Professional photographer and Sony Artisan Chad Wadsworth recently spent time shooting with the new Sony 50mm f/2.5 G lens. “I was curious if this ‘baby GM’ could do the work of the larger fast 50mm primes in situations that don’t depend on low light, ultra-fast aperture performance, and specifically, would this compact everyday 50mm satisfy for portraiture?” In a blog post review he shares his thoughts and sample images taken with the Sony 50mm f/2.5 G and Sony Alpha 7C.

Photo by Chad Wadsworth. Sony α7C. Sony 50mm f/2.5 G. 1/4000-sec., f/2.5, ISO 640

Professional photographer and Sony Artisan Chad Wadsworth reviews the Sony 50mm f/2.5 G lens for portraiture.

Wadsworth first examines the look and feel of the new lens and notes its solid build that feels sturdy, but is still lightweight. Overall he calls himself a big fan of the design, as it has some qualities from the G Master line like a de-clickable aperture ring, AF/MF switch, custom button, along with weather sealing and linear focus motors – all of which comes in this more compact G-lens package.

“So it looks great, saves space and weight in the camera bag,” writes Wadsworth, “but does this G live up to its badge in terms of image quality? Short answer is yes.”

Photo by Chad Wadsworth. Sony α7C. Sony 50mm f/2.5 G. 1/400-sec., f/2.5, ISO 1600

He continues, “If we are reasonable as to what a 50mm f/2.5 lens is capable of – as in, not expecting it to deliver razor thin depth of field – I think the G easily falls into the category of excellence. Wide-open, the lens resolves with great sharpness and micro-contrast, but what caught my attention was the overall life-likeness of the rendering. For portraits, there is plenty of subject isolation at f/2.5 and the gradual roll off towards the fore and background makes for lovely, natural looking transitions.”

“You would not expect a 50mm f/2.5 to be a cream machine, but the bokeh is remarkably pleasant and well-behaved. I especially like the way the lens renders light sources in the background with almost perfect circles, minimal highlighting and no onion rings.”

Photo by Chad Wadsworth. Sony α7C. Sony 50mm f/2.5 G. 1/400-sec., f/2.5, ISO 1600

Photo by Chad Wadsworth. Sony α7C. Sony 50mm f/2.5 G. 1/60-sec., f/2.5, ISO 3200

He also says he would have no problem using the lens for landscapes and street photography because going the opposite direction and stopping down creates images that are razor sharp from edge-to-edge. “One quick note on the autofocus performance – the new dual XD linear AF motors that Sony has been producing are just so darn good! Absolutely no complaints regarding focus speed. AF was fast, silent and accurate on both the Alpha 7C and the Alpha 1.”

Photo by Chad Wadsworth. Sony α7C. Sony 50mm f/2.5 G. 1/1000-sec., f/2.5, ISO 640

Overall Wadsworth views this lens as being exactly what it needs to be, a perfect meeting of form and function.“On the whole, it appears Sony has delivered an honest lens with the G label to fairly represent its capabilities. No, it isn’t going to deliver ultra-narrow depth of field and low light capability, but it doesn’t try to be that lens. Instead, the 50mm f/2.5 G is the lens that you could (and probably should) have in your camera bag for 90% of normal fov photography. It does not penalize you for carrying it and renders images that will make you seriously question whether you need to pack that fast 50mm.”