The nice folks at B&H lent me the Sony 12-24mm f/2.8 lens for my trip out west. I wanted to try it out for landscapes and see if it lived up to the hype that I have been hearing.

At first glance the lens felt a bit heavier than I initially expected but let’s keep in mind it’s an f/2.8 all the way through. Once I wrapped my head around that and compared it to Canon’s EF 11-24mm f/4L USM Lens that is an f/4 and weighs in at 2.6 lbs., I decided maybe it isn’t too heavy after all. The Sony lens weighs 1.86 lbs. and costs approximately $2,998.00usd which is the same price as the Canon.

I like in an ultra-wide-angle lens because it gives the photographer a new perspective on a scene by allowing you to see wider than the human eye. The wide-angle lens lets you get extremely close to an object in the foreground, making the apparent distance between foreground and background grossly exaggerated or as exaggerated as you choose to make it. This allows endless creative possibilities.

There is a learning curve to using an ultra-wide-angle lens. The great trick is to not make your background elements dwarf so much that they look odd or disconnected from the foreground. The idea is to place the viewer inside the frame with you. To make them feel the grandeur that you have intended.

Below are two of my Sony 12-24mm shots from my recent trip to Zion NP. Captured on the same evening as the sun was setting, both at 12mm.