Sony E 16-55mm F2.8 G Lens Review

One reason to buy an APS-C camera model is the low price. Two more great reasons to buy an APS-C camera model are smaller size and lighter weight. While the former reason may dictate a low-budget general-purpose lens, many in the latter categories still want outstanding image quality, and they know that a high-quality lens is required for such. The Sony E 16-55mm F2.8 G is that lens.

Full-frame camera owners willing to work within the smaller image circle may also appreciate the reduced cost, decreased size, and lower price advantages of this lens.

The Sony E 16-55mm F2.8 G Lens features excellent image quality, including at f/2.8 over the entire focal length range, and G-series build quality and performance for a moderate price.

Focal Length Range

Back to Top

The focal length range is the first aspect to consider for zoom lens selection. Focal length drives subject distance choices, which determines perspective.

The ultra-wide-angle through short telephoto 16-55 (24-82.5mm full-frame angle of view equivalent) focal length range is ideal for general-purpose needs, making this lens an ideal option for photographing a vast range of subjects. This is the type of lens to take when you are unsure which focal lengths you will need, and it will usually be found to be the right choice.

The 16-55mm range is great for photographing people, and it is ideal for portraits, weddings, parties, events, documentaries, interviews, lifestyle, theater, fashion, studio portraiture, candids, and even some sports. Use 55mm for head and shoulders portraits and the wider end for groups and environmental imagery. Use the wide end for handheld self-recording.

This lens is a perfect choice for media and photojournalistic needs, and it is a great option for street photography.

This lens is a good choice for landscape and cityscape photography, with compositions being ideally captured using every focal length available in this lens. It is not difficult to create compelling landscape compositions using the 16mm perspective while still providing emphasis on a foreground subject against an in-focus background while providing the viewer a sense of presence in the scene. 55mm works great for mildly compressed landscapes featuring distant subjects such as mountains.

With a wide aperture, this lens is attractive for photographing the night sky, with the 16mm end typically being of most interest in that regard.

This lens is well-suited for commercial photography, and the wide end of the range is ready to capture exterior architecture and larger interior spaces. Cityscapes, countrysides, flowers, medium and large products, and much more are in this lens's capabilities list.

Lenses under review, especially those with general-purpose utility, tend to remain mounted to a camera, ready for immediate deployment for whatever opportunity presents itself. While this focal length range is far from an ideal bird and wildlife choice, unique opportunities are sometimes availed, such as a cardinal that temporarily lost her sense of fear. I think she came to apologize for her mate's 3-year-long sustained attack of its reflection in my studio window.

Crazy is that my favorite image from this 16-55mm lens review is a bird closeup.

Here is a focal length comparison:

Load Comparison Images

These images illustrate this lens's excellent coverage of the APS-C general-purpose focal length range.

Max Aperture

Back to Top

Few zoom lenses have a maximum aperture opening wider than this one, and this lens's big, bright aperture is highly advantageous.

Wide apertures help stop action, both that of the subject and the camera, in low-light levels while keeping ISO settings low. In addition, they benefit AF systems, enabling them to work better in low-light environments.

While having an f/2.8 aperture may not be greatly advantageous from ISO and shutter speed perspectives when photographing under bright light (daylight, for example), wide apertures are useful for creating a strong background blur that makes a subject cleanly stand out, isolated from an even highly distracting background, at any time of the day.

These examples illustrate the maximum blur this lens can create:

Load Comparison Images

The background is a significant percentage of many images, and blurring it away is highly advantageous when the background is not complementary to the subject (or just distracting). That capability is in this lens's skill set, especially at the long end. The cardinal image shared above provides another good background blur illustration.

Image Stabilization

Back to Top

The Sony E 16-55mm F2.8 G Lens does not feature image stabilization. Omitting the optical stabilization system reduces the size, weight, complexity, and cost. However, image stabilization is a very useful feature.

