Sony FE 24-50mm F2.8 G Lens Review

Would you give up the long end, the last 20mm, of a 24-70mm f/2.8 lens for significantly reduced size, weight, and cost? Sony thinks some of you might, and I think they are right.

In this case, the FE 24-50mm F2.8 G Lens is considerably smaller, 9 oz (155g) lighter, and dramatically less expensive (less than half as much) as the Sony FE 24-70mm F2.8 GM II Lens. Let's put a visual to the size difference:

The smaller and lighter lens is much easier to carry, including in a pack, and far more comfortable to use on a gimbal.

The cost savings are enough to buy a Sony FE 16-25mm F2.8 G Lens and still have $2 left in your wallet.

It's a Sony "G" lens, and the expected high-quality design and build are included. Dual linear motors power fast, silent, and accurate AF, and sharp image quality is delivered. The FE 24-50mm F2.8 G is a great choice for everyday use.

Focal Length Range

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The focal length range is a primary consideration for lens selection. A specific angle of view is required to get a desired subject framing with the optimal perspective (or from within a working distance limitation).

I typically consider 28-70mm the most important range for general-purpose use. This lens drops the last 20mm of that range, but it extends coverage to a quite useful 24mm at the wide end. The wide-angle through standard 24-50mm focal length range still covers a wide range of general-purpose needs, making it an ideal option for photographing a vast range of subjects.

To be more specific, the 24-50mm range is a great choice for photographing people. This range is ideal for portraits, weddings, parties, events, family gatherings, documentaries, interviews, lifestyle, theater, fashion, studio portraiture, and candids. Zooming to only 50mm invites getting too close for tightly framed portraits, such as headshots, but backing up enough to include at least the subject's shoulders results in a pleasing perspective. The wider end will tackle large group and environmental portrait needs.

This range is a good choice for media and photojournalistic needs, and it is a great option for street photography. Or, for garden photography.

A 24-50mm lens is an excellent choice for landscape and cityscape photography. It is not difficult to create compelling landscape compositions using the 24mm perspective, allowing emphasis on a foreground subject against an in-focus background, providing the viewer with a sense of presence in the scene. At the other end of the range, 50mm pulls in more distant subjects such as mountains.

The wide f/2.8 aperture makes this focal length range an attractive choice for photographing the night sky, with around 24-35mm being of primary interest in that regard.

A 24-50mm lens is well-suited for commercial photography, and the wide end of the range is ready to capture exterior architecture and larger interior spaces. Countrysides, flowers, medium and large products, and much more are on this lens's capabilities list.

This lens is a great choice for travel. Especially with its f/2.8 aperture, this lens has strong artistic capabilities.

The 24-50mm range features ideal angles of view for video needs, especially those involving people, including yourself.

Here is a focal length range illustration borrowed from a different lens review.

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This example illustrates the missing 20mm at the long end. How important is it to have that range included in the standard zoom lens? That answer depends.

Not all needs include the 51-70mm range, and in that case (or if you can satisfy infrequent needs via cropping), there is no concern.

The 51-70mm range is especially useful for portraits and products, and I seldom roll without 70mm coverage. However, a second camera with a lens covering minimally 70mm, such as the Sony FE 70-200mm F2.8 GM OSS II Lens, covers this need (and far more). If a lens change and the short downtime it entails is acceptable, the second lens unmounted in the case may also cover this need.

APS-C imaging sensor format cameras utilize a smaller portion of the image circle, framing a scene more tightly. The Sony field of view crop factor is 1.5x, with the 24-50mm range providing a 36-75mm full-frame angle of view equivalent. This angle of view has increased value for portraiture while foregoing some of the best landscape angles.

Max Aperture

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Few zoom lenses feature a wider aperture opening than this one, and a wide aperture is a big advantage.

Wide apertures are useful for stopping action, both that of the subject and that of the camera, in low light levels while keeping ISO settings low. They also benefit AF systems, enabling them to work better in low-light environments.

Even when photographing under bright light conditions, wide apertures are useful for creating a strong background blur that clearly isolates a subject from even highly distracting backgrounds. Here is an example of the maximum background blur this lens can produce at the specified focal lengths:

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In part due to its close-focusing capability, this lens can create a strong background blur even at 24mm.

