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Every December, when it’s time to choose my gear for the year, I usually pick a product that I’ve been using a lot over the past few months. That makes sense – if there’s a product I enjoy using, chances are I’ll pick it up a lot and dig into it.
2021 is a little different. This year, I know what my device of the year will be like after just one trip with it: the Sony 14mm F1.8 GM. I hooked up this lens immediately, and it barely popped out of my camera.
It should be noted that this isn’t the first super wide-angle lens I’ve picked up as my go-to device of the year. It’s not even the second. To be precise, this is the third time I’ve chosen an ultra-wide lens as my go-to device this year. Previous selections include Sigma 14mm F1.8″ and Laowa 15mm F2, both are outstanding lenses in their own right, and I still stand by those choices. They are great lenses.
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Photographers gathered on a ledge to capture the North Window at sunrise (with Turret Dome in the background). |
Now, some of you may be asking, ‘Dale, what for? Are you just a fan of super wide angle lenses? ‘
No I do not think so. Yes, maybe. OK, maybe so. The jury is not over yet.
I admit there’s a model here, and it’s an interesting one for someone who always says 35mm is his favorite focal length (and often has a Fujifilm X100 strapped semi-permanently around his neck) . That said, I’ve never picked a 35mm lens as my gear of the year. Go find numbers.
What prompted me to try the Sony 14mm F1.8 was a trip to Arches . National Park, one of the most iconic national parks in the Southwestern United States. After months of being glued to a computer screen, I’m instead ready to spend some quality time gazing at the open sky and red rocks.
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| Explore the aptly named ‘Fire Furnace’ at Arches . National Park Sony 14mm F1.8 GM | ISO 125 | 1/400 sec | F8.0 |
I usually use an ultra-wide lens to shoot landscapes and night sky, but on this trip, I wanted to capture the park’s intimate spaces and small canyons, meaning hiking with it. Sony’s small size makes it seem like a great choice, so it went into the pocket. It turned out to be a great decision.
I immediately liked the Sony 14mm because it makes for a great commuting lens during the day but still has the fast aperture I want when the sun goes down. That’s something I haven’t experienced with the Sigma 14mm or Laowa 15mm. The Sigma is more than twice as heavy and significantly larger, and the Laowa, despite its similar dimensions, is a manual focus lens. It’s not a deal breaker, but it does make it less versatile when it comes to spontaneous shooting.
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| Three Amigos: Sigma 14mm F1.8 (left), Sony 14mm F1.8 (center) and Laowa 15mm F2 (right). All three are great lenses, but the Sony is much smaller than the Sigma and less than half the weight, and a bit larger, albeit lighter, than the Laowa. |
On the contrary, the Sony is a perfect lens. It’s relatively small, heavier than your brain tells you to do, and still has a fast F1.8 aperture. It’s one of those lenses where you look at yourself and think to yourself, ‘There needs to be a compromise here – what is it?’
Except for that, as far as I can tell, there isn’t much of a compromise. Sure, if you look at the test chart you’ll find imperfections, but I’ve never encountered a test chart when shooting in the wild. I imagine they grow on a tree somewhere, but I’ve never been to that forest.
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| Milky Way and Turret Dome. I love photographing the night sky with moonlight to illuminate the landscape, but this trip coincided with a new moon, so I had to do it due to the shadows. Sony 14mm F1.8 GM | ISO 640 | 10 seconds | F1.8 |
The Sony 14mm F1.8 delivers what it takes in the real world. The image is sharp from corner to corner, even expanding and showing plenty of contrast. When used with the Sony a7R IV, the lens resolves every pixel the camera throws at it. It also creates beautiful suns. In my experience, even coma is well controlled – better or better than with Sigma or Laowa lenses. That’s great for photographing the night sky.
Of course, at DPReview we tend to go through every performance metric in the book and have a place for that, but when rubber hits the road, the most important metric is whether a particular product has suitable for you or not.
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I hiked to the Delicate Arch, one of the most famous arcades in the park, hoping to capture a beautiful sunset. Unfortunately, I missed, but it was such a great opportunity to capture the view of the arch that it was never included in tourist brochures. |
Sony 14mm F1.8 in action wonderful for me. The fact that it stands out technically contributes to that, but it’s a combination of small size, minimal weight, fast AF, and Excellent technical performance matters to me, that’s why it’s my 2021 device.
However, I’m a bit worried about 2022. What if no one introduces a new ultra-wide lens next year? Maybe I’ll go out and capture everything through a fisheye lens. If I do, you can be sure to read about it in my column of the year next December.
View our Sony 14mm F1.8 sample library
