FE 50mm F1.8Sony l Photo GallerySony l Camera Channel

Sony FE 50mm f1.8 Introduction

Canon and Nikon have been producing (relatively) cheap and cheerful 50mm fast standard prime lenses for decades, and now Sony full-frame E-mount users can boast a nifty/thrifty fifty of their own in the new Sony FE 50mm f/1.8. Prior to this, if you wanted an E-mount fast prime in the 50mm focal length range with full-frame coverage, your only choice was the Sonnar T* FE 55mm f/1.8 ZA, which offers stellar performance, providing you’ve got a spare £859/$900. The new FE 50mm f/1.8 can be had for a much more palatable £240/$250, although compared to a £97/$125 Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 STM, it’s clear Sony doesn’t want to keep its margins too tight.
You do get a new optical design for your money though, featuring an aspherical element to minimise aberrations. The Sony FE 50mm f/1.8 lens also incorporates a 7-blade circular aperture for smoother background bokeh blur, but that’s about it as far as features go.

Ease of Use

Part of the appeal of well-priced 50mm fast primes is their low weight, and at 186g, the Sony FE 50mm f/1.8 manages to undercut even the APS-C-only E 50mm 1.8, though this optic does include image stabilisation. The FE 50mm is also a very compact lens, with a 68.6mm diameter and 59.5mm length.

The Sony FE 50mm f/1.8 lens mounted on a Sony A7S

The Sony FE 50mm f/1.8 lens mounted on a Sony A7S

The Sony FE 50mm f/1.8 lens mounted on a Sony A7S

The Sony FE 50mm f/1.8 lens alongside a Sony A7S

The Sony FE 50mm f/1.8 lens mounted on a Sony A7S

The Sony FE 50mm f/1.8 lens mounted on a Sony A7S with the supplied hood fitted

It’s no surprise that the FE 50mm’s barrel construction is all-plastic, but at least the lens mount is metal, and the optic as a whole feels well made, although we wouldn’t want to drop test it.

Side of the Sony FE 50mm f/1.8 lens

Side of the Sony FE 50mm f/1.8 lens

Front of the Sony FE 50mm f/1.8 lens

Rear of the Sony FE 50mm f/1.8 lens

Front of the Sony FE 50mm f/1.8 lens

Rear of the Sony FE 50mm f/1.8 lens

With no internal image stabilisation or indeed any special extra features, there are no barrel switches to negotiate, leaving you to set focus options from the camera. A large manual focus ring dominates the lens barrel. It’s smooth and precise, though there are no lens stops as manual focussing doesn’t directly actuate the lens elements.

The Sony FE 50mm f/1.8 lens in-hand

The Sony FE 50mm f/1.8 lens with the supplied hood fitted

Focal Range

A 50mm focal length gives an angle of view of 47 degrees on 35mm full frame sensor. Mount the Sony FE 50mm f/1.8 to an APS-C camera and you’ll have a focal length equivalent to 75mm, resulting in a 32-degree angle of view.

50mm

Focusing

Compromises have had to be made to bring the Sony FE 50mm f/1.8 in at a reasonable price, and the most notable is its autofocus performance. Sony has implemented a basic DC motor rather than a more sophisticated ring-type ultrasonic system, and the result is relatively slow and noisy focussing. Consequently you’ll regularly have to wait approximately one second for the lens to focus hunt, though the system doesn’t tend to slow any further in low light and is usually very accurate.

Videographers certainly won’t appreciate the amount of autofocus noise though, especially when we’ve become used to the near-silence of many modern in-barrel autofocus systems. Noise levels aren’t conspicuously loud, but they are reminiscent of older in-body screw-drive AF systems.

Focussing isn’t completely internal, so the FE 50mm’s front element can extend by around 1cm, though it doesn’t rotate. Minimum focus distance is 45cm.

Chromatic Aberrations

Even without exploiting Sony’s in-camera aberration correction, the FE 50mm is very resistant to fringing and you’ll have to shoot extremely high contrast scenes and scrutinise very closely to spot any.

Light Fall-off

With lens correction options disabled on our a7S test body, the Sony FE 50mm f/1.8 produces noticeable falloff wide open at f/1.8, and it’s still visible at f/2.8. There’s slight vignetting at f/4, which also persists at narrower apertures, but this isn’t visible in most everyday shots.

Light fall-off at 50mm

Distortion

Stare for long enough at shots of brick walls or other obviously geometric subjects and you may notice a trace of wavy barrel distortion, but it’s negligible and rarely noticeable.

Distortion at 50mm

Bokeh

The rounded 7-blade diaphragm in the Sony FE 50mm f/1.8 produces very smooth bokeh at close range and at apertures of f/5.6 and larger, though more distant out of focus trees and foliage can look slightly messy. Bokeh is however a fairly subjective part of a lens’ image quality, so check out these 100% crops to see the FE 50mm’s bokeh quality for yourself.

Sharpness

In order to show you how sharp this lens is, we are providing 100% crops on the following page.

