[Music] Foreign Hi I'm Dustin Abbott and I'm here today To give you my definitive video review Of the new Sony 50 millimeter F 1.4 G Master lens this lens was an unexpected One in that less than two years ago Sony Did release their 50 millimeter F 1.2 G Master and continue to sell their 51 50 Millimeter F 1.4 Sony's ice planar lens And my understanding from Sony is that Lens will continue to be sold though I Suspect we'll probably see a price Reduction as it currently comes in Several hundred dollars higher than what This lens does so while this lens was Unexpected I think that it makes a lot Of sense if you look at it from this Perspective and that it brings most of What makes the 50 millimeter F 1.2 G Master special into a cheaper 700 Cheaper smaller 20 20 percent smaller And lighter 262 grams lighter package so In many ways for those that are looking To travel a little bit lighter and a Little bit lighter on their wallet this Is a lens that makes a lot of sense Particularly when as we're going to Discover in this review it comes with The kind of performance that this lens Does so is this the lens that you should Consider adding adding to your kit well We'll find out right after a word from Our sponsor
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Millimeter as you can see here and a Little bit larger in diameter but quite Comparable as a package and obviously Sharing that 67 millimeter front filter Thread is going to be very useful if you Happen to own multiple of these lenses So I like the design philosophy there And just to give you some perspective It's also about 15 and a half Millimeters shorter than what the new Sigma 50 millimeter F 1.4 DN lens is and Weighs is in at 150 grams lighter than That so definitely a meaningfully Smaller and lighter package it's also 12 Millimeters shorter and 265 grams Lighter than what is the Sony's ice Plane iron so definitely outside of the Samyang 50 millimeter F 1.4 Series 2 Lens this is the smallest and the Lightest on the platform and Particularly if you're looking at kind Of this level of lens it is a very Reasonable package now despite being a Little bit smaller it comes with the Full Suite here of G Master features and That includes having multiple Focus hold Buttons and so you have one accessible Whether you're shooting in vertical or Horizontal positions an afmf switch and Then also a very comprehensive approach To the aperture which includes an Aperture ring that you can use either Clicked at one third stop to tense you Can switch over and to use it d-clipped
And so that you can do a smooth aperture Racks though as always This is Aperture By wire there's a little bit of lag Between rotating the ring and what Happened happens in terms of the actual Movement of the aperture blades you also Have the iris lock switch that allows You to either lock into the manual Aperture ring or to lock out of it if You don't want any kind of inadvertent Bumps on there and so a really full Featured approach to the overall Features on the lens itself and I think That this is all set up in a Well-designed well-engineered way in That everything is easily accessible It's not too cluttered and it just works As it should we also have 11 aperture Blades in the aperture Iris which allows For a very circular shape as you could See as it opens and closes the 50 Millimeter F 1.4 G Master also has a Very robust weather ceiling with 11 Different seal points from this diagram Along with a flooring front coating so It actually has I believe one additional Seal Point as compared to the F 1.2 G Master so a very thorough weather Ceiling there also interesting is that We have a kind of two-pronged approach When it comes to minimum Focus distance And maximum magnification with autofocus You can get as close as 41 centimeters And get a 0.16 times magnification which
Is a little bit better than the recent Sigma a little bit poorer than the F 1.2 G Master but you can also manually focus Down to 38 centimeters giving you a 0.18 Times magnification which actually ends Up being the highest in this particular Class of lens also included is a very Nice lens Hood it's not too large has a Locking mechanism and I always like it Has a rubberized front edge which allows You to either set it down like this but Also more importantly helps to absorb Some Shock if you inadvertently bump up Against something also comes with a nice Padded nylon case with a zipper there And so to help with transport so it's a Premium lens it comes the premium Package and at a price point of 1299 US Dollars it's not inexpensive but for a G Master lens it's actually one of the Least expensive G Master lenses let's Talk about autofocus we have got dual XD Linear Focus mode Motors these are Sony's high powered high-speed Focus Motors and while some will point out That the 50 millimeter F 1.2 has quad Focus Motors the reason why this one Doesn't have quad folks Motors is not Really Sony trying to save money it's Just unnecessary the elements here are Smaller and lighter than in the 50 Millimeter F 1.2 and we have got very Fast autofocus that is just as fast if Not faster than the lens with the four