A disadvantage of a wide aperture is the required increased physical size of the lens elements, which come with heavier weight and higher cost penalties. In this case, those penalties are minor, and this lens is compact, lightweight, and affordable.

Videographers will especially appreciate this lens's iris ring, which enables a manually selected aperture. The camera controls the aperture setting with the ring in the A (Auto) position, while all other settings electronically force the aperture to the chosen opening. A 2-position switch rotationally oriented on the right side toggles the aperture ring between 1/3 stop clicks and smooth, quiet, non-clicked adjustments, ideal for video recording.

Aside from a slightly more complicated design, inadvertent aperture changes, such as when mounting or unmounting the lens, are the primary disadvantage of an aperture ring (especially when photographing in the dark). An Iris Lock switch would eliminate that problem, but such is not included. Helpful is that the rotation resistance between A and the manual settings is firm.

Image Stabilization

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The Sony FE 24-50mm 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

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It is small, light, wide, and affordable, but is the Sony FE 24-50mm F2.8 G Lens sharp?

One aspect we never want to be compromised is the image quality produced by a lens. Still, those cost, weight, and size issues are in play. Let's take a close look at this lens's optical performance.

This lens is very sharp in the center of the frame wide open at f/2.8 throughout the entire focal length range. Stopping down produces only slight improvement in contrast and resolution.

Often, subjects are not placed in the center of a composition, and lenses typically show decreased sharpness in the periphery of the image circle, where light rays are refracted to a stronger angle than in the center. This one shows a modest gradual decline from the center to the corner at f/2.8. Still, the f/2.8 corner image quality is good.

The resolution chart is 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.

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These results are great, and the differences in the f/4 results are tiny, and not worth downloading.

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.

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Count on samples taken from the outer extreme of the image circle, full-frame corners, to show a lens's weakest performance. While not as sharp as the center-of-the-frame results, the corner sharpness test results are still quite good.

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). Many modern lenses automatically correct for focus shift, though focus breathing (more later) can create slight angle of view changes.

A lens is expected to show peripheral shading at the widest aperture settings when used on a camera that utilizes its entire image circle. At f/2.8, this lens's corners are shaded by about 2 stops.

Want less corner shading? Stop down. Less than 1.5 stops of corner shading remain at f/4, about 1 stop remains at f/5.6, and just over 0.5 stops remain at f/11.

APS-C format cameras using lenses projecting a full-frame-sized image circle avoid most vignetting problems. In this case, most focal lengths show about 0.5 stops of shading, but the about one-stop of corner shading at 50mm f/2.8 may be visible in select images, primarily those with a solid color (such as a blue sky) in the corners.

One-stop of shading is often 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.

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 Sony a1 frames showing diagonal black and white lines.

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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 strong at all tested focal lengths except 50mm, where little color shift shows.

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.

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The blur color differences are modest except at 50mm where they are 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.

This lens has a low 13-element count, which is helpful in this regard, and this lens produced only modest flare effects even at narrow apertures in our standard sun in the corner of the frame flare test. 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.

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While not perfect, the 24mm result is relatively good. The 35mm corner stars are ... not perfect. The 50mm result looks great.

Except at the long end, this lens has extreme barrel distortion. The geometric distortion is so strong that Sony forces correction at all focal lengths in camera (EVF, LCD, JPG images, movies), regardless of the lens corrections settings. Processing this lens's distortion test images using third-party software with correction disabled reveals the true image captured.

The squares in the test chart filled the viewfinder during capture. At 24mm and 28mm, there is a lot of extra subject in the frame, and the straight line at the top of the chart is turned into a strong curve. The 35mm results are showing improvement, but strong barrel distortion remains. The barrel distortion is reduced to a modest level at 50mm.

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, geometric distortion is no longer a differentiator between lenses. However, the stretching required for correction can affect 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.

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The first example shows smoothly filled defocused highlights, with the 9 aperture blades retaining circles vs. polygons. The second set of examples shows full images reduced in size and looking very nice.

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.

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These results show varying levels of corner shape truncation, with the strongest appearing effects deep in the 24mm corners and at 50mm. As the aperture narrows, the entrance pupil size is reduced, and the mechanical vignetting diminishes, making the corner shapes rounder.

