Introduction

Ease of Use

Weighing in at 847grams / 29.9oz and measuring 97.6 x 137 mm, the metal-bodied Sony FE 12-24mm F2.8 GM feels very well-constructed indeed. It's overall size and weight makes it feel well-balanced on the Sony A7R II body that we tested it with, as shown in the photos below.

The Sony FE 12-24mm F2.8 GM has a sealed dust and moisture resistant design. It does not feature built-in Optical SteadyShot image stabilisation.

The wide and ridged zoom ring and the narrower manual focus ring are the main external controls of note. Manual focusing is possible via the textured focus ring when set via the AF/MF switch and it utilises a Linear Response system that's almost equivalent to mechanical manual focusing.

The lens utilizes 4 XD linear motors, two for each of the lens' focus groups, to produce very quick, quiet and precise focusing, making it well-suited to shooting both stills and video.

The Sony FE 12-24mm F2.8 GM zoom proved to be a great performer on the Sony A7R IV camera that we tested it with, taking about 0.10 seconds to lock onto the subject.

We didn't experience very much "hunting"at all, either in good or bad light, with the lens accurately focusing virtually all of the time, and it's also a very quiet performer making it ideal for movie shooting.

There is also a customisable focus hold button on the side of the lens barrel which can be configured via the camera's menu system, as with all the other Sony GM lenses.

The Sony FE 12-24mm F2.8 GM lens has quite a wide focus ring. There are no hard stops at either end of the range, making it a little more difficult to set focus at infinity.

The Sony FE 12-24mm F2.8 GM lens has a metal lens mount. It does not accept filters because of the bulbous front element and the integrated plastic petal-shaped lens hood which cannot be detached. Instead there is a rear filter holder into which sheet-type colour correction, ND and other filters can be inserted. A cutting template for sheet filters is supplied with the lens.

It is also supplied with a soft case and a large lens cap with a lock/release mechanism which slips over the hood. Given the cost of the lens, we'd have liked to have seen a hard case included.

Focal Range

At the 12mm focal length the angle of view is 99 degrees.

12mm

At the 24mm focal length the angle of view is 61 degrees.

24mm

Chromatic Aberrations

Chromatic aberrations, typically seen as blue or purple fringes along contrasty edges, were almost completely absent from our test shots. The examples below show the worst-case scenarios.

12mm

24mm

Light Fall-off and Distortion

With the Sony FE 12-24mm F2.8GM lens set to its maximum aperture of f/2.8, there is some obvious light fall-off in the corners, requiring you to stop down by at least 3 f-stops to completely prevent it. There's also some fairly obvious barrel distortion evident at 12mm.

12mm

24mm

12mm

24mm

Sunstars and Flare

The Sony FE 12-24mm F2.8 GM is capable of producing very nice sunstars when stopped-down to f/16 or f/22, as shown below,and the built-in lens-hood prevents too much flare from occurring even when shooting directly into the sun.

12mm

24mm

Macro

The Sony FE 12-24mm F2.8 GM isn't claimed to be a macro lens, but it usefully offers a minimum focusing distance of 28cm throughout the zoom range with a maximum magnification of 0.14x. The following example demonstrates just how close you can get to your subject.

Bokeh

Bokeh is a word used for the out-of-focus areas of a photograph, and is usually described in qualitative terms, such as smooth / creamy / harsh etc.

In the FE 12-24mm F2.8 GM lens, Sony have employed an iris diaphragm with nine rounded blades, which has resulted in pretty appealing bokeh for such an ultra-wide-angle lens.

We do realise, however, that bokeh evaluation is subjective, so we've included several examples below for your perusal.

Sharpness

In order to show you how sharp this lens is, we are providing 100% crops on the following pages.