Quad Motors it is perfectly capable of Keeping up with fast action and of Course being a first party Sony lens and Having this high-powered Focus system it Is compatible with say on my Sony Alpha One which I've got it mounted on here The 30 frames per second burst rate so As you can see in this sequence here of Nala coming across on the floor somewhat Poor lighting and I had to crank the iso For this but I also put it in high speed Mode and it was just Flawless the way That it tracks her across the floor even As she gets very close that really sets A lens like this up apart from a lot of Other competitors the fact that you can Shoot it with that high speed action and Get such good autofocus results is very Very impressive autofocus was also good During a quick portrait session the only Time that I ever saw any kind of Miss at All was on a couple of shots where I had The lens or the the hood pulled down Over my my face and so it was partially Blocking the eye and it just caught a Little bit of the texture of the fabric There rather than getting onto the eye Itself not a big Mist but just a very Very minor one but in general autofocus Was very good during that also we used It during an event I had my assistant Shooting at an event in our church and I At very a lot of different varieties of Focus distances and shooting often at F
1.4 autofocus was Flawless it just Nailed it every time and as I looked Back over the images at high Magnification they were all perfectly Focused I also note that the manual Focus ring here though it is focused by Wire and a little bit on the light side But it is is fully linear and so I could Do repeatable Focus pools and and I Found that it actually was I didn't mind In some ways the light touch when I was Just trying to focus with a finger for Example I was able to get really smooth results There now on the video side things are Good but maybe not as exceptional as I Thought that they might be I had a good Result when I was approaching the camera That it tracked consistently and moving At that speed there was no problem in it Moving effectively along when I did my Hand test I found that the results were Fine but it wasn't quite as Snappy and Responsive as you might think under that Circumstance and so it worked fine but It didn't just you know jump right back And so some might be disappointed at the Speed of some of those focused Transitions which seem to emphasize Smoothness rather than overall speed you Can also see in the focus pulls test That while the focus pulls look good There is some Focus breathing there and And that's fairly similar into what I
Saw with the recent Sigma difference Being is that if you happen to have a Newer Sony camera they said they do have Some of them have a focus breathing Compensation and as you can see here Shot on the a74 you can see that using The focus breathing compensation Basically eliminates that focused Breathing so it's one advantage again That you have for a first party lens you Don't necessarily have with the Sigma Lens as Sony as to at least this point Is limiting that feature only for their First party Sony lenses so autofocus Overall was just fantastic it is Incredibly fast there's basically no lag Between any kind of focus change Focus Was accurate in my various tests I was Overall very very pleased with the Autofocus performance and by the way I Did use it you didn't know it but I did Use it on a number of these type Sessions and the reality was that it did Flawlessly during that time never left My eyes no pulsing anything like that so Very good autofocus results Image quality is if anything even more Impressive here now the MTF chart shows A very impressive result But I think in many ways the MTF chart Is only the starting point here and that Real world sharpness is even more Impressive and I know that some Outlets Have reported that this is setting a new
Record at smaller apertures for just the Sharpest lens that they have essentially Seen of its kind and as we're going to See in our image quality breakdown this Lens is a very very strong option when It comes to its Optics let's take a look So let's start by taking a look at Vignette and Distortion you can see that There is some pincushion Distortion here Along with some vignette in the corners I was able to manually correct it fairly Well you can see it's not perfect it's Not entirely linear but for the most Part I was able to get a clean Correction that I think that would work In probably 99 of situations the numbers I dialed in here were a minus five on The Distortion front and a plus 58 on The vignette front so roughly about two Stops of a vignette in the corners now Here's a look at a corrected JPEG that Comes out of camera and you can see that The actual correction profile from Sony Is going to give you a cleaner Correction of the Distortion without any Of the kind of leftover wave that I had In my manual correction now to give you A little bit of perspective on this you Can see that the Distortion is more Pronounced and as is the vignette on the New Sigma 50 millimeter F 1.4 this is About the same as the 50 millimeter F 1.2 and if we correct or take a look at This samyang you can see that the