An 11-blade count diaphragm will create 22-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 35mm example above was captured at f/16.

The design of this lens is illustrated below.

"Despite its compact size, the lens maintains exceptional image quality throughout all focal lengths. This is made possible by the incorporation of four aspherical lenses and two elements of Extra Low Dispersion (ED) glass. These advanced elements effectively minimize chromatic aberrations, resulting in high-resolution performance that remains consistent from the center to the corners of the frame." [Sony]

Overall, this lens performs great optically. The extreme barrel distortion and strong lateral CA are the biggest image quality detriments, but the corrected results are sharp and look great.

Focusing

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"Two specially optimized linear motors and a precision control system acquire focus on any subject with remarkable speed and accuracy. Tracking performance is also excellent and fully capable of keeping up even with Sony’s advanced model α9 III camera at up to 120 fps. Precise, quiet focus is smoothly acquired and maintained even when shooting high frame rate 4K 120p or FHD 240p movies." [Sony]

This lens internally and silently focuses smoothly, fast, and accurately.

Low light AF performance is good, though not exceptional.

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

Non-cinema lenses usually require refocusing after a focal length change, but as illustrated in the 100% crops below, the reviewed lens shows parfocal-like characteristics. When focused at 50mm, accurate focus is maintained throughout a zoom to 24mm.

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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, slightly raised focus ring is ideally positioned toward the front of the lens, with the larger-diameter lens hood making it easy to find. While this ring is only modestly sized, it has generous proportions for the space available on this compact, full-featured lens.

Focus adjustment is linear, with about 140° of rotation for a full-extent adjustment. This rate is slightly fast for critical manual focusing, and the ring lacks sufficient resistance.

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 significant change in subject size through a full-extent (worst-case) focus distance adjustment.

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This lens has a minimum focus distance of 7.5" (190mm), and at 24mm, it generates a significant 0.30x maximum magnification spec.

Model	Min Focus Distance		Max Magnification
Canon RF 24-50mm F4.5-6.3 IS STM Lens	11.8"	(300mm)	0.19x
Sigma 24-70mm F2.8 DG DN II Art Lens	6.7"	(170mm)	0.37x
Sigma 28-70mm F2.8 DG DN Contemporary Lens	7.5"	(190mm)	0.22x
Sony FE 16-25mm F2.8 G Lens	7.1"	(180mm)	0.20x
Sony FE 20-70mm F4 G Lens	11.8"	(300mm)	0.39x
Sony FE 24-50mm F2.8 G Lens	7.5"	(190mm)	0.30x
Sony FE 24-70mm F2.8 GM II Lens	8.3"	(210mm)	0.32x
Sony FE 24-70mm F4 ZA OSS Lens	15.7"	(400mm)	0.20x
Sony FE 24-105mm F4 G OSS Lens	15.0"	(380mm)	0.31x
Sony FE 28-60mm F4-5.6 Lens	11.8"	(300mm)	0.16x
Sony FE 28-70mm F3.5-5.6 OSS Lens	11.8"	(300mm)	0.19x
Tamron 20-40mm f/2.8 Di III VXD Lens	6.7"	(170mm)	0.26x
Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 Di III VXD G2 Lens	7.1"	(180mm)	0.37x

At 24mm, a subject measuring approximately 4.0 x 2.7" (102 x 68mm) fills a full-frame imaging sensor at this lens's minimum MF distance. At 50mm, a 5.0 x 3.3" (127 x 85mm) subject does the same.

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The USPS love stamps shared above meaure 1.19 x 0.91" (30.226 x 23.114mm).

With a wide-open aperture, this lens produces sharp center-of-the-frame details at minimum focus distance, but the image periphery is soft due to field curvature. F/11 brings on increased depth of field that provides significant improvement in corner image quality.

The minimum focus distance is measured from the imaging sensor plane with the balance of the camera, lens, and lens hood length taking their space out of the number to create the working distance. At 50mm, there is adequate working distance at the minimum focus distance, but at 24mm, the plane of sharp focus is only about 1.6" (41mm) in front of the lens without the hood installed. At that short distance, the lens's shadow challenges subject lighting.

