- Hey, my name is Matt Johnson, and this is the new Sony
50 millimeter F1.2 GM lens. I just got back from filming
a multi-day-long wedding with this lens, and I have
a lot of thoughts about it. So, here's a review from the perspective of a wedding filmmaker. But, two quick things before I start. First, to save you time, here's my conclusion
in case you don't want to watch the full review. In short, this lens is very good, but also a bit heavy, and
definitely quite expensive. So if you're okay with the
weight and you've got some BeardCoin cash laying
around in your wallet, in that case, I think it's
the best 50 millimeter that you can buy from Sony. Yes, I said BeardCoin, by the way. It's like Bitcoin, but it's a more stable
investment into my facial hair. Anyways, the second thing you need to know for the sake of ethics is
that this video isn't paid or sponsored by Sony in any way, they don't even know that I'm making it. I actually paid my own
money to rent this lens through my Sony Imaging
PRO Support membership because I really wanted
to use it at this wedding and see what all the F1.2
hype and fuss was about. So, with that out of the way, let me start by saying for
those of you that are not aware, the 50 millimeter focal length is one of my top two
favorite focal lengths ever. Can you have two favorite focal lengths? I do, and my two favorite focal lengths are 24 millimeters and 50 millimeters. If you've watched my Sony
24 millimeter lens review, you will know that it is one
of my highest-praised lenses that I absolutely love and it's my go-to pretty much any time that
my camera is on a gimbal. Likewise, whenever my camera
is off a gimbal as well, I usually have a 50 millimeter lens on it. But here's where things get difficult, because unlike the Sony 24 millimeter, which is just head and
shoulders above every single other 24 millimeter lens
that I've ever used before, finding a good 50
millimeter that doesn't have any compromises has been more difficult. I've used a lot of 50 millimeters. You're about to see how many I've used. And every single one of
these lenses that I've used has had a lot of pros, but also, a few cons that kept them from being the absolute best. For example, I loved the size and weight
of the first 50 millimeter I ever bought, the Canon
50 millimeter F1.2. But because I was adapting
this lens to my Sony camera, I didn't have access to auto-focus. And sometimes the adapter
can be a little screwy and adjust the F-stop
whenever I didn't want it to. So to avoid these adaptor issues, I went full manual and invested in a Sigma Art 50 millimeter F1.4, specifically the Nikon mount version. This was years before a
Sony E-mount native version of this lens was available. Because the Nikon mount
version specifically offered manual focus and manual aperture
control with an adapter, this 50 millimeter lens
worked well for years, but it definitely wasn't
a lightweight setup. Eventually I switched lenses again, this time to a Zeiss Contax 50 millimeter, look at this little baby here,
which is still a full-frame, full manual aperture
and focus control lens, still requires an adapter too. But one of the big pros of this lens, aside from its beautiful image quality, is it is incredibly small and lightweight, which makes it very easy to carry around all day at a wedding. This Contax 50 millimeter
has been my go-to, but I've also rented lenses
like the Zeiss Milvus 50 millimeter which I really didn't like due to it's quite chunky weight and size. Sony also sent me their new
compact 50 millimeter G lens, which I really like, but it was limited to an aperture of F2.5, which isn't quite enough
low-light performance for me. And lastly, I've rented multiple times the Sony Planar FE 50
millimeter F1.4 lens, which for all intents and purposes is a predecessor to the
50 millimeter F1.2 GM. I didn't hate that Planar 50 millimeter. It was just kind of, nah! It was one of the most expensive options at the time at $1,500. It was very large and felt heavy. And with that weight, I was still only getting
a max aperture of F1.4. It also felt a bit too
clinical and sterile for me with no flaring or real character. So there's my history lesson for you with 50 millimeter lenses. I've clearly liked and disliked things about every single 50
millimeter that I've used. And there hasn't been one
that's head and shoulders above every other option, but this brings us to the new Sony 50 millimeter F1.2 GM. Is this finally it? Is this the perfect lens? Well, I'll tell you right
now, no, I don't think so. But I do think that it gets closer than any lens that I've used so far, save for two critical areas that we will discuss here in a minute. Let's start by talking
about the pros, though. Looking at the build quality, this is an incredibly
well-built Sony GM lens, meaning that it is sturdy, weather-sealed, and it comes with all the
