questions for fe 16-35 f4 owners

I have had some lens flare with the lens when shooting with the sun in the frame or just outside of the frame, but I don't think any worse than any other lens

have not had any issues with filters and flare at all, sounds like that is a filter issue not the lens itself

overall been very pleased with the lens

I've been pleased with the lens on Sony a7 and previously on the a6000.

I've seen some reflections when the sun is in the frame, but no particular problem with flare. I have no hesitation using the lens anywhere from f/4 to f/16 as required. The performance is an accord with the Photozone test .

My tests of the lens on the a6000 were very encouraging as well, despite reports to the contrary.

This was the first serious shot with the a7 (sorry if you've seen this before)...

I've been using this lens more than a year with great enjoy .doing a lot of long exposure with filters (nissin 10 stop nd and b+w 10stop nd) and never seen any flare issue mentioned here.

There is some flaring when shooting into the sun, but I think it's pretty well controlled compared to some of my cheaper canon lenses.

I did have the reflection issue when trying to use a 10 stop ND. Unfortunately I don't have a sample of that right now.

I've only had the lens for about a month, but I've really enjoyed using it. Still trying to learn how to compose with an ultrawide.

I've had little issues with flare compared to other ultrawides. As far as the reflections from the filter - I use a stepped down 77mm ND and vari-ND - and have never had an issue.







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focus on you said:

I just ordered the FE 16-35 f4 wide zoom so I thought I would ask a few questions of those who have experience with this lens.

I'm hearing about flare issues with this lens. Is it a serious issue?

I heard about some reflection issues when using filters. Is it an issue when using both square slide-in filters and when using round threaded filters?

Can you share your experience with best apertures at wide, mid, and full focal lengths?

Probably the best question to ask is, what's your general opinion of this lens?

Lastly, please feel free to share your 16-35 photos. I would love to see some samples.

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I don't use filters, but I can tell you that with nothing in front of the lens, I've never had any real issue with flare, etc. It's a fun lens to use...

One of my favorite lens. I use Lee filter most of the time if I'm doing landscape . Been suing this lens for over a year now.

I haven't used filters, but I think the front part of the lens might reflect light. I took some shots through a window at night and covered the camera and tripod with a black jacket to block reflections from the window. In some of my shots, I saw bright spots at the bottom. The bright spots could have been reflections off the lens hood or the front part of the lens.

Occasionally, I will see flare manifest as a quarter circle or arc.

Here are some samples of images shooting into bright light.


I think this image had flare form in a quarter circle arc which I cloned out.


This shot is at f4. As I stopped down, flare became more visible.


Flare is visible in the tree's silhouette.

I don't think flare is a terrible problem with the FE 16-35, but you will see it in the shooting conditions where flare is expected.

Here's an album with more FE 16-35 shots.


Michael

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Michael, your 16-35 flickr album is downright impressive! Thanks for posting.

Yes, the lens can occasionally produce flares, when the Sun is in the corner of the frame, or just outside the frame. This can be used for artistic effect, so I think it's good that you can get flares, if you want this. Otherwise, it's fairly easy to avoid flare, by slightly changing framing or focal length. It's less of an issue than with most other lenses I have, especially wide angle lenses.

The only filter I use with this lens is a 72mm circular polarizer. I've never noticed any reflection issues. The filter is fairly slim, but not the "ultra-slim" type (i.e. it does have threads on the outside as well). I haven't noticed any vignetting caused by the filter, but I tend to avoid using it at focal lengths wider than about 20mm, because it makes the sky look uneven / unnatural.

I find my copy to be sharp in the center wide open, at all focal lengths. Corners are a bit soft wide open, especially towards 35mm. Stopped down to f/8, it's very sharp corner to corner at all focal lengths.

My general opinion is that the FE 16-35 is an excellent lens. If you need a zoom to cover the 16-35mm range, this is the one to get; it's worth every penny.