This lens is not compatible with Sony teleconverters.

Design & Features

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Sony's G lenses are always well designed and durably built, and this lens changes nothing in that regard.

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As usual for lenses in this class, it extends and retracts with focal length change. In this case, the extension is at the wide end where the lens becomes 0.88" (22.3mm) longer. The extended barrel has a slight flex.

The rubber-ribbed zoom ring is ideally located, smooth, and has a short 50° rotation.

The only switch, the AF/MF switch, is flush mounted. While this switch is difficult to inadvertently change, it is slightly challenging to change with gloves on.

This lens design features a dust and moisture resistance design, ready for outdoor use in challenging conditions. All seams are sealed, the buttons and switches have silicone rubber gaskets, and a rubber ring seals the lens mount.

The front lens element is fluorine coating to avoid dirt and moisture adhesion and make cleaning considerably easier.

"The use of engineering plastics for some components enhances durability while reducing weight to just 440 grams (15.6 oz.) for agile mobility and minimum stress during long shooting sessions." [Sony]

There are few full-frame standard zoom lenses as pleasant to carry and use as this one.

Model	Weight oz(g)		Dimensions w/o Hood "(mm)		Filter	Year
Canon RF 24-50mm F4.5-6.3 IS STM Lens	7.4	(210)	2.7 x 2.3	(68.6 x 58.4)	58	2023
Sigma 24-70mm F2.8 DG DN II Art Lens	26.3	(745)	3.5 x 4.7	(87.8 x 120.2)	82	2024
Sigma 28-70mm F2.8 DG DN Contemporary Lens	16.6	(470)	2.8 x 4.0	(72.2 x 101.5)	67	2021
Sony FE 16-25mm F2.8 G Lens	14.4	(409)	2.9 x 3.6	(74.8 x 91.4)	67	2024
Sony FE 20-70mm F4 G Lens	17.2	(488)	3.1 x 3.9	(78.7 x 99.0)	72	2023
Sony FE 24-50mm F2.8 G Lens	15.5	(440)	2.9 x 3.6	(74.8 x 92.3)	67	2024
Sony FE 24-70mm F2.8 GM II Lens	24.5	(695)	3.5 x 4.7	(87.8 x 119.9)	82	2022
Sony FE 24-70mm F2.8 GM Lens	31.3	(886)	3.4 x 5.4	(87.6 x 136)	82	2016
Sony FE 24-70mm F4 ZA OSS Lens	15.2	(430)	2.9 x 3.7	(73.0 x 94.5)	67	2014
Sony FE 24-105mm F4 G OSS Lens	23.4	(663)	3.3 x 4.5	(83.4 x 113.3)	77	2017
Sony FE 28-60mm F4-5.6 Lens	5.9	(167)	2.6 x 1.8	(66.6 x 45.0)	40.5	2020
Sony FE 28-70mm F3.5-5.6 OSS Lens	10.4	(295)	2.9 x 3.3	(72.5 x 83)	55	2013
Tamron 20-40mm f/2.8 Di III VXD Lens	12.9	(365)	2.9 x 3.4	(74.4 x 86.5)	67	2022
Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 Di III VXD G2 Lens	19.1	(540)	3.0 x 4.6	(75.8 x 117.6)	67	2021

For many more comparisons, review the complete Sony FE 24-50mm F2.8 G Lens Specifications using the site's lens specifications tool.

Here is a visual comparison:

Above from left to right, you see the following lenses:

Sony FE 24-50mm F2.8 G Lens
Sony FE 20-70mm F4 G Lens
Sigma 28-70mm F2.8 DG DN Contemporary Lens
Sony FE 24-105mm F4 G OSS Lens

Here are the same lenses extended with their hoods in place.

Use the site's product image comparison tool to visually compare the Sony FE 24-50mm F2.8 G Lens to other lenses.

The FE 24-50 has 67mm front filter threads. 67mm filters are modestly sized and priced and extremely common, enabling effects filter sharing with many other lenses. A standard-thickness circular polarizer filter will modestly increase peripheral shading. Therefore, a slim model such as the Breakthrough Photography X4 is recommended.