Sony addresses that omission with Steady Shot IBIS (In-Body Image Stabilization) in their Alpha cameras. In addition to reducing camera shake, the stabilized imaging sensor provides a still viewfinder image, enabling careful composition. Furthermore, sensor-based AF takes advantage of the stabilized view for improved accuracy.

With no IS switch on the lens, the camera menu must be used to enable or disable IBIS or check the current settings. This extra step is a slight impediment to working quickly, going from tripod mounted to handholding, for example.

Image Quality

Back to Top

The Sony E 16-55mm F2.8 G Lens is positioned at the top of the APS-C lens lineup, and that position brings the expectation of optical superiority. It has that.

This lens is extremely sharp at 16mm f/2.8 in the center of the frame, with only a slight sharpness decline through 55mm. Remember that the 16mm barrel distortion will enlarge the center-of-the-frame details considerably more than the modest pincushion distortion at 55mm, creating an illusion of sharper performance at 16mm in the central resolution lines. Some of the other chart features, such as the numbers, provide more accurate comparisons in this case.

In general, lenses become sharper as they are stopped down one or two stops from their wide-open apertures. However, this one shows little change at f/4, and none is needed.

Often, subjects are not placed in the center of a composition, and lenses usually show decreased sharpness in the periphery of the image circle, where light rays are refracted to a stronger angle than in the center. This lens shows a modest decline from the center to the corner, but the corner performance remains quite good, especially at the wide end.

The resolution chart is brutal/merciless on image quality, so let's take the testing outdoors, next looking at a series of center-of-the-frame 100% resolution crop examples. These images were captured in RAW format using a Sony Alpha 1 and processed in Capture One using the Natural Clarity method. The sharpening amount was set to only "30" on a 0-1000 scale. Note that images from most cameras require some level of sharpening, but too-high sharpness settings are destructive to image details and hide the deficiencies of a lens.

Load Comparison Images

All of these tests, along with many others, were captured through f/8. However, the f/2.8 quality was so good that the other results appeared superfluous and not worth your time to review. For reference, the cardinal headshot is from the same image shared in the focal length range discussion.

Next, we'll look at a series of comparisons showing 100% resolution extreme top left corner crops captured and processed identically to the above center-of-the-frame images. The lens was manually focused in the corner of the frame to capture these images.

Load Comparison Images

Samples taken from the outer extreme of the image circle usually show a lens's weakest performance, but this lens's corner results are excellent. The 55mm results may lag slightly behind the others, but they are still great from a relative perspective.

This lens does not exhibit focus shift, the plane of sharp focus moving forward or backward as the aperture is narrowed (residual spherical aberration or RSA).

When used on a camera that utilizes its full image circle, a lens is expected to show peripheral shading at the widest aperture settings. The worst case for this lens is 16mm f/2.8, where close to 2.5 stops of corner shading show. That performance is relatively good, but 24mm f/2.8 impressively has under 1 stop of shading. Shading increases with focal length increase, but 55mm f/2.8 still has under 2 stops of corner shading.

Want less corner shading? Stopping down is the near-universal solution. F/4 drops the 16mm corner shading to just over 1 stop, with half that amount in the mid-focal length corners. 55mm corners have close to 1 stop of shading at f/4.

F/8 shading drops to 0.5 stops or less.

One-stop of shading is generally considered the number of visibility, though subject details provide a widely varying amount of vignetting discernibility. Vignetting is correctable during post-processing, with increased noise in the brightened areas the penalty, or it can be embraced, using the effect to draw the viewer's eye to the center of the frame. Study the pattern shown in our vignetting test tool to determine how your images will be affected. Overall, this lens produces only minor vignetting.

Lateral (or transverse) CA (Chromatic Aberration) refers to the unequal magnification of all colors in the spectrum. Lateral CA shows as color fringing along lines of strong contrast running tangential (meridional, right angles to radii), with the mid and especially the periphery of the image circle showing the most significant amount as this is where the most significant difference in the magnification of wavelengths typically exists.

