- Hey, guys.
My name is Matt Johnson with whoismatt.com.
And this is the Sony 24 millimeter GM lens.
And today I'm gonna be reviewing it
from the perspective of a filmmaker.
I know a lot of filmmakers are switching to Sony
with the recent release of the A7S3, possibly you as well,
which means that you are probably needing
to invest in some native Sony lenses.
And while I've seen a lot of reviews
for this lens for photography,
I have not seen many reviews for filmmaking.
So today I'm gonna do that.
In addition, I'm also going to be comparing this lens
to two other 24 millimeter lenses that are very popular,
namely the Sigma and Canon 24 millimeter.
And I'm gonna be telling you why
this Sony lens is my favorite 24 millimeters
available today.
So if you shoot video with Sony mirrorless camera
and you've been considering picking up this lens,
I hope this video helps you out.
Now, the first thing you need to know is that
I really love the 24 millimeter focal length.
In fact, the reason that I'm even able
to compare this Sony 24 to the Sigma
and Canon 24 millimeter lenses is that over the years
I've bought all of them.
I've owned this Canon 24 for nine years,
and this Sigma 24 for five years.
And I've used all of these lenses extensively.
Why do I love this focal length?
Because in my opinion, 24 millimeters
is the sweet spot for a wide angle lens.
Which probably explains why basically
every lens manufacturer has a version
of a 24 millimeter lens.
See, 24 millimeter is very wide, but not so wide
that you get distortion like a fisheye lens.
You still get great image quality, and in my opinion,
this focal length is the perfect width for a gimbal.
Also most 24 millimeter lenses
have a very low f-stop of F 1.4,
but even though a low f-stop usually means
a lens needs a lot of heavy glass to let in that much light,
24 millimeter lenses aren't very large
and most of them are lightweight
compared to other wide angle focal lengths.
In addition, this small lens size means
that 24 millimeter lenses can still use filters
like indie filters, which are basically necessary
in my opinion if you're a filmmaker.
See, it's the sweet spot.
Talking specifically about the Sony 24 millimeter lens now.
Let's talk about one of the first things
you will probably notice about this lens
and arguably something that makes it
the most compelling, it's size.
One of the reasons that I love the 24 millimeter
focal length is that in general,
the lenses are not that big,
especially whenever you compare them
to other wide lenses that have low f-stops.
24 millimeter lenses are known for being small.
But even so this Sony 24 millimeter takes it
to a whole other level.
Let's compare.
Here's the Canon 24 lens, pretty small and compact.
And here's the Sigma 24 next to it.
Pretty small too.
Side note though.
Keep in mind that all of these lenses have different mounts.
This Canon is of course a Canon EF mount.
The Sigma lens is actually a Nikon mount version
of a 24 millimeter.
And the Sony is of course Sony E-mount.
I say that because if you put an E-mount lens adapter
on the Canon and Sigma lenses,
you'll see they definitely get it a bit larger
if you want to use them with a Sony camera.
Lastly in comparison, here's the Sony 24 millimeter.
This little baby.
Look at it.
It's so compact, it's so tiny.
I was shocked whenever I first saw the size of this lens.
And not only is it small, it's also very lightweight.
Starting off the Canon 24 comes in at 1.43 pounds.
Tipping the scales, the Sigma comes in at 1.67 pounds.
And here's the Sony, coming in at a lightweight 15.7 ounces,
not even one pound.
This Sony lens is such a joy to shoot with
because it's so small and light.
Whenever I'm filming say a wedding day,
which is an all day event where I'm gonna be on my feet
for eight hours or more,
having a small compact lens on my camera
can make a huge difference in my level of exhaustion
by the end of the night.
I love it.
Now thinking about the size and weight of this lens,
you're probably thinking there has
to be some sort of catch, right?
First you may be thinking the build quality has to be bad
because this lens is so light.
Is it all made of plastic?
Well, from what I can tell this lens is weather sealed,
and has a very similar build quality
to the Canon and Sigma lenses.
All of these lenses have a plastic housing
with metal and glass internals,
but Sony has clearly put a lot of work
into making this lens smaller
without sacrificing image quality.
So let's talk about that image quality.
You're probably thinking,
"Matt, there's no way this lens could be sharp.
It's so tiny.
I bet it vignettes a tone and at F 1.4
it's super blurry, right?"
