Sony FE 12-24mm F2.8 GM Review

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2020-07-07 18:03:07

The brand new FE 12-24mm F2.8 GM ultra-wide-angle lens completes Sony’s G Master “holy trinity” of f/2.8 zooms for Sony Alpha full-frame mirrorless cameras, joining the 24-70mm F2.8 GM and 70-200mm F2.8 GM. It also holds the snappy title of being the World's widest constant F2.8 12-24mm zoom lens. Optically it is comprised of 17 elements in 14 groups, including three XA (extreme aspherical) elements and one aspherical element, plus two Super ED and three ED elements to suppress chromatic aberrations. It has the largest XA element of any of Sony's four GM lenses that incoporate them. It features 4 XD linear motors with a floating focus mechanism for more responsive AF speed and tracking and an internal focusing mechanism means the lens barrel doesn’t move. It has a 9 blade diaphragm which creates an attractive blur to the out-of-focus areas of the image and there's a brand new, improved Nano AR II coating which can be applied to highly curved elements to help minimise flare. The lens is dust- and moisture-resistant and has a minimum focusing distance of 28cm with a maximum magnification of 0.14x. There's a rear filter holder into which standard sheet-type filters can be inserted, with a cutting template supplied in the box. The Sony FE 12-24mm F2.8 GM lens will be available in August 2020 priced at £2900 / 3300 Euros.

Weighing in at 847grams / 29.9oz and measuring 97.6 x 137 mm, the metal-bodied Sony FE 12-24mm F2.8 GM feels very well-constructed indeed. It's overall size and weight makes it feel well-balanced on the Sony A7R II body that we tested it with, as shown in the photos below.