Phillip Pettit of Lens Rentals recently offered up a comparison of three Sony ultra wide lenses, prefacing his examination saying "I’m here to tell you, in not so many words, that they are all excellent wide zoom lenses that each have their strengths and uses." Using the lenses on a Sony α9 body, he gives his thoughts on construction and performance. Pettit looks at all three, but his clear favorite is the 16-35mm f/2.8 G Master.  

Describing this G Master lens as a "luxury sedan", Pettit writes, "I fell head over heels in love with carrying around the Sony 16-35mm f2.8 GM. It became my go to lens and was just a pleasure to use. It really hits you with the Goldilocks zone. It’s just right." He also directly compares it to the highly-regarded Canon 16-35mm Mk III writing, "I was taken aback at how great this lens is. The Canon has been my go to since it came out, but I really believe that the Sony bests it. Sharpness? Check. Contrast? Check. Great color? Check. Check. Check. It checks all the boxes. It should go without saying at this point, but I expected greatness from this lens, and it delivered in spades in the images I got." 

Pettit also looked at the 16-35mm f/4 and 12-24mm f/4 G. Here are some of his thoughts:

Of the three zooms in the blog post, the Sony 16-35mm f/4 ZA lens has been in the line the longest. Commenting on its construction, Pettit declares "This guy is built like a tank and is the heaviest of the wide zooms... but don’t let its rough exterior fool you. The Sony 16-35mm f/4 ZA has great, smooth focus, zoom action, and in my experience, is pretty well sealed from dust."

"It’s an impressive lens" says Pettit of Sony's 12-24mm f/4 G lens. He continues "It’s a specialty lens and does it well..."

After comparing image quality, autofocus, handling, and usability, Pettit declared "I cannot stress enough that we’re splitting hairs. These are all excellent lenses, and I would recommend them for different reasons to different people."