Sony FE 28mm f / 2 (SEL28F20) lens overview

Sony FE 28mm f / 2 lens test (SEL28F20)

An inexpensive modern wide-angle full-frame lens - in the Sony Alpha E system this role is given to the Sony FE 28mm f / 2 (SEL28F20). Lightweight, compact, high-aperture is also all about it. But what is he in business? What about image quality? We will understand our test.

ILCE-7RM2 / FE 28mm F2 Installation: ISO 100, F11, 2 s, 28.0 mm equiv.Download RAW

Construction and design

Before moving on to shooting, let's take a closer look at the lens. It is relatively small, rises above the camera mount by a modest 6 cm, and its diameter exactly matches the bayonet ring. The body is made of metal, the electronic focusing ring is also metal.

Sony FE 28mm f / 2 (SEL28F20)

Check Price Sony FE 28mm f / 2 (SEL28F20) Prudent photographers will be able to save on a lens hood (it comes with the kit) and on optical filters - a thread diameter of 49 mm causes their low cost. But that’s not all: the Sony FE 28mm f / 2 (SEL28F20) allows you to use the wide-angle converter (focal length 21 mm) and the fish adapter (focal length 16 mm) specially designed for it. They are mounted on the bayonet mount of the hood. By the way, the optical quality of the adapters is so high that in the Sony lineup they have a designation that is typical for lenses: SEL057FEC and SEL075UWC. We will devote two separate tests to these adapters. In the meantime, back to the SEL28F20 lens.

Optical design Sony FE 28mm f / 2 (SEL28F20)

SEL28F20 has dust and moisture protection, but it is invisible from the outside: there is no rubber “skirt” on the mount. Probably all the protective elements are hidden inside the case. In any case, the lens looks monolithic: during the focusing process, no external part moves.

Lens in work

The focal length of SEL28F20 may seem “unusual” to many photographers. Most likely, this is a matter of some conservatism: 35 mm and 50 mm lenses are traditionally popular with Russian photographers. However, in reality, the 28 mm are no less universal!

ILCE-7M2 / FE 28mm F2 Settings: ISO 100, F9, 1/640 s, 28.0 mm equiv.Download RAW

Firstly, a moderately wide viewing angle is convenient for landscape photography, including urban. Secondly, 28 mm is well suited for shooting architecture: perspective distortions are not too strong, and the viewing angle is already quite wide. Thirdly, this focal length has a lot of fans among street photography lovers.

ILCE-7M2 / FE 28mm F2 Settings: ISO 100, F5.6, 1/160 s, 28.0 mm equiv.

ILCE-7M2 / FE 28mm F2 Settings: ISO 100, F2, 1/400 s, 28.0 mm equiv.

Thanks to its high aperture ratio, SEL28F20 is very suitable for indoor shooting under difficult light conditions. He also copes with night city photography.

ILCE-7M2 / FE 28mm F2 Settings: ISO 250, F8, 1/15 s, 28.0 mm equiv.Download RAW

ILCE-7M2 / FE 28mm F2 Settings: ISO 200, F2.8, 1/10 s, 28.0 mm equiv.Download RAW

Aperture f / 2 allows you to work with blurring the background. When shooting with an open aperture, the foreground can be effectively separated from the background. But do not expect miracles: we have a wide-angle lens in front of us, which means that its bokeh is unlikely to be outstanding.

ILCE-7M2 / FE 28mm F2 Settings: ISO 100, F2, 1/1000 s, 28.0 mm equiv.

Single glare in the blur zone has uneven filling, contrasting borders. The background is not blurred too softly, but without unpleasant ghosting. For a wide-angle, this is already a good result!

ILCE-7M2 / FE 28mm F2 Settings: ISO 100, F2, 1/3200 s, 28.0 mm equiv.Download RAW

ILCE-7RM2 / FE 28mm F2 Settings: ISO 100, F2, 1/13 s, 28.0 mm equiv.Download RAW

The minimum focusing distance of the lens is only 29 cm, which makes it possible to put even relatively small objects in the foreground.

