SONY 16-50MM 2.8 LENS SAMPLE PHOTOS

ABOUT THE LENS

10-19-11 our 2nd SONY SLT-A77 and SONY 16-50MM 2.8 lens came in!

It was my original intention to put our well liked MINOLTA 17-35 2.8-4 LENS up against the SONY 16-50MM 2.8 LENS in a head to head TEST and keep the winner. By the time I took the 2nd shot with the SONY 16-50 I knew I had to tell my wife to start saying goodbye to her favorite LENS. No contest was needed as it was obvious that the SONY 16-50 was the clear winner. After shooting 60 some test shots I brought the card in and loaded it into the computer. My wife already knew when the slideshow started that the SONY 16-50 was the winner by default and is about to become her new favorite LENS!

SONY has created a fantastic pair in the SONY A77 and SONY 16-50 LENS! The LENS is lightning fast, with very crisp colors and superb sharpness. The bokeh is amazing and even the tiny crops are some of the best I have seen. (I cropped a single brick out of the house down the street and it was crystal clear with no CR) With the 2x zoom feature on the SONY A77 we will have the equivalent of a 16-100 so I don't think the LENS will ever leave the CAMERA

I am not a big SONY LENS fan, we shoot our weddings with legendary MINOLTA LENSES. I find most of the common SONY LENSES to be just OK other than the "G" LENSES and now the SONY 16-50 2.8! I think this LENS is good enough to be a "G" LENS as originally announced. Although I was very skeptical before it arrived I feel very justified in the money I spent for the new SONY 16-50. I highly recommend the SONY 16-50 as a great walk around LENS or primary lens for a WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER!
Here's a link to the test shots

Update 11-26-11- After having this LENS for 6 weeks and shooting over 10,000 PHOTOS now I must say that this is one of the best LENSES we have ever shot with! For a WEDDING professional this LENS is a must have! The PHOTOS are consistently sharp, bright, and have fabulous colors. The AF is blazing fast and it fits the SONY SLT-A77 like a hand in a glove.

One of my PHOTOGRAPHERS was visiting last week so I had the opportunity to put it head to head against a MINOLTA 50MM 2.8 macro. We took the same PHOTOS with the same CAMERAS and we were both blown away at the difference in the results. Chris always thought his 50MM was a great LENS... and it is, but it does not even come close to the SONY 16-50MM for color, sharpness, or focus speed.
Test shots are posted at the bottom of the page here

Update 4-27-12
As much as we loved this lens our Minolta 28-135MM lens continuously outperformed it. We have since sold this lens and replaced it with another Minolta 28-135 and a Minolta 20MM 2.8 to cover our wide angle and extreme close-up shots. Nothing against the 16-50... it is a wonderful lens and well worth the investment. The photos continued to be sharp with excellent color and fast AF. We just decided for our particular applications the 28-135 & 20MM combo was better for our needs. We will miss the silent zooming of the 16-50 for shooting video but since we shoot video mostly at concerts the music drowns out the lens noise anyway. This was a tough decision for us but add in the mostly metal construction and the extra 85MM of zoom and it just made sense for us to be a better main lens.

Update 4-30-12

We shot our 1st wedding since our lens change and it went very well. The MRS used the Minolta 20MM 2.8 from getting ready photos until the end of the wedding and then switched to her new Minolta 28-135 for the after ceremony formal and fun shots then throughout the reception. IMO the 20MM is sharper than the Sony 16-50 was for both the (cramped quarters) before shots and the crops on 30-40 feet from the subjects. The indoor lighting was a difficult yellow orange and it was an African American wedding. The color from the Minolta 20MM definitely beat out the color from the Sony 16-50 under similar conditions. The Minolta 28-135MM was much better than the Sony 16-50 for the outdoor shots. The 16-50 was excellent for us but the 28-135 photos she just took can't even be sharpened!

I am still recommending this Sony lens to people that want or need a great lens in the 16-50MM range. This lens sells for $600 with the Sony A77 and $7-900 individually and IMO is the best kit lens ever made. If you can do without the 16-19MM and the 21-17MM ranges I highly recommend instead getting the Minolta 28-135MM ($250-400)and the Minolta 20MM 2.8 lenses ($300-350) (we got our pair for the same $600 we got for our 16-50). You get a lot more coverage and with the Sony A77's 2X button this pair covers you up to 270MM (at 12MP).

