Features:

  • Large F1.8 maximum aperture enables beautiful defocusing effects, 7-blade circular aperture creates beautiful defocused bokeh
  • Compact, lightweight design ideal for full-frame E-mount cameras, Aspherical element controls spherical aberration and coma
  • Double-gauss configuration suppresses field curvature & distortion, Metal mount adds solid durability as well as a sophisticated feel, Fast DC motor focus actuator system drives all lens groups
  • 75mm (35mm equivalent) focal length with APS-C sensor. Angle of View (APS-C) : 32 degree
  • In-the-box: Hood (ALC-SH146), Lens front cap (ALC-F49S), Lens rear cap (ALC-R1EM)
Great Priced Point for a Sony Native Lens for Portrait Photography

Great performance for a native lens for Sony's full frame E-mounts. I use this mostly for my portrait photography sessions with my models, friends and also promoting products if I don't need a macro lens for it. Pros: - Great price point for beginners portrait photography - Wide aperture for a good shallow depth at F/1.8 - Sharp quality and sustains details - Fast and native lens - AF helps a lot on this and its quick Cons: - Feels like high quality plastic and some metal

Photos are sharp and wonderful. I was using the super cheap Fotasy N35 ...

I have the Sony A6000. Photos are sharp and wonderful. I was using the super cheap Fotasy N35 35MM F1.7 CCTV Movie Lens for Sony E-Mount NEX Mirrorless Cameras for learning purposes and it was good. However, the Sony FE 50mm is great for portraits and I have been using it during day trips to the beach. I am surprised for the sharpness. I have to admit that during low light it starts the hunting for focus. Autofocus in normal condition works great and manul focus is also perfect using zoom button, I don't trust on the focus peaking anymore. I decided to buy this because I pretend to migrate into the full frame family of Sony cameras. And this lens works great on both aps-c and full frame. It doesn't have OSS and at the beginning I had to use my monopod and tripod, i still do use it. However I believe I have mastered the steady hand using this lens. Hold the breathing and shoot.

UPDATE 04/2019

This is a heck of a lens for $200. Lovely colors and depth of field. 50mm is a good length for a lot of subjects (it challenges you to choose what to include and what to leave out of the frame), and this guy performs it all beautifully. The minimum focus distance is somewhere around a foot and a half, so you can even do some light macro with it. Adding a polarizing filter really makes things pop. AF is a bit slow and tends to hunt and breathe, especially with moving subjects, or in low-contrast, low-light situations. However, these issues have noticeably improved thanks to the most recent (04/2019) software update. It's definitely not perfect, but the update really has made the lens more usable. Make sure you update both your camera body AND install the lens software update while the lens is attached to the camera. One note is that the focus drive system still makes a little bit of noise when you are in manual focus mode. Maybe not the best if you are planning on shooting video and using the built-in or on-camera mic.

Works great with A7

Works great with A7. For the price, you can't beat it. Before you whine about the performance, put the current firmware on both your camera and lens (as of this writing, that would be 3.20 and .2 respectively), and then go into the settings and enable Phase Detect. AF is fast up to F4, after that the camera needs more time to hunt. For someone like me coming from a Canon 40 2.8 STM w/Commlite adapter, this is not a big deal, and is still way faster than any adapted lens. Corners are soft and hazy wide-open. In any case, 99.9% of the time your audience is going to marvel at how blurred the background is, while the other .1% is measuring the bokeh balls with a caliper for uniformity. Who cares? It's a portrait lens, for crying out loud. Stop-down if it bothers you. Beyond F5.6, this lens is sharp as nails and produces landscape scenes with stunning detail. This lens is light-weight. I can see myself traveling with just this lens. It's a 50mm lens, it produces beautiful images on the A7, and most importantly, it doesn't cost half the price of the A7. Believe me, nobody is going to look at your image shot with this lens and say , "Aha! You didn't shoot this with the $900 Zeiss!".

Beautiful and sharp

Incredible lens. Beautiful and sharp! This was my first buy getting the Sony a6000. Keep in mind that with an aps-c sensor this is pretty close to an 85mm. I do lots of portrait so it was perfect for me. Not so great in close tight corners such as indoor photos that are limited to space. It's extremely light and doesn't feel cheap, the materials are made of a hard plastic but has a great matte feel. You won't have to worry about finger prints, the focus ring is top notch, very smooth and fast auto focus as it is a native lens to Sony.

Gem of a lens.

I'm enjoying this lens more than the Canon and Nikon equivelants that I've shot with in the past. Overall, image quality surpasses those versions, however, it seems that light fringing is slightly worse with Sony's version. The build quality is better than the Nikon and Canon versions, but, for the price of the Sony, I was hoping for less plastic or at least less cheap feeling plastic. It feels as if this lens would not be able to handle any drop. Moving back to optics, this lens is very sharp. Wide open it is much sharper than you would imagine and only gets better while stopping down. Shooting on an A7rii, this lens' resolution holds up. It was a smart purchase as the only other 50mm I currently own is a legacy OM mount f1.2

First prime and I'm glad I got it!

Up until now I had been using variable zoom lenses. When I upgraded to a new camera I decided to try primes. Was recommended 50 prime and found this for a decent price. Being my first prime, it took some time getting used to. I had to setup further back than usual and had to take into consideration my background. But once I figured it out, what a huge difference. I never really had much success at night with crisp images but not anymore. The light flares beautifully, every detail is captured and enhanced! I actually prefer to shoot at night now. I haven't had much of a chance to use it for landscape and panoramas but I'm liking what I've seen so far! Even when shooting at F1.8 you still get a tremendous amount of focus (when paired with my A6500). Overall there are no cons so far for me with this lens. Can't wait to try another prime sometime down the line. Camera used - Sony A6500

Best Quality / Performance for the price !

For the price, I really can't complain. Yes there is better 50mm lenses, but they're like 10x pricier... even third party ones ! The color, bokeh and sharpness are really good, and 50mm is my favorite focal length for both photos and videos. Works marvelously on the A7SII !!

Best value for money

It is the best value for the money in the Sony FF line up. After the kit lens that you can purchase together with the camera, this is the only affordable Sony lens. It is not the fastest but it is fast enough for travel, vacation and the portraiture. The image quality is great. A very good choice.

Not a bad plastic fantastic...

I've shot some studio portraits with this lens and it works great - especially for under two hundred bones. Not as sharp as some pro lenses in the 55mm range but you can get some quality results.

Full Reviews