Sony FE 50 mm f/1.4 GM review - Introduction

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Sony FE 50 mm f/1.4 GM

21 February 2023

Maciej Latałło

1. Introduction

In 2013 the full frame mirrorless Sony system was launched and, almost at once, it gained a relativealy fast standard lens in a form of the Sony Zeiss Sonnar T* FE 55 mm f/1.8 ZA. It wasn't perhaps a speed fiend but, because of its shapely, solid casing and the renowned Zeiss logo, it won over quite a lot of users.

Less than three years later, in March 2016, the system was enlarged by a lens with very similar parameters, the Sony FE 50 mm f/1.8. It was a cheap, simple double gauss construction with just six elements inside. The faster, optically more complex instrument was just around the corner – after merely four months, in July 2016, the Sony Zeiss Planar T* FE 50 mm f/1.4 ZA was released.

Then we had almost five years of silence in this segment – untill March 2021, when Sony presetned their fastest standard yet, the FE 50 mm f/1.2 GM. Literally several days later they surprised everybody with the small and shapely FE 50 mm f/2.5 G model.

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The following chart presents basic parameters of lenses we spoke about earlier. When everybody thought that the line-up of Sony standard lenses was complete, the company surprised them again and on 21st February 2023 they showed another model, the FE 50 mm f/1.4 GM. Courtesy of the Polish Sony subsidiary the final version of the new lens was sent to our editorial office even before its official launch and it allowed us to test it thoroughly. Now we invite you to find out the results, presented in the following chapters – enjoy!

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