Sony 35mm F2.8 Sonnar T FE ZA Full Frame Prime Fixed Lens

Fantastic pancake lens with that nice zeiss pop. Although I do wish they made it in f1.8 I am absolutely in love with its sharpness and compact size that makes it perfect for travel. I like the bokeh it produces well enough that its almost always on my a7v. Would definitely recommend snagging this bad boy used in great condition if possible since the price for brand new is hard to swallow considering the newer lenses out today with much more features to offer. Overall very great lens to get used and you will not be disappointed with the sharpness and contrast that's being delivered.

I have the Sony a7ii E-mount Camera with Full Frame Sensor and the Sonnar® T* FE 55 mm F1.8 ZA lens. I LOVE the camera and the lens. I take mostly portraits or people shots of some sort so it's a perfect combination. I sometimes need a little wider angle for a picture so I debated over the Sony 35mm F2.8 Sonnar T* FE ZA and the newer, much more expensive, Distagon T* FE 35 mm F1.4 ZA. I read SO many reviews about both. I am not a pro or a perfectionist, but I take lots of photos and I want great quality and beautiful results. I finally decided on the 2.8 because of price (I got it brand new for $698 when it was on sale recently) and size. I am so happy with this lens!! It is small and light. I drag my camera around with me everywhere and I get GREAT photos with it. I capture natural, everyday human shots with it. I don't know if the lens is perfect or not. I don't care. When I look out into the world, I don't check to see if it's the absolute perfect time of day for a photo or the child's clothes match or the fence post is straight or the sky is the perfect color blue. In the real world, when I'm just looking, my eyes don't search for perfection so I don't examine my photos for technical perfection. This is a very nice lens. I will never know how much better the 1.4 is or how it compares to the 2.8 because I am completely satisfied with the beautiful photos I get with this lens.

I'm surprised that this lens isn't talked about more. Considering the price of Sony lenses it's actually pretty affordable. Maybe it's not spoke about as much because you can find some pretty good 35mm 1.8 lenses for cheap (Samyang 35mm 1.8). Whatever the case is, this lens is worth it! If you happen to own the Zeiss 55mm 1.8 it is right up there with that lens, and in some cases better. The 55 has some noticeable chromatic aberration. A lot of lenses have CA to some degree, but you'll find less with this 35mm. In addition to this lens being very sharp, I'd say that the size is a huge selling point. On my A7CR that has now become my favorite walkaround camera. 35mm is a perfect focal length, and having it on that small FF body is just perfect. I highly recommend this lens is you are looking for a good quality sharp, fast focusing lens.

This is a wonderful sharp lens and a good start to the E-mount lenses that Sony is making for full frame cameras. It has an odd hood on it and I observed vignetting with it when the hood is on but no vignetting was noted with the hood off. The hood protects the lens quite nicely but it is inverted inward. The lens is made of a high quality plastic. I am a Canon user and at first the plastic was hard to get used to but it is very light weight (which I love) and the lens is smooth to use. The lens hood has a perfect fit and is locked on solidly when it is put on. With this lens on, my camera fits neatly into my purse and makes the Sony A7R easy to carry as a pocket camera. I am not seeing any chromatic aberrations but am still in the process of testing the lens. I have the Sony RX1 and feel that this lens is comparable to the lens on the RX1. I am hoping that Sony comes out with an ultra wide angle lens soon…..but for now, this is a good start……..

I'll keep this one short and sweet: Great lens, worth every penny, I recommend it and consider it a MUST if you own the a7/r. Why? +Great build quality, weather sealed, durable, I like the lens hood/cap and it has a great look and feel. A pleasure to use. +Smooth focus ring, just the exact amount of resistance +Very portable, matches perfectly with the a7/r +Fast focus +Great for all around photography, street photography, hanging out, etc. Very versatile +Sharp throughout most of the frame +It's not a 1.8F (I wish), but because you are shooting with the a7, the full-frame allows you to get some nice bokeh if you isolate your subject with a distant background. Last but not least: It is a Zeiss! the elegant colors it produces can not be matched (in my opinion) by other lenses. I have gotten some really unique images with this lens. The way a lens "feels" is a very important characteristic for me, this lens feels spectacular and it has just the right size and weight to match the a7, this makes me want to grab the camera and frame something in an artistic way, the results have been awesome! I highly recommend it!

