List of Sony E lenses for APS-C

I mention here all the lenses dedicated to the “E” mount for the Sony APS-C bodies. You will find all Sony lenses but also about a dozen of third-party brands more or less known that offer lenses for Sony APS-C cameras.

Generally speaking, the Sony E-mount designates all lenses suitable for Sony mirrorless cameras, both on full frame and APS-C bodies. Released in 2011, this mount was first implemented on the Sony α NEX-3 and NEX-5. In 2013, this mount becomes available for the first time on a mirrorless interchangeable-lens camera (MILC), the Sony α3000. In October 2013, Sony releases its first full-frame (24x36mm) mirrorless camera, the α7 and α7R, with the beginning of Sony FE mount for Full frame cameras.

Today, the range of Sony mirrorless cameras for APS-C goes from the Sony α5100: the oldest Sony APS-C mirrorless camera still in production, α6000, α6400, to α6600 (the newest). By the way, if you want to learn more, we released a complete guide to help you choose your Sony camera!

For those who are wondering, even if you’re using a Sony APS-C camera, you may want to consider using lenses designed for full-frame cameras. You only loose the advantage of dedicated APS-C lenses which are often cheaper, lighter and smaller. If you are interested in Sony FE lenses for full frame, feel free to have a look at this page!

The tables below are sortable. You can classify the lenses according to the characteristics you are interested in, such as stabilization, maximum aperture or focal length.

The range of Sony lenses for APS-C body appears to be more limited than that for full-frame cameras. Below, I present all the Sony E lenses for APS-C body, sorted in four distinct tables, gathering:

1. Wide angle (WA) and ultra-wide angle (UWA): focal lengths less than 14mm (UWA) and 14mm to 24mm (WA),
2. Standard focal lengths: focal lengths from 24mm to 50mm,
3. Telephoto lenses: focal lengths beyond 50mm,
4. Macro lenses: intended for macro photography (there is only one at Sony)

Are you looking for a specific portrait lens? Check out our article on the best portrait lenses for Sony. We detail, for both APS-C and full frame sensors, the ones we consider the best. For an APS-C camera, the focal length will often be between 30mm and 70mm.

If you are looking for lenses to shoot landscapes or architecture (or whenever you need a very wide angle of view), you will have to look at wide-angle and ultra wide-angle lenses. Until May 2022, the choice was rather limited if you chose to stick with Sony (4 lenses: 1 zoom and 3 prime lenses).

In May 2022, Sony hit hard by announcing the release of three new wide-angle lenses: the Sony E PZ 10-20mm f/4 G, a motorized ultra wide-angle zoom lens, as comfortable in video as in photography, the Sony E 11mm f/1.8, a bright ultra wide-angle lens, perfect for landscape photography, and finally the Sony E 15mm f/1.4 G, a superb wide-angle prime lens with the quality of the “G” lenses from Sony.

Note that the Sony E PZ 10-20mm f/4 G and the Sony E 10-18mm f/4 OSS offer the shortest focal length (10mm). Of course, other third-party brands offer shorter focal lengths if needed. Interesting for all landscape photography enthusiasts and ND/GND filter use enthusiasts, all the lenses listed below allow screw-in filters on the front of the lens. This will not be the case at all, with all Full frame wide-angle lenses that you can also use on your Sony APS-C camera.

If you want to go further on the subject, I invite you to check out our complete article summarizing the best wide-angle lenses for Sony mirrorless cameras (both APS-C and full frame).

In the table, I have included above all the standard and trans-standard lenses, both fixed and zoom lenses. I have included the Sony 30mm f/3.5 Macro which remains a standard focal length, even if it is also a macro lens.

In fact, we detail the best Sony zooms (and third-party brands) suitable for APS-C format. Don’t hesitate to come and have a look at the details of each lens!

If you are looking for in-depth information on specific Sony lenses, I invite you to check out our article on the best Sony 35mm lenses, a focal length adapted for street or environmental portrait photography. You can also check out our full review of the best Sony 50mm lenses of the moment, an ideal focal length for portrait photography.

