Sony FE 50mm F1.8

Prime for portrait, it does the job and probably that’s it!

My first prime lens. The cheapest I can afford as a student. At first, I thought I can use this lens for all occasions as an all-in-one. But after I tried street and landscape photography, I found this lens is quite tight in terms of viewing-angle, noisy focusing motor and also slow at that.

Receipt for the lens SEL50F18F, around ?175 (17-10-2021)

Noisy! You can hear the motor keeps on locking focus during a playback, definitely is not for videography (unless the sound is not needed or using a wireless audio unit). Also when it hunts to lock a proper focus when pressing the shutter button for photography.

At a platform sandwiched by trains (Copenhagen Central Station, 2021).
ISO 100 f/2.2 1/60 sec.

For me, this lens is probably not suitable for street photography because of its slow focusing. For landscape, the focus is sharper when using Manual Focus (MF) instead of Auto Focus (AF).

A landscape view from Viking Ship Museum towards the shore as it was covered with thick fog (Roskilde, 2022).
ISO 100 f/2.2 1/160 sec.

However, it works pretty well and I mostly use this lens for portraits. The results came out sharp. The good thing about this lens is the size. Petite and it doesn’t take much space. I carry this lens with me most of the time.

The aperture can be opened wide to f/1.8 but my sweet spot for this lens is between f/2.8 and f/5.6. The output has no barrel distortion but Lightroom seems to correct the darkened areas (vignetting) around the edges.

Prognosis: it’s a keeper! ?

Aperture range: f/1.8 to f/22
The angle of view: 47?
Minimum focus distance: 45 cm
Maximum magnification ratio: 1:7.1 (0.14?)
Filter size: 49 mm
Dimensions (? ? L): 68.6 ? 59.5 mm
Weight: 186 g

A commentary video on this lens by Chris Brockhurst (2022).
https://youtu.be/iO6wZUvDzC4
A review by Aron Andersen (2018).

UPDATE

May 2022: I sold the lens as I no longer use it after getting the Sony Sonnar T* FE 55 mm F1.8 ZA.

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