With the right lens profile and software, lateral CA is often easily correctable (often in the camera) by radially shifting the colors to coincide. However, it is always better to avoid this aberration in the first place.

Color misalignment can be seen in the site's image quality tool, but let's also look at a set of worst-case examples. The images below are 100% crops from the extreme top left corner of a1 frames showing diagonal black and white lines.

Load Comparison Images

Only black and white colors should be present in these images, with the additional colors indicating the presence of lateral CA. The color separation is modest at the wide end, slowly decreases to negligible at 35mm, and increases slightly at 55mm as the separated colors align and then reverse.

A relatively common lens aberration is axial (longitudinal, bokeh) CA, which causes non-coinciding focal planes of the various wavelengths of light. More simply, different colors of light are focused to different depths. Spherical aberration, along with spherochromatism, or a change in the amount of spherical aberration with respect to color (looks quite similar to axial chromatic aberration but is hazier) are other common lens aberrations to observe. Axial CA remains somewhat persistent when stopping down, with the color misalignment effect increasing with defocusing. The spherical aberration color halo shows little size change as the lens is defocused, and stopping down one to two stops generally removes this aberration.

In the real world, lens defects do not exist in isolation, with spherical aberration and spherochromatism generally found, at least to some degree, along with axial CA. These combine to create a less sharp, hazy-appearing image quality at the widest apertures.

The examples below look at the defocused specular highlights' fringing colors in the foreground vs. the background. The lens has introduced any fringing color differences from the neutrally colored subjects.

Load Comparison Images

The color separation in these results is relatively strong.

Bright light reflecting off lens elements' surfaces may cause flare and ghosting, resulting in reduced contrast and sometimes interesting, usually objectionable visual artifacts. The shape, intensity, and position of the flare and ghosting effects in an image are variable, dependent on the position and nature of the light source (or sources), selected aperture, shape of the aperture blades, and quantity and quality of the lens elements and their coatings. Additionally, flare and ghosting can impact AF performance.

"A Nano AR Coating has been applied to minimize surface reflections, flare, and ghosting for increased contrast and color rendering in strong lighting conditions." [Sony]

At f/2.8, this lens produced obvious flare effects only at 16mm in our standard sun in the corner of the frame flare test. Narrower apertures usually produce stronger flare effects, and they do with this lens. Still, the f/16 results are relatively good.

Flare effects can be embraced or avoided, or removal can be attempted, though removal is sometimes challenging.

Two lens aberrations are particularly evident in images of stars, mainly because bright points of light against a dark background make them easier to see. Coma occurs when light rays from a point of light spread out from that point instead of being refocused as a point on the sensor. Coma is absent in the center of the frame, gets worse toward the edges/corners, and generally appears as a comet-like or triangular tail of light that can be oriented either away from the center of the frame (external coma) or toward the center of the frame (internal coma). The coma clears as the aperture is narrowed. Astigmatism is seen as points of light spreading into a line, either sagittal (radiating from the center of the image) or meridional (tangential, perpendicular to sagittal). This aberration can produce stars appearing to have wings. Remember that Lateral CA is another aberration apparent in the corners. The images below are 100% crops taken from the top-left corner of a1 images captured at the widest available aperture.

Load Comparison Images

The 16mm and 35mm results are good, well above average, though the 55mm stars show considerable stretching.

This lens has extreme barrel distortion at the wide end. The geometric distortion is so strong that Sony forces correction at all focal lengths in camera (EVF, LCD, JPEG images, movies), regardless of the lens correction settings. Processing this lens's distortion test images with correction disabled reveals the true image captured.

The squares in the test chart filled the viewfinder during capture. At 16mm, there is considerable additional subject in the frame, and the straight line at the top of the chart is rendered as a strong curve. This lens's barrel distortion rapidly diminishes with focal length increase until transitioning into slight pincushion at 35mm and moderate pincushion at 55mm.

