Introduction
Often sold as kit lens, the Sony FE 28-60mm 4.0-5.6 is the most compact zoom lens you can find for your fullframe E-mount camera. These kit lenses often perform better than people think, but is that also the case for this cheap retractable one, that can often be found for less than 200 bucks? Let’s find out in this review.
Sample Images
You can find most of the sample pictures in full resolution here.
Specifications
This Sony FE 28-60mm 4.0-5.6 has the following specifications:
- Diameter: 67 mm
- Field of view: 40° to 75° (diagonally)
- Length: 46 mm (retracted), 68 mm (at 28mm)
- Weight: 167g (without hood and caps)
- Filter Diameter: 40.5 mm
- Number of Aperture Blades: 7 (rounded)
- Elements/Groups: 8/7
- Close Focusing Distance: 0.3 m (28mm) – 0.45 m (60mm)
- Maximum Magnification: 1:7.4 at 28mm to 1:5.6 at 60mm (measured)
- Released: September 2020
- Mount: E-mount
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Handling / Build Quality
The design of this Sony FE 28-60mm 4.0-5.6 is about as basic as it gets. The casing seems to be exclusively made from polycarbonate, some users of cheap Nikon Z lenses may be jealous of the metal mount though.
The rubberized focus ring has okayish resistance but a linear coupling and it takes exactly 180° from the minimum focus distance to infinity.
The zoom is mechanically coupled (no power zoom) and features markings for 28, 35, 40, 50 and 60mm.
And that is already it. No AF/MF switch, no lens button.
There is also no official lens hood available for this lens, you can find some third party options though.
Sony FE 28-60mm 4.0-5.6
This is a retractable/collapsible zoom lens, meaning when it is in its transport position you first have to extend it to actually use it. When in working mode it is shortest around 40mm and extends towards 28mm as well as 60mm. The zoom ring also acts as the switch to move from transport mode to working mode.
In transport mode this is indeed a very small lens, similar to Sony’s G primes 24mm 2.8, 40mm 2.5 and 50mm 2.5. When in working mode it is actually not that small anymore, comparable to lenses like the Sony FE 28mm 2.0 or the Viltrox AF 35mm 1.8 Evo.
When in working mode this lens also worked well on the Nikon Zf via the megadap ETZ21pro+, but going from transport mode to working mode didn’t function properly, here reattaching the adapter with the lens already extended or a restart of the camera is needed. As Nikon Z users have access to the arguably more interesting Nikon Z 24-50mm 4.0-6.3, I doubt many of those will be interested in adapting this Sony lens anyway.
Autofocus
I am not shooting sports or fast moving animals/humans so if you want to know if the lens is fast enough for this, or how it compares to other lenses in this segment, you may have to look for a different review with a more detailed assessment of this aspect.
The AF is reasonably fast and accurate and it is also completely silent. With its specifications this lens is also not that demanding when it comes to the accuracy of the AF though.
Vignetting
Sony A7rII | Sony FE 28-60mm 4.0-5.6 | Distortion corrected
| 28mm | 40mm | 60mm | |
|---|---|---|---|
| f/4.0 | 2.2 EV | ||
| f/5.0 | 1.5 EV | ||
| f/5.6 | 1.8 EV | 1.3 EV | 1.3 EV |
| f/8.0 | 1.3 EV | 1.0 EV | 0.5 EV |
| f/11 | 1.2 EV | 0.9 EV | 0.5 EV |
The vignetting figures are very typical for a midrange zoom. At longer focal lengths they are actually lower than I would have expected from a lens as compact as this.
Sony A7rII | Sony FE 28-60mm 4.0-5.6 | Distortion corrected
It is recommended to have a look at this article first to get an idea how this brightness graph works.
Sharpness
infinity (42mp Sony A7rII)
Sony A7rII | Sony FE 28-60mm 4.0-5.6
This Sony FE 28-60mm 4.0-5.6 shows a good albeit not amazing performance throughout its zoom range at infinity. Luckily this lens also performs well from its maximum aperture, as having to stop down for that first would be more painful with this already slow lens.
The corners also never look amazing, especially at the 28mm end, so if you are using a camera with a lot of megapixels and you are looking for very high resolution from corner to corner you might have to get a fancier lens to be fully satisfied.
Nevertheless, if you are not able to create high quality pictures in good light with this lens, it is probably not the lens’ fault.
close (42mp Sony A7rII)
28mm, 1:7.4
Sony A7rII | Sony FE 28-60mm 4.0-5.6 | 28mm | 100% crops from center
60mm, 1:5.6
Sony A7rII | Sony FE 28-60mm 4.0-5.6 | 60mm | 100% crops from center
Compared to other recent midrange zooms this Sony FE 28-60mm 4.0-5.6 only offers a moderate maximum magnification of 1:5.6 which is reached at the 60mm end. Here it is also a bit soft at its maximum aperture, whereas at the 28mm end it already performs well from f/4.0.
Flare resistance
Generally, if you try hard and long enough, you can make almost any lens look bad in this category. Zoom lenses are often more prone to issues here, due to many air-glass surfaces and plenty of moving parts inside.