The more I use this lens the more I really appreciate the compactness and the sharpness, not to mention the wonderful Zeiss color. I keep considering the Sony 28mm FE lens as I think it would be more suited for Astrophotography because it is just Little faster. I realize the 28mm has better reviews and is a bit cheaper, however, it is a bit larger as well. I sometimes wish this lens was just a little bit wider. In the end, I think I will stick with this wonderful little lens and keep hoping that Sony will wise up and come out with a 20mm prime and fast lens more suitable for Astrophotography. For all the above mentioned; size, sharpness, and color I give this lens five stars. I refuse to take a star away for the price, after all, you get what you pay for and this lens is no exception. If you need something wider I'm sure the 28mm will be perfect. Until Sony listens to their customers I will continue to put this little lens to great use and get more practice with my panorama skills.

I bought a used from Amazon and I had a $150 gift card, so I actually paid $300! Yes 2nd hand or refurbished is best being that it's an old lens, but I love love love the results of the images! Beautiful contrast and color rendering, and oh so light, definitely worth it to have it in your camera bag!

Using this lens on an A7 camera. This is an initial assessment, as I've only owned the lens/camera combo for a few days now. But I feel I've taken enough shots to give a reasonable first impression. First, I find the build quality quite high. The lens feels sturdy, and has a good build quality. The fact that it's weather sealed is a bonus that cannot be ignored in this area as well. The focusing ring moves smoothly, and is just shy of being too stiff, which is to say the action is very good but not excellent (for me). Lens hood is well-designed, and its diminutive size keeps you from ever wanting to remove it. On the A7, this lens is extremely compact, and the couple compares favorably to say, an Olympus E-M1 with the 17mm f1.8 lens. Given this fact, I don't mind that the widest aperture is only 2.8. The autofocus of the lens is quite fast. While I don't have anything to compare it to on the A7, I will say that in congress, the couple makes quite the speedy pair, especially in good light. When things get dim, it tends to hunt just a bit more, but really not too much. Compared to an Oly E-M5 with the 17mm 1.8, the combo is a bit slow, but not so much that I'm particularly worried about it. I find the resolution of the lens to be excellent. The center is already very, very good from 2.8, and stopping down to f4 brings it tack sharp. The edges are slightly behind, but not by much, and stopping down will yield very sharp images across the frame. The vignetting characteristic of the lens is a little on the high side at f2.8 for a lens in this category for this cost, but this doesn't really bother me much, as it is easily corrected in post, and if you stop down the problem is significantly decreased by f4, and is no longer an issue at all by 5.6. Overall, I would probably have considered giving this lens 5 stars were it not for a couple of things. One is the price. I think it's a little high for this type of lens. If this were a 1.4, or even a 1.8, then I could stomach it a little easier. As it is, I'm certainly not sad I bought it because of this fact. The other is that there is an issue with color shifting on this lens. It doesn't happen in every situation, and I have only experienced it a couple of times. This is not the same as normal CA, as it shows up as a larger swath, if you will. From what I can tell, it's a bit like a rainbow effect you might see in a water droplet. For me it showed up on the edges of some fluorescent lighting under which I was shooting. It's hard to explain, but I will try to update with more info as time goes on. If you are interested in more information about the issue, leica-boss.com has a short article discussing the issue, which is where I first learned about it, and then I noticed the issue in some of the shots I took today. NOW, this issue does not really affect me, as I am almost strictly a b&w shooter. However, this could be a HUGE issue for someone shooting in color (and honestly could cause issues with b&w conversion, if you raise saturation on a particular color type for your photographs), so I highly recommend looking up the issue before you buy. Since the lens has this issue, there is no way in good conscience I could give it 5 stars. Realistically, I think if I didn't shoot strictly b&w, this would be a much larger issue for me and I might even drop the lens to 3 stars. So be aware! Who knows if this is something that can be fixed with firmware, or if (god forbid) this is an issue with the sensor itself (which would suck). In the end, for me, this is a 4 star lens from which I have already gotten some stellar images. Coupled with the A7, it creates a compact street photography monster, with incredible resolution and, I think, a wonderful character, along with being just an incredibly small and light kit (just astonishing that a ff cam/lens combo can be this small and light). Thanks for reading!

It's the best thing to have if u r into street photography. Amazingly sharp, and lightweight. Photo quality is epic.