Sony 11mm F1.8 Review

I’ve been running this site (along with the YouTube channel) for years now. I’ve reviewed dozens of lenses, but very rarely have I dabbled in any ultra-wides. I’m more of a 35mm or 50mm kind of guy, but this time around I decided to switch it up and go wide.

And honestly, I loved it. Without spoiling to much of the review ahead of time, I really enjoyed my time with the Sony 11mm F1.8. Below, I’ll be sharing dozens of sample photos along with my impressions of someone who doesn’t often shoot wide.

Pros:

Great image quality
Compact and fairly light
Solid build quality for APS-C
Top notch autofocus
A great vlogging lens

Cons:

Heavy distortion (expected)
No image stabilization

Verdict: The Sony 11mm F1.8 offers fantastic image quality in a compact and lightweight package. Check out what others have to say about it (affiliate link) or keep reading for my full impressions & sample photos.

Table of Contents show

This entire website is secretly just a way for me to share photos of cool houses in my city.

Size & Weight

As mentioned in the intro, this lens, while it isn’t a pocket-lens (like the 16-50 kit for example), it’s still pretty darn small. There are some lenses I look at and think, “damn, this definitely wasn’t made for APS-C”… but this is certainly not one of them.

I primarily used it on my ZV-E10, but also shot with it on my a6000 a few times. This lens seriously feels absolutely perfect on both. Balanced and light but still “beefy” enough.

Build Quality

Speaking of which, build quality definitely stacks up. It’s decently weighty and doesn’t feel super plastic-y. Unlike a lot of APS-C lenses, the included hood feels strong and sturdy (and it’s reversible for storage, of course).

Now, make no mistake, this isn’t going to be on the same tier as a full-frame G-series lens, of course, but it feels great in the hand and I have no doubt about it’s longevity (just don’t drop it lol).

Sony does claim the 11mm F1.8 is weather sealed to a certain degree, but in my testing period we actually got an unusually sunny stretch for weeks so I wasn’t able to put it out into anything too crazy. It did get splashed a bit near a fountain and survived just fine, but I’m not sure how confident I’d be to take it out into anything extreme.

Instead of another boring picture of the lens, enjoy this lake instead.

Aesthetically, I like it. The barrel design is fairly minimalistic but the physical button and AF/MF switch (more on that later) contrast nicely. The aesthetics of a lens are obviously second to everything else but, let’s be honest, who doesn’t like a pretty lens?

Usability/Ergonomics

From a day-to-day usability standpoint, the lens feels great to use. As I mentioned before, it’s just about the right size to feel well-balanced but yet still comfortable and “grippable”. The flared lens hood provides a nice grip point when wandering around, but the lens is still light enough to be comfortably held one-handed.

A major downside, for me at least, is that it doesn’t offer any sort of in-body image stabilization. Now, most Sony bodies these days have IBIS built-in, but for those of us still rocking non-stabilized bodies, it’s unfortunate.

Autofocus

Autofocus is, as you’d expect from a modern OEM lens, very fantastic. There’s not a ton to say here as, if you’ve used any other new-ish lens, you’ll know that the AF is extremely reliable and quick. EyeAF worked well (when you get close enough to use it lol) and I had zero issues tracking moving subjects.

Something peculiar to note is that the minimum focusing distance is VERY close. You’re not going to get macro-lens level results out of this, but it was pretty fun for creating weird and interesting compositions.

The lens had no issues tracking these horrifyingly huge kites.

For my fellow manual focus enthusiasts, know that the focusing ring is focus-by-wire. It doesn’t feel bad and is fairly accurate, but there aren’t any hard stops or tactile feedback. And that’s ok because chances are you’re probably not going to be using this lens outside of autofocus mode much.

Image Quality

Finally, let’s get to the creme of the crop: image quality. Frankly, there’s not a ton to say here because the lens just produces fabulous images. F1.8 is sharp (with a bit of corner softness), F2.8 is razor sharp (with virtually no corner softness), and anything above that is just perfection.

church again — Only a bit of corner softness at F1.4.

Something to note is that, thanks to the extremely wide focal length, the lens does suffer from some serious distortion. Thankfully, this is mostly easily fixed with a single click in post processing, but I did have to do some very minor manual adjustments for certain shots.

huge house — Distortion is pretty intense, but mostly easily fixed in post.

That aside, you’ll see a decent bit of ghosting when shooting into direct sunlight, but strangely enough very little loss of contrast. Chromatic aberrations are fairly minor and not an issue at all.

huge house sun — Virtually no loss of contrast, but some ghosting.

Who should buy this?

Overall, in case it isn’t super obvious, I was more than pleased with the images this lens put out. But who should buy this lens? I think this is best for two different types of people:

Someone who just likes to shoot wide-angle subjects (obviously). This lens is optically near-perfect, compact, and a joy to use.
Someone who has a stabilized body and wanted to vlog. The lens is AWESOME for documenting your life or when working in a tight studio.

Vlogging, with a stabilized body or gimbal, is the biggest strength of this lens. It’s wide enough to capture everything in frame, light enough to not be a major PITA to carry, and the bright aperture lends itself to some pretty solid subject isolation.