Samyang actually is our winner here as Far as having very very little Distortion to begin with and a you know Not quite as much vignette either so in Terms of chromatic aberrations the Longitudinal chromatic aberrations are Present you can see that there's a bit Of a green fringing and a purple Fringing there before the before and After playing a focus though not as Pronounced as what I saw on the sigma a Few other kind of real world examples Here is that you can see yeah if you Look at it at a just a glow mobile level You're not really seeing anything in Terms of chromatic aberrations now if You look in down here at a pixel level You can see there's a little bit of that Purple fringing before the plane of Focus which is here and then if we look After the plane of focus you can see a Little bit of green fringing around These bokeh highlights again you're Probably not even going to notice that On a regular level so I wouldn't Consider it a major concern there at all Looking at this image here we can see Again there is the famous hint of some Fringing here in this high contrast area But very very little to look at and Certainly nothing that you're going to Pick up on just a global level of Sharing an image now lateral chromatic Aberrations are pretty close to
Perfectly corrected if we look here at The edges of the frame there is Essentially no fringing of any kind Showing up here in these bare branches High transition areas so nothing that I'm concerned about here we also get a Little bit of look at the potential sun Star that you can create if you put it In the right situation 11 blade adapter So we have 22 Blades of the sun star so Nothing particularly concerning so far How about resolution in contrast 50 Megapixel Sony Alpha One is the sensor Being used here I'm showing these Results at 200 percent we can see in the Middle of the frame this lens is Fantastically sharp I mean just contrast Sharpness everything is exceptionally Good here great detail everywhere we Look mid frame looks just really really Fabulous I mean that is a fantastic end Result we can see just high levels Everywhere we look a really consistent Performance by the way we can see Everywhere that we look it's looking Just very very sharp very Crisp And as I Look around the frame that's just an Exceptional wide open Result on a high Resolution body now we can see that There is just a little bit of drop off Here in the corner but frankly I mean There is there's it's so sharp that There's very little concern there in any Area that we look it just looks really
Great all around so to put that in Perspective here's a look at the 50 Millimeter F 1.2 G Master at F 1.4 as Well and so we can see looking in the Center of the frame I would argue that The 50 millimeter F 1.4 is actually just A little bit sharper and higher contrast Looking at the mid frame I would say the Same in fact it's only in the corner Here where I would say that the 50 Millimeter F 1.2 is just a little bit Better contrast a little bit better in Result there at the edge of the frame But you know in every other place I Would argue that the F 1.4 lens is Actually the sharper of the two we'll Take a look at two other competitors Here first being the samyang 50 Millimeter F 1.4 Series 2 lens now the Samyang holds up really well in the Center of the frame though I think that The new G Master is probably just a Little bit better in the center of the Frame uh samyang is held up well at this Point but we can see at the mid frame There's no contest the GM is very Obviously sharper and down into the Corner we can see that the same is true There that you know we start to get Towards a more smeared result on the Samyang whereas the GM lens is holding Up much better and how about the new Sigma 50 millimeter F 1.4 if we take a Look in the center of the frame the GM
Lens is quite obviously sharper there Definitely a stronger result there the Sigma is really strong in the mid frame Though I don't think that it's sharper Than what we see from the Sony here the Sony is showing very very good results And even if you look in this five you Can just see more texture showing up in There than what we are seeing on the Sigma itself looking here in this mid Frame again there's just a little bit More pop and vibrancy coming off of the Uh the Sony result and it's only as we Get towards the edge of the frame here Where I would argue that the sigma has a Little bit of an advantage just a little Bit more contrast and a little bit more Of the fine details here of the Structure that show up on the sigma Result but I would say over at least Two-thirds of the frame the new Sony G Master is the sharper of the two lenses So what happens when you start to stop The Lens down well in the middle of the Frame you know it's already so good I Think there is a little bit more Contrast there but there's only so much Room for improvement there also in the Mid frame down here in the corner is Where there is the greatest potential For improvement you can see that the Image is brighter so contrast is a Little bit improved and maybe a little Bit more texture information here but
