Sony announced its 60th E-mount lens – at 50 mm f / 1.2 G-Master – which it hopes to prove that not only can it continue to make compact, lightweight cousins, but it can also do so while competing with the fast-opening lenses of Canon and Nikon.
One of the most prominent talking points that came up when Canon and Nikon announced the RF mount and the Z mount and compared to the Leica L mount was that all three were superior to the E mount because, supposedly, Sony never designed the E-mount for full-frame. This statement was originally made by Stephan Schultz of Leica and seemed to spread faster than it could be unmasked. Which, by the way, Sony did in 2019.
As if to build on it, the Sony 50mm f / 1.2 G-Master manages to combine the large aperture of f / 1.2 with a compact, lightweight design that is essentially the same size and weight as the Zeiss Planar T * FE 50mm f / 1.4 ZA: It has the same length, the same width and half a point faster.
The size of the lens is due to two main factors: 1) The focus system in place and 2) the lens elements used.
When compared to Canon and Nikon’s 50 mm f / 1.2 lenses, each tries to deal with focus in different ways. Canon uses a rotational ultrasonic motor (USM) that will actually physically move larger elements of the lens back and forth (this is visible from the front of the lens). The Nikon system must use an internal focus system based on a rotary stepper motor.
Sony says that both systems are inferior to its linear actuator focusing system that it has used in its latest high-performance G-Master lenses. The company claims that its four extreme dynamic linear motors (XD linear actuators) provide the high thrust efficiency needed to precisely position the two large lens focus groups on a floating focus mechanism controlled by its dedicated lens drive algorithm. These actuators also contribute to a silent focus unit.
Because of this engine, Sony can promise a 100% hit rate with an inch depth of field of up to 30 static frames per second. It can also record at 120 frames per second in 4K without losing focus, as evidenced by clips shown to PetaPixel during a briefing. It should be noted that these are in ideal scenarios and Sony does not promise that this will always happen, perfectly, but the fact that these benchmarks can be achieved is still impressive.
The lens is constructed with 14 elements in 10 groups, three of which are extreme aspherical elements (XA) which, according to Sony, minimize aberrations, allow the lens to maintain sharpness and clarity from the center to the edge and, as mentioned, contributes to the reduced size of the lens Size. It has a minimum focusing distance of 0.4 meters (~ 15.75 inches) with a maximum magnification of 0.17x.
The Sony 50mm f / 1.2 G-Master weighs 778 grams, which is noticeably lighter than Canon’s 50mm f / 1.2 which weighs 950 grams and Nikon’s 50mm f / 1.2 which weighs 1,090 grams.
Sony claims that its competing 50mm f / 1.2 lenses, notably those manufactured by Canon and Nikon, are less effective at maintaining contrast in the corners than this lens (based on MTF tables). In example images shown at PetaPixel, the level of sharpness in the center of an image was only slightly better with Sony, but the edge performance was noticeably better. Sony says its Nano AR Coating II effectively minimizes internal reflections so there are no reflections and ghosts.
The defocused areas are smooth thanks to a newly developed circular 11-blade aperture, and the XA elements mentioned suppress the “onion ring” bokeh that is sometimes visible in lower quality optics.
As is normally found in Sony optics, the 50 mm f / 1.2 G-Master has a non-clickable aperture, programmable focus control buttons, a fluorine front element coating and a focus mode selector.
Below are some examples of images captured with the lens:
The Sony 50mm f / 1.2 G-Master will be available on May 13 for $ 2,000. In addition, when asked about possible supply chain problems, a Sony representative assured that there are no current manufacturing challenges and that there should be enough units to meet demand.