Sony FE PZ 16-35mm F4 G Image Gallery: An initial real-world look at Sony’s news wide-angle zoom
posted Thursday, April 7, 2022 at 4:15 PM EDT
Click here to browse our Sony FE PZ 16-35mm F4 G Gallery
A couple of weeks ago, Sony announced a new member to their already-extensive Sony E-mount lens lineup, the FE PZ 16-35mm F4 G lens. This new full-frame 16-35mm zoom joins a couple of other similar lenses, the FE 16-35mm F2.8 GM and the Vario-Tessar T* FE 16-35mm F4 ZA OSS lens. So why yet another full-frame 16-35mm zoom lens? The most notable distinction of this new 16-35mm F4 lens is the use of a power zoom mechanism rather than a more traditional mechanical design, much like in Sony's other 16-35mm lenses and, in fact, nearly all other E-mount lenses.
The Power Zoom design makes this particular 16-35mm lens much more suited for video work, with zoom functionality capable of being smoothly and precisely controlled via a dedicated slider switch (or via a camera body itself, depending on the model). Unlike Sony's few other Power Zoom lenses, this new one utilizes two of their compact and precise XD Linear motors to control the zooming functionality. This helps keep the lens small and lightweight, as well as balanced. The dual XD Linear motors and the optical design are configured in such a way that the lens doesn't change size or balance when you zoom. Everything is internal, and the lens's center of gravity doesn't change when you zoom.
Of course, the new PZ 16-35mm F4 G lens is not just designed for video work. It works well for still photography, too. Despite the electronic zoom design, the lens still features a dedicated zoom ring, although it's a "zoom-by-wire" ring, as one might expect. There's also a manual focusing ring and a physical aperture control ring (a rare feature on a zoom lens, I might add) -- one that can be de-clicked for smooth iris control during video recording.
I've just started the hands-on review process of the new Sony FE PZ 16-35mm F4 G lens, and while I'm still in the process of field-testing it and gathering more shots, my initial impression of the lens's image quality performance is very positive. Using a Sony A7 IV, the FE PZ 16-35mm F4 G captures sharp images, even wide open and at both ends of its focal length range. So far, the optical performance in terms of resolving power looks impressive and CA appears well controlled, too. The PZ 16-35mm F4 G lens uses 13 elements across 12 groups, and it includes two advanced aspherical (AA) elements, an ED element, an aspherical element and an ED aspherical lens.
While my review is still in progress, I wanted to share an initial sampling of gallery images. If you're curious about the image quality of Sony's newest wide-angle zoom, head over to our Sony FE PZ 16-35mm F4 G Gallery for both straight-from-camera JPEGs and unedited RAW files. Rest assured, more sample images as well as sample videos to showcase the lens's Power Zoom functionality are on the way, as is our standard in-depth hands-on review. So stay tuned!