Sony Creates Compact Prime Lens Trio

2021.03.23

Sony announced this morning three new additions to their lineup E-mount lenses for Full-Frame mirrorless digital cameras. Each is a highly-compact prime lens with solid metal barrels sporting declickable aperture-rings and a customizable function button. In fact, all three lenses have identical sizes with a slight different in weight. Sharp ribs give the impression that aperture can be driven mechanically.

The widest is the Sony FE 24mm F/2.8G. This ultra-wide prime lens captures an 84° field-of-view when mounted on a Full-Frame camera. All these lenses can be mounted on a camera with an APS-C sensor which gives this 24mm lens a field-of-view equivalent to a 36mm or roughly 60°. Sony now has four 24mm lenses with maximum aperture from F/1.4 to F/2.8, the new one being the least bright but by far the lightest at 162g, compared to 225g for the F/1.8G and over a pound (555g) for the F/2 ZA co-developed with Carl Zeiss.

For such a compact design, the Sony FE 24mm F/2.8G is remarkably full-featured. Its body with weatherproof and provides 2 switches, one to change between AF and MF mode, the other to enable or disable aperture-clicks to avoid noise that could be recorded in video. There is configurable button too. Unusually for a modern lens, the minimum focus-distance of this 24mm is 18cm but it can only be autofocused down to 24cm. Magnification can reach 0.19X when focused-manually but only 0.13X automatically.

Looking nearly identical, the Sony FE 40mm F/2.5G is a highly unusual lens, most likely the result of attempting to design multiple lenses into an identical form-factor. With its 40mm focal-length, this lens renders a 57° field-of-view that is slightly wider than normal without qualifying as a wide-angle lens. With a maximum aperture of F/2.5, Sony managed to make a lens that is both longer and brighter while remaining equally compact as the 24mm F/2.8G. This is the only 40mm for Sony FE mount.

Externally, the Sony FE 40mm F/2.5G features exactly the same controls as other lenses launched today. There is dedicated aperture-ring with a sliding switch to declick it, an AF/MF switch and Function button. The barrel of this lens is also made of metal with internal seals to make it weatherproof. An internal focusing system ensures that all lenses Sony launched today always remain the same size. This one weighs 173g whcih is very light for a relatively bright prime lens.

Another prime lens with a moderately bright maximum aperture is the new Sony FE 50mm F/2.5G. It joins six 50mm for the Sony E-mount platform with apertures from F/1.2 to F/2.8. This is the lighest of the group by a very narrow margin. It renders a 47° normal field-of-view. Its small front-element allows the lens to accept common and inexpensive 49mm screw-on filters, just like the other two lenses launched this morning.

The Sony FE 50mm F/2.5G is just as full-featured as the other two lenses. Its metal barrel is fully weatherproof and sports a direct aperture-ring with buttons to declick it and to toggle autofocus. A customizable button also makes its appearance on the side of the lens barrel. This lens also does the unusual by providing extra manual-focus range which allows it to focus down to 25cmm manually, compared to 28cm. This minor difference translates as 0.23X vs 0.2X magnification.

Together these three lenses are allowing Full-Frame Mirrorless systems to reach a new level of compactness. While such cameras have saved a considerable amount of space compared to traditional DSLRs, lenses have remained larger the same-size with few exceptions. The result minimized the original intent of building a mirrorless platform. Now, this new set brings the number of Sony FE lenses under 3" long to 10 with most weighing under 200g or ½ lbs.

These nearly identical lenses come at exactly the same price. All three are expected to arrive in May for $600 USD or $800 CAD. Preorders are already accepted by two of our reputable affiliates:

• Adorama - Sony FE 24mm F/2.8G - Sony FE 40mm F/2.5G - Sony FE 50mm F/2.5G
• B&H Photo - Sony FE 24mm F/2.8G - Sony FE 40mm F/2.5G - Sony FE 50mm F/2.5G

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