Not it's not significantly changed yet We stop on down to F2 we can see that Their contrast is boosting uh still a Bit further we can see as we look other Places in the frame that contrast and Resolution is just I mean it's just Fantastically good at this point looking Over on this left side you can just see That there's more texture and just a Little bit more contrast popping up in The hair there of the queen and by and Large just a generalized Improvement but Already we had an exceptional result That's just getting a little bit better As we stop it down now if we go from F2 To F 2.8 here in the corner we can see That right off at the edge of the frame Is where we're seeing the most notable Improvement to where just more texture And more contrast in the building there If we move on to F4 we can see that That's better still so now quite a Noticeable difference between F2 and F4 In terms of our Edge performance and you Can see a little bit more still if you Go from F4 to F 5.6 to where contrast And resolution is really just Top Notch And so anywhere you look in the frame We're just at Fantastic levels of Performance you couldn't really ask for Any more resolution and contrast than What you're getting out of a lens like This minimum aperture here is F16 and so It's not as small a minimum of aperture
As we see on some lenses and of course The lens is so sharp to begin with that It holds up reasonably well to Diffraction but you can see that Compared to F 1.4 we've definitely lost A lot on this high resolution body Nonetheless and while it still looks Pretty good by the standard of many Lenses I would say that you know I would Still probably use f11 as a typical Maximum or excuse me minimum aperture That I would personally use on a high Resolution body so as noted we have two Different options when it comes to our Minimum Focus distance one as Autofocused the other manually focused And so you can increase that Magnification by 0.2 percent if you use The manual focus option here so as far As the performance both look quite good And fairly similar I would say that the Autofocused result just a little bit Further out is a little bit better as You can see just a little bit better Contrast and a little bit better Consistency probably a flatter plane of Focus there but at the same time both of Them look good here's a real world Illustration which I think it looks a Little bit more dramatic to show you how Much that magnification can change with A three-dimensional object and so you Can see it's it's a fairly noticeable Difference it also allows you to blur
That background out just a little bit Further when you're at that closer Focus Distance So speaking of the Boca quality We can see as far as the geometry that There is some deformation near the edges Of the frame kind of that cat eye shape It's one area where I think that the F 1.2 G Master stands apart and that it Does give you a little bit more better a Little better geometry I should say and Also larger and softer specular bokeh Highlights there now as you stop down Here at f2 mostly circular across the Frame you can see it's not completely Perfect but quite good and then at F 2.8 A good circular shape everywhere and we Could see that the quality of the bokeh Is staying good it's not getting busy Not any kind of hard inner lines and so Overall a good performance there so to Look at some real world examples here's One where we've got a little bit more of A busy seam so first of all I mean the Actual resolution and contrast on the Subject is fabulous I mean that's just Fantastic there's a lot of potential for Busyness in the scene and there is it's Not perfect for sure there are there's a Little bit more edging than what I would Like I would say on this particular Complicated scene you would see a Difference with the 50 millimeter F 1.2 And that everything would just seem a Little bit softer and creamier
Looking at this image kind of at a Medium distance first of all I mean Fantastic on the sharpness and contrast That's just off the charts here and as Far as the overall rendering Beyond I Would say that it's it's very pleasing In that setting in this setting it's it Shows off a little bit more and so you Can see how number one we have a really Really high you know resolution and Contrast on the subject that looks Fabulous what I really like is in this Zone and it's almost hard to describe in Words at least for me to articulate what I see here but there's kind of this Blending of colors uh that almost has a Kind of a a smoky look to it that I Really really like Um I find that very good lenses can Produce a really kind of indefinable Quality to the bokeh now obviously not Perfectly circular as far as the Specular highlights appear if that's Something that bugs you you might want To Pony up the extra money for the G Master or the F 1.2 G master I should Say but in general I mean the overall Look of the defocused area and just the General rendering from the lens I find Very very nice now of course you get up Close and you really blur out the Background you really can create that Creamy look and so obviously here I'm Using the sugar cubes to focus uh in
Another shot here we've got some tulips On the table and so you can see that Transition to defocus is really nice no Hard outlining even on hard edges like These chairs Beyond they're blurred out Really quite nicely returning to the Teacup here for a moment and so you can See once again obviously on the subject Which is challenging lots of light going Through there a very thin Edge it's Handled really really well in terms of The chromatic aberration overall the Quality of the background blur is nice Here I would say my only complaint Probably is the somewhat pronounced cat Eye or lemon shape there towards edge of The frame in general however though this Is a really really nice rendering result So for portraits uh here at F 1.4 we can See obviously you're never going to have To ask for more resolution than what You're going to get out of this also Skin textures look good to me and this Is just a you know quick casual type Portrait single light fixed light but You can see that produces in a good end Result a little bit further away same Kind of result here just very very good Focus on the eye very good rendering of Details all of that no problem here I Put up the hood to make things a little Tougher on autofocus and by the way it Wasn't Flawless there was a couple of of Angles to where it caught maybe the the
