Sony FE 12-24mm f4 G Sample Images – Real-World Examples

Sample images from the Sony FE 12-24mm f/4 G — rectilinear coverage down at focal lengths usually reserved for fisheyes — showing what that extreme wide view looks like without the fisheye distortion.

Related: what makes a prime lens · what “fast” means in a lens · finding a lens’s filter size.

The Sony FE 12-24mm f/4 G wide-angle zoom lens is an unusually wide lens. Its widest focal lengths are down into the territory usually reserved for fisheye lenses, but in this case, you get the wide view without that distinctive fisheye look. That’s thanks to the four aspherical elements that work to keep lines straight and minimize distortion. On most super-wide-angle lenses, you can expect some pretty dramatic softening at the corners, but while you get definite stretching with this lens, it remains remarkably sharp from corner to corner.

This lens is in Sony’s FE range and is designed for full-frame cameras like the Sony a7R IV that I’ve been using it on, but you can also use it with an APS-C crop camera. In that case, you’ll multiply the practical focal length by 1.5x, making it effectively an 18-36mm zoom lens.

I’ve posted a detailed hands-on review of the Sony FE 12-24mm f/4 G lens separately, but here I’m focusing on some sample images to give some practical examples from real-world shooting.

In shooting and selecting the images here, I’ve put the emphasis on ones that play to the lens’s dramatic wide-angle perspective and also ones that are likely to illustrate any optical flaws, such as distortion, soft edges, and chromatic aberration. All of these were originally shot in RAW. They’ve been processed in Lightroom, but I haven’t applied any of Lightroom’s lens correction tools to these shots.

You can click on each image to open a full-size version if you’d like a closer look.

Optical correction tools

I deliberately haven’t applied extensive corrections to these images. And the general rule of thumb in photography is that it’s better to get the shot right at the time of capture rather than trying to fix it after. That’s a great aspiration, but it’s not always possible to do if you’re bumping up against limitations or flaws in gear, conditions, or technique.

But it’s worth mentioning that there are some excellent tools available to help address common issues with lenses, such as distortion, chromatic aberration, and lens vignetting when editing the images. All-round image processing apps like Lightroom Classic and Capture One have solid tools built in already that often cater to specific lens profiles (or you can make your own).

Some more specialized tools can take it even further. DxO, in particular, sets the gold standard. Their software is built on the foundation of their incredibly deep archive of data from their extensive lab testing of the optical performance of lenses and cameras. But there are some other excellent specialized tools available. These are well worth a look (and have free trials):

• DxO Pure RAW (for a suite of automatic RAW file corrections enhancement)
• DxO ViewPoint (correcting for distortion and geometry)
• Topaz Labs Sharpen AI (in addition to standard unsharp tools, includes focus correction and shake reduction)
• On1 NoNoise (includes Tack Sharp AI, which applies sharpening)

Price & availability of the Sony FE 12-24mm F/4 G lens

Check the current price and availability of the Sony FE 12-24mm G lens at:

• B&H Photo
• Adorama
• Amazon

B&H also has a version that includes an accessory kit that makes for good value — you can find it here.

You can rent them from LensProtoGo.

If you’re in the market for a used copy, you can sometimes find them at KEH.

Accessories for the Sony FE 12-24mm F/4 G lens

Filters. Because of the dramatically curved front element, the Sony FE 12-24mm f/4 G lens doesn’t take regular screw-on filters on the front. Instead, it has a filter slot at the other (or rear) end. You can use filters like these. Alternatively, you can add a 150mm filter holder for plate filters on the front, like this one.

Lens Caps. It takes a regular Sony ALC-R1EM rear end cap.

Lens Hood. The lens hood is part of the camera and can’t be removed. While it does help a little with lens flare, in practice, the effect of that is minimal with an ultra-wide-angle lens like this. Rather, its most important role is in adding some protection to the large glass dome that is the front element.