Sony Zeiss 55mm F1.8 Lens

Performance:If you’re a serious shooter this is a must buy lens .Product Quality:Amazing glass . A true classic lens.Best Feature:Contrast , instant AF , ease of use, lightness and top quality images .Rated very highly on release but critics panned the price back in 2014. Now ten years later it’s still a great lens at a third of its initial cost. Highly recommended.Just a mention of the seller.I’m a returning customer and have never been disappointed. Very secure packaging and rapid delivery from this trusted seller.Thank you.

An Outstanding Lens, Besides One Critical Flaw

This lens is amazing, probably one of my favorites - even considering its flaws. It is razor sharp in the center and it's bokeh and chromatic aberration give the photos such character, I always get compliments on them. Not to mention it is one of the highest rated lenses on DXO Mark for Sony E mount cameras. The price is amazing for the quality too, and the autofocus is perfectly fast unlike the 50mm G Master. However - and it is a big however - if you intend on shooting video with this lens, you should reconsider purchasing it. For some wild reason, when your camera is set to continuous autofocus, the lens freaks out. It jumps in and out of focus extremely fast, almost like it's hunting for focus, but more like the motors are having a seizure - that's the best way ... MoreThis lens is amazing, probably one of my favorites - even considering its flaws. It is razor sharp in the center and it's bokeh and chromatic aberration give the photos such character, I always get compliments on them. Not to mention it is one of the highest rated lenses on DXO Mark for Sony E mount cameras. The price is amazing for the quality too, and the autofocus is perfectly fast unlike the 50mm G Master. However - and it is a big however - if you intend on shooting video with this lens, you should reconsider purchasing it. For some wild reason, when your camera is set to continuous autofocus, the lens freaks out. It jumps in and out of focus extremely fast, almost like it's hunting for focus, but more like the motors are having a seizure - that's the best way to describe it unfortunately. It renders footage completely worthless. It is inconsistent too, it is hard to figure out exactly what causes it, but it's always there. It seems to be worse when the aperture is not wide open. And the saddest part is I have tried 3 different copies of the lens (my friends own them too, like I said, they are that good) and on several different cameras. All of them have the same issue. So, if you are looking for an amazing photo lens, look no further! This is it! But if you are hoping to shoot video on this lens, maybe don't.

Best Value Nifty Fifty!

I bought this lens about 2 months ago and I couldn't be happier with it.I primarily wanted a small, lightweight fifty millimeter for travel and this fits the bill perfectly.Outstanding build quality and gorgeous images in both photo and video. Excellent (Zeiss) contrast with fantastic sharpness and beautiful fall off.This lens can't be beaten at this price point. Highly recommended.

Brilliant Optics, Poor Mechanics

I love the optics of this classic, lightweight lens. It is brilliantly sharp with a wonderful, old school feel to the bokeh that involves a slight curvature of the circles of confusion around the corners of the frame. Brings back fond memories of old Nikon film lenses, but of course it is much sharper with more contrast.Why doesn’t Sony update this lens??? It desperately needs an autofocus switch and an aperture ring would be nice, too. Make it part of the G lens family, along with the 20mm f/2.8 and the three lightweight street photography lenses (24, 40, 50). They all have aperture rings.As it is, the autofocus is inconsistent and sometimes hunts desperately. Switching to manual focus requires going into the function menu. In aperture-priority mode, the ... MoreI love the optics of this classic, lightweight lens. It is brilliantly sharp with a wonderful, old school feel to the bokeh that involves a slight curvature of the circles of confusion around the corners of the frame. Brings back fond memories of old Nikon film lenses, but of course it is much sharper with more contrast.Why doesn’t Sony update this lens??? It desperately needs an autofocus switch and an aperture ring would be nice, too. Make it part of the G lens family, along with the 20mm f/2.8 and the three lightweight street photography lenses (24, 40, 50). They all have aperture rings.As it is, the autofocus is inconsistent and sometimes hunts desperately. Switching to manual focus requires going into the function menu. In aperture-priority mode, the exposures are sometimes wildly inconsistent. Switching to a different lens or manual mode solves the problem, but Sony needs to fix it with an upgrade.I have used this lens extensively for photojournalism and documentary work. It could be one of the greatest street photography lenses of all time if Sony would give it the update it deserves.Five stars for optics, one star for mechanics.

Couldn't be happier

I shoot mostly long-exposure deep focus documentary environmental portraits using an A7R4 and a tripod. So bokeh is not very important to me. However, I want extreme sharpness front-to-back plus soulful color* I can heighten into emotion.The Sony Sonnar FE 55mm fits the bill. It's also not heavy (which with the tripod I lug around is important to me). I couldn't be happier.* I'm really writing this because of the review that said the lens's color was tainted. I can't see it. I work in a part of the world where the material culture has a limited palette of color. I know those colors well. Using them as a baseline, I can say that the FE 55mm renders them accurately, alone or in combination, such that in rendering the memories and feelings I intend to evoke are evoked.

