Sony Just Introduced a Sweet New Portrait Lens

February 4, 2016

By Laura Brauer

Sony’s mirrorless cameras have been making some serious inroads among pro users but a great camera body is nothing without great glass up front.

Alongside the introduction of its hyper-fast a6300 (read more about that here), Sony pulled back the curtain on three new “G Master” lenses for its full frame mirrorless cameras

The highlight for portrait shooters is undoubtedly the FE 85mm f/1.4.

VX9139_A

The new lens, like all the models in the G Master series, has been developed to resolve high resolution images of the likes captured by Sony’s a7R II. They use newly developed extreme aspherical (XA) elements which not only help resolve detail but deliver more natural bokeh.

In fact, Sony spent a fair amount of effort researching and studying bokeh and its characteristics prior to the G Master launch and noted that when the shift from focus to defocus is “abrupt and artificial” it will not appear lifelike. That abrupt shift, Sony said, is due to a lack of precision in the elements and less than optimal positioning the elements.

According to Sony, the G Master lenses will be shaped to 100th of a micron surface precision to eliminate abrupt shifts in defocus characteristics so the falloff is more gentle and lifelike.

The FE 85mm f/1.4 lens has dedicated focus and aperture rings, plus a focus hold button. It has 11 aperture blades and stops down to f/16. It has a minimum focusing distance of 2.62 feet when in manual mode and accepts 77mm filters.

The lens will ship in May and is available for pre-order now for $1,800.

We had the opportunity to take some sample photos at a press event in New York City. Have a look. These were shot on an a7R II in JPEG and taken straight from the camera.

f/1.4, 1/320

f/1.4, 1/320

f/1.4, 1/500

f/1.4, 1/500

f/1.4, 1/125

f/1.4, 1/125

f/1.4, 1/400

f/1.4, 1/400

DSC00088exposure test

f/1.4, 1/400