To visualize where 35mm fits among other common focal lengths, I'll borrow a focal length range example from a zoom lens review. This focal length has great general-purpose use, making it an ideal choice to simply leave on the camera for whatever needs arise. Fortunately, this lens performs well wide-open at f/2.8, turning in good sharpness across the frame at f/2.8. These effects do not look bad but were not as attractive as the sharply pointed results shown above.

While there are a huge number of 35mm prime lenses, as of review time, there are none with a narrower max aperture. Above: At 68x45mm and weighing 173g, the Sony 40 2.5 can’t be described as a pancake lens, but remains very compact none-the-less. Alongside, Sigma’s 45 2.8 is fractionally narrower and longer, and a little heavier at 215g, but you wouldn’t choose one over the other on size or weight as they’re essentially the same once mounted.The Sony Zeiss 35 2.8 has no visible distortion as shot on the Sony A7R II, which is probably correcting it. On a traditional DSLR with an optical viewfinder, IBIS results in an unstabilized view, meaning that stabilization was not helpful for composition or for providing a still subject to the camera's AF system. Corporate offers where a valid account is necessary for eligibility or corporate (B2B) pricing or quotes. While the Tamron lens is quite small and light, the Sony FE 35mm f/2.8 ZA Lens vs. Tamron 35mm f/2.8 Di III OSD M1:2 Lens comparison shows the Sony lens being the considerably smaller and lighter of the two.

The Sony FE 35mm f2.8 ZA comes without a pouch but the lens hood is included, just like the Samyang and the Zeiss Batis. The Sony FE 35mm f1.4 ZA comes with a pouch. [-]

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With only one focal length to be designed for, prime lenses often show low amounts of lateral CA and while not absolutely perfect, this one is showing a low amount of color separation in the corners. Benefiting from being stopped down 2 stops, the f/1.4 lens shows less spherical and axial CA at f/2.8 and the f/2.8 lens shows less lateral CA. Above: Moving sideways for a closer look at the rendering shows a reasonable degree of subject separation and while the effect can be attractive, there are fairly defined edges to some of the blurred elements. Vignetting can be corrected during post processing with increased noise in the brightened areas being the penalty or it can be embraced, using the effect to draw the viewer's eye to the center of the frame.

Golf Course Ocean View, 10 September 2015. Sony A7R II, Zeiss FE 35mm f/2.8, wide-open at f/2.8 at 1/1,250 at Auto ISO 100. bigger or full-resolution. All in all the FE 2.8/35 has some strong selling points: It is very small, feels very nice and it performs remarkably well at f/2.8, if this matters to you the price might be justified. If you remove the size from the equation it is a good performer wide open but below average at smaller apertures and the high price will be hard to justify. Optically, this lens is a stellar performer, as many Zeiss lenses are, with very sharp images on both the new full-frame cameras as well as sub-frame Sony cameras. Other factors like chromatic aberration and distortion are practically nonexistent with this lens, but there is some vignetting and a minor amount of corner softness, particularly on full-frame cameras at wider apertures -- a pretty small price to pay for outstanding performance otherwise.Many first-time APS-C DSLR camera buyers choose the optional kit lens when purchasing their camera. As you stop down there is very little change. The center improves a little to excellent levels but there is next to no improvement outside of the center. So at typical settings for landscape use, e.g. f/8 or f/11 other much cheaper lenses are sharper in the corners. The Canon FD 2.8/35 for example. Field Curvature Despite the diminutive size and ultra-light weight, this lens has a good quality feel and the performance is quite good. This Zeiss 35mm f/2.8 looks and feels very nice. It's very light, relatively compact and it feels sturdy. The design is simple and clean. The outer parts of the lens are made of metal.

At f/2.8 vignetting is severe at close to 2.5 stops. At f/4 it is reduced only a little to about 2 stops and by f/8 it is still at 1.5 stops which is about the highest value I have ever seen at f/8. The shape, intensity, and position of the flare in an image is variable and depends on the position and nature of the light source (or sources) as well as on the selected aperture, shape of the aperture blades and quality of the lens elements and their coatings. Parents love 35mm lenses for capturing their indoor events and most pets will let you get close enough to capture a nice perspective with such a lens. Vignetting steadily/gradually decreases until about 1.2 stops of shading remains in the corners at f/16 and beyond.I didn’t disassemble the lens so I can’t tell you how robust it’s inner construction is which is probably more important than the outside. Extrapolating from Roger Ciciala’s teardown of the ZA 4/24-70 I would guess that it’s mostly plastic inside.