A Versatile Ultra-Wide

Sony FE 20 mm f/1.8 G

- Rohinton Mehta

Inside the Box

• Lens

• Lens hood (ALC-SH162); Petal shape, bayonet type

• Front lens cap (ALC-F67S)

• Rear lens cap (ALC-R1EM)

• Soft case

• Operating instructions

The Sony FE 20 mm f/1.8 G lens was launched in India towards the end of February 2020 and is designed for full-frame Sony E-mount camera bodies (cannot be used with A-mount camera bodies). Let’s see how this lens performs in our review.

Design & Build Quality

The Sony FE 20 mm f/1.8 G lens is compact and appears neat and well built. It is lightweight (373 g) and has a metal lens mount. Filter diameter is 67 mm. The lens is dust and moisture resistant and a rubber ring on the lens mount prevents dust or water splashes to enter the lens. The lens is made in Thailand.

Key Features

The lens is constructed with 12 elements in 14 groups, that include two AA (Advanced Aspherical) lens elements and three ED (Extra-low Dispersion) glass elements to minimise sagittal flare and ensure that point light sources are rendered accurately, without any colour smearing (fringing). Certain lens elements are coated using Sony’s original Nano AR Coat to improve light transmission and suppress flare and ghosting, thereby creating images with good contrast. The front element has a special Fluorine coat to repel water and oil and make it easy to clean finger-prints. Autofocus accuracy and AF-Tracking speed are enhanced by using two XD (eXtreme Dynamic) linear motors. The lens uses internal focussing and hence there is no lens extension during focussing.