Sony 20mm f1.8 Lens Review Video
A short video review of the Sony 20mm f1.8 lens for Sony FE cameras.
It has an aperture ring that comes with a “click” switch, allowing you to use it in either clicked mode or unclicked mode. I like this feature. The clicks are nice and firm, and it helps ensure that the aperture ring stays where you ask it to. It makes it difficult to accidentally knock it out of place.
Don’t want the click? Just use it in unchecked mode, it becomes lovely and smooth again.
For those wanting to use auto aperture, you absolute weirdos, you can also turn the aperture ring all the way round to auto mode, and it’s a good firm click in and out there too. You won’t be accidentally going into, or out of, auto aperture mode.
It has a short minimum focus distance of just 19cm. Perfect for those epic near-wide shots.
It’s incredibly sharp, as you would expect form Sony G glass. There’s a bit of focus breathing, see the video, but I don’t see that being an issue with a 20mm lens to be honest.
There’s no in-lens stabilisation unfortunately, but again, that’s not an issue at 20mm, in most cases. For me, I’m happy to take the smaller and lighter weight of this lens without stabilisation. For anyone interested in vlogging with the Sony 20mm f1.8, I’m sure it’d do just fine in most cases. Here’s the sort of framing you’d get with it…
I’ve noticed a slight a small amount of barrel distortion and vignetting with it, but nothing concerning. I’m not a pixel peeper, the image quality with this lens is outstanding, I’m just pointing out that it’s there if you look for it.
The biggest issue I’ve had with this lens is a bit of flaring, which ruined a couple of time lapses, and the weather sealing. Sony don’t say that this is weatherproof lens, they never really do. They say that it’s moisture and dust resistant, whatever that means. But let me tell you my extreme experience with it….
I took it up into the Welsh winter mountains for 3 days to shoot some timelapse, making this video…
It did ok, but after one of the cold nights leaving it out on the edge of a cliff in humid frozen -10c conditions… it developed an internal mist spot at sunrise. It was minor, but it kind of ruined my sunrise timelapse.
I don’t want to be too harsh, it was an extreme test, check out the video to see the conditions, but it did fail. Again, I’m sure these conditions are beyond what Sony made it for, but whatever. That’s my experience.
Other than that the build quality is just fine, with its typical sturdy well-made Sony G plastic construction.
Overall its a great lens, and one that I often take out with me for shooting landscapes and timelapse sequences. It’s small, light and easy to chuck in a backpack for these moments. Beyond that, I’m a big fan of the “near-wide’ style of shot too. I use this a lot in my content,. Check out my test at the end of the Sony 20mm f1.8 video.
Cheers
Sony 20mm f1.8 lens
