SONY FE 28mm F2 (SEL28F20)

A review and photo examples of the FE 28mm F2, a wide-angle lens for Sony full-frame E-mount.

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Gallery

FE28mm alone, photo examples taken with Sony α7sII (A7S2)

FE28mm + Ultra Wide Converter, sample photos taken with Sony α7sII (A7S2)

FE28mm + fisheye converter, photo example taken with Sony α7sII (A7S2)

Review

The FE28mm F2 is a large-aperture wide-angle lens released in 2015.

It is a compact prime lens, and the metal barrel, which is thought to be made of aluminum, is light but does not feel delicate.
Since the E-mount uses electronic control of the lens, the barrel is simple with only a focus ring. However, not having a rangefinder on the barrel seems like a cost-cutting measure that goes too far, but do digital native photographers not need such a thing if they have an EVF?

As I was creating the page, I began to feel that the rangefinder mentioned above is unnecessary, since there are probably very few photographers who would use this lens to shoot with the lens fixed at 0.5m in MF mode.

The lens uses inner focus, so the lens length does not change depending on the focus position.
The filter diameter is 49mm, so general filters can be attached, but if you attach the front converter described below, you will need to remove it.

The image of the lens alone is slightly distorted in the four corners, even on a 35mm full-frame sensor camera. The difference is such that you can only notice the change when you simultaneously record a Raw image and a JPG image and line up the images on the monitor. Distortion in JPG images is already corrected when the image is recorded.

The lens is a retrofocus type, so you can use it with confidence without any peripheral shading or color cast.

A flower-shaped bayonet hood that can be attached in reverse is included, but it makes the lens larger when attached, and when attaching the converter, the hood needs to be attached in reverse, which causes trouble when shooting, so I used it without the hood attached. Without the hood, ghosting can be seen in scenes where the sun is directly in the shot, but I have not tried it, so I do not know whether attaching a hood will improve this.

On an APS-C size sensor camera, the focal length is equivalent to 42mm, which is close to that of a standard lens. The advantage is that it cuts out the periphery, which causes the slight distortion mentioned above, so you can obtain images with more tidy corners.

The FE28mm has the following dedicated optional converters, which can expand the shooting range from the standard 28mm to the wide-angle side.

“Ultra Wide Converter SEL075UWC” (released April 17th, 38,000 yen excluding tax)
“Fisheye Converter SEL057FEC” (May 22nd, 45,000 yen excluding tax)

The changes in lens specifications when the converter is attached are as follows:

	35mm full frame sensor	APS-C size sensor	Maximum aperture
Lens only	28mm	42mm	F=2
Ultra Wide Converter SEL075UWC	21mm	31.5mm	F=2.8
Fisheye Converter SEL057FEC	16mm	24mm	F=3.5

For a 35mm full-frame sensor, the focal length of 21mm with an ultra-wide converter attached causes some distortion in the periphery of the Raw image, but it is barely noticeable unless there is a straight object in the periphery of the image. In addition, the corrected results are saved in the JPG image.

The 16mm focal length with a fisheye converter is a fisheye lens, so distortion remains as it is, and there is no difference in image correction between the Raw and Jpg shooting results.

In Sony’s lens lineup, the wide-angle zoom lenses starting from 16mm are the Vario-Tessar T FE 16-35mm F4 ZA, FE 16-35mm F2.8 GM, FE 16-35mm F2.8 GM II, FE PZ 16-35mm F4 G, and FE 16-25mm F2.8 G, which is a rich lineup compared to other camera manufacturers. In fact, it even feels like there are too many.

The biggest advantage of zoom lenses compared to carrying multiple prime lenses is that they reduce the amount of shooting equipment, but with such a large lens lineup, it is very difficult to choose which lens to use.

If you don’t use the wide-angle side very often and use a slightly wider angle than 28mm as a standard, I think the FE28mm + optional converter is a combination that I can recommend, both in terms of price.
The combination of a prime lens and a dedicated converter allows you to use AF and has almost no problems with image quality, and the 28mm alone is a bright and light lens that allows you to shoot with ease, and when you want a slightly wider angle, you can instantly change the focal length to 21mm by attaching a bayonet-mount converter.

Fisheye lenses are not commercialized for E-mount, so you will have to use A-mount lenses or lenses from other companies, but since buying a lens just for a fisheye lens that is expected to be used infrequently does not seem like a good choice, it seems reasonable to get by with the optional fisheye converter.

However, both converters make the lens significantly larger and a heavy object is attached to the front of the lens, which makes the weight balance worse when holding the camera. If you have the opportunity to test it, I think it would be safer to actually shoot and check that there are no problems with the weight balance.

Specification and Competitor

Items	FE 28mm F2
Focal length(mm)	28
Max aperture	2
Min aperture	22
Leaf blade	9
Lens Construction	9elements in 8groups
Min distance(m)	0.25(MF)
Lens length(mm)	64
Lens Max diameter(mm)	60
Filter Size(mm)	49
Weight(g)	200
Model number	FE28F20
Release date	2015.04.17
Price(Yen/No-tax)	74,000- (65,000-)