Was that like a Brooklyn accent?
I don't know where that came from.
I'm sorry to say you're wrong about all those assumptions
because Sony did some sort of witchcraft with this lens.
And not only is it very sharp even at F 1.4,
it also has very little vignetting.
Now I haven't done any super detailed scientific MTF tests
for this lens, but if you want to see scientific tests
of this lens sharpness, I would highly recommend reading
the Lensrentals blog about the Sony 24 millimeter,
where they did a deep dive analyzing
this lenses performance.
To quote what Roger Cicala at Lensrentals found,
"The Sony 24 millimeter GM is the
best 24 millimeter made right now
and really a world-class optic."
High praise coming from a guy
that looks at lenses all day,
especially considering that
he started a company called Lensrentals.
So you know, he has some experience with the lenses.
In my real world test I agree with Roger.
And I filmed with this lens in a variety
of scenarios, and I found it to be incredible sharp
with great image quality.
Now looking at the competition, I really don't have
any complaints about the image quality
of the Canon or Sigma 24 lenses either.
As I said at the start of this video,
most 24 millimeter lenses will give you great image quality
and the Canon and Sigma lenses are no exception.
If you told me today,
"Matt, You have go out and film a video
with one of these three lenses."
I would say,
"Great, that's really easy to do."
They are all great performers.
That said though if I had my choice,
I would still go for the Sony 24 millimeter.
And not only because it's so small and light,
there are in fact other reasons that I love this lens.
With one of the biggest reasons being, auto-focus.
Boy, the auto-focus with for this lens
makes it perfect for a gimbal.
Now, if you've watched my videos in the past,
you probably noticed that I'm a big fan of manual focus.
I made a video a while back about
how to use manual focus lenses on a gimbal.
Well, with the release of the Sony A7S3
things have changed a little bit,
because the auto-focus is such a massive upgrade
over my previous camera, the A7S2.
And when you pair the much improved auto-focus
of the A7S3 with this Sony 24 millimeter lens,
it is a fantastic combination.
This lens has these newer direct drive SSM motors,
which basically means it can focus super fast.
And this is very important, especially considering
this as an F 1.4 lens that has a lot
of glass inside that needs to move quickly.
But it gets better, because not only is this lens
super fast when auto-focusing,
it also is virtually silent while it auto-focuses,
which if you're a filmmaker that has ever had
your audio ruined by the sound of a lens, focusing,
this is a big deal.
I've personally experienced this when recording video
with Canon cameras using EF lenses.
While most EF lenses aren't super loud,
it is enough to interfere with the on-camera mic
that I sometimes use for ambient audio.
With this 24 millimeter I'm confident
that I can leave auto-focus on
and never have to worry about auto-focus sounds
interfering with my audio.
Without auto-focus out of the way,
let's talk manual focus.
Even with these stellar auto-focus
you will get with this lens, there may still be times
you want to guarantee a shot is in focus,
so you switched to manual.
Or maybe you're using an older Sony camera
with mediocre auto-focus like the A7S2,
so manual focus is really your best option.
I manual focus for years for that reason,
with my Sigma and Sony 24 lenses.
Now, when I bring up manual focus with Sony lenses,
some of you may cringe a little bit
because in the past Sony hasn't been known
for the best manual focus performance
with their lenses.
See Sony lenses are all focused by wire,
which means that unlike the Canon
or Sigma 24 millimeter lenses,
where if you rotate this focus ring
it is a direct physical connection
to the focusing element inside the lens.
Instead, Sony focused by wire lenses,
having an electronic connection
where if you rotate the focus ring,
it sends an electronic signal to the lens motor
telling it to adjust focus.
There are two reasons why focused by wire has sucked.
With the first being that it usually means
that the lens has a bit of lag when you manually focus.
For example, my Sony 16 to 35 millimeter F4 lens here
is focused by wire.
And when I rotate the focus ring,
it takes a little bit for the lens
to register the movement and adjust focus.
This is a huge pain if you're trying to nail focus,
because it's very easy to overcompensate.
The other reason focus by wire sucks
is that some Sony lenses,
the 55 millimeter F 1.8, for example,
use something called focus ramping,
where if you adjust the focus ring a short distance fast,
it will adjust focus quickly all the way to infinity.
But if you rotate the focus ring slowly,
it will take a much longer rotation to reach infinity.