Great lens

I was looking at the 1.2 50mm GMaster lens. I heard a lot of bad things about that lens with the focus and sharpness not being so great for a 2k lens. Then heard great things about this lens. So, bought this one. I love this lens. I forget how good it is sometimes. my 70-200 II is probably better but that lens is huge and 3x the price of this one. Great walk around lens.

Hard to love/fall in love with

Okay, so I still haven't sold this lens-but every time I shoot with it, I swear that I am going to do so imminently. Here's why:The 55mm focal length is awkward, like dancing with one foot slightly longer than the other. It's always just a bit too tight for normal and not quite tight enough for telephoto.The sharpness/contrast is just unflattering and offensive. It makes people appear old and displeased-looking. And in low light the colors get distorted even more. It's as if they've tweaked the knobs to make an MTF chart look good and let everything else go to pot, with no consideration for whether a human being would ever want to look at it.I bought this strictly off of reviews, and my strong advice is that you should find a way to rent or borrow one before ... MoreOkay, so I still haven't sold this lens-but every time I shoot with it, I swear that I am going to do so imminently. Here's why:The 55mm focal length is awkward, like dancing with one foot slightly longer than the other. It's always just a bit too tight for normal and not quite tight enough for telephoto.The sharpness/contrast is just unflattering and offensive. It makes people appear old and displeased-looking. And in low light the colors get distorted even more. It's as if they've tweaked the knobs to make an MTF chart look good and let everything else go to pot, with no consideration for whether a human being would ever want to look at it.I bought this strictly off of reviews, and my strong advice is that you should find a way to rent or borrow one before purchasing. I can't rightly explain it, it's Zeiss but tainted in some way...I haven't sold mine yet just because I want to be really sure that it's the lens and not me, but I really think it's the lens.For reference, I have an adapted manual Zeiss 50mm 1.4 Planar ZE, Zeiss 35 f2.8, Zeiss 85 1.8 for my A7RIIIa. I love all those lenses and the 'Zeiss rendering'...but the 55 just ain't got it.

One of my mose used lenses.

I already have had one lf these since like 4-5 years ago and its so sharp as well as really good colors and the size just make it amazing. This it truely a professional lens that works great for photography. I will say that the focusing wheel on it is not the best if you sre a videographer whos using manual focus a lot since its focus by wire and kinda small. But if you use it with autofocus mostly (which is great on sony) then its a wonderful compact professional lens at a really resonable price. Also the old one i had for many years never had a single issue.

Superb Compact Standard Prime for the A7

Bought this to go with my brand new A7III as I wanted a standard prime to go on it when I put the camera in my messenger bag. As tempted as I was by its bigger brother the 50mm f/1.4 its a much larger and heavier lens and not as practical for just tossing in your bag and carrying around with youOptically its fantastic, Sharp as a tack and has excellent color and contrast right from the gate at f/1.8 which is very impressive. The Bokeh, while a subjective thing, to me brings to mind my Sigma 50mm "Sigmalux" which has legendarily good bokeh. The more expensive and heavier f/1.4 is better due to the extra aperture blades, but again, its at the cost of significantly more weight and bulk. A lot of reviews have trashed this lens VS its bigger brother but I think its ... MoreBought this to go with my brand new A7III as I wanted a standard prime to go on it when I put the camera in my messenger bag. As tempted as I was by its bigger brother the 50mm f/1.4 its a much larger and heavier lens and not as practical for just tossing in your bag and carrying around with youOptically its fantastic, Sharp as a tack and has excellent color and contrast right from the gate at f/1.8 which is very impressive. The Bokeh, while a subjective thing, to me brings to mind my Sigma 50mm "Sigmalux" which has legendarily good bokeh. The more expensive and heavier f/1.4 is better due to the extra aperture blades, but again, its at the cost of significantly more weight and bulk. A lot of reviews have trashed this lens VS its bigger brother but I think its honestly unfair, and in my opportunity to test both of them side by side honestly, there isnt a huge difference between the two of them, especially when you account for the huge price differential. The lens has so far done a marvelous job and delivered multiple shots with fantastic color and sharpness for me, The autofocus is extremely fast and accurate on the A7III and I've had little to complain about.Build wise the lens uses a lot of metal and screams "quality", the lens hood is likewise metal with a slight rubber coating on the end of it where you might knock it against something, a really nice touch.If I had to complain about anything, id say i dislike the minimum focus distance and maximum magnification, but thats pretty much equal for all 50mm lenses across the board, simply put, i wish the lens focused closer and had a bit more in the maximum magnification department. But again, No other 50mm-class lenses that arent macros do either so its not something I see as a big deal.Oh and Sony's rear caps kind of stink compared to well..everyone else ive ever used (Nikon, Canon, Micro 4/3) I dont know what it is about them, but I dont like them very much..Overall though, those are very tiny complaints and I feel this is probably the best general purpose 50mm-type lens in Sony's lineup right now. Dont hesitate to get one if you're in the market for or want a lens in this class.