fun bells and whistles that normally come on a GM lens, meaning that you get things
like an aperture ring on the lens with a switch
that can make it clickless, AF/MF switch, and two
programmable buttons on the side. It's a bit taller and girthier
than the 24 millimeter. And it also includes a very interesting concave glass front element, which looks different
than most other lenses that I've used in the past. In addition, this lens
is also incredibly sharp with a punchy contrast in detail that you would expect
from a modern Sony lens, but that's not what you really care about. Let's talk about the most
impressive number on this lens, that big ole F1.2. If you've never used
an F1.2 aperture lens, there's something magical
about cranking it wide open and getting that absurdly shallow, razor thin depth of field. It's such a unique look that provides so much separation for a subject, and you really can't
replicate it any other way. I absolutely love it. And I'm so happy to tell
you that even at F1.2, this thing looks so dang sharp to me. Now, one of the main reasons that I wanted to try out this lens is
that since I have upgraded to the Sony a7S III, I've been finding myself
lured more and more by the promise of high
quality video auto-focus. This means of course, that as much as I've loved filming with my Zeiss Contax lens from 1970, it is definitely a manual-focus-only lens. And if I went to auto-focus
here in the roaring 2020s, I'm gonna need to upgrade my lens as well. The good news is I'm pleased to tell you that this new 50 millimeter
GM has fantastic auto-focus that pairs very well with the a7S III. I will admit I was a bit worried because whenever I used Sigma's
new 35 millimeter F1.2 lens, I found that wide open at F1.2, that lens would tend to get a bit lost sometimes finding focus, especially if I was
transitioning from focusing on something up close to far away. It would just take a
little bit to find it. Thankfully, I've not experienced any of that lag with the 50 1.2, And I found it to be
quite fast even wide open. And because it's using
Sony's new XD motors, it's basically silent as well, which is a necessity if
you want to record audio while filmmaking. Likewise, whenever it
comes to manual focus, while this lens is just
like Sony's other lenses in that it is focused by wire, for the past couple of years now, Sony has sped up the processors
in their lenses fast enough that I've not experienced
any perceptible lag between it rotating the manual focus ring and the lens focusing. Even though this thing
has a ton of glass inside, it is not slow to auto or
manual focus, which is great. Talking focus breathing now, which is definitely a hot button topic in the Sony lens world ever
since the 35 millimeter GM lens, I have two scenarios for you. The first scenario is
the real-world scenario that I experienced whenever I was filming a wedding with this lens. As I said earlier, when
I'm using this lens, I'm usually handheld. So I'm always moving a little bit, and the camera's moving a little bit, and I'm not usually rack focusing a ton because I'm walking with my
feet to get into a new position. So because of that, I didn't
see any focus breathing. And if you're filming a wedding
or another run and gun event where you're using this lens handheld, I doubt you will either. But that leads us to the second scenario where I put this lens on a tripod and filmed myself moving back and forth in front of the lens, and with this, you can definitely see that
there is some focus breathing. So if you're using this lens handheld the majority of the time, I highly doubt that you're
going to even notice focus breathing. But if you're filming
YouTube videos, for example, or something else where you have to have your lens locked off, you
may be able to see it, depending on the shot that you're getting. Now, I did say that there
were two cons to this lens, so let's discuss them. The first con is something that you're going to immediately notice anytime you pick up this lens, and that is this lens is hefty. At 1.71 pounds, it's
definitely not the heaviest 50 millimeter that I've ever used, I think that goes to the
Zeiss Milvus at 2.03 pounds, but whereas Sony has really been pushing some lightweight lenses
with their GM line, namely the 24 millimeter GM
that's significantly lighter than the competition,
with the 50 millimeter GM, you can definitely tell
that Sony had to add some glass to hit that F1.2 aperture. That said, though, I do think that it's
impressive that this lens is essentially the same weight as their old Planar 50
millimeter F1.4 lens, but this one's now F1.2. Anyways, I do wish that
the 50 GM was lighter, but the good news is that, to me, the weight of the lens
does not feel unbalanced on the a7S III. It doesn't feel too front heavy, and I was still comfortable filming with it handheld all day at a wedding. Also, I do think it's
