Review: Sony 16-35mm f/2.8 GM II lens

Over the last 18 months, Sony has been updating its ‘Holy trinity’ of professional lenses. First was the 70-200mm f/2.8 GM II, followed by its 24-70mm f/2.8 GM II.

Now, more than six years after it was first released, Sony has finally updated its 16-35mm f/2.8, making the holy trinity update complete.

So, what’s it like, was it worth the wait, and is it worth the price?

Build

At 112mm long (at 16mm) and weighing just 547gm, the Mark II is 10mm (10%) shorter and 130g (20%) lighter than its predecessor, making it currently the world’s lightest and smallest full frame AF 16-35mm f/2.8 lens.

Now whilst many may not think these relatively small improvements are important, firstly, the shorter length means I can now easily place it into my camera bag in an upright position, giving me more space for other equipment.

The lighter weight also means that when combined with the recently updated 24-70mm and 70-200mm, this ‘holy trinity’ only weighs 2287 gm vs the previous weight of 3046gm. That’s a significant 759gm lighter combination which is important if carrying on a plane or on your back.

The weather sealing (think dust and moisture resistance) has also been improved, with all seams featuring structural sealing, the buttons and switches being fitted with silicone rubber gaskets, and of course, a rubber ring sealing the lens mount.

And, like all new G master lenses, the front element now comes with a fluorine front element coating to help repel water droplets, oil (e.g. say from fingerprints) and to help make cleaning the lens easier. 

The reversible lens hood is also smaller, and like its predecessor, comes with an 82mm filter thread.

Whilst no optical stabilisation, if your camera doesn’t have in-body image-stabilisation (IBIS) – and most new cameras do these days – the lighter weight should make it easier to hold still anyway if necessary. 

Internally

Internally there is a new optical design of 15 elements in 12 groups (down from 16 in 13 groups), and this new design includes three extreme aspherical elements to help improve resolution and one extra-low dispersion element to reduce chromatic aberration.

Some elements now also have Sony’s new ‘Nano AR Coating II’ which Sony claim helps further minimise flaring and ghosting, but as I had already sold my GM I, I couldn’t really test that.

The autofocusing mechanisms have been updated with four XD linear motors, meaning faster, more accurate, lower vibration and near silent operation (which I love). How much fasters is tough to say (Sony claim twice as fast), but I can say it was quick, smooth and quiet. 

The aperture mechanism is still an 11-blade unit, providing a smooth bokeh when opened up, and of course wonderful 22 diffraction spikes when closed down with a point light source in the image.

Sony state the minimum focus is 22cm from the sensor throughout the range, (down from 28cm on the Mark I) and my tests confirmed this was about right (although I found I could get a little closer to 20.5cm at 16mm).

What this means in practical terms is that you can be in focus with an object only about 8cm from the front element.

Externally

Like the old GM I and the new 24-70mm f2.8, the filter thread is 82mm and there is now an aperture ring which allows the photographer to directly control the aperture diaphragm from the lens itself.

There are now also two toggle switches on the body (up from one on the Mark I). Firstly, and as with the previous model, there is a switch to control AF/MF. But linking back to the aperture ring, an ‘iris click’ (on/off) switch and an ‘iris lock’ switch.

What this means for the videographers is they can now silently and smoothly change their aperture as they shoot - no jumps or audible clicks.

The addition of the ‘iris lock’ toggle also means that the shooter can lock the aperture, thereby helping prevent any accidental shifts. Together, like with the new 24-70mm and 70-200mm, these features are really useful additions for cinematographers.

And finally, there is now an additional customisable focus hold button, giving a total of two on this lens.

 

Image quality

I used the 16-35mm f/2.8 GM II with Sony’s A7 IV and Alpha 1, and not surprisingly, the results on many criteria were excellent.

Wide open (f/2.8) from 16mm to 35mm, the image quality was really sharp edge to edge, had excellent handling of coma and also minimal Chromatic Aberration: three things that are virtually impossible to address well in post, so this is great and important.

There was some noticeable barrel distortion between 16 and 24mm (but I guess that’s not unexpected for such a wide lens) and there was also some noticeable vignetting when wide open at the shortest focal length (again, not unexpected).

However, the vignetting was significantly reduced when shutting down to f/5.6 and even at 2.8 was really only noticeable when shooting something featureless (e.g. sky, plain wall).

And speaking of shooting wide open, the bokeh was fine (not amazing), but now being able to focus a little closer, it was fun to shoot 16mm close up with a very shallow DOF.

Focus/zoom

This new lens has a Linear Response MF, which means that the focus ring responds directly and linearly to subtle control when focusing manually, and I found that worked well.

With a floating focus mechanism driven by four of Sony’s extreme dynamic (XD) linear motors, when using autofocus, Sony state these motors improve the lens' autofocus tracking performance, and was told this could be up to two times better.

How much better is it and is it, I couldn’t really tell in field as wasn’t flipping between the two, but what I can say is the autofocus was super quiet and most importantly, blisteringly fast.

And speaking of zooming, the movement is very very smooth and easy. For a stills photographer, maybe it’s a little too easy (think slip when the camera is hanging around your neck moving and you are about in field), but for a cinematographer, they will love the smoothness if zooming and filming.

As with the old model, the zoom extends, however much less – I’d say about only 1cm and barely noticeable. What does this mean in practical terms? In combination with its lighter weight, if you are using a gimbal and changing focal lengths, there is minimal change in the centre of gravity meaning you probably won’t need to adjust it.

The wrap up

I posed the question at the beginning of this review, was this upgrade it worth the wait and is it worth the price?

Well after a week and a few thousand frames, it’s pretty simple to summarise by saying this lens is better than the Mark I in what’s important to me as a conservation photojournalist – weight, size, weather sealing, autofocus speed, sharpness; and all this with some additional functionality. So yes, to answer my first question, it was worth the wait.

Is it worth the price however? Well, that’s an interesting one.

If you’re paying the price on the Sony web site of $3699, this lens is about $900 more than the currently available Mark I on their web site ($2799). That’s a big difference both in real dollars and percentage terms.

Certainly, whilst this upgrade is better in most important aspects, to answer that question you probably need to first ask yourself two things before diving in. i) Do I have that money and ii) How important are these upgrades for what you need?

Putting money aside for a moment, if you’re a cinematographer, having the ability to change the f/stop on the lens and do so with no iris click, along with it being potentially more gimbal friendly, these two features probably means you should seriously consider getting it.

But if you’re a stills photographer however, I think it’s a tougher decision. If you have a Mark I and are happy with it (and it is a good lens), then there’s probably no need to rush out to swap it over, especially if you are going to sell you Mark I at a significant loss.

But if, like me, weather sealing, auto focus, sharpness, weight and size are really important for how you shot and what you do, or even if this is your first 16-35mm f/2.8, then I’d suggest consider getting it.

Given lens upgrade timelines, if it's your first 16-35mm it will probably be the best Sony 16-35 f/2.8 lens out there for the next five plus years, so why compromise now?

HANDLING ★ ★ ★ ★ 1/2 

At this price level, you’d expect a premium build quality and the Mark II upgrade doesn’t disappoint. Improved weather-sealing, good zoom torque, responsive manual focus, fast accurate autofocus, light, small, with minimal barrel extension and a pleasure to hold make the handling excellent. Indeed, I would have given this a 5-star rating if not for the (very small) barrel extension.