UPDATE 6-29-12
Ya'll are going to think we are nuts after this one! I stumbled into a great deal on a brand new A77 with 16-50 lens for $300 below retail and thought I'd separate them and roll them over for a bit of profit.

Naturally when it arrived I had to test the camera and lens and make sure they worked properly before reselling them. Lo and behold the new lens is way sharper than the 1st one we had!!! So I'm thinking to myself that now I've got to run some new head to head tests and consider keeping this one.

Here's the results from 11 identical photos taken with 2 A77s at exactly the same settings:

Sony 16-50 vs Minolta 20MM 2.8
2 pictures sharper with 16-50, 9 identical, color identical

Sony 16-50 vs Minolta 24MM 2.8 same results as above but 16-50 had better color on 2 shots

Sony 16-50 vs Sony 35MM 1.8 (shot at f2.8) same sharpness and color but the 35MM was a bit brighter

Sony 16-50 2.8 (both shot at f3.5) vs Tokina 20-35 3.5-4.5
after 2 shots I saw that there was no reason to even download the card. The Tokina color rivals Minolta/Sony but the 16-50 was obviously sharper.

So now we are back on the 16-50 bandwagon... we are keeping it and it's going to be the featured lens on one of our A77s (we have 3 of them now). The 24MM, 20MM, and the Tokina are up on eBay but we are keeping the 35MM for lower light and concert videos.

Currently we have mounted a Minolta 28-135, 2 Sony 16-50 2.8, and the Sony 35MM 1.8 (excellent lens). We also have a Minny APO 100-300 in the bag. Since I did a 3 for 1 switch-out I now have 2 empty spaces in the lens compartment of our awesome Winer bag... hmmmm, what to try next?

Update 8-25-12
OK so we updated again! We now have the Sony 16-50 2.8, Sony 35MM 1.8, Sony 18-135, Minolta 80-200 2.8, Minolta 500MM AF, and the Minolta 100-300 APO is going on eBay soon.

We helped one of our photographers upgrade her camera and purchased her a Sony A65 that came as a kit with the new 18-135 lens. Our intention was to resell the lens to help reduce the cost on her camera but I got tempted to try a few shots with it and I was amazed. I put it in a 20 shot shootout against our Minolta 28-135 and had 2 photographers judge the side by side shots. The results were 7 shots better for the 28-135, 6 shots better for the 18-135, and 6 ties. These were outdoor daylight shots so adding in the extra range, size, weight, and better communication with the camera it was a no brainer to give up my favorite lens. We got the 80-200 2.8 lens later and that one is now my favorite :D

Update 3-17-13 Happy St. Patrick's Day everybody!
So now we have 2 Sony 16-50s. They are so good for video with the silent AF, color, and sharpness that we had to have one for each camera. We shoot a lot of concert video and wedding video and this lens is perfect for both!

If you already have, or are getting a Sony 16-50 you are probably are or will be disappointed at how stiff or sticky the zoom ring is. We have bought and sold about 15 of these and every single one was very stiff to zoom. Some people have even thought it was locked because it was so hard to turn. For important video it is not acceptable to have it jump when you zoom so most of the time I set it at the MM I wanted and didn't zoom. I thought that eventually the lens would loosen up but after 6 months it was as tight as the day we got it.

HERE'S THE SOLUTION!

Thanks to Google and a kind poster, I have the solution to share with you! The Sony 16-50 sells for $600-$800 right? Would you believe that all that stiffness is caused by a 49 cent rubber zoom ring? Yup, it is, so here's what you do:
If you look closely at the front end of the zoom ring you'll see that it sits in a channel. Carefully take a credit card and stick the corner in that track, then wiggle it to get under the rubber zoom ring. Once you have it well under the ring press on the ring with a finger and move that part of the rubber ring forward. Now press the ring with a finger from your other hand to hold it in place, slide the card out, and repeat the process farther down the ring a few times. Once you have the ring totally out of the track carefully slide it off the lens. Next turn it inside out, then put it back where it came from. You will be amazed at the difference! I wish I hadn't waited so long to search this, I could have shot much better videos in the past. I did this with both of our 16-50s and they both now zoom like any of our other lenses. My wife is so excited, this is her favorite lens and now she is going to love it even more :D

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