important for you to look at the competition to Sony right now when it comes to 50
millimeter lenses at F1.2. You look at Nikon, and their Nikkor Z 50 millimeter
F1.2 lens is 2.4 pounds, significantly heavier than Sony's 1.7. And then you look at Canon with their new RF 50 millimeter F1.2, and it's also much heavier at 2.09 pounds. I do think this is a consequence
of modern lens design, where lens manufacturers are
pushing so hard to create the absolute sharpest
possible lenses that they can, and they're increasing the
weight of their lenses to do it. And this is kind of a bummer to me because in my perfect dream world, Sony would have been able to
make this lens even lighter. Look at the weight of the Canon
EF mount 50 millimeter F1.2. This lens is significantly
lighter than the Sony 50 1.2, and only 1.27 pounds. In my perfect world, Sony would have made the
weight of their 50 1.2 closer to the weight of this EF 50 1.2. But that may be wishful thinking of for me with the way that lenses
are going these days. Or maybe what I really
need to be hoping for is for Sony to release a 50
millimeter 1.4 GM lens that would bring the weight down more similarly to their 24 F1.4 GM. I think that would
actually be my dream lens, and I would be perfectly fine
with trading F1.2 for F1.4 if I could get an even lighter weight. Definitely something to think about. Anyways, the other con for
this lens would definitely be the price which comes in at $1,998 at the time of making this video. And just like how the weight
of a lot of newer camera lenses is increasing as camera companies put more and more glass in them
to make them sharper, the price of many of these
lenses is going up as well. For many years, Sony was kind of known as
the expensive lens company, where, for example, Sony was selling their 50
millimeter Planar F1.4 for $1,500, while Canon was selling their EF mount 50 millimeter F1.4 for 400. Quite a price difference, right? Four times the amount nearly? Well, with the advent
of all these companies now making mirrorless cameras, they all appear to have
taken Sony's lead and said, "Let's raise our lens prices as well." Sony may be charging 1,998
for their 50 millimeter, but Nikon is charging 2,096 for theirs. And Canon is looking down on
these comparably cheaper lenses with a near highway
robbery price of 2,299. Wow, can we get some pricing competition that goes lower instead of higher please? Now, (chuckling) do I think
that this lens is worth it? Well, I think that ties
into the entire conclusion for this video and that is, in short, if you can stomach the rather
eye-watering price of $1,998, and you are also okay with
the extra weight that comes from this lens having
enough glass to be F1.2, then I think that this
is a good investment. But if the price and weight
are making you feel skeptical, in that case I would
consider an alternative like the Zeiss Contax
lens that I still love, and I've actually already
made a video about, which I will link to up in the corner and down in the description of this video. Of course, though, you will not have
auto-focusing with that lens, which leads me to another alternative because I know people are
going to be very angry with me if I do not at least mention this lens. And that is the Sony 55 millimeter F1.8, which is a very loved lens by many people, but also happens to be one that I personally have never
used, sorry about that. I've clearly tried a
lot of 50 millimeters, just didn't make it up to
55, get to it eventually. Regardless, a lot of the
reviews that I've seen for the 55 millimeter from
other people are very good, and considering that
it's under half the cost of the 50 millimeter GM at
the time of making this video, that 55 should give you a good experience with good auto-focus as well. With that, thank you so much
for watching this review of the Sony 50 millimeter F1.2 GM lens. If you're interested in
watching more videos about Sony, I have a lot of them, including some videos about
how to easily film in, and color grade in Sony's
S-Log3 Picture Profile, which I will link to down in
the video description below. It will also be a huge help to me if you would consider liking this video, and subscribing if you wanna see more videos like it in the future. Lastly, if you happen to be
a wedding filmmaker like me, I know that I reviewed this lens from the perspective
of a wedding filmmaker, in that case, you probably
want to book more couples and film more weddings. To help you out with that, I've created a free guide
that's gonna walk you through some practical steps that
you can take right now in your business to book more couples and film more weddings. It's a completely free gift to you. You can download it at the link down in the video description. Thanks so much for watching
and have a great day. (inspirational music)
