The new Sony 50-150mm f/2 G Master lens is the world’s first zoom lens with a constant f/2 aperture at a 150mm focal length. Sony Artisan and professional portrait photographer Miguel Quiles gives us a deep dive into the new lens in the video below. “This lens is simply the peak of performance, and is great for shooting weddings, portraits, indoor sports and even filmmaking.” Watch as Quiles shares all of the specs and features, along with his experience shooting with it:
Sony 50-150mm f/2 G Master: The Outside
Quiles first takes a closer look at the features on the outside of the 50-150mm f/2 GM. “Turning the outside of the lens, you’ll find a dedicated clickless aperture ring with an iris lock switch, three customizable Focus Hold buttons, along with a AF/MF switch, and fulltime DMF switch,” he says.
The front element of the lens also features Nano-AR coating, which helps to reduce flaring and ghosting. The new lens hood also has a small door that will allow access to your filter, and there’s a tripod mount that can be removed when you don’t need it.
“The lens weighs in at 1340 grams without the tripod mount,” Quiles explains, “and it has a similar length to the 70-200mm f/2.8 GM II lens, while having a slightly larger diameter. It’s also weather-sealed with a fluorine coating on the front element, and that helps to repel things like water, oil and other contaminants.”
Sony 50-150mm f/2 G Master: The Inside
Inside is where Quiles says you’ll find all of the magic sauce that makes this lens awesome. “19 elements in 17 groups that include two XA elements, two aspherical elements, three ED and two super ED elements – all of which help to minimize aberrations,” he says. “The 11-blade circular aperture helps create the smooth, creamy bokeh that G Master lenses are renowned for.”
He continues, “The autofocus in this lens is blazing fast and it’s accurate thanks to the four Xtreme Dynamic linear motors which support tracking up to 120 frames per second. This lens was designed for both still and video use, and those motors offer near silent operation and precision, allowing for clean audio capture and video without having to worry about lens noise interference.”
The zooming in the Sony 50-150mm f/2 GM is also completely internal, so the size doesn’t change when you zoom from 50mm to 150mm. Quiles also mentions how well-balanced the lens is – ”So you can use this lens on a gimbal, easily,” he adds.
The lens has a minimum focus distance of 0.4 meters on the wide end, and 0.74 meters on the long end. It also has a 0.2x maximum magnification. “Focus breathing on this lens is minimized as well,” Quiles explains, “and that’s without needing to use in-body breathing compensation which is also available on cameras that support that feature.”
The Sony 50-150mm f/2 G Master For Portrait Photography
Quiles paired the new Sony 50-150mm f/2 G Master lens up with the Sony Alpha 7R V and the Sony Alpha 1 II for a variety of different shoots, including some indoor and outdoor portrait shoots. “At any rate, this lens is truly an elite level lens, giving you the best of the best in nearly every possible category. Check out some of the images that I took with this lens, and you’ll notice that the bokeh looks awesome and the lens is overall insanely sharp.”
Shooting with the Continuous Wide Area Autofocus mode, Quiles was able to line up his images in camera and rely on the lens to track and keep his subject in focus. “Because of the balance of the lens, it was surprisingly easy for me to hold the lens over the course of several hours of shooting.”
The new Sony 50-150mm f/2 G Master lens joins another f/2 in the lineup – the 28-70mm f/2 GM lens, which Quiles says has quickly become one of his favorite zoom lenses of all time. “The bottom line for me is that this might just be one of my personal favorite portrait lenses of all time. 50mm is a common focal length for location portrait work, and having the ability to punch into 150mm at f/2 and enjoy some of the most unique bokeh and sharpness that I’ve ever seen, is just icing on the cake.”
Learn more about the new Sony 50-150mm f/2 G Master lens HERE.
