Yesterday, November 14, 2019, Sony released a repair recall for one of their professional lenses – the 16-35mm GM. The f/2.8 lens was released back in 2017, and since then it stood our for it’s high build quality and sharpness.

The phenomenon

Sony says that “some SEL1635GM FE 16-35mm F2.8 GM E-mount lenses may cause the camera to not operate correctly when the lens is attached”.

Sony “will repair your Affected Lens, free of charge, until March 31, 2023”.

Affected are lenses with serial numbers between 1800502 and 1823192 but not all lenses within the serial number range are affected.

From the day Sony announced their 135mm f/1.8 GM lens I was wondering if it will be a better option for me to replace the 70-200mm f/2.8 GM. Being smaller, lighter and faster – that sounded like a good option. Plus, on my A7RIII or A7RIV, with just one click (switching to crop mode) it turns to a 200mm lens. For my casual shooting I wouldn’t even think about this. But for professional work – like weddings and other events, the versatility of the zoom lens is a king. However, the new 135mm has a faster Dual front and rear XD linear motors to achieve fast, precise, and quiet AF. It also have smaller minimum focus distance and aperture dial on the lens.

Lightweight, compact and affordable – this is how we can describe the just announced SONY FE 35mm f/1.8 lens. The f/1.8 aperture allows the lens to remain small and well balanced on both APS-C and full-frame Sony cameras.

Some other, not so obvious things, make this lens very desirable addition to each camera bag. Either for Professionals, enthusiasts or beginners. The linear auto-focus motor for quickly and accurately locking onto your subject, the customizable focus hold button, as well as the small minimum focus distance of just 0.22cm (0.73ft) will be a huge advantage over the older Sony FE 28mm f/2 lens.