Sony is bolstering its mirrorless camera system with a new lens, the FE 12-24mm F2.8 GM. It's a professional-grade zoom with coverage that's squarely ultra-wide, and is the only one of its type to also offer an f/2.8 aperture. It's capable of capturing the same epic views as the FE 12-24mm F4 G, but gathering twice as much light, and, according to Sony, offering better overall optics to boot.

It's a member of the premium G Master line, the company's highest class of lens. Sony touts its excellent edge-to-edge resolution, minimal distortion, and premium build. Wide-angle lenses are a favorite for landscape specialists, and this one is built for use in any weather, and includes fluorine protection to help keep its big front element free of smudges and debris.

At 5.4 by 3.8 inches (HD) and 1.9 pounds, it's a little bit bigger and heavier than the 12-24mm F4 G (4.6 by 3.5 inches, 1.2 pounds), but it also gathers twice the light. It ships with a soft case, a standard rear cap, a slip-on lens cap, and a template to properly size filter gels.

Sony has utilized some rather exotic optical elements to net wide, bright, sharp coverage. The one you'll notice is the Extreme Aspheric (XA) element at the front. It swells out, even more so than with other ultra-wide lenses, to the point where it required a specially developed anti-glare coating, dubbed Nano AR Coating II, as existing materials only worked on flatter surfaces.

The XA elements (there are three in total) flatten the field of focus, and Super ED glass nullifies the purple fringing effects of chromatic aberration. The autofocus system is also complex—it uses four linear motors to drive two floating focus elements, promising instant, quiet response.

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Because the front element is so curved, the lens doesn't support threaded filters. The lens has a hold at the rear of the optical path, so you can use optical gel neutral density filters—good news for landscape photographers who employ long exposures and videographers in want of the 24fps cinematic look working in bright light.

The manual focus response is linear, so videographers can reliably recreate focus racks. Optical stabilization isn't included, but Sony's full-frame camera series includes in-body stabilization.

Wide lenses aren't just for landscapes. The FE 12-24mm F2.8 focuses to 11 inches through its entire range, giving you the freedom to get just about as close as you want to a subject. When focusing close you'll get softly defocused backgrounds at f/2.8, and you have the option of narrowing the aperture to bring the background in focus for environmental portraiture.

Sony expects the FE 12-24mm F2.8 GM to go on sale on Aug. 13 for $3,000 in the US and $4,000 in Canada.

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