Sony FE 50mm f/1.8 Review

Sony FE 50mm f/1.8 Handling and Features

This full frame E mount Sony lens was supplied with the Sony a7r camera body for the purposes of this review, the two balancing together very well. Of course, it can also be used on APS-C cameras, where the "35mm equivalent" field of view would be similar to a 75mm lens on a full frame camera. The lens is compact and very light, weighing a trim 186g. Although most of the specification is as classic as any 50mm lens has ever been since the 1960s, the focusing is electronic and indeed the focusing ring is the only control to adorn the well made plastic body.

From the front, the 49mm filter thread is surrounded by a bayonet that accepts the supplied round lens hood. This fits well and clicks into place without any fiddling. Closer to the camera body is the aforementioned focusing ring. This is an AF lens, but after AF has locked on manual tweaks to focus can be made. Sony call this system DMF, Direct Manual Focus. There is no need here for an AF/MF switch. The aperture is controlled by the camera, so there is no aperture ring. Interestingly, the 7 blade diaphragm does not open for focusing and then close for the exposure as we might usually expect. It stays put at whatever value is set. This is less significant with a monitor finder or an EVF, as opposed to an optical viewfinder, so causes no handling issues in practice.  

The lens focuses down to 0.45m (1.48 feet), a maximum magnification of 0.14x. This is close enough for most general photography, but we have become used to kit lenses focusing rather closer into near-macro distances in some cases. The optical formula is 6 elements in 5 groups, a classic Double Gauss construction that should be capable of yielding excellent results.

There is so little to the lens that handling is totally straightforward. This in itself is quite refreshing and encourages a certain freedom in its simplicity. There is little need for manual focusing as the AF locks on predictably and final adjustments can always be made using the DMF feature. It must be said though that AF on the a7r provided is really quite pedestrian, or downright slow to put it another way. This is fine for static subjects as it is also accurate, but it is too slow for moving action shots and even proved a slight inconvenience when shooting location portraits. This worsens as the light fails, so may be related to the fixed aperture mechanism, which reduces the amount of light reaching the sensor when focusing at smaller apertures.

Add your message