Sony FE 50mm f/1.2 GM Lens Review (by PhotographyBlog)

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The Photography Blog has published the Sony FE 50mm f/1.2 GM Lens review (tested on the 50MP Sony a1): “If you somehow still haven’t got a 50mm prime in your collection (and if not, why not?!), then we’d strongly recommend the Sony FE 50mm F1.2 GM as the ultimate 50mm lens for Sony Alpha camera owners that money can buy…”.

Sony FE 50mm f/1.2 GM Lens Key Features:

  • E-Mount Lens/Full-Frame Format
  • Aperture Range: f/1.2 to f/16
  • Three XA Elements
  • Nano AR II and Fluorine Coatings
  • Four XD Linear AF Motors, Internal Focus
  • Focus Hold Button, AF/MF Switch
  • Physical Aperture Ring; De-Click Switch
  • Dust and Moisture-Resistant Construction
  • Filter Diameter: 72mm
  • Rounded 11-Blade Diaphragm

From Photography Blog:

It’s fair to say that the Sony Alpha camera system doesn’t suffer from a lack of 50mm prime lenses. From Sony, there’s the very similarly sized Planar T* FE 50mm F1.4 ZA, the smaller and lighter FE 50mm F1.8, and the FE 50mm F2.8 Macro, not to mention a multitude of third-party options from the likes of Sigma, Tamron and Samyang, perhaps most notably the Sigma 50mm F1.4 DG HSM.

So the Sony FE 50mm F1.2 GM really has to excel to stand out from the crowd and justify its rather eye-watering £2100 / €2300 / $2000 price-tag, and thankfully it does just that in almost every regard, from build quality to feature-set, from image-quality to handling.

In short, if you don’t already have a 50mm prime lens in your camera bag, then this one should be at the top of your shopping list, as it’s simply the best 50mm lens currently available for Sony Alpha cameras.

This relatively lightweight and compact, yet well-built optic, delivers excellent sharpness in the centre of the frame throughout its aperture range, even performing really well wide-open at f/1.2, although you’ll need to stop down a little more to get similar quality at the edges of the frame.

Despite the standard 50mm focal length, the 11-bladed aperture, f/1.2 maximum aperture and 40cm minimum focusing distance combine to produce some lovely bokeh effects.

The Sony FE 50mm F1.2 GM lens does suffer from some mild distortion and vignetting that is particularly evident when shooting in the RAW format, although the camera body automatically corrects this for JPEG files.

This lens features fast, near-silent, reliable auto-focusing on the Alpha 1 camera that we tested it with, with the Click switch for the aperture ring making it well-suited to both stills and movies.

It offers a very high level of build quality, plus it’s usefully dust and moisture resistant too.

If you somehow still haven’t got a 50mm prime in your collection (and if not, why not?!), then we’d strongly recommend the Sony FE 50mm F1.2 GM as the ultimate 50mm lens for Sony Alpha camera owners that money can buy…

Sony FE 50mm f/1.2 GM Lens: $1,998 at Amazon, B&H, Adorama, FocusCamera.

Read more:Best Lenses for Sony a1 and Best Memory Cards for Sony a1.