1. Ease of Use
2. Sharpness: 50mm

1. Sample Images
2. Lens Specs
3. Rating & Conclusion

1. Main Rivals

1. Ease of Use
2. Sharpness: 50mm
3. Sample Images
4. Lens Specs
5. Rating & Conclusion
6. Main Rivals

Sony E 50mm f1.8 OSS SEL50F18 User Reviews

7.8/10
average of 5 review(s)

Build Quality
8.2/10

Image Quality
9.4/10

• 4 out of 10 points
  and not recommended

  very sharp, lightweight
  Difficult to autofocus when used for rapid, candid, interior photography

  My overall rating of 4 is for those occasions when I’m using the lens for rapid, point-and-shoot *interior* photography with the Sony NEX 7 set to «autofocus», in poor to average shopping mall lighting conditions.
  However for street photography under good light this lens is excellent and I would give it a rating of 10.

  reviewed December 3rd, 2015
  (purchased for $350)

• 8 out of 10 points
  and recommended

  Sharp, optical image stabilization, affordable
  sample-to-sample variability

  I compared the Sony 50mm f1.8 OSS to the Zeiss 55mm f1.8 on a Sony Alpha a6000 in various shooting situations. The Sony lens is 1/3 the price of the Zeiss, or less.
  Surprisingly the Sony (with rev 02 firmware) focused quicker in low light than the Zeiss, and could lock focus in some situations where the Zeiss only hunted. As observed by another writer in this thread, updated firmware for the Sony lens takes advantage of fast hybrid autofocus on the a6000 (NEX-7 doesn’t have this feature). The Sony 50mm also grabbed more frames that were sharp at low shutter speeds, thanks to optical image stabilization, which the Zeiss doesn’t have.
  This Sony 50mm is inferior to the optically superb Zeiss 55mm in contrast, color rendition, and flare resistance. But I had to look closely and repeatedly on a well-calibrated 27-inch monitor to see the difference.
  Admittedly, I had to try three samples of the Sony lens to find one that performed to full potential. The first two were sharp at center, but fell off towards one side of the frame or the other at wider apertures.
  Comparing these two lenses is apples-and-oranges, because the Zeiss 55mm covers full frame, the Sony 50 mm only APS-C. You could say I took the Zeiss slumming by comparing it to this much cheaper Sony lens. Still, I was surprised by how well my cherry-picked sample of the Sony 55mm f1.8 OSS performed.

  reviewed July 31st, 2014
  (purchased for $350)

• 10 out of 10 points
  and recommended

  Light, fast, very sharp, OSS effective, key APSC focal length, contrasty, fast focus, useful hood,
  Not a pancake, no distance meter, not as fast focus as A-Mount w/LA-EA2

  A very useful lens. All advanced tracking and field detection function while minimizing the limits of CDAF environment. Use with A6000 and upgraded firmware VASTLY improves focussing with Hybrid-AF on that camera.

  reviewed June 9th, 2013
  (purchased for $300)

• 9 out of 10 points
  and recommended

  Extremely sharp, well balanced on nex 7, very cheap for the performance,OSS and fast.
  Inconsistant production quality

  Bought this lens as a short portrait and landscape lens.
  It`s very sharp indeed even ad full aperture, which is a fast 1.8.
  There are some issues with mechanical noise, i brought 1 back to the store which had severe mechanical noise, my current also has some noise but not that bad.
  The focus ring turns very smooth and feels right.
  I`m very pleased with the image quality which is contrasty and clear, the OSS makes this already fast lens even better which is incredible.
  I would recommend this lens for all nex shooters. It`s great.

  reviewed November 4th, 2012
  (purchased for $300)

• 8 out of 10 points
  and recommended

  fast, sharp, has OSS, light, nicely build
  none

  I wish all lenses were this good. It has so much values in a fairly low price. It has good performance, light, nicely build, and it has OSS too! this OSS can be really handy in most situations, considering this is more like a short telephoto lens (75mm equivalent). I think nothing to be complained about this lens. I use this along with the 16/2.8 and Sigma 30/2.8 (as a normal lens), and they never let me down.

  reviewed October 20th, 2012
  (purchased for $300)

Sony FE 50mm F2.8 Macro Introduction

Listening to the cries of demanding more affordable lenses for its A7 cameras, Sony has recently responded by announcing a range of lenses aimed at those who budgets don’t stretch to the the Zeiss or G Master FE lenses. First to be released was the FE 50mm F1.8 lens, which has now been closely followed by another 50mm lens, this time the FE 50mm F2.8 Macro, which costs £500/$499. With the more expensive the Sonnar T* FE 55mm F1.8 ZA, which is around £859/$900, and the Sony FE 55mm F1.8 ZA Carl Zeiss Sonnar T* at £749/$999, Sony A7 owners now have a range of standard lenses to chose from, and those that want to shoot macro images now have a half price alternative to the FE 90mm F2.8 Macro G OSS, which costs £1079/$1099.
So the FE 50mm f/2.8 Macro lens is an intriguing prospect, adding macro capability to a standard focal length lens. The question is what comprises have been made to allow Sony to introduce the lens at, what they see, as an affordable price?