Gloss protection and chromatic aberration

Due to the small and slightly curved front lens, the Sony FE 28mm f / 2 practically does not catch stray flare and glare when the sun or other light source is immediately outside the frame border. During testing, I never put a lens hood on the lens, since this was not necessary.

ILCE-7M2 / FE 28mm F2 Settings: ISO 100, F2, 1/2500 s, 28.0 mm equiv.Download RAW

ILCE-7M2 / FE 28mm F2 Settings: ISO 100, F2.8, 1/1250 s, 28.0 mm equiv.Download RAW

ILCE-7M2 / FE 28mm F2 Settings: ISO 100, F4, 1/640 s, 28.0 mm equiv.Download RAW

ILCE-7M2 / FE 28mm F2 Settings: ISO 100, F8, 1/160 s, 28.0 mm equiv.Download RAW

ILCE-7M2 / FE 28mm F2 Settings: ISO 100, F11, 1/80 s, 28.0 mm equiv.Download RAW

ILCE-7M2 / FE 28mm F2 Settings: ISO 200, F16, 1/60 s, 28.0 mm equiv.Download RAW

ILCE-7M2 / FE 28mm F2 Installation: ISO 320, F22, 1/60 s, 28.0 mm equiv.Download RAW

If you let the sun into the frame, then small colored highlights will still appear, but only directly next to the overexposed area. A drop in contrast occurs in a small local area. Single spurious glare can appear when aperture is more than f / 8, but not in every plot. In general, the lens is quite calm about backlight and allows you to safely play with contrasting light sources in the frame.

ILCE-7M2 / FE 28mm F2 Settings: ISO 100, F2.8, 1/5000 s, 28.0 mm equiv.Download RAW

Even if you disable the software suppression of chromatic aberration in the camera settings, they will not annoy the photographer. On an open diaphragm, the level of chromatic aberrations is low, and with aperture on the stage they can disappear altogether.

ILCE-7M2 / FE 28mm F2 Settings: ISO 100, F2, 1/5000 s, 28.0 mm equiv.

ILCE-7M2 / FE 28mm F2 Settings: ISO 100, F2.8, 1/2500 s, 28.0 mm equiv.

ILCE-7M2 / FE 28mm F2 Settings: ISO 100, F4, 1/1250 s, 28.0 mm equiv.

ILCE-7M2 / FE 28mm F2 Settings: ISO 100, F5.6, 1/640 s, 28.0 mm equiv.

ILCE-7M2 / FE 28mm F2 Settings: ISO 100, F8, 1/320 s, 28.0 mm equiv.

ILCE-7M2 / FE 28mm F2 Settings: ISO 100, F11, 1/160 s, 28.0 mm equiv.

ILCE-7M2 / FE 28mm F2 Settings: ISO 100, F16, 1/80 s, 28.0 mm equiv.

ILCE-7M2 / FE 28mm F2 Settings: ISO 125, F22, 1/60 s, 28.0 mm equiv.

In addition, aberrations are very effectively suppressed using the built-in capabilities of the camera (in our test, automatic suppression of chromatic aberration was disabled).

ILCE-7M2 / FE 28mm F2 Installation: ISO 160, F2, 1/15 s, 28.0 mm equiv.Download RAW

Geometric distortion

If you shoot exclusively in JPEG, then you can simply forget about a concept such as geometric distortion. By default, the camera applies software correction of such aberrations. Moreover, we were not able to disable this function during testing, the corresponding menu item Sony ILCE-7M2 was inactive. Automation does a good job of aligning straight lines located close to the center of the frame.

Frame converted from RAW with distortion correction disabled

ILCE-7M2 / FE 28mm F2 Settings: ISO 800, F8, 1/15 s, 28.0 mm equiv.Download RAW

In-camera JPEG with automatically corrected geometry

ILCE-7M2 / FE 28mm F2 Settings: ISO 800, F8, 1/15 s, 28.0 mm equiv.Download RAW

You can see the barrel-shaped distortion of SEL28F20 in all its glory only in the RAW converter, disabling the use of the corresponding profile (in Adobe products it is turned on by default). In this case, the lines located close to the edge of the frame begin to bend noticeably, and the viewing angle of the lens increases slightly. Apparently, miracles do not happen, and a relatively budgetary wide-angle cannot have perfect geometry. However, let's say thanks to software algorithms that easily cope with this problem.

