Sony adds 50mm F1.4 to GM lineup: Digital Photography Review

Sony has added the FE 50mm F1.4 GM to its range of E-mount lenses, providing a less expensive, lighter-weight alternative to its 50mm F1.2 GM.

As with other recent Sony lenses, it’s been designed to be as at home shooting video or stills: it has a clicking aperture ring for stills shooters with the option to de-click if you’re shooting video. There’s also a switch to lock it into or out of the ‘A’ position that passes aperture control to the camera.

The new lens uses a pair of XD linear motors to drive the focus, with Sony claiming the result is a lens that can autofocus up to 1.9x faster than the original Sony/Zeiss 50mm F1.5 ZA from 2016. The new lens is also smaller, lighter, sharper and less expensive than the ZA version.

The new lens features 14 elements in 11 groups, including two ‘extreme aspherical’ elements and one extra-low dispersion (ED) element. It features an 11 rounded-blade diaphragm and can focus as close as 0.38m (15″) in manual focus mode, giving a maximum magnification figure of 0.18x.

The lens exhibits some focus breathing (a narrower field-of-view at close focus distances) but is supported by Sony’s Focus Breathing Correction feature on recent cameras that crops-in video to the tightest field of view then maintains it even as the focus moves towards infinity.

Like other GM lenses, the 50mm F1.4 has been designed to be dust and moisture resistant.

The 50mm F1.4 weighs 516g (18.2oz) and will be available from late April/early May at a recommended price of $1299.

Sony FE 50mm F1.4 GM Specifications