Sony offers a comprehensive line of G Master lenses that are ideally suited to capturing cityscapes. Whether you’re focusing on a narrow downtown corridor dominated by towering skyscrapers or encompassing an entire urban vista from a lofty distance, this type of photography offers dazzling opportunities. Not quite the same as street photography and perhaps closer to shooting landscapes, this genre also comes with a unique set of challenges.
The quality of the lens is clearly key to capturing the image you envision, and the focal length will have a dramatic impact on the scope of your results. Sony has four superb G Master lenses that are all up to the task. Among other things, these high-performance full-frame lenses are renowned for their ability to capture crisp high-resolution detail, a critical consideration when architecture fills the frame. If you’ve set your sites on cityscapes, one or more of them should be in your camera bag.
Sony SEL FE 35mm f/1.4 GM
This model boasts all the advantages you’d expect from a 35mm wide-angle prime combined with the versatility of a bright maximum aperture, so you can freely capture your cityscapes in a round-the-clock range of challenging lighting conditions. And if you’re planning to use the cityscape as a backdrop for an isolated foreground subject, you can also count on it to produces signature G Master-quality background bokeh. Nine-point weather sealing and a fluorine coating on the front element give you pro-level protection when shooting outdoors.
- Rounded 11-blade aperture
- XA elements and ED glass for high resolution throughout the image area
- Sony Nano AR Coating II to eliminate flare and ghosting
- XD Linear Motors offering fast, precise, quiet AF
- 0.27m (AF), 0.25m (MF) minimum focus distance
- 0.23x (AF), 0.26x (MF) maximum magnification ratio
- 524g weight
Sony SEL FE 12-24mm f/2.8 GM
Surprisingly lightweight for a lens of this calibre, this ultra-wide-angle zoom gives you the ability to capture more of the context of a scene, emphasizing distance to create more dynamic perspectives, and it also delivers a nice three-dimensional effect when shooting in tighter spaces. The barrel is fitted with both a manual focus ring and a zoom ring, with six clearly marked focal lengths – 12, 14, 16, 18, 21 and 24mm – spanning all the standard wide-angle benchmarks, each available at a constant f/2.8 aperture. There’s also a convenient focus-hold button and an AF/MF switch.
- Rounded 9-blade aperture
- XD Linear Motor offering fast, precise, quiet AF
- Three XA elements, an aspherical lens, two Super ED glasses and three ED glasses
- Sony Nano AR coating to eliminate flare and ghosting
- 0.28m minimum focus distance
- 0.14x maximum magnification ratio
- 847g weight
Sony SEL FE 16-35mm f/2.8 GM
Occupying the middle ground in this roundup of wide-angle zooms, the medium-sized 16-35m f/2.8 GM lens could be the Goldilocks choice for certain cityscape photographers. “Lightweight” is a relative term when dealing with lenses of this size, but weighing in at a respectable 680g compared with other models in this category, it’s sufficiently well balance when used with one of Sony’s latest full-frame mirrorless cameras. Optimized to perform flawlessly with these high-res sensors, it delivers consistently superb corner-to-corner resolution throughout the available zoom settings and your desired focus distance.
- Two XA (extreme aspherical) elements for outstanding resolution
- Circular 11-blade aperture
- Sony Nano AR coating to eliminate flare and ghosting
- Dust- and moisture-resistant design
- 0.28m minimum focus distance
- 0.19x maximum magnification ratio
- 680g weight
Sony SEL FE 24-70mm f/2.8 GM
This exceptional standard zoom offers a comprehensive wide to telephoto zoom range – indispensable versatility for a cityscape photographer – while retaining the same bright maximum aperture and impressive low-light capabilities as its abovementioned counterparts. As with any Sony GM lens, it’s made with premium lightweight materials, the build quality is outstanding, and the body features a dust- and moisture-resistant design. Autofocusing is fast, silent and smooth, and trademark GM optical performance delivers reliably super-sharp results.
- Sony Nano AR coating to eliminate flare and ghosting
- Circular 9-blade aperture
- Direct Drive SSM
- Dust- and moisture-resistant design
- 0.38m minimum focus distance
- 0.24x maximum magnification ratio
- 886g weight
Cover Image Credit: Photo by Kaique Rocha from Pexels