Sharpness, contrast, vignetting

So we got, perhaps, to the most interesting part of our test. What about the sharpness of the SEL28F20? On an open aperture, high detail is only in the center of the frame. The edges of the picture are quite soft, and in the corners of a picky photographer, nothing good is waiting for. Also noticeably quite strong vignetting - darkening the edges of the frame. However, it is easily fixed programmatically. But the lens is different juicy, contrasting picture, even at f / 2.

ILCE-7RM2 / FE 28mm F2 Settings: ISO 100, F2, 1/6400 s, 28.0 mm equiv.Download RAW

The situation is changing for the better already at f / 2.8. The sharpness in the center of the frame becomes very high, but the edges are still soft. Vignetting is noticeably weakening.

ILCE-7RM2 / FE 28mm F2 Settings: ISO 100, F2.8, 1/3200 s, 28.0 mm equiv.Download RAW

ILCE-7RM2 / FE 28mm F2 Settings: ISO 100, F4, 1/1600 s, 28.0 mm equiv.Download RAW

ILCE-7RM2 / FE 28mm F2 Settings: ISO 100, F5.6, 1/800 s, 28.0 mm equiv.Download RAW

With f / 4, vignetting is almost gone. Claims to the edges of the frame on 24-megapixel cameras also do not remain. Not too high sharpness is present only in the corners. However, this is affected by the automatic correction of geometric distortions: programmatically elongated frame angles cannot claim high detail.

ILCE-7RM2 / FE 28mm F2 Settings: ISO 100, F8, 1/400 s, 28.0 mm equiv.Download RAW

ILCE-7RM2 / FE 28mm F2 Settings: ISO 100, F11, 1/200 s, 28.0 mm equiv.Download RAW

ILCE-7RM2 / FE 28mm F2 Settings: ISO 100, F16, 1/100 s, 28.0 mm equiv.Download RAW

ILCE-7RM2 / FE 28mm F2 Settings: ISO 125, F22, 1/60 s, 28.0 mm equiv.Download RAW

Further aperture closing has a positive effect on the sharpness of the entire frame, and at f / 8 the image quality is perfect. Sharpness is present over the entire field of the frame, the smallest details are visible in the picture.

conclusions

Sony FE 28mm f / 2 (SEL28F20) is a very successful lens for the money. Of course, this is not the top class of optics, but the photographer has the right to count on a juicy, contrasting picture, high sharpness on a covered aperture, and good glare protection. It is also an amazingly compact and lightweight lens, equipped with additional dust and moisture protection. If the viewing angle of the 28-mm lens does not seem too wide for you, then with a slight movement of the hand the SEL28F20 turns into a 21-mm ultra-wide angle or even a 16-mm “fisheye”, just install the appropriate converter on it. The SEL057FEC and SEL075UWC models are compatible with it.

ILCE-7M2 / FE 28mm F2 Installation: ISO 100, F11, 1 s, 28.0 mm equiv.Download RAW

Cons Sony FE 28mm f / 2 (SEL28F20) are typical for most wide-angle. This is a noticeable vignetting at the open aperture, a drop in sharpness along the edges and corners of the frame at the aperture to f / 4, the appearance of light flashes when shooting in backlight. However, another characteristic drawback of wide-angle optics - strong chromatic aberrations - this lens is devoid of. You practically will not meet them in pictures. The situation is also ambiguous with geometric distortions. Barrel-like distortion is also very noticeable, but only when shooting in RAW and forcibly disabling software correction in the converter. Sony FE 28mm f / 2 (SEL28F20) - this is a good solution for fans of shooting landscapes, architecture, interiors, as well as for street photography. The lens has a number of formal disadvantages, but when aperture a couple of steps, the photographer can "squeeze" a very high image quality from the SEL28F20.