Sony FE 16mm f/1.8 G Review: Worthwhile Compromises for Compactness

A camera lens with a hood sits on a wooden surface. The brand name appears on the lens. A detached lens cap lies nearby. Text on the bottom left reads "PetaPixel Reviews.

Alberta, Canada, has been pounded by polar vortex after polar vortex, pushing daytime temperatures down to -25 Celsius before any wind chill factors in. As Alberta-born Canadians, Jordan and I can brave the frigid temperatures for the sake of the show, but with our lavalier microphones refusing to hold a charge and our camera EVFs running at eight frames per second, we pressed on to review a fascinating little lens on what we knew would be a taxing day.

Close-up of a black camera lens with a wide aperture. The lens features adjustment rings for focus and aperture, and has various labels and markings, including a G symbol and E-mount label. The lens is set against a plain white background.

Sony 16mm f/1.8 G Is Nearly As Wide as 14mm f/1.8 GM but Way Cheaper

Sony's new 16mm f/1.8 G lens slots in between the company's excellent, albeit pricey FE 14mm f/1.8 G Master released in 2021, which is $1,600, and the FE 20mm f/1.8 G that launched the year prior, promising photographers and videographers with a fast wide-angle prime that doesn't break the bank.

Sigma Can Make Just Nine BF Cameras a Day

The image shows disassembled electronic components on the left and a hand holding a beige-colored outer camera casing on the right. The casing has a large circular cutout, indicating where a lens may be fitted.

The Sigma BF is milled from a single block of aluminum on state-of-the-art five axis CNC machine, which is a process that takes seven hours to complete. It should be no surprise, then, that the production capacity is extremely low: just nine per day.