Sony's FE 16-25mm F/2.8 G Lens

Phil Rudin · Issue 145, Jul/Aug 2025 · pp. 36–39

Products mentioned: Sony FE 16-25mm F/2.8 G, Sony FE 16-35mm F/2.8 GM II, Sony FE 20-70mm F/4, Sony A1 camera, Sony A9 III camera, Marelux MX-A1 housing, Marelux 180mm dome port, Marelux Apollo S strobes, Ocean Inventions custom gear

Sony’s new compact F/2.8 wide- angle rectilinear zoom lens has what can only be described as GM like image quality at about half the price of Sony’s FE 16-35mm F/2.8 GM II at $2298.00 US (€2699.00). The Sony FE 16-25mm F/2.8 G retails for $1198.00 US (€1139.00) which makes it a bit of a bargain for an F/2.8. I would argue that the 16-25 F/2.8 is a better underwater lens than any of the 16-35mm G or GM lenses simply because it’s smaller, lighter, very fast focusing up to 120 FPS with the Sony A9 III camera and has a much closer minimum focus distance. All of the Sony and Sony compatible 16-35mm F/2.8 and F/4 lenses have minimum focus distances that are in the over 20cm to 28cm range while the Sony FE 16-25mm F/2.8 focuses all the way to 18cm (7.1 inches). At an up to 10cm difference most of the 16-35’s are more well suited to 230mm dome ports than to a 180mm port. For the purposes of this…