm F4 G
- Canon 24mm TS II
- Sony 24-70mm F2.8 GM
- One of either the 70-200mm F2.8 GM, 90mm F2.8 macro, or 50mm F1.4, depending on what I’m photographing
It sets everything up wonderfully for me.
Initial impressions
The build quality is plasticky, which some don’t like but I don’t mind at all (and even prefer sometimes). It’s weather resistant and zooms internally (the front element of the lens doesn’t jut out when you zoom), both of which will be necessary shooting on the road. It’s incredibly light and barely larger than the 16-35f4 lens. When comparing this lens to the competition that’s a MASSIVE improvement, especially in the weight department (the Sony is half the weight of comparable lenses from Canon and Nikon).
Here’s a shot of a random Singapore Airlines bear at 24mm
And here’s another image zoomed all the way out to 12mm, it’s a huge field of view! Granted I missed focusing on the bear but that’s besides the point.
I’m putting an unboxing video up on YouTube here in a minute but otherwise stay tuned, I can’t wait to take this baby out on the road for a full-on product review! Now, to find somewhere to go…
This is a lens that probably is only going to appeal to serious hobbyist and pro photographers given the price point and fact that ultra-wide angle lenses such as this take some skill to use effectively. I debated this lens, but settled on the new 16-35mm GM instead. I rarely feel the need to go past 16mm on full frame and I want the ability to use filters. But the 12-24 and 24-70mm would be an awesome landscape kit and not too heavy. Given you have some serious glass, do you post on instagram, flickr, or 500px?
I was tempted by the 16-35 GM but went with this one because I needed something wider than 16mm to use on my a6500 when I’m doing vlog-style videos (and I could never get my head around spending $700 for Sony’s 10-18mm lens).
I’m on instagram at @realandyluten but most of my good pictures are in the Picture of the Week archives on this site. I think I’m on 500px as well but don’t post there as often.
Hi Andy, can you do a vlog using A6500 with 12-24?
All of the following were recorded with that combo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXpaLZRM6Eg&list=PL_burUsoV9QWYl_AsPuTBbjcudvQ0pcqH