Only two telephoto lenses designed for Sony APS-C cameras are available at the time of writing this page. If you want better quality lenses with larger apertures, you will have to turn to telephoto lenses built for full-frame Sony cameras.

For Sony APS-C cameras, there is to my knowledge only one macro lens dedicated to these cameras, the Sony 30mm f/3.5 Macro. If you want more choice of macro lenses at Sony, you will have to consider the Sony FE lenses for full frame cameras such as the Sony 50mm f/2.8 Macro or the very famous Sony 90mm f/2.8 Macro G OSS.

For macro enthusiasts and those on a tighter budget, you will find several third-party brands (mentioned below) offering macro lenses such as the Zeiss Touit 50mm f/2.8 Macro, the Samyang 100mm f/2.8 ED UMC Macro or the 7Artisans 60mm f/2.8 Macro.

If you want to know more about this type of lens, I invite you to read our complete guide explaining how to choose a macro lens and on which criteria.

Many third-party brands offer lenses for Sony E APS-C cameras. To my knowledge, only Zeiss, Sigma, Tamron and Viltrox offer lenses with autofocus (AF). All the lenses mentioned in the other brands offer manual focus (MF).

If you want to look at things differently, I just finished a comprehensive article on the best Samyang/Tamron lenses for Sony mirrorless cameras!

The three lenses available from Zeiss for the Sony APS-C cameras have autofocus. The only other option if you are looking for a macro lens is the very good 50mm Zeiss Macro. We actually wrote a comprehensive guide about the best macro lenses for a Sony camera, including details of this Zeiss and other manual focus options.

All Sigma lenses for Sony APS-C mirrorless cameras have autofocus. As a reminder, this is indeed the reference “DC” which reminds the compatibility of Sigma lenses for the APS-C format (not to be confused with the acronym “DG” which refers to Sigma lenses for full frame bodies).

If you want to go further in the reading, I suggest you to check our article dedicated to the best Sigma lenses for Sony mirrorless cameras. You’ll find there our reviews of Sigma lenses for Sony APS-C (and also for full frame).

Tokina just announced the released of three new lenses for the E mount : 23mm, 33 and 56mm.

Viltrox lenses offer autofocus for the Sony E APS-C mount. Some references are really to be considered for those who have a tighter budget and want to get more than correct results.

About this, I had the opportunity to review for months the Viltrox 56mm f/1.4 STM which is in my opinion a very good lens to shoot outdoor portraits, but also works very well in many situations with its large aperture. All this for a very good price, less than 350€.

In particular, Laowa offers a very well-known macro lens that allows to obtain a reproduction ratio of 2:1, thus twice as “zoomed” as classical macro lenses. For wide shots lovers, the brand offers a 9mm, the shortest focal length available for Sony APS-C cameras, equivalent to about a 13mm on a full frame camera.

About this, I had the opportunity to review for months the Viltrox 56mm f/1.4 STM which is in my opinion a very good lens to shoot outdoor portraits, but also works very well in many situations with its large aperture. All this for a very good price, less than 350€.

Neewer offers a range of entry-level lenses for Sony APS-C cameras. Clearly, we’re not on high quality lenses (especially the sharpness and construction), but all the lenses are manual focusing and at less than 100€. To start and get your hand on a focal length, it can be worth considering!

Samyang offers a wide range of lenses for Sony APS-C mirrorless cameras. Almost all the lenses are manual focus, but Samyang has just released their first autofocus lens for this type of APS-C camera, the Samyang AF 12mm f/2 E.

The table below shows the only lens with autofocus from Samyang for this mount (to be released in May 2021). This lens is an update of the manual focus version (Samyang 12mm f/2 NCS CS Ultra Wide Angle) which has a very good reputation.

Here are all the manual focus lenses of the brand for this APS-C mount.

Here are TTArtisan’s manual focus lenses for Sony APS-C cameras.

For those who want to go even further into choosing their lens, I invite you to check out our article on the best Sony 24mm lenses.

Written by Sylvain PONS

I've been passionate about photography since 2010, learning as I went along. Today, I dedicate myself to guiding others in their choice of camera gear and sharing a variety of tips to improve their photography skills.

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