There was discussion about this a few months ago. I have contributed some "worst-case" images regarding the reflection (of the lens front element when using filters) issue.


Just this weekend I started playing around with the smooth reflections app by sony. This app actually saves RAW files and it might be a replacement for ND filters for me.

I've had this lens for almost two months and it's a really nice lens. Needs some practice to get the most out of it, but it's a really enjoyable lens once you're used to it.

Most of the first shots I was thinking "man, I would need more zoom for this shot", but after a couple of weeks I hardly take it off my camera.

The flares issue is there if you consider flare an issue. If the sun is in front of you or a little on the side then you're probably going to get some (depending on every situation).

In general is one of the best purchases I've made for my camera (and I have the 55...).

It's a great lens... as others have mentioned, it does a good job with controlling flare most of the time but if shooting into the sun it will flare... (no filters used in this shot)



I also get some slight vignetting using my Hoya Pro 72mm ND filters at 16mm

This lens has exceeded my expectations, very pleased with it at 16-28mm (less so at 35mm compared to the FE35 f2.8). Yes, you can get some flare when shooting off center into the sun, but I don't know that it's any worse than other lenses. Haven't used filters yet so I won't comment on that.

Here are some flare shots, and a few decent ones too.














First day with the lens, beginner's luck





















For more, I posted a bunch of shots here

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focus on you said:

I just ordered the FE 16-35 f4 wide zoom so I thought I would ask a few questions of those who have experience with this lens.

I'm hearing about flare issues with this lens. Is it a serious issue?

Click to expand...

No, like all lenses it does flare, but it handles flare better than most. I'm often shooting bright lights, or shooting it into the sun. It seems very good at maintaining image contrast. It flares with the sun close to dead center at wider focal lengths, then you will get a ring (there's an example of this on this thread). The work-around I usually use is to put the sun elsewhere, and stitch together with a second image and then crop.

focus on you said:

Can you share your experience with best apertures at wide, mid, and full focal lengths?

Click to expand...

I use it at f/9.5 at all focal lengths. This seems to be a decent trade-off between depth of field, lens sharpness and diffraction.

focus on you said:

Probably the best question to ask is, what's your general opinion of this lens?

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Superb lens for what I do (mainly landscapes). Stopped down it's IQ is up there with my prime lenses at all focal lengths. I shoot it a lot at night, and the sunstars it makes are to die for.

focus on you said:

Lastly, please feel free to share your 16-35 photos. I would love to see some samples.

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Here's one from mine taken at Daigoji near Kyoto, at f/9.5.



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A rose by any other name is still a chicken.

The FE 16-35 is a superior optic, but like all a compromise, just with this lens the give and take is minimal-















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focus on you said:

I just ordered the FE 16-35 f4 wide zoom so I thought I would ask a few questions of those who have experience with this lens.

I'm hearing about flare issues with this lens. Is it a serious issue?

Click to expand...

Well controlled

focus on you said:

I heard about some reflection issues when using filters. Is it an issue when using both square slide-in filters and when using round threaded filters?

Click to expand...

Never happen to me, here a picture taken with a 10ND filter

focus on you said:

Can you share your experience with best apertures at wide, mid, and full focal lengths?

Click to expand...

F 5.6-11

focus on you said:

Probably the best question to ask is, what's your general opinion of this lens?

Click to expand...

perfect travel lens. Hard to read the focal distance in the night.

focus on you said:

Lastly, please feel free to share your 16-35 photos. I would love to see some samples.

Click to expand...

No problems with flare so far.

Dead sharp from 16 to 24, 28 is OK and 35 is less so. You need to stop down to at least f8 to get really good sharpness across the frame at 35mm. But then you probably didn't buy it for the 35mm focal length so you will be more than pleased.

A few 16-35mm pickers can be found here:


I also did a shootout between the 16-35 and an old legacy Minolta wide-angle that maybe can interest you: