The world's first F1.8 full-frame mirrorless zoom has arrived...

I just become aware of this full-frame Sony 24-50 f/2.8 lens that was released earlier in the year.

If I was in the market for a mid-range zoom (I am not), this lens looks far more interesting to me than the Sigma. It is both wider and more telephoto than the Sigma with a 2x zoom range. It weighs half as much as the Sigma. And unless proven otherwise (by my own testing) I always assume that AF (for video) on a Sony lens is going to perform better than a 3rd party lens. Yes, it is only f/2.8, but I'd trade the slightly slower speed for the other advantages.
Just another lens option to consider.

Actually, the more I think about it, the more I am kind of tempted by this lens. I don't think I'd ever use it for video, but I could see this lens living on my A1 for photos.
 
Doug Jensen said:
I just become aware of this full-frame Sony 24-50 f/2.8 lens that was released earlier in the year.

If I was in the market for a mid-range zoom (I am not), this lens looks far more interesting to me than the Sigma. It is both wider and more telephoto than the Sigma with a 2x zoom range. It weighs half as much as the Sigma. And unless proven otherwise (by my own testing) I always assume that AF (for video) on a Sony lens is going to perform better than a 3rd party lens. Yes, it is only f/2.8, but I'd trade the slightly slower speed for the other advantages.
Just another lens option to consider.

Actually, the more I think about it, the more I am kind of tempted by this lens. I don't think I'd ever use it for video, but I could see this lens living on my A1 for photos.
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Ok but is it any good?
 
Abe Halpert said:
The lens that has actually enticed me is the Tamron 35-150 f/2-2.8 because it covers a very useful range for weddings. But it's definitely not a top optical performer (though it's not bad) and the relatively slow aperture is a turn-off, not to mention the aperture ramping.
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You're a pretty tough customer. I thought Tamron was said to be the unicorn. A lot of coin though.
 
Tom Roper said:
You're a pretty tough customer. I thought Tamron was said to be the unicorn. A lot of coin though.
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I think it's probably a great lens. From what I recall, the look was nice although the bokeh may have been just slightly busy. Don't quote me.

But I meant my comment literally - it's not the TOP optical performer. I wouldn't expect it to outcompete prime lenses at matching focal lengths. And the only reason I make that comparison was because Lloyd Chambers claims that the Sigma 28-45 was essentially a better lens than the available primes in E-mount that fall within that range.

I think that Doug may make a good point that if the purpose of the Sigma is to have the best optics available, weight be damned, then they might have gone with an f/2.8 instead and expanded the range. There are faster aperture lenses available in that range, so it's not going to win in that regard. Of course, lenses usually perform better when stopped down a bit. So maybe engineering an f/1.8 will help it outperform an f/2.8 lens when both are set at f/2.8...

A couple other comments from Lloyd about the Sigma. Most of his findings are paywalled and I've never subscribed, so I just see some samples and the headline findings.

Sigma calls out the minimization of focus breathing as a design goal: “Designed to minimize focus breathing”.

How does it do?

Wow!

This is a zoom, but Hasselblad cannot do it in a prime lens costing nearly as much and 2 1/3 stops slower speed? Crazy.
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This series at 28mm looks at secondary color aberrations by focusing closely, throwing high contrast water areas out of focus. Is this a super-APO lens?

Sigma FE 28-45mm f/1.8 Aperture Series @ 28mm: Backlit Creek

Includes images from f/1.8 to f/11 at up to full camera resolution, plus crops.

What I see here makes most APO lenses look like dilettante design efforts.
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I had detected left side weakness with the Sigma FE 28-45mm f/1.8 DG DN Art in other series such as Sunset View to Mt Dana, but lens skew issues are difficult to diagnose except with a scene at uniformly far distance. This series is such a scene. Remarkably strong performance centrally but some concerns in outer zones.
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I had detected left side weakness with the Sigma FE 28-45mm f/1.8 DG DN Art in other series such as Sunset View to Mt Dana and Last Light on High Peaks @ 45mm. What about 28mm?

This series at 28mm shows the sharpness gradient behavior across the frame: bitingly sharp performance in central areas even wide open that rapidly declines to outer zones to more typical levels.
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The dude is thorough. I'm not suggesting that following his blog is more than an academic interest of mine. There are many practical considerations that go into buying a lens for me besides the finer points of image quality. But I think it's interesting reading material.
 
Most things that are world's first are not world's best, if for long. This zoom range never felt like a must have. I bought a Nikon Z 35mm f/1.4, said to be 2/3 stop faster than the 1.8, but it was noticeably worse with softness, coma, astigmatism, flare, chromatic aberrations that I returned it and paid more for the Z 35 f/1.8 S, the 2/3's of a stop worse speed difference was barely noticeable. I do like fast primes generally though, zoom with feet but it's not the first time I've regretted choosing lens speed over lens sharpness.
 
I actually like the new Sony 20-70 F4 as a walk around lens for video for the A7Siii and it is wide enough for indoors. Down side for me is no OSS or PZ so the 28-135 stays on the PX6. Now where is the V2 of that lens?
 
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