Photozone test the new Sony 50mm FE lens: “It has its moments but there’s also darkness”

Image courtesy: Photozone 

Photozone published the full Sony 50mm f/1.8 FE lens review.

It is a bit difficult to come to a conclusion about the Sony FE 50mm f/1.8. It has its moments but there’s also darkness. The resolution characteristic is fairly solid. The outer image field is very soft at large apertures but to be fair – your main subject tends to be near the image center so it’s probably not all that of a deal-breaker in the real life. The center itself is already very sharp and contrasty at f/1.8. The situation is very different between f/4 and f/8 where the quality is impressive indeed. Lateral CAs are generally not an issue. The lens produces some heavy vignetting at maximum aperture. Some may like this effect as a creative element but those who don’t may prefer to correct this either via camera setting or in your favorite RAW converter. Otherwise you should stop down by about 2 f-stops. The quality of the bokeh is fairly good with smooth highlight discs, albeit with a bit of outlining, and a smooth albeit asymmetric general blur. A fair share of bokeh fringing is also present (see one rather extreme example in the sample image section).
The mixture of good and bad continues on the mechanical side. The build quality is actually very decent and in line with most modern 50mm f/1.8 lenses. There’s a pain point though – the auto-focus. Some lenses get nicknames and we’d like to call this one “Captain Slow” (we hope James May doesn’t mind …). It is embarrassing to witness such an AF in a brand new lens really.

Which brings us the question whether this lens is worth it? We are not convinced.

Get the 50mm FE at [shopcountry 47529].