Conclusion

The E 15mm F1.4 G is a very welcome premium wide-angle addition to the rather neglected Sony APS-C sensor mirrorless camera system. This baby G-Master lens is one of the pricier Sony primes available, but it certainly offers a lot of features and performance in return.

The main attraction is the very fast F1.4 maximum aperture which helps to make this 22.5mm equivalent lens more versatile than a slower optic, ideal for both vlogging to camera where you want to throw out the background and for more traditional landscape and architecture stills photography where you want to stop down the aperture.

The build quality is excellent, inlcuding full weather-sealing, although you'll ideally want to pair it with an equally weather-sealed lens for full peace of mind (unlike the ZV-E10 that we tested it with).

You'll also ideally want to pair it with a stabilized camera body like the Alpha A6600 as it doesn't have any OIS, which again meant that the non-stabilized ZV-E10 was a less than ideal partner.

The E 15mm F1.4 G and ZVE10 did prove to be a great match when it came to auto-focusing, which proved to be be fast, reliable and virtually silent. We also liked the linear manual focusing ring and the traditional aperture ring that can usefully be de-clicked for video use.

Optically, the centre sharpness was very high throughout all of the aperture range, with the exception of wide-open at F1.4. Edge sharpness doesn't quite match the center, though, unless you explicitly focus on the subject at the edge of the frame.

Chromatic aberrations are almost completely absent, vignetting isn't too obvious, and flare is present but well controlled even when shooting directly into the sun.

The only real notable optical issue is some obvious barrel distortion in the RAW files, which is automatically corrected in-camera for the JPEG files, meaning that you'll need to do some post-processing or apply a lens correction profile if you shoot using the former file type.

This lens' main rival is the older Sigma 16mm F1.4 DC DN, which offers the same fast max aperture but is twice the weight and size of the new Sony 15mm. It is crucially around half the price of its new rival, though, so is still well worth considering if you're in the market for a 24mm prime.

Overall, though, the Sony E 15mm F1.4 G is our pick of the current wide-angle prime bunch, just so long as you can afford it....

Ratings (out of 5)
Design	4.5
Features	4.5
Ease-of-use	4
Image quality	4.5
Value for money	4