Every lens is a compromise, and reasons for designing a lens with uncorrected geometric distortion include lower cost, smaller size, lighter weight, reduced complexity, and improved correction of aberrations not software-correctable. Geometric distortion can be corrected, including in-camera, using software and a correction profile, and once properly corrected, IT is no longer a differentiator between lenses. However, the stretching required for correction can impact the final image quality. Base your evaluation on the corrected image quality.

As seen earlier in the review, it is easy to illustrate the strongest blur a lens can create. Due to the infinite number of variables present among available scenes, assessing the blur quality, bokeh, is considerably more challenging. Here are some f/11 (for diaphragm blade interaction) examples.

Load Comparison Images

The first set of examples shows defocused highlights at 100% resolution. The 16mm results appear rough, typical for the focal length, while the longer results are looking great, showing smoothly filled round shape.

The second set of examples shows outdoor scenes. The 16mm result is a 100% crop that appears busy but normal. The other two results are full images reduced in size and looking great.

Except for a small number of specialty lenses, the wide aperture bokeh in the frame's corner does not show round defocused highlights, instead showing cat's eye shapes due to a form of mechanical vignetting. If you look through a tube at an angle, similar to the light reaching the frame's corner, the shape is not round. That is the shape we're looking at here.

Load Comparison Images

The corner shape truncation is strongest at the focal length ends, but these results are good overall. As the aperture narrows, the entrance pupil size is reduced, and the mechanical vignetting diminishes, making the corner shapes rounder.

A 9-blade count diaphragm will create 18-point sunstars (diffraction spikes) from point light sources captured with a narrow aperture. Generally, the more a lens diaphragm is stopped down, the larger and better shaped the sunstars tend to be. Wide aperture lenses tend to have an advantage in this regard, and this lens can produce beautiful stars, as illustrated below.

The example above was captured at f/16.

"Four aspherical elements, including two AA (Advanced Aspherical) elements, help to greatly reduce distortion and spherical aberrations in order to accurately render scenes with a high degree of sharpness. Three extra-low dispersion elements reduce color fringing and chromatic aberrations for improved clarity and color accuracy." [Sony]

This lens's optical shortcomings include strong geometric distortion and wide aperture color blur. However, the Sony E 16-55mm F2.8 G Lens produces remarkably sharp images and overall is an optically great performer.

Focusing

Back to Top

A premium XD Linear motor drives the E 16-55mm F2.8 G's AF system.

This lens smoothly focuses fast with only a faint "shhh" heard.

Though AF slows as usual in a dark environment, this lens can lock focus on strong contrast in extremely dark conditions.

Non-cinema lenses usually require refocusing after a focal length change, but as illustrated in the 100% crops below, the reviewed lens has parfocal-like characteristics. When focused at 55mm, subjects remain in focus when zooming to a wider focal length.

Load Comparison Images

This trait is highly desired for movie recording.

Note that these examples provide another look at the wide-open image quality this lens produces.

A customizable AFL (Autofocus Lock) button is provided. With the camera set to continuous focus mode, press AFL to lock focus at the currently selected focus distance, permitting a focus and recompose technique. This button also acts as a custom button and can be programmed to another function using the camera's menu.

FTM (Full Time Manual) focusing is supported via Sony's DMF (Direct Manual Focus) AF mode. This lens has an AF/MF switch, allowing this frequently used camera setting to be changed without accessing the menu system.

The rubber-ribbed manual focus ring is optimally located toward the front of the lens and raised slightly from the lens barrel, making it easy to tactilely locate. The ring is smooth and sufficiently damped, and it linearly adjusts focus at an ideal rate, with a 150° overall rotation.

It is normal for the scene to change size in the frame as the focus is pulled from one extent to the other. This effect is focus breathing, a change in focal length resulting from a change in focus distance. Focus breathing impacts photographers intending to use focus stacking techniques, videographers pulling focus (without movement to camouflage the effect), and anyone critically framing while adjusting focus.

