Sony's new 24 to 50 millimeter F 2.8 G lens
may be your new favorite lens for wedding filmmaking.
Today I'm going to be reviewing this lens from the perspective of a wedding.
Filmmaker and telling you
if it's a good choice to buy if you film weddings or corporate videos
or documentaries or anything else like that.
Also, for the sake of ethics, I want you to know this video isn't
paid or sponsored by Sony, but they did send me this lens to review it
and I'm going to be sending it back to them very soon.
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I've made no secret over the past year that I'm a prime guy.
I love a good prime lens, and specifically my two favorite prime
focal lengths are 24 millimeter and 50 millimeter, with 24 being the lens
that is pretty much always on my gimbal and Five-O being my go to for handheld
on a wedding day.
So when Sony told me that they would be releasing a combo pack
and super lightweight lens that hits both of these focal lengths,
I immediately set up and paid attention.
So let's talk about this 24 to 50 millimeter lens
to start your initial reaction, maybe a bit of confusion, wondering
why Sony is releasing a lens like this
whenever they already have a perfectly capable 24 to 70 millimeters
f 2.8 GM lens that gives you 30 more millimeters of focal length
and also a 22 seven millimeters F four lens.
That gives you four more millimeters on the wide end.
Is there really room in Sony's lineup for another
lens in the middle of these focal lengths?
Well, like I said, I'm a guy that really likes the 24
and 50 millimeter focal length.
So this lens is right on the spot for me.
More importantly, this 24 to 50 millimeter focal length lets this lens do
two things that neither Sony's 24 to 70 or 2270 millimeter lenses can do.
First, comparing it versus the 24 to 70
GM to this new 24 to 50 is dramatically lighter weight.
We are talking going from 695 grams down to only 440.
It is so light for context.
My 24 1.4 GM lens that I love is 445 grams.
So this zoom lens is even lighter than that, which is awesome,
especially if you're filming a wedding where you're carrying camera and all day
and using a gimbal and you want something super lightweight and compact.
Heck, Sony even loaned me one of their new A7 C cameras and they sent me
this lens to test because they are so proud of how compact this setup is.
Look at how tiny and cute this lenses on the camera.
It's really subtle and non-intrusive filmmaking set up, which is great.
Now what about comparing this 24 to 50 millimeter
to the 20 to 70 millimeters lens that Sony already has?
Well, here's another area where the 24 to 50 does what the 2070 can't,
and that is that Sony's 20 to 70 millimeter is only a four,
while this 24 to 50 is an F 2.8, which is generally considered
the sweet spot for most premium lenses.
And you're going to get a lot more Boca
and low light performance from this lens than you do on the 20 to 70.
So if I could summarize what I'm saying about this lens versus
Sony's other lenses that are in the same ballpark, I'm
pretty much always going to take the lens that is smaller, lighter,
and that has better low light performance, which is why I love prime lenses.
But with this 24 to 50, it's lighter than my lightest prime,
the 24 GM and it still has an F 2.8, which makes it good in low light.
Do you see how many boxes this lens is checking?
Now that said, we do need to talk about the build quality
and features of this lens because it has a lot of pros.
But there is one
con that I do want to address in a minute, but first, this is a Sony G lens,
just a step below their GM line, which doesn't necessarily mean that
the optical performance isn't as good as a GM lens.
It more so means that Sony's marketing department didn't want to necessarily
have a GM lens at this nontraditional focal length on that list of GM lenses.
So they just slapped a G under this lens and called it a day.
The main thing that you need to know
is that the optical performance of this lens is exceptional.
It's super sharp, the box looks beautiful, colors are popping.
It's a modern Sony lens. You're going to love it.
It looks great.
In addition, it has all of the features that you would come to expect
from a high end Sony lens.
You're getting an aperture control ring with controls to make it click
this Programable Buttons AutoFocus Manual focus switch the works.
AutoFocus performance is fantastic, as you would expect for modern Sony
Lens Manual. Focus is also fast and responsive.
And didn't I say there was a con?
Well, where is the con in all of this?
Well, here it is.
Specifically, this has to do with the way this lens zooms.
This is more my personal preference than anything else.
But this is one of those lenses like the original Sony Zeiss 16
to 35 F4 that basically zooms in reverse.
And what I mean by that is that whenever
you are at 50 millimeters, this lens is at its most compact,
and whenever you're at 24 millimeters, the lens is extended.
I'm sure there's some big physics reason why Sony has built this lens this way,
but to my brain it makes more sense for the lens to be more compact
at 24 millimeter and then extended at 50 millimeter.
But whatever, it doesn't extend a ton.
And if you're gonna be balancing the lens on a gimbal,
I would just sit in the middle
to about 35 or so and then balance it there and you'll be set.
But just know that the lens extending this way is a little bit weird.
That said, this is a nontraditional in.
So a nontraditional zoom is pretty par for the course anyways.
One other feature of the zoom that I want to
address is the question of whether this lens is par focal or not,
meaning that if you set it to
manual focus at 24 millimeter and then zoom it into 50 millimeter,
will it still be in focus?
And the answer is no, not quite.
It's close, but a bit off.
So you'll want to use autofocus and zooming.
In addition, testing the lens breathing of this lens.
I find that it does breathe quite a fair amount.
But I do think it's important to consider the context
that Sony is bringing lens breathing compensation to the A7 s three,
which means that pretty much their entire line of new cameras support
this feature and basically makes lens breathing obsolete.
So I'm not really sure how much Sony is going to care
about lens breathing in their future
lenses, considering they basically fixed this issue in software.
Let me know in the comments if you think this lens breathing
compensation is enough for you, or if you want to see them
focus on making lenses that don't breathe overall.
Now, having used this lens for a while, I think that if you're a wedding filmmaker
looking for an ultra compact and lightweight lens that is going to hit
two of the best focal links, in my opinion, 24 and 50 millimeter,
while also performing very well as an all around lens
that can work fantastically on a gimbal or handheld.
I think this 24 to 50 millimeter is a great choice.
In addition, if you are a brand new wedding
filmmaker and you're looking to buy your first lens and something like Sony's
24 to 70, GM is two out of reach for you financially
because let's be honest, these lenses keep getting more and more expensive.
I think this 24 to 50 could be a fantastic starter lens for you.
Anyways, I'll link to the 24 to 50 down below as well as to my free
level up Your wedding films Guide.
If you're a wedding filmmaker
and you want to improve the quality of your wedding films,
I would highly recommend checking out this guide.
It's completely free and linked out in the video description.
Thanks so much for watching and have a great day.