Sony FE 50 mm f/2.5 G review - Summary

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Sony FE 50 mm f/2.5 G

29 March 2021

Maciej Latałło

11. Summary

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Pros:

solid and sealed mechanical construction,
excellent image quality in the frame centre,
very good image quality on the edge of the APS-C sensor,
practically zero lateral chromatic aberration,
moderate distortion,
properly corrected coma,
negligible astigmatism,
moderate vignetting on the APS-C sensor,
very good performance against bright light,
quite fast, silent, and accurate autofocus.

Cons:

some problems with longitudinal chromatic aberration,
high vignetting on full frame,
exorbitant price.

I have no doubts the Sony FE 50 mm f/2.5 G is a well-put-together lens and if you decide to purchase it you will enjoy its performance. Still the biggest problem is its price, amounting to $600, and a very strong in-house competition. Practically for the same amount of money you can buy the Zeiss Sonnar 1.8/55, a lens faster aperture-wise and very solid; it's true it won't provide photos as sharp as those produced by the new Sony but it is an option well liked and appreciated by Sony FE system users; additionally its aperture allows you to play with depth of field in a more creative way. Those who have a limited budget might be tempted by the Sony FE 50 mm f/1.8, a faster lens that is also four times cheaper.

Let me repeat my words from the summary of the FE 40 mm f/2.5 G model – Sony would have increased the interest in the G series trio, presented in March 2021, if only their focal lengths had differed a bit more.

Currently any owner of a full frame mirrorless Sony camera can pick and choose among more than a dozen 40-55 mm lenses with autofocus. I fear the Sony 2.5/40 and the 2.5/50 won't be so popular among them as there are many cheaper and/or faster Sony devices available; there are also rivals produced by Samyang, Sigma, and Viltrox. Mind you, we didn't even mention almost twice as many manual lenses, offered on the market...