The petal-shaped Sony ALC-SH178 Lens Hood is included in the box. Though compact, this hood adds considerable front element protection from bright light and impact.

A lens case is not included in the box.

Price, Value, Compatibility

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This review's intro strongly hinted at the answer to the value question. While this lens provides a shorter than usual focal length range, it is afforably priced and high-performing, making it a good value.

As an "FE" lens, the Sony FE 24-50mm F2.8 G Lens is compatible with all Sony E-mount cameras, including full-frame and APS-C sensor format models. Sony provides a 1-year limited warranty.

The reviewed Sony FE 24-50mm F2.8 G Lens was retail sourced.

Alternatives

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My first choice for a comparison lens is the lens model that includes the extra 20mm on the long end, the Sony FE 24-70mm F2.8 GM II.

In the image quality comparison at f/2.8, the 24-70 is modestly sharper in the periphery. The 24-50 has slightly less peripheral shading at 24mm, but the 24-70 has less at the longer focal lengths. The 24-70 has dramatically less geometric distortion except at 50mm.

The Sony FE 24-50mm F2.8 G vs. FE 24-70mm F2.8 GM II Lens comparison shows the 24-50 considerably smaller and lighter. Along with smaller comes smaller filter threads, 67mm vs. 82mm. The 24-70 has an iris lock switch, and it is not close to being parfocal. The 24-50 has an impressive 0.30x maximum magnification, but the 24-70 goes to 0.32x. What is the difference between a Sony G lens and a Sony GM lens? My Sony PR rep has not been able to provide that explanation. Overwhelming some decision factors will be that the 24-70 is over 2x more expensive.

I reviewed the Sigma 24-70mm F2.8 DG DN II Art Lens immediately before the Sigma 24-50. It is a great performer and a great value. Thus, it makes sense to compare this one next.

In the image quality comparison at f/2.8 the Sony lens is slightly sharper in the periphery at 24mm, and the Sigma lens is slightly sharper at 50mm. The Sony lens has less peripheral shading at 24mm and 35mm but more at 50mm. The Sigma lens shows less lateral CA, and it has dramatically less geometric distortion at 24mm and less at 50mm.

The Sony FE 24-50mm F2.8 G vs. Sigma 24-70mm F2.8 DG DN II Art Lens comparison shows the Sigma lens to be considerably larger and heavier. The Sony lens uses 67mm filters vs. 82mm. The Sigma lens impresses with its 0.37x maximum magnification spec vs. 0.30x, though the Sony lens has better peripheral image quality at max magnification. The Sigma lens has two AF lock switches vs. 1 and a zoom extension lock switch. The Sigma lens costs modestly more.

The Sigma 28-70mm F2.8 DG DN Contemporary Lens is another f/2.8 zoom general-purpose lens option. While it shifts the focal length range longer, it is an affordable, lightweight lens that performs well.

The Sony lens is sharper in most, but not all, image quality comparisons at f/2.8. The Sigma lens has significantly stronger peripheral shading at 28mm and substantially less distortion except at 50mm.

The Sony FE 24-50mm F2.8 G vs. Sigma 28-70mm F2.8 DG DN Contemporary Lens comparison shows the two lenses similar in weight. The Sony lens is shorter but slightly wider. The Sony lens has 11 diaphragm blades vs. 9 (still a good number), a 0.30x maximum magnification (and better peripheral image quality at max magnification) vs.0.22x, an aperture ring, and an AF lock button. The Sigma lens is far less expensive.

Use the site's tools to create additional comparisons.

Summary

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When the 24-50mm focal length range is sufficient, the Sony FE 24-50mm F2.8 G Lens is an excellent choice for those looking for a compact, lightweight, affordable, and high-performing lens.

The extreme barrel distortion and strong lateral CA are the biggest image quality detriments, but the corrected results are sharp and look great.

The dual linear motors driving fast and accurate AF are among the quietest ever through this studio. It's a "G" lens, so the expected high-quality design and build are there.

That cost savings vs. the equivalent 24-70mm lens is enough to buy a Sony FE 16-25mm F2.8 G Lens and still have $2 left in your wallet is highly attractive. The easy-to-take-with-you FE 24-50mm F2.8 G is a great choice for everyday use.