Conclusion

The Sony FE 16-35mm F2.8 GM is an excellent, if rather pricey, ultra-wide-angle zoom lens for the Sony A9/A7/A7R II/A7S full-frame compact camera system. It delivers outstanding sharpness in the centre of the frame throughout the full aperture and zoom range, and also performs excellently at the edges of the frame too. The Sony FE 16-35mm F2.8 GM lens does suffer from some distortion and vignetting, but chromatic aberrations are very well-controlled and it can even create some nice bokeh effects when shooting wide-open at 35mm thanks to the rounded 11-blade aperture. The Sony FE 16-35mm F2.8 GM offered pleasingly fast, quiet and reliable auto-focusing on the A7R II that we tested it with, intuitive manual focusing and great build quality, plus it's usefully weather-tight too. The only real "missing" feature is image stabilisation, but the fast F2.8 aperture mostly makes up for that. Overall, the Sony FE 16-35mm F2.8 GM is the newest and best wide-angle zoom for Sony full-frame shooters with deep pockets...

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