The Sony 20mm f/1.8 G lens is a wide angle prime lens designed for use on Sony’s full frame Alpha camera system. It is light in the hand which makes it ideal as a carry around lens for holiday trips or landscapers who want to travel light. The Sony 20mm f/1.8 G lens though is a very capable lens and should be considered for many more reasons than just its weight and compactness. It is a very capable lens in many instances and genres of photography.
I have used the Sony 20mm f/1.8 G lens in a number of situations attached to my Sony A9 and Sony A7R3 and found that it handled faultlessly as you would expect a Sony lens to handle, with tactile switchgear and aperture ring giving intuitive control over the lens.
The Sony 20mm f/1.8 G lens has a fast widest aperture setting of f/1.8, making it ideal for when working in low light conditions. The wide aperture also helps with subject / background separation by creating a shallower depth of field that we don’t usually associate with such a wide angle lens and generates beautiful circular bokeh.
The lens features a physical switch to turn on and off autofocus which is easy to locate and operate even when wearing gloves. Aperture adjustments can be made via the lens aperture ring, which is a feature both photographers and videographers will appreciate. The aperture ring can be used with a click option, which adjusts aperture settings in 1/3 stop increments, from f/1.8 to f/22 when changing apertures settings. Or without the click option for a smooth transition between aperture settings. The aperture ring also has an ‘A’ for automatic aperture selection. The aperture can also be changed from the camera body control wheel or in the cameras menu system.
The Sony 20mm f/1.8 G lens has a function button to the side of the lens which can have a selection of functions assigned to it for the user to customise to their shooting preferences, for example, Eye a/f, white balance options etc.
There is a manual focus ring which is easy to find and turn which has a slight resistance and intuitive feel to it, this was easy to operate even when wearing gloves. The lens does not extend during focussing and remains the same physical size and the lens hood is small, making the lens an overall compact solution.
The sharpness from the Sony 20mm f/1.8 G lens is impressive, it is extremely sharp throughout the different aperture settings including when wide open at f/1.8. I was more than confident to shoot this lens with a wide open aperture or to fully stop it down and be happy I would have a sharp image.
When shooting against brightly lit backgrounds I could see no evidence of chromatic aberration from the lens. This was the case regardless of the aperture I used. Whatever Sony has implemented into this lens to control CA they have done a remarkable job. The vignetting I observed during my use of the Sony 20mm f/1.8 G lens was minimal.
Although the Sony 20mm f/1.8 G lens is a wide angle lens I didn’t notice obvious lens distortion and thought the lens performed well in a variety of different scenarios. The autofocus was also fast and accurate and extremely capable during the time I used it even in low light conditions.
Sony 20mm f/1.8 G Lens with A7R3. ISO100, 20mm, f/22, 30sec
The Sony 20mm f/1.8 G is a prime lens that occupies a unique position in the current Sony lens line up. It is a wide angle lens with a wide aperture. While some may consider and use this lens as a ‘fit all in’ lens, I have found it to be very versatile and useful to be able to draw more of the environment into the shot when shooting a portrait. I have found the level of detail the Sony 20mm f/1.8 G lens renders to be of a high quality with no evidence of CA and high levels fo sharpness when viewed at 1:1. The ability to shoot a wide angle lens with a wide aperture opens a whole new world of perspective and photographic opportunities and the 20mm f/1.8 G lens is an excellent addition to the current Sony lens line up and will be a firm favourite for astrophotographers, concert photographers, landscapers and travel photographers.