This lens produces a modest change in subject size through a full-extent (worst-case) focus distance adjustment.

Load Comparison Images

This lens has a minimum focus distance of 13.0" (330mm), and at 55mm, it generates a modest 0.20x maximum magnification spec.

Model	Min Focus Distance		Max Magnification
Sigma 18-50mm F2.8 DC DN Contemporary Lens	4.8"	(121mm)	0.36x
Sony FE 16-35mm F2.8 GM II Lens	8.7"	(221mm)	0.32x
Sony FE PZ 16-35mm F4 G Lens	11.0"	(280mm)	0.23x
Sony E PZ 16-50mm F3.5-5.6 OSS Lens	9.8"	(250mm)	0.22x
Sony E 16-55mm F2.8 G Lens	13.0"	(330mm)	0.20x
Sony FE 24-70mm F2.8 GM II Lens	8.3"	(210mm)	0.32x

At this lens's minimum MF distance, a subject measuring approximately 4.4 x 2.9" (112 x 75mm) fills a full-frame imaging sensor.

The USPS love stamps shared above have an overall individual size of 1.19 x 0.91" (30.226 x 23.114mm).

While this lens produces sharp center of the frame details at minimum focus distance with a wide-open aperture, the image periphery is soft due to field curvature. The increased depth of field at f/8 provides significant corner image quality improvement.

Here is another maximum magnification example.

Mount an extension tube behind this lens to significantly decrease the minimum focus distance and increase the magnification. Extension tubes are hollow lens barrels that shift a lens farther from the camera, allowing shorter focusing distances at the expense of long-distance focusing. Electronic connections in extension tubes permit the lens and camera to communicate and function normally. As of review time, Sony does not publish extension tube specs or manufacture these items, but third-party Sony-compatible extension tubes are available.

This lens is not compatible with Sony teleconverters.

Design & Features

Back to Top

As always for a Sony "G" lens, the FE 16-55mm F2.8 G lens is nicely designed and built.

Load Comparison Images

Normal for this class is to use an extending design, and the FE 16-55 extends as the focal length is increased until reaching the full 1.26" (32mm) extension at 55mm. The fully extended lens barrel has a minor amount of play. The rubber-ribbed zoom ring has a firm resistance and affects focal length at an ideal rate.

This lens's only switch, the AF/MF switch, is recessed, making it hard to inadvertently change and slightly challenging to intentionally change, especially with gloves on.

This lens design features dust and moisture resistance.

The front lens element has a fluorine coating applied to repel fingerprints, dust, water, oil, and other contaminants and make cleaning considerably easier.

The size, weight, and shape of this lens make it comfortable to carry and use for long periods.

Model	Weight oz(g)		Dimensions w/o Hood "(mm)		Filter	Year
Sigma 18-50mm F2.8 DC DN Contemporary Lens	10.2	(290)	2.5 x 2.9	(64.5 x 74.5)	55	2017
Sony FE 16-35mm F2.8 GM II Lens	19.3	(547)	3.5 x 4.4	(87.8 x 111.5)	82	2023
Sony FE PZ 16-35mm F4 G Lens	12.5	(353)	3.2 x 3.5	(80.5 x 88.1)	72	2022
Sony E PZ 16-50mm F3.5-5.6 OSS Lens	4.1	(116)	2.5 x 1.2	(64.7 x 29.9)	40.5	2012
Sony E 16-55mm F2.8 G Lens	17.4	(494)	2.9 x 3.9	(73.0 x 100.0)	67	2019
Sony FE 24-70mm F2.8 GM II Lens	24.5	(695)	3.5 x 4.7	(87.8 x 119.9)	82	2022

Review the complete Sony E 16-55mm F2.8 G Lens Specifications using the site's lens specifications tool for many more comparisons.

