primetime's reviews

Sony E 16mm f/2.8 SEL16F28

Bought as a kit with my NEX-3

From my experience:

@f2.8, center sharpness is great, which all that is needed for blurring out backgrounds and/or available light shots. In real-world practice, I've never felt like corner sharpness is a priority in these situations.

@f8-11, corners are sharpened up and the lens produces good, wide landscape shots.

While I do find the resolution issues somewhat "forgivable", I find the distortion (pincushion) a big shortcoming of this lens. My wish is that a future NEX firmware update can electronically correct the distortion, but until then, it is unpleasant to deal with.

There might be a corrective Adobe Lens profile out there, but the distortion hasn't bothered me enough to find it and post-process my images.

The bottom line: given its speed and focal length, it's a very unique kit offering. Users stepping up from P&S will find a lot to like with the wide perspective and low light capability. Personally, I've used a DSLR for years found this lens/camera combo very refreshing. But anyone who was expecting miracles from a relatively cheap kit lens was fooling themselves.

There are limitations with this lens, but it's not difficult to work around them and produce great images.