Wide Angle Lens for Sony

Hello!  What has been your experience with the following lenses for Sony-

Sigma 14-24 f2.8

Sony 16-35 F4

Sony 12-24 F4

Tamron 17-28 F2.8

I know certain lenses work better underwater versus topside and would love to hear your suggestions.  Thank you!

Three of the four lenses you have listed have been reviewed by me at Underwater Photography magazine, UWPMAG.com.  Just enter your E-mail address and at the top of the page go to the back issues. Enter my name Phil Rudin into the search engine and you will see over 100 articles and what equipment was reviewed. 

15 hours ago, Phil Rudin said:

Three of the four lenses you have listed have been reviewed by me at Underwater Photography magazine, UWPMAG.com.  Just enter your E-mail address and at the top of the page go to the back issues. Enter my name Phil Rudin into the search engine and you will see over 100 articles and what equipment was reviewed. 

Thank you so much, Phil.  I read your reviews and they all seem to be pretty favorable.  Do you have a recommendation, please?

I shoot Wide Angle only. Most intermediate to close shots the strobe do the job. HOWEVER, for ambient light shots, you will be happier with a fast lens. You can improve in post if shooting raw and full frame. However, getting the best in the can is preferred. One other important point is the quality of the dome port. Glass is only way to go for me!

On 1/12/2022 at 4:24 AM, WesleyD said:

Hello!  What has been your experience with the following lenses for Sony-

 

Sigma 14-24 f2.8

Sony 16-35 F4

Sony 12-24 F4

Tamron 17-28 F2.8

 

I know certain lenses work better underwater versus topside and would love to hear your suggestions.  Thank you!

It depends on what you are trying to achieve a little, they are all rectilinear wides so corner performance will suffer behind a dome to a greater or lesser extent.  How important this is depends upon your subject and your standards.   Reefscapes with corner detail may look quite bad if corners are not sharp, while if you primarily shoot large animals in blue water then the corners will be less important as it is just water.  Wrecks somewhere in between depending upon composition details.

The 12 and 14mm lens are a particular challenge and will almost certainly want a 230mm dome with them and due to the bulbous front element you can't use the Sea and Sea correcting lens with them,  The Sony and Tamron both take regular filters and can use the Sea and Sea correction lens which allows you to open the aperture by one-two stops or improve corners at normal aperture.  Typically you would be shooting f11-16 for better corners with all of these lenses. 

This page shows the benefit of the Sea and Sea corrector and includes a shot taken with a 17 lens and 170mm dome at f8 which shows the corner issues in smaller domes.  https://uwaterphoto.com/?p=839

I like the 12-24 F/4 more than the 16-36mmF/4  because I find the zoom range more useful to me underwater. I also like the Tamron because it is faster both aperture and AF speed than the older Sony F/4 lenses.

I am now testing the Sony FE 12-24mm F/2.8 with the 230mm dome which is both faster and much better in image quality over the F/4 also quite expensive v. the F/4

The 17-28 also works well with the Sea & Sea 77mm conversion lens and 67mm step-up ring. The Sea & Sea lens is getting harder to find in the used market. 

The first two images are the 12-24 at 12mm and the third is at 24mm which I like for portraiture. The Starfish is the 17-28 at 28mm and the free diver is at 17mm. The last is about a healthy crop to show the detail a bit better. This guy had made a dive to about 30 meters and I fired the camera as soon as I could see him coming out of the darkness, the AF did the rest locking on in a very low light situation.

On 1/13/2022 at 2:27 PM, Phil Rudin said:

I like the 12-24 F/4 more than the 16-36mmF/4  because I find the zoom range more useful to me underwater. I also like the Tamron because it is faster both aperture and AF speed than the older Sony F/4 lenses.

I am now testing the Sony FE 12-24mm F/2.8 with the 230mm dome which is both faster and much better in image quality over the F/4 also quite expensive v. the F/4

The 17-28 also works well with the Sea & Sea 77mm conversion lens and 67mm step-up ring. The Sea & Sea lens is getting harder to find in the used market. 

The first two images are the 12-24 at 12mm and the third is at 24mm which I like for portraiture. The Starfish is the 17-28 at 28mm and the free diver is at 17mm. The last is about a healthy crop to show the detail a bit better. This guy had made a dive to about 30 meters and I fired the camera as soon as I could see him coming out of the darkness, the AF did the rest locking on in a very low light situation.

 

Hi Phil,

Did you ever finish the testing on the 12-24mm f/2.8 version? How did it stack up against the f/4? Would you still opt for it over the 16-35mm?

Thanks,

Matt

The 12-24 F/2.8 is a fantastic lens if you are doing a lot of top side work as well as underwater work. It is much better than the old F/4 version but I will be recommending a 12-24mm F/4 II version when it arrives. I have been using the new 16-35mm F/4 PZ with the PZ function assigned to the OK and down arrow buttons rather than using a zoom gear. It has 8 zoom speeds and I think video users will find it user friendly. I have been using it with the S&S correction lens which helps the corners when using a 230mm dome port. I would now recommend the 16-35 PZ over the Tampon 17-28 F/2.8 used for some of the above photos. 

2 minutes ago, Phil Rudin said:

The 12-24 F/2.8 is a fantastic lens if you are doing a lot of top side work as well as underwater work. It is much better than the old F/4 version but I will be recommending a 12-24mm F/4 II version when it arrives. I have been using the new 16-35mm F/4 PZ with the PZ function assigned to the OK and down arrow buttons rather than using a zoom gear. It has 8 zoom speeds and I think video users will find it user friendly. I have been using it with the S&S correction lens which helps the corners when using a 230mm dome port. I would now recommend the 16-35 PZ over the Tampon 17-28 F/2.8 used for some of the above photos. 

Thanks, Phil. How did you get the correction lens to work? I thought the lens is 72mm and S&S has 77mm and 82mm.

8 minutes ago, MattPNW said:

Thanks, Phil. How did you get the correction lens to work? I thought the lens is 72mm and S&S has 77mm and 82mm.

You use a contraption called a step-up ring adapter (allows you to use 72mm threaded filters on a 77mm threaded lens)

(Sorry, i really wanted to use that word )

4 minutes ago, waterpixel said:

You use a contraption called a step-up ring adapter (allows you to use 72mm threaded filters on a 77mm threaded lens)

(Sorry, i really wanted to use that word )

Ah. I thought that given it moves the converter further from the lens that it would defeat the full purpose of the correction lens. If that is not the case, then great!

This is how the Sea & Sea converter looks on the 16-35mm F/4 PZ lens.