28mm
Sony A7rII | Sony FE 28-60mm 4.0-5.6 | 28mm
60mm
Sony A7rII | Sony FE 28-60mm 4.0-5.6 | 60mm
In my testing this lens showed a solid performance with only minor artefacts at 28mm and more distracting ones at the 60mm end. Shooting some backlit scenes in the field it actually looked worse at 60mm than in my tests above.
Veiling flare due to stray light from the side (where a hood which isn’t included could potentially help) is luckily not a problem with this lens.
Also here a solid but not an amazing performance.
Coma correction
28mm
Sony A7rII | Sony FE 28-60mm 4.0-5.6 | 28mm | 100% crops from corner | distortion corrected
60mm
Sony A7rII | Sony FE 28-60mm 4.0-5.6 | 60mm | 100% crops from corner | distortion corrected
The Coma correction is decent. At the 28mm end stopping down one or two stops definitely reduces the size of the artefacts in the corners, at 60mm there are hardly any artefacts to begin with.
This is obviously not a lens I would recommend for astrophotography because it is so slow, but for blue hour scenes this is still important.
Distortion
Sony A7III | Sony FE 28-60mm 4.0-5.6 | f/8.0
The distortion pattern is actually very interesting. At the 28mm end there is strong (mostly uniform) barrel distortion which decreases upon zooming in and from 40 to 60mm there is hardly any distortion left – rather unusual for a compact zoom lens.
Using this lens on a Sony camera the distortion will already be corrected for the viewfinder image and Adobe CameraRaw/Lightroom also features correction profiles for this lens that do a very good job.
Sunstars
28mm
Sony A7rII | Sony FE 28-60mm 4.0-5.6 | 28mm | 25% crops
60mm
Sony A7rII | Sony FE 28-60mm 4.0-5.6 | 60mm | slight crops
At maximum aperture and two stops down this lens hardly creates any sunstars. Stopped down four to five stops (meaning f/16 to f/22 at 28mm and f/22 to f/32 at 60mm) they actually look well defined and nice, but sadly you are already in diffraction territory here, robbing you of some resolution.
As this is a highly subjective topic may have a look at this article to see which kind of sunstars you prefer.
Bokeh
Having a look at the specifications of this lens it should be obvious that it is not a lens for shallow depth of field photography.
Only at close focus distances you can create some bokeh and its quality is actually quite nice.
With bigger objects and at longer focus distances the background will only be faintly out of focus and we cannot really speak of bokeh here.
Chromatic aberrations
Lateral
With Sony’s AF lenses lateral CA are automatically corrected and those corrections are also automatically applied in Lightroom and cannot be turned off. Long story short: unless you are using a more obscure raw developer you won’t be seeing any lateral CA in your pictures.
Longitudinal
Sony A7rII | Sony FE 28-60mm 4.0-5.6 | 50% crops
As this is not a very fast lens longitudinal CA in the form of bokeh fringing are nothing to worry about.
Sony A7rII | Sony FE 28-60mm 4.0-5.6 | 100% crops
Also purple fringing is corrected very well. In the sample above sunlight was hitting the chrome parts directly and we do not see any kind of discoloring.
Conclusion
good
|
average
|
not good |
The Sony FE 28-60mm 4.0-5.6 is a solid lens without any outstanding flaws but it is also one of the most uninspiring lenses I have ever reviewed.
The zoom range is not only limited, it also barely scratches the wide angle realm as well as the tele realm. Personally I prefer Nikon’s choice to offer a 24-50mm 4.0-6.3 lens here, which features a less limiting 24mm field of view.
For most people this 28-60mm 4.0-5.6 will merely be a step-stone before getting a “better” lens. I spend some time thinking who would actually appreciate this lens and I only came up with hikers who count every gram, but then would I advise them to carry a heavy fullframe camera only to use this lens? Not really. I would rather use a compact but much faster prime like the Sony FE 28mm 2.0 or Viltrox AF 35mm 1.8 Evo. I actually also consider my Vivo X200 Ultra to be way more versatile, offering the field of view of an ultra wide as well as a tele lens (and focusing much closer).
On the used market this lens is very affordable though – there are people who spend more on a lens hood, camera strap or filter – and if the focal length range is what you are looking for – and you don’t mind the slow maximum aperture – you may be very happy with it.
buy from Amazon.com | Amazon.de | ebay.com | ebay.de | B&H (advertisement/affiliate links) for $498 (new) or starting at $200 (used)
Alternatives
There is actually no direct competitor to this lens, as this is the only collapsible fullframe E-mount zoom and therefore by far the smallest and also one of the cheapest. The first generation Sony FE 28-70mm 3.5-5.6 OSS can be found for even less money but it is significantly bigger and optically worse (from my memories of the short time I spent with it). I haven’t tried the newer Sony FE 28-70mm 3.5-5.6 OSS II, but again for that extra 10mm reach it is significantly bigger.
You can find many E-mount standard zoom lenses discussed in our Sony FE Guide.
Sample images
You can find most of the sample pictures in full resolution here.
Further Reading
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My name is Bastian and I am your expert here when it comes to ultra wide angle lenses, super fast portrait lenses (ranging from a 50mm f/0.95 to a 200mm f/1.8) and I also have reviewed way too many 35mm lenses.
Don’t ask me anything about macro or wildlife shooting though.