Texture here rather than focusing onto The eye but we can see once again skin Textures are nicely rendered tons of Resolution and detail there so let's Talk about flare resistance for a moment At wide apertures in this particular Image the lenses handled things really Quite well there's very little as far as Ghosting and veiling and here the f11 Example you see a little bit more in Terms of a ghosting pattern if if we pan Back and forth however first at wide Open you can see that that's not always The case there's a little bit more Ghosting artifacts there and then if we Stop down to f11 I would say in general I'm seeing a little bit less at smaller Apertures than I am at wide apertures I Would consider this to be a slightly Above average result but not the best Result that I have seen one final thing That I'll show you is I did one thing That Sony touted is that this has a good Coma correction and so I want to take a Look at that in case those of you that Want to use this for shooting stars at Night so first of all you can see in the Center of the frame everything is really Well controlled the fact that we have Fairly low chromatic aberrations holds Up well in this situation as we move Towards the edge of the frame and we Have some pronounced Stars up here in This corner which gives us kind of our
Best result we can see that there is Some deformation but it is not at all Extreme this is actually a fairly good Performance here in that we don't have Major Wings being formed they just Become somewhat more like wedge-shaped Here stars in the corner overall that's A pretty nice performance when it comes To coma and uh that's I would say that Sony is living up to what they have Touted on this lens this is a very good Coma correction certainly a lens that Would be worth using for the night sky All In All A Strong Optical performance So as you can see that is a very very Strong Optical performance it gives you Just incredible sharpness while also Offering a nice creamy bokeh not I don't Think as magical as the 50 millimeter F 1.2 but very very nice and it's that Rare combination where you could have Incredible sharpness and contrast and Also still have a nicely defocused Background so who is this lens for I Think it makes a lot of sense for those That want the premium option but want a Smaller price and size it doesn't always For a while there it seemed like the Logic was that if you wanted a premium Lens it always meant a larger lens but There are a lot of people that actually Want to travel lighter and the reality Is even for myself I own a lot of lenses But I can tell you freely that I reach
More often for those lenses that are Smaller and lighter maybe if I want to Pack multiple primes I love shooting With primes but you can only carry so Many lenses with you particularly if They are larger and heavier so a smaller Lens is easier to bring along and maybe In addition to other focal lengths as a Complement and so I will reach for a Lens like that more often and also not Everyone wants to spend two thousand Dollars on a 50 millimeter lens very Likely won't be their only lens and so That's a pretty expensive investment and Obviously there are cheaper alternatives To this lens in both the sigma and the Samyang and both of them are very good Lenses though I would say as a complete Package neither compared to this Particular lens and so if you want that More kind of medium price point at 1299 US Dollars this lens I think makes a lot Of sense now if you want the kind of the Most exotic most most impressive looking Images particularly for like portrait Work I would say that the 50 millimeter F 1.2 is still the overall winner there I think that it can achieve things with Shallow depth of field that this lens Can't quite but this lens is even Sharper and so if you're willing to deal With just a little bit less exotic Looking images but to have all of that Performance on tap I think that this
Lens makes a lot of sense at about you Know 66 percent or so of the purchase Price of the more expensive F 1.2 option So at the end of the day I think that This lens will do just fine there are Plenty of people that will look at this As the Goldilocks the just right when it Comes to price and performance I'm Dustin Abbott and if we look in the Description down below you can find Linkage to my full text review also to An image gallery if you'd like to see More photos or look at them longer There's also buying links there if you'd Like to purchase for yourself links to Follow myself or Craig on social media To become a patron or to get channel Merchandise if you haven't already Please like And subscribe thanks for Watching have a great day and let the Light in [Music] Foreign