This means that you will more
often than not miss focus because you forgot
to rotate your focus ring at a certain speed.
And this is just a pain overall.
Dang Matt manual focus with Sony lenses
sounds like it sucks.
Well, hold on a minute, because the Sony 24 millimeter
is a massive improvement in this area.
There is no manual focus ramping, first of all.
And second and more importantly,
while this lens is focused by wire,
there is no discernible lag that I've seen
between rotating the focus ring
and the lens adjusting focus.
So for all intents and purposes,
this Sony lens is just as good
when it comes to manual focus as the Sigma and Canon 24.
If you're a manual focus junkie like me,
you'll be very happy using this lens.
We've talked about the build, image quality,
and focusing abilities of this lens.
And now I want to wrap up this review by talking about
one feature of this lens that I feel like Sony included
with filmmakers in mind.
And this is also something that I'm sure
you've seen in a lot of older lenses,
but Sony is the only lens company that I know of,
including this feature in their newer photography lenses.
I'm speaking of course about the ability
for you to manually control your aperture
on the lens itself.
My Zeiss contact lenses from 1975 offer this feature,
and I love that Sony has carried it over into modern times
with their new lenses as well.
Set the lens to A, and you can adjust your lens aperture
using the traditional dials on your camera.
But rotate off A, and you will find
you have full manual control
of your aperture on the lens.
Why is this a big deal, Matt?
And why did Sony include this with filmmakers in mind?
This feels like more work to have to adjust
the aperture this way.
We'll check it out, on the other side of the lens
you'll see this switch that says click.
By default it is on, and as you rotate
the lens aperture ring, it will click
through each aperture number, stopping at each one.
But turn click to off and you can now
smoothly rotate your aperture ring,
and this is smoother than if I dip this lens in beard oil.
This is also called a clickless aperture,
and here's why it's a big deal.
Have you ever been filming an important take and realized
your shot was a bit overexposed?
If you adjust your aperture
on a traditional photography lens,
it is gonna click and abruptly change your f-stop
possibly ruining your shot.
But with this Sony lens,
changing your aperture is completely smooth.
You don't have to worry about your audience
noticing that you made a small adjustment
to your aperture mid-shot.
You can be sneaky about it.
Now, filmmakers, they use cinema lenses
have had this capability of clickless aperture,
basically forever.
And they're even companies that will modify
your photography lenses to make them clickless,
but it usually costs a lot of money.
I love that Sony made this lens with video shooters in mind,
and they've included clickless aperture
as an option with this lens.
Wrapping up this review, let's talk price.
This lens retails for 1,398 bucks,
which is definitely not cheap.
But considering everything you get in such a small
and lightweight package, I think it's fairly priced,
especially when you look at how much more expensive
other Sony GM lenses are in comparison.
Speaking of comparison, 1400 doesn't look so bad
when you compare it to the cost
of the Canon 24, which comes in at 1549.
For context, I paid 1750 when I bought this lens in 2011.
But comparing the cost of these two lenses to the Sigma 24,
which comes in at only eight 50, yikes,
that's quite a jump in cost.
For that reason, I feel like you really have two options
if you're considering buying a 24 millimeter lens.
From an image quality standpoint,
I've used the Sigma 24 for years,
and I still love this lens.
It's quite a bargain at 850, and if you're on a budget,
I would recommend it in a heartbeat.
But for me, I wanted the guaranteed
best auto-focus I could get,
which meant going with a native Sony lens.
And when I compared the size and weight
of the Sigma at 1.6 pounds versus the Sony
at less than one pound, it's quite a stark difference,
especially if you're carrying a camera
around with you on a wedding day like I am.
With that, thank you so much for watching
this review of the Sony 24 millimeter GM lens.
This is the first lens review I've made.
Did you like it?
Was it helpful to you?
Do you want to see more lens reviews like this?
Please leave me a comment down below and let me know.
Also, I recently finished a review of the Sony A7S3.
If you wanna check out that video,
I'll link to up in the corner and down in the description
next to the like button.
Lastly, if you happen to be a wedding filmmaker, like I am,
you probably want to book more couples
and film more weddings.
To help you out with that I've created a free guide
that's gonna walk you through some practical steps
that you can take right now in your business
to book more couples and film more weddings.
It's a completely free gift to you.
You can download it at the link
down in the video description.
Thanks so much for watching and have a great day.