Sony FE 12-24mm f/4 G: Might Have Serious Drawbacks

2017-07-07 • SEND FEEDBACK |
Related: color shading, distortion, optics, Sony, Sony FE, Sony FE 12-24mm f/4 G, Sony Lenses

Sony FE 12-24mm f/4 G

I will have a copy of the Sony 12-24mm f/4G for testing on Monday, three days from now.

Reader Roy P sent me some raw files from the Sony 12-24mm f/4G. The files are disappointing in two ways:

• Eye-popping distortion at the 12mm setting— fun-house mirror stuff that looks quite similar to the distortion of the Samyang 14mm f/2.8, meaning unacceptable. Correcting distortion that severe invariably damages micro contrast.
• Severe cyan color shading in outer zones that is reminiscent of Leica M lenses without lens correction.

The Photoshop lens profile corrects only for chromatic aberration, as shown below. The extreme distortion and cyan color shading are not corrected.

I’ve confirmed that Roy P’s camera uses the latest firmware: ILCE-7RM2 v4.00. If this were a firmware issue, presumably Sony would have fixed it by now, but perhaps not.

At any rate, correcting the extreme distortion is not going to do nice things to micro contrast.

Adobe Camera Raw lens correction for Sony FE 12-24mm f/4 G