Here is a visual comparison:

Positioned above from left to right are the following lenses:

Sigma 18-50mm F2.8 DC DN Contemporary Lens
Sony E 16-55mm F2.8 G Lens
Sony FE 16-35mm F2.8 GM II Lens
Sony FE 24-70mm F2.8 GM II Lens

The full-frame FE lenses show the size advantage of the smaller image circle coverage of the APS-C E lens. The Sigma 18-50mm lens also provides only APS-C format coverage.

The same lenses are shown below with their hoods in place.

Use the site's product image comparison tool to visually compare the Sony E 16-55mm F2.8 G Lens to other lenses.

This lens uses small, common 67mm threaded filters.

The petal-shaped Sony ALC-SH161 Lens Hood is included in the box. Its size affords significant protection to the front element, and its semi-rigid construction absorbs impact. The hood's interior is matte black to avoid reflections. A release button is not featured in this design.

A vinyl pouch is also in the box.

Price, Value, Compatibility

Back to Top

Relative to full-frame lenses, this lens's price is moderate. Relative to APS-C lenses, the price is high. The lens is often the limiting factor for image quality, and the E 16-55mm F2.8 G is positioned at the high end of the smaller image circle coverage.

As a Sony "E" lens, the 16-55mm F2.8 G Lens is compatible with all Sony E-mount cameras, including full-frame and APS-C sensor format models. However, full-frame models will automatically enter crop mode. Sony provides a 1-year limited warranty.

The reviewed Sony E 16-55mm F2.8 G Lens was online retail sourced.

Alternatives

Back to Top

The Sigma 18-50mm F2.8 DC DN Contemporary Lens is the closest competing lens to the E 16-55mm F2.8 G I've reviewed.

In the image quality comparison, the Sony lens is slightly sharper at 16mm vs. 18mm. At 24mm, the Sigma lens is slightly sharper in the center and the Sony lens has a slight corner advantage. The Sony lens is again slightly sharper at 35mm. At the long end, the Sony lens is slightly sharper in the center, and the Sigma lens is slightly sharper in the periphery. The sharpness difference between these two lenses does not exceed the "slightly" descriptor, and both lenses are optically great.

The Sigma lens has stronger peripheral shading. The Sony lens has stronger pincushion distortion at the wide and less pincushion distortion at the long end.

The Sony E 16-55mm F2.8 G vs. Sigma 18-50mm F2.8 DC DN Contemporary Lens comparison shows the Sigma lens considerably lighter and smaller, including narrower filter threads, 55mm vs. 67mm. The Sony lens has 9 aperture blades vs. 7. The Sigma lens has a higher maximum magnification of 0.36x vs. 0.20x. Garnering attention is that the Sigma lens costs less than half as much as the Sony lens.

Use the site's tools to create additional comparisons.

Summary

Back to Top

Those wanting to wring all of the image quality available in an APS-C imaging sensor format camera have found their general-purpose lens, the Sony E 16-55mm F2.8 G.

This lens has extreme barrel distortion at the wide end and shows wide aperture color blur, but it has only minor other optical shortcomings, and it produces impressively sharp images, precisely what you are looking for. Design, build quality, and AF performance are excellent.

The highest performing lenses always reflect their capabilities in their price, and aside from the unique manual focus KIPON Ibelux 40mm f/0.85 Mark III Lens, the Sony E 16-55mm F2.8 G is the most expensive Sony E mount APS-C lens available.

This lens is to an APS-C kit what the Sony FE 24-70mm F2.8 GM II Lens is to a full-frame kit. The most important lens in the bag. This small, light, high-performing lens is a great choice for general-purpose uses ranging from landscape photography to portraiture, and the wide f/2.8 aperture extends utility into motion in low-light scenarios, including weddings. The Sony E 16-55mm F2.8 G is a requisite lens in a serious amateur or pro APS-C kit.