Sony FE 50mm f/2.5 G: A Pocket-Sized Companion

The Sony FE 50mm f/2.5 G is a classic prime lens, and a promising addition to the company’s popular G series lineup. Nilofer Khan puts it through its paces.

- Nilofer Khan

Sony has always focused on delivering the best image quality in a compact, chic design. The company has been committed to this goal, and with each iteration of cameras and lenses, they have been coming up with more sophisticated technology. Last month, Sony announced a trio of lightweight lenses in their popular G series lineup for full-frame camera systems—the FE 24mm f/2.8 G, the FE 40mm f/2.5 G, and the FE 50mm f/2.5 G. This month, we will put the 50mm f/2.5 on BP’s test bench to see how it fares.

Features

The lens is designed using nine elements in nine groups, along with two aspherical elements and one ED (Extra-low Dispersion) glass element, delivering sharp images and suppressing colour fringing. It includes a 7-bladed circular diaphragm, a 49mm filter diameter, and provides a 75mm equivalent focal length. It has a minimum focusing distance of 0.35m when shooting AF and 0.31m when using MF. The 50mm has a maximum magnification ratio of 0.18x with AF and 0.21x when focusing manually.

It has two linear motors for fast, quiet AF, while its internal focus design maintains the overall length of the lens constant when focusing. This allows users to attach circular polarising filters for landscapes, ND filters for movies, for extra creative control.

It is dust- and moisture-resistant and comes with a lens hood. The diameter of the threaded hood is equal to the filter diameter of the lens (49 mm), allowing the same cap and filter to be attached to both the hood and the lens barrel for added convenience.