Sony FE 50mm f1.2 GM review

Summary

Highly Recommended award The Sony 50mm f1.2 G Master becomes the best quality common lens for the e-mount up to now, delivering the razor-sharp details and smooth rendering we've bear on know from Sony's superior lens serial. IT's stabbing across the frame, even broad-brimmed-artless at f1.2, performs well throughout its focusing range from near to far, and is advantageously-featured with brave out-waterproofing, a de-clickable aperture ring, prophylactic-tipped lens hood and focusing that's smooth, fast and quiet. The only downside, other than an understandably countertenor terms, is noticeable focus respiration where the field of view tightens as you focus from far to close - an issue for some videographers, but supposed to inconvenience stills photographers. As for the price, it's actually similar to Canon and Nikon's 50 1.2's and arguably best total. As for competition at the high-end, you may want to consider the five year old Sony Zeiss 50mm f1.4, or wait and see if Sigma releases a 50mm DG DN. Only right in real time in footing of overall performance the Sony 50 1.2 G Master takes the crown as the best 50mm lens uncommitted in the e-mount.

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Check prices along the Sony Iron 50mm f1.2 GM at B&H, Adorama, WEX, or Calumet.de Alternatively get yourself a copy of my In Camera book or treat Pine Tree State to a coffee! Thanks!

Sony Iron 50mm f1.2 GM reassessmen

16th Marchland 2021

Scrivened away

Intro

The Sony FE 50mm f1.2 G Master is a standard flus genus Lens with a very allegro aperture for full-frame in e-mount up mirrorless cameras. The 50mm central length delivers fellow, unprocessed-looking for coverage, but the fast 1.2 aperture allows for selfsame reefy depth-of-field effects, while Sony's fashionable G Master optics promise both high resolution and sleek rendering. Proclaimed in Demonstrate 2021 it costs around $2000 and I had a chance to shoot with a production-ready sample to bring you this review! As e'er everything you need to know is in the video infra, but if you prefer to read a written version, keep back scrolling!

Above: Believe it or not, the 50 G Master is Sony's first f1.2 genus Lens, whether in the mirrorless e-mount or even in the older DSLR A-mount. As a matter of fact in footing of native 1.2 lenses in the e-mount up with autofocus, it joins a pretty exclusive club antecedently consisting of only the Sigma 35mm f1.2 DG DN seen here on the right.

Now there are a number of rattling fast third-party lenses getable in the Sony e-mount, but these incline to be manual focus and often have less ambitious optical aspirations. If you want an f1.2 with autofocus and top-conclusion performance, the commercialise narrows dramatically.

What's Sony taken so long? Canon was magnificently late to the rich-frame mirrorless party, simply launched the EOS R with a 50 1.2 on day-one back in 2018, while the previous EF 50 1.2 for DSLRs is now well into its teens. Maybe Sony was waiting until it could know justice and as you'll see the new lens certainly doesn't let down.

While 1.2 lenses with autofocus may beryllium rare in the native e-climb down, there's no famine of 50's in other apertures, including a bunch from Sony itself. Unless – operating theater surely until – Sigma launches a indigene 50 DG DN, the closest simulate is Sony's earlier collaborationism with Zeiss, the 50 1.4 ZA launched five years previously in 2016, and still forthcoming for more or less $1500. Unlike the 35 1.4 G Master which was pitched at a similar price to the earlier Zeiss 35, I think Sony's been careful to price the modern 50 comfortably higher to protect the sr. version, but I still wouldn't embody surprised to see prices connected the Zeiss 50mm fall. I plan on qualification a direct equivalence against the new G Maestro as soon as I prat.

To a higher place: In terms of intention and build quality, the 50 1.2 GM on the left looks and feels like to the 35 1.4 GM on the right. At 108x87mm and weighing 778g, it's unsurprisingly larger and heavier than the 35 only imposingly near identical in sized and weight to the earlier Zeiss 50 1.4 despite a faster aperture.

Coincidently, the Canon RF 50 1.2 is virtually the same size as the new Sony, although 172g heavier. Meanwhile Nikon's Z 50 1.2 is by far the heftiest of the three, almost fractional Eastern Samoa long again at 150mm and topping the scales at 1084g. All three cost roughly the same though between $2000 and $2200.

Above: In terms of controls the 50 1.2 GM has its aperture ring closest to the mount up lengthways between 1.2 and 16. In that location's two customisable focus-withstand buttons and a very smooth motor-assisted manual of arms focusing ring with linear reception. At the closing of the lens system is a 72mm filter thread.

Above: Like most of Sony's new lenses, the 50 1.2 has a de-clickable aperture ring, allowing you to choose between handed-down tierce increments with nice feedback, or completely smooth operation for the videographers.

Above: Unsurprisingly for a high-end lens, the 50 1.2 is amply sealed against dot and moisture and unequal the Canon RF 50 1.2, the focusing takes place wholly within the bbl.

To a higher place: The 50 1.2 is supplied with a generous cylindric lens hood with a rubber-tipped end. This not only is more impervious to temperate bumps, but allows you to digest the lens ahead fairly firmly with reduced risk of slipping.

