Sony Zeiss 16-35mm f4 Zoom Lens

Compatible Cameras:  Sony FS7/ FS5/ A7S/ A7S Mk2/ A7R/ NEX Series

Our thoughts

The Sony Zeiss 16-35mm is a very sharp lens with stabilisation and works well in conjunction with the autofocus on Sony cameras. 16-35mm is ideal as a wide-angle zoom. For sharp 4K pictures the Sony Zeiss lenses are a better bet than the Canon’s L-Series with a speedbooster adapter. The main reason for this is that they’ve been specifically designed for Sony’s 4K cameras and haven’t tried to achieve a fast stop.

Don’t be put off by the f4 aperture, these are very sensitive cameras and with a large chip you would rarely want a depth of field that is shorter than you can get with an F4 lens. The obsession with wide aperture lenses dates back to film days, when we were having to deal with very insensitive materials, and having a wide maximum aperture would determine whether you could shoot at all in certain situations.

The wider the aperture, the more difficult it is to design the lens, and the more expensive it is as a result. A wide aperture lens is always a compromise and a lot of the f1.4/f1.5/f2 lenses suffer from being a bit woolly around the edges when wide-open. For optimum performance f5.6 is the best stop to shoot at. As with all these lenses, they are predominantly designed for autofocus, and therefore are not ideal if you want to pull focus or for use with a follow focus, although possible.