Zeiss 35 mm f2.8
In this week’s post, I’ll be going over one of my new favorites lens: the Sony Sonnar T* FE 35mmf/2.8 ZA. Saying this lens is quite a mouthful for me so from now on, I’m just going to refer to it as the Zeiss 35 mm f2.8 haha, though not to be confused with Zeiss Loxia 35 mm which is a manual lens. I’ve had this lens since the beginning of the year and I’ve had a lot of fun with it. I was never too into the 35 mm focal length, but this lens has made me more comfortable with it. In this blog post, I want to highlight one MAJOR reason why I decided to get this lens as opposed to the other options on the market as well as other reasons that helped solidfy my purchase. There are a bit of negatives as well, which weren’t too big of an issue for me, but more on that later. First, I’ll go over the positives.
As soon as you pick up the Sony Zeiss 35mm f2.8 lens, you'll immediately appreciate its incredibly lightweight design. Weighing in at just 120g, let me repeat that, 120 GRAMS! It is the one of, if not, the lightest and smallest lens available for the Sony E mount. This compact size and weight was the MAIN reason why I was interested in this lens and one of the major factors as to why I bought this lens. Paired up with either my Sony A7RV or my Sony A7IV, the combined weight of both the camera and lens is around 770-850 grams. To put that into perspective, the Zeiss 55 mm, which is one of the lightest and smallest lens for the Sony E Mount, is 281 g, which is double the size/weight of the Zeiss 35 mm. That’s crazy when you consider how small the 55 mm lens already is. This means wherever you going, taking photos and walking on the streets or traveling to your next destination, this lens won't weigh you down. This allows you to focus on capturing those remarkable moments without any hindrance or worries of whether you want to bring the lens or not. It’s only 120 g and basically a pancake lens as well so you can easily fit it somewhere in your bag. Whether going on a walk around LA or traveling to a location like I did in Hawaii, I always had an urge to bring this lens just because of how light it was. And because I brought this lens almost everywhere with me, I was able to get used to the focal length.
Now, let's dive into how sharp the Sony Zeiss 35mm f2.8 lens is. There’s not really much to say about it, besides that this lens has some crazy good optics, so you can expect incredible sharpness. Even with how old this lens is, it still doesn’t disappoint in 2023. It was good when it first came out and it’s still good right now. Whether you're capturing landscapes or doing some street photography, this Zeiss lens doesn't mess around when it comes to clarity and detail. Even with how light weight the lens is, it doesn’t sacrifice in image quality of the lens so you don’t have to worry about that, which for me is a huge deal as image quality is as important as the weight and size of the lens.
Very quick thing to start off is that lens will perform differently on different bodies and what not, but on the A7IV and the A7RV that I use at least, when it comes to autofocusing, the Sony Zeiss 35mm f2.8 lens has not been a let down. Its advanced autofocus system is quick, accurate, and reliable, allowing me to capture moments without any worries. So that gives me confidence that whether you're photographing quick subjects out on the street, or focusing on still life subjects like people sitting down, this lens can still keep up with your creative vision, ensuring that it doesn’t hold you back from missing the shot. The autofocus locks onto your subject swiftly and accurately, allowing you to maintain focus. This lens provides the speed and precision you need to capture images with confidence. And also, big part if you shoot video as well: the focusing is silent. So you won’t have to worry about the lens focusing making any type of noises that will leak into your video, which some lens may do.
Finally, let's talk about the exceptional build quality. The build is top-notch. It’s made with light metals which I personally enjoy more than plastic because of the preminum feel to metal, as well as the durability of the lens, though I definitely do understand when brands decide to make a lens made of plastic to keep the weight down. With this lens though, they somehow have gotten the best of both worlds, with the lens being made of metal while at the same time, keeping the weight super lightweight. In addition to that, this lens is weather sealed, so you can take it out in rainy conditions without worrying about water ruining your shooting experience.
With the negatives I’ve seen out there on the internet, people have talked about the vignetting of the lens, the barrel distortion, or the lack of stabilization in the lens, but those aren’t too much of a problem since you can fix the vignetting and distortion in post with a program like lightroom, which I use. With the lack of stabilization, if you’re camera has IBIS or in body image stabilization, then you won’t have to worry. Instead of those negatives which you can read more about elsewhere, I want to talk about what I think would be the biggest negatives I think most would have with this lens.
The first big negative is the maximum aperture of this lens. As the lens suggests, you can only go to f2.8. For me personally, that’s not too big a of deal as I wanted this lens more as a walkaround day time lens. When I do street photography at night, I’d lean more towards my 55mm, 85 mm or my 24 mm which are f1.8 and above. But for those who do want the 35 mm focal length and want to shoot with it at night, this might be a deal breaker for you. You can still get some great night shots with this lens, though it may be a bit more difficult than if you were to have a lens with a max aperture f1.8. You can look at the Sony 35 mm 1.8 or the Sony 35 mm GM 1.4. But with those, you get to let more light in, but with the trade off being a bigger and heavier lens. That’s for you to decide which is more important to you.
The second negative is the price. For being such an old lens, this price at retail is still $598, which is a bit crazy to me. But this is a really easy negative to get around. Because the lens is so old, you can actually just buy this lens used in a really good condition from sites like KEH or MPB. I personally got mine at MPB because it was cheaper than the used ones on KEH. I paid around $284, which is more than half the price off. At around $300 or so, this lens is a steal in my opinion. For me, I don’t mind using used lens, as it’s a great way to save money, especially in photography, where things like camera bodies, lens, filters, and whatnot can add up real quick. More than half my lens are used and they’ve all been perfectly fine and I intend to keep buying used since it’s saved me so much money. So if you don’t mind buying used, then this negative isn’t actually a negative. It may actually be a positive haha.
Overall, I have really enjoyed my time with this lens. Before using this lens, I actually had the Sony 35 mm 1.4 GM and I sold that to get this lens. There was nothing wrong with the 35 GM, but I noticed I never really took it out when shooting. It probably was due to the fact that I leaned more towards using my 55 mm when shooting and also due to the weight of the lens. Why I even bought the 35 GM is for another day haha, but with the amount of money I saved from selling it and buying the Zeiss 35 mm f2.8, I was able to use that money to prepare for future travels as well as get other things I actually needed. There are way more things I like about this lens than things I don’t like about this lens, which was really just the maximum aperture, but that’s a tradeoff I’m willing to take if it means having a lens this light. Let me know in the comments if you also enjoy this lens. Or if you’re interested in buying it. Or maybe you hate it and you think I made a mistake in choosing it over the 35 GM. Let me know about that too. I’d love to read some of your opinions.