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There has been something I think all Sony shooters have been waiting a long time for, and it’s not more megapixels.
That something is a good, affordable lens.
This is why I don’t have many Sony lenses; they’re a rip-off. Let’s be honest here, some of their lenses for what you get at the price you have to pay are a total joke. Like the Zeiss Sonnar 35mm f/2.8, which has a lens hood held together with double-sided tape. The lens performance is fine, but given its flaws, it’s really a $400 lens sold for $900.
So finally, in 2016, Sony decided to make something photographers want at a price normal people can afford. The lens I am talking about is the Sony 50mm f1.8, Sony’s nifty fifty.
I’ve seen a lot of love and hate for this lens and I was a little hesitant to buy it, but you know, why not, it’s only $200 bucks.
I’ve been shooting with this lens for a few days, and so you’re probably wondering, is it good? Well, does the Pope pee in the pool?
Let’s take a look.
It will be a little while before I have a chance to do a full review of this lens. A lot of new cameras just came out, and I’ll be busy catching up on memory card tests with each one, then I have about three or four other lenses in the queue I have to review before this lens. So we’re looking at a few months. But in the meantime, I’ll share my impressions.
Sony 50mm f1.8 – Amazon
Sony 50mm f1.8 | First Impressions
When I first unboxed this lens, I got very excited. I thought the lens would feel like a cheap piece of trash, like many Sony products, but it doesn’t. It’s rock solid and has a nice build quality. Better than the Canon or Nikon nifty-fifty.
So how does it perform?
Sharpness
Without getting too technical, I can say the lens is very sharp, or sharp enough to resolve great detail on the Sony A7rII, even holding up well in the corners. Of course, it’s always hard to get razor-sharp handheld images with the Sony A7rII because of its insane resolution, but if you stabilize yourself, you can capture some amazing detail.
Click this image to see full quality.
Chromatic Aberrations
What I do notice is there is quite a bit of chromatic aberration when wide open, which, honestly, I’ve never really been bothered by. I would rather have a less expensive lens that’s sharp with good micro contrast than one plastered with lens coatings and loaded with extra glass that cuts down on light transmission and costs a fortune.
Autofocus
This is the area where this lens gets a lot of hate. The autofocus is rather slow. They say it’s better with the updated firmware, but I didn’t notice a huge difference on the A7rII. While the autofocus is fine for most situations, it will miss quite a bit, and if you’re shooting something that’s moving around a lot, then you’ll have a hard time – especially on the Sony A7rII, which has pretty crappy autofocus.
On the Sony A6300, autofocus is a bit quicker, still not as fast as a lot of other lenses, but it’s a huge improvement over the A7rII.
For video, you’re not going to want to use this lens in autofocus even on the A6300. It’s still a little shaky, and it’s pretty noisy. You might be able to get away with it if you have a directional mic off-camera. But I would use manual focus if you’re shooting video on anything important with this lens.
For the family shooter, I shoot my kid dancing around with this lens on autofocus, and it just bounces in and out of focus a little bit and is noisy.
Sony 50mm f1.8 First Impressions | Bottom Line
Honestly, at around $200, I would classify this lens as a must-have. You get some nice images out of it without taking any huge hit to image quality. If you want dead-accurate focus, then manual focus is probably your best option. However, in studio or landscape environments where things aren’t moving around much, the autofocus will perform just fine even on the Sony A7R II.
I haven’t really found any major flaws, except maybe Sony’s quality control. Mine shipped with a large piece of dust, so I’m exchanging it, but that’s the only problem I’ve had so far. It’s just a great lens and super fun to use.
