Sony SEL50M28 FE 50mm F2.8 Full Frame E-mount Lens (Black)

I own four macro lenses for my Sony camera (including this one). This is a nice combo of portability and quality. As many reviews have mentioned, the autofocus capability is not that great, especially in low-light conditions. The IQ is pretty good as long as you can nail the focus. What I like about this lens is that: 1) its a 50mm on a full frame 2) flexible meaning I can do typical portrait or landscape shots + macro 3) 1:1 macro on a full frame..more so with a crop sensor..due to the crop sensor factor. 4) IQ is pretty good considering the cost and build. 5) f/2.8. This is nice and it helps with DOF and when shooting in low-light conditions (assuming you want that DOF when shooting in those lighting conditions) What I dont like: 1) autofocus. Its not fast and at times inaccurate. You really need to monitor your subject if doing a macro. In addition, it hunts in poor lighting conditions and a way around this is to learn to use the autofocus limiter switch on the barrel of the camera. It has missed the mark on landscape shots from time to time. This lens probably isnt good for sports or activities unless youre shooting @ or near infinity focus position most of the time and at the right aperture to achieve =>1/500th shutter. 2) Build quality is mostly plastic but at this cost, this is typically what you get for a lense these days. 3) Being a 50mm your focus distance to the subject is less than a 90 or 100mm lens. Not that its the fault of the manufacturer but rather a limitation faced by many lenses of this size. 4) Will it last? Time will tell. Recap: Good lense with limitations. As long as you understand how to compensate for the limitations, this is a nice lens to add to your arsenal of camera gear. If youre a beginner, then this lens will probably frustrate you some. In poor lighting conditions (& handheld), you really need to ensure your shutter is > = 1/60th to limit blur; however, the A7rII does have built-in stabilization which does help with this and would allow you to shoot @ 1/30 (or at times a little less depending on how you handle your camera). Understanding your camera settings like Aperture and ISO settings allow you to get the shutter when it needs to be. With a tripod youre ok. If you read this and think, "well I dont know much about what this guy just wrote", then its time to take your camera skills up a notch and learn how to new level. Its not hard but takes some time to understand. There are good books out there by Bryan Peterson (and classes) found here which will elevate your skills a lot. Price paid new $350

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Lens is very sharp and is great for general purpose landscapes and still lifes. Maybe a little too contrasty for portraits, but shoot those wide open, and it could be OK... First thing on this lens for my A7R2, is use Single AF mode and TURN OFF the "PRE-AF" in menu settings. Otherwise, the AF thing will NOT stop grinding. Auto focus is a slightly noisy and slower for normal distance subjects, but OK as long as they dont move much. Switch to manual focus for movies. For macros, just auto focus til the barrel extends to the reproduction size you want, or quickly roughly auto focus on the subject. Then switch to manual focus, and turn on the focus magnifier, and move camera slightly back and forth til you get the focus exactly you want before shooting. Ideally done with some bean bag or tripod support, if possible... Macro focus is never easy as far as I know, so its not a huge deal. Only wish there was a quick way to manually set to 1:1 or 1:2 or other size before manual focusing ... More updates. Turn OFF "Live View Display" and that speeds up AF tremendously in lower light, at least for single AF modes. Im actually not sure why thats camera setting is not documented well. But from playing with it, if you turn ON "Live View Display", the camera will always stop down the aperture ahead of time before doing anything, so it will be trying to focus at the smaller apertures lower light level and greater depth of view and hence slower. Otherwise if you turn that feature OFF, it will focus first at FULL wide open aperture (much faster and accurate and snappier) when the shutter button is partially depressed, before stopping down to the set aperture. For general distance moving targets, AF speed is best set to SCN "Sports" Mode.

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Of the 3 macro lenses I own (the Samyang 100mm F2.8 macro, the Sony E 30mm F3.5 macro and this product, which I purchased in October), the Sony FE 50mm F2.8 macro produces the sharpest images of crystals--my main subject--and with better color depth than either. My only complaint so far is with the autofocus: the motor is slow and noisy, and keeps hunting. Once, the motor froze and refused to focus. Powering my A6000 camera off and on again didnt work, so I removed the battery put it back in. Only then did the autofocus work. Thankfully, it happened only once. Because of this little scare, minus one star.

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This lens is very sharp. It is a great lens for macro photography because it has a very short minimum focus. It is also good for just general use. The only reason I did not give it five stars is because it is a bit slow autofocusing. It will work for anything that doesnt require really fast focusing like fast moving sports or zig zagging children but for the price you cant beat it.

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