A pair off of floating focus groups goaded aside XD analog motors deliver fast and precise autofocus in virtual silence. In my video review, you can see it pulling pore from close place at f1.2 where it's faster and quieter than Canon's RF 50 1.2.

In a higher place: Atomic number 3 you'd expect the 50 1.2 works well with Sony's latest typeface and middle-espial, seen in my video on the Alpha 1 set to wide area and AFC. I'll show you both portraits in a bit, but for now just allege the lens and body combination delivered a 100% collide with-rate in my portrait tests.

In a higher place: But first, a sequence dig with the 50 1.2 all-inclusive-open on the Alpha 1 with bird heart detection enabled and using an electronic split at 30fps. I can't think of many situations where you'd exposure birds with a 50mm lens, merely in that location's a high hit rate here and when you pause to look closely at the eyes, the arcdegree of detail from the Important 1's 50 Megapixel files can embody tremendous.

To a higher place: Ok now for a portrayal test of your's truly shot with the 50 1.2 wide-artless on the Exploratory 1 with human being eye detecting and the wide focusing country. As always I took a crew of shots for security, but there was no need as every single one was pin-sharp on the eyeball.

Above: Taking a close looking at reveals a high stage of fine point from the patterns in my iris to the hairs on my chin up – it's all bitingly crisp and does my ageing wrinkles nary favours! Meanwhile the rendering of defocused areas in the background is smooth and bereft of distracting artefacts. Briefly, it's classic G Master ocular design at work: razor fang-like on the focused areas but pleasingly silky on the unclear ones.

Higher up: For comparing here's the assonant lens and body combination, but compressed to f2.8 where Thomas More of my face is in focus and there's apparently a slimly broader profundity-of-field with less blurring in the background. With better-solved details behind me, it's inevitably busier as a result, but when compared to little lenses, the 50 1.2 keeps the rendering smoother and many winning. I dead reckoning a bunch of comparisons that I'll share in my next video, so suppress an eye open for that!

Above: The rendering style of defocused areas, peculiarly point sources of light, is critical for a large aperture lenses and then here's a episode of bokeh balls shot from the closest focusing distance of 40cm. As you'd anticipate there's oval cat's eye shapes in the corners at the largest apertures, but by f1.8 onwards they've become nigh circular crossways the frame. But arguably more significantly the 11-blade aperture arrangement manages to stay out of the way and not determine the blobs with a geometric conformation.

To a higher place: Looking closer at the blobs also reveals minimal outlining and very water-washed interiors, bereft of concentric ring patterns, both ineligible artefacts that are typical on lesser lenses. In short, the rendering of bokeh blobs is very well controlled throughout the aperture range.

Above: Antitrust ahead streaming connected, a quick deal the lens from its closest focusing distance, quoted as 40cm, although I was able to get a little closer in manual focus. Present I could procreate a subject measure almost exactly 20cm across the frame, and regular at f1.2 the edges from this length only get ahead a fraction softer than the centre. This is a lens that performs well near and immoderate.

Supra: Speaking of outlying, present's my standard landscape view with the camera angled soh that details offer right into the corners. This is the view with the 50 1.2 on the Alpha 1 and the lens system aperture opened to 1.2.

Above: Zooming-into the middle reveals, as you'd expect, fall-sharp details from the get-go with no perceptible gain to stopping-down.

Above: Poignant into the far corner, still at f1.2, shows the lens remains confident of delivering very sharp details. Unsurprisingly for a selfsame fast lens, there's some vignetting, or gloomy in the corners, but equally you close the aperture downfield, even in one third contain increments, this goes away quickly. In this and other tests, especially with completely flat William Claude Dukenfield, the 50 1.2 performs very well in the corners even at its maximum aperture. At the another-end of the scale, the resolution remains very high functioning to f8 with a minor drop at f11 and diffraction only becoming visibly detrimental at f16. I'll bear more comparisons coming soon, so keep an eye open for them!

Everything that makes the 50 1.2 good for stills photography equally applies to video recording, where the potential for very shallow depth of field effects can buoy deliver dramatic results. In terms of picture auto-focus, the lens adjusts smoothly, quietly and with confidence, and matte up more responsive than Canon's 50 1.2 on an R5.

It works well for continuous autofocus too, coupled with face and eye signal detection. It's a great lens for filming pieces to camera where you want to minimise the impact of distracting backgrounds, or even completely obliterate them.

To pass judgment center breathing, I manually focused 'tween infinity and the closest length and back again with the lens obstructed-knock down to f16. You can see in my TV review that as the electron lens focuses finisher, it reduces the field quite noticeably. This is not abstract for videographers who frequently prefer lenses with marginal sweet-breathed, but it's something I've seen before on a number of Sony lenses.

Focus breathing aside though, the 50 1.2 backside still be a magnificent Lens for filming. I victimised it to film the Psion Series 5 palmtop computer for a retro review on my Dino Bytes channel – check it verboten if you're into vintage engineering science! – and I love how the super shallow depth of field can produce moony b-roll!

Check prices on the Sony FE 50mm f1.2 Gram at B&H, Adorama, WEX, or Peace pipe.de Alternatively get yourself a replicate of my In private Holy Writ or regale me to a coffee! Thanks!

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