Sony 50mm F1.2 GM ~~~One of the Best / Fastest 50mm Ever Made…

I borrowed a 50GM from a friend, and after trying it out for about 15mins that night, I came to the initial conclusion that I could sell the 35GM+Batis85 and replace it with the 50GM… but after eight shoots in a fortnight, I didn’t think I needed the 50GM…

4 XD Speedy Focus

The most significant selling point of the 50GM is the 4XD high-speed motor, which allows for fast, accurate and clean autofocusing. Especially in low light conditions and street photography at night, the 4XD high speed and reliability were definitely felt… There was almost no “ hesitation “ in low light and low light conditions, there was practically no “hesitation”, and even at full F1.2 aperture, the focus speed was still in focus with a single click.

I even felt that I had tried the 50GM after only one hour of shooting that night, as its fast focusing and reliability were the best among all the SONY FE lenses I had used so far… I even felt that the 50GM was a lens with night vision and excellent low-light autofocus performance… Moreover, even in a quiet night environment, only a faint focusing sound could be heard at close range.

Simply put, the 50GM has changed the impression of slow focusing speed, low reliability and low usability of the F1.2 lenses… Or we can say that the 50GM is faster and more reliable than the 35GM, and it is quicker and more stable than the F1.4 XD… 70% of my positive feedback on the 50GM comes from its focusing speed and reliability. It is the most reliable lens for photographers to work with…

About Picture Quality

To be honest, the 50GM did not give me a great sense of shock in terms of picture quality and bokeh. Or I might have said, “Wow, wow, wow, wow”. Of course, at first glance, at full F1.2, its central resolution was extremely high, and the amount of detail was incredible… but this high resolution was not so impressive until about the second shot. It’s just that this high resolution was not very impressive until the second shot…

I am not a portrait photographer, but photographing children is a necessary task for me in recent years.

Again, I use AFC/ EYE-AF when shooting children with the 50GM, and even without Real Time Tracking on the R3, the detection of children’s eyes is very fast and accurate throughout. Of course, at F1.2 full open aperture, the depth of field is extremely shallow and the background is almost completely dissolved…

Street Photography

Lightweight?

Although the GM II has been designed for lightness since the 24GM, the 50GM has various noticeable and perceptible lightness in its figures, being about the same size as the ZA50/1.4 but with a large F1.2 aperture. But in reality, the 50GM is 778g, 800g with the filter. But in fact, the 50GM is 778g, and with the filter, 800g, plus the body with the camera grip (700–800g), the 50GM + body weighs more than 1.5kg at least.

For me, this F1.2 lens is a lens for specific situations. Even if you know, you’re going to a restaurant for dinner tonight and need a high-speed lens for low light, a silent shutter for stage performance, a high-speed lens for shooting… the fact that it weighs 100–200g is not a problem at all. Reliable and stable is definitely more important than lightweight… Of course, a smaller but heavier lens is more acceptable to many people…

Clean black and white photos in high definition

To be honest, I find the 50GM’s black and white photos more attractive and durable than the colour photos… Perhaps excluding the colour, the rest is the optical quality, micro-contrast and detail content of the lens itself… The 50GM does not disappoint, retaining a lot of detail and micro-contrast at a lower contrast…

The 50GM has a clean look in black and white, no dispersion, no chromatic aberration, no dark corners, no loss of light… The image is elegant. The presence of the subject becomes very three-dimensional or the only focus in the light and shadow… The image is a bit like the Batis 40/2 or Leica 50/2 APO, high definition, bright and clean… If I were a long-term owner and a street photographer, I would choose black and white as my mainstay… What do you think of the following real-life photos?

The following photos are for 50GM+A7R3 + C1 Pro 21.1 + Nik Sliver Efex2 :

Conclusion

The 50GM is a testament to Sony’s new generation of lightweight, high resolution and high speed GMs… With its 4XD high speed motor, the 50GM is indeed very suitable for different types of work, from wedding, documentary, portrait, fashion, stage, commercial, family to general studio photography applications… It is indeed an all-round workhorse…

I am delighted with the 50GM’s reliability, focus speed, high resolution, soft bokeh of the GM, etc… It is really a new generation of Sony’s top optical or most technically advanced lens, and I believe the 50GM can last for 5–8 years of long-term use still in the first class of FE mount lenses.

It’s just that the images are too stable, and even with different Film Preset profiles, the photos are still too clean and stable… I often need to close the aperture for street photography, and F5.6-F8 is my usual aperture range… As I said before, the 800g weight and the huge size are not suitable for street photography. If my child had just been born, I would have bought it in the first place and taken photos of the child’s growth over the years… Another reason is that the R3 I have does not have Real-Time Tracking, which makes me feel that I may not use the full advantage of the 50GM high-speed focus. For me, a 50/1.8G is probably what I need or am looking forward to, but at less than 50GM’s price/positioning, the materials used will not be the most luxurious and unreserved class. If Sony could present a RoadMap of lenses for the whole year at the beginning of the year, I believe I would have bought the 50GM earlier than the 35GM, or I could have arranged my own lens repositioning earlier…

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Film Preset used in this reviews:

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