Starting early in the mirrorless race, Sony managed to build the biggest lens arsenal, compared to all its competitors. Although they are quickly catching up, Sony users have the advantage of having more third party lenses to choose from. Some companies, like Tamron, don’t even have to reverse engineer Sony’s blueprints, as Sony Corporation maintains a 12.07% share-hold in Tamron (the second-largest shareholder). There is a reason why Tamron lenses are such a hit amongst Sony users. They work almost without issues, and probably the only place they still can’t match Sony’s native lenses is when autofocus in low light, and also that are not compatible with Sony’s teleconverters.
Year after year Sony proves that even the small diameter of the E-mount cannot stop them from producing very high quality and fast lenses. The GM series is no less than “perfection”. But even the “perfection” sometimes needs improvement, and Sony showed how they can do it with the second generation of their most popular (and arguably most used by professionals) zoom lenses – 24-70mm GM II and 70-200mm GM II. The last primes are also astonishing – like 35mm f/1.4GM or the 50mm f/1.4GM. But let’s see what Sony has as primes at the moment and then, as the title of the article suggests, to identify what is missing or needs improvement.
Here is the list of the full frame prime lenses (as of the writing this article – August, 2023):
- 14mm, f/1.8 GM
- 20mm, f/1.8 G
- 24mm, f/1.4 GM
- 24mm, f/2.8 G
- 28mm, f/2
- 35mm, f/1.4 GM
- 35mm, f/1.4 ZA
- 35mm, f/1.8
- 35mm, f/2.8 ZA
- 40mm, f/2.5 G
- 50mm, f/1.2 GM
- 50mm, f/1.4 GM
- 50mm, f/1.4 ZA
- 50mm, f/2.5 G
- 50mm, f/2.8 Macro
- 50mm, f/1.8
- 55mm, f/1.8 ZA
- 85mm, f/1.4 GM
- 85mm, f/1.8
- 90mm, f/2.8 G Macro
- 100mm, f/2.8 GM STF
- 135mm, f/1.8 GM
- 400mm, f/2.8 GM
- 600mm, f/4 GM
This makes 24 prime native Sony full frame lenses – 10 GMaster lenses, 5 G lenses, 4 Sony-Zeiss lenses, and 5 non-signature lenses. Two of these lenses are Macro, and one is STF (Smooth Trans Focus). Let’s dive into more details now. Of course, the opinion is mine and it may not match yours.
Arguably, one of the worst of all these lenses is the 50mm f/2.8 Macro. And it’s not that it is not sharp – it is, but the AF motor is a real pain to shoot with – it is so slow and noisy. Another very weak performer is the 50mm f/1.8. It is very soft for today’s Sony standards, and also has a very noisy AF. To the group of the “outsiders” I can also add the 28mm f/2 – ok lens, but has lots of distortion. Lastly I will also add the two f/1.4 Zeiss lenses – the 35 and 50mm. They are quite outdated at this point, quite softer than their newer cousins too. The 35mm f/2.8 Zeiss was one of the first lenses Sony released, and although it doesn’t have significant flaws, it is outperformed by the newer 35mm f/1.8. The only Zeiss lens that holds its ground is the 55mm. It is an amazing lens, and even today it can be a good competitor to the new 50mm GM lenses. I don’t believe the partnership between Sony and Zeiss will continue, so I don’t foresee any other ZA lenses.
Jumping to the 85mm – the other lens I think it should and probably will be replaced very soon is the 85mm f/1.4 GM. It was one of the first GM lenses and it shows its age. Even the f/1.8 version focuses faster, and it’s arguably sharper. I’m not sure if Sony will go for f/1.4 or f/1.2 versions of the 85mm – why not both, like the nifty-fifties.
In the telephoto range, from 135mm we jump directly to 400mm. I think a 200mm f/2 lens would be very much welcomed. It is with a reason Nikon’s 200mm f/2 was so popular.
And now, I want to focus on the main reason for this article – which I think is Sony’s “missing” lens? It may surprise you, or maybe you already guessed from the header image of the article – I’m talking about a 58mm or 60mm f/1.4 GM lens. You may ask – but why 58mm? Sony already has several 50mm and also has the Zeiss 55mm… Correct, but I’ll bring you back in time, when Nikon released their 58mm f/1.4G lens. It was highly criticized by many that it is not extremely sharp, or that it is too expensive, etc. But for me it remains one of the best and most unique lenses Nikon produced in the DSLR era. Why? The lens was designed to have unprecedented characteristics – like the gradation between the areas in focus to areas out of focus. Also the micro-contrast, the quality of the bokeh, color rendition, etc. Everything was so smooth and had so much “character”. And although Nikon had several 50mm too, the 58mm was a very unique lens, at least for those who could appreciate its qualities.
Another lens from old Nikon days – the 60mm f/2.8G Micro was also very highly praised amongst many photographers, including the portrait ones. Being a macro lens it also had a unique bokeh, small focusing distance, etc.
My crazy idea is what if Sony manages to mix those two lenses and create either 58mm or 60mm GM f/1.4 lens – with the same qualities, amazing gradation, amazing color rendition, amazing micro-contrast, and macro capabilities – if not 1:1, then at least 1:2. I realize maximum aperture of f/1.2 would be a stretch, so let’s stick with 1.4. Having in mind that the 50mm macro lens is quite bad, old, and needs replacement, why create another 50mm, when we already have six 50mm lenses, including two amazing GMs? 58-60mm sounds way more attractive to me – either for portrait or macro work. I don’t think this is a big stretch of imagination, considering how good the latest Sony lenses are. Of course, it has to have the 67mm filter thread, have the size of the 50mm 1.4, and cost not more than $1500… at least I wish for these. What do you think?