This is the new Sony 50mm F1.4 which was announced today, and this is the new Sigma 50mm f1.4 which
was announced a few weeks ago. So we have two new and very good 50mm lenses to choose from for E
mount cameras. Not that we were short of options before, there are a lot of 50mm lenses for E mount
now, perhaps more than any other focal length. So I thought it would be interesting and hopefully
helpful to get these two new lenses and a couple of our other favourites, the Sony 50mm f1.2 G
master of course and the Samyang 50mm f1.4 mark II as more of an affordable option, all in the same
place, side by side and do some simple comparison tests to try and help you decide between them.
So lets start with the price. These are the product pages right now at ProAV so
prices here are correct as of the time of this video going out but might of course be
slightly different when you are watching it. So make sure you actually check the
website with the links below. But I do think its important to start this video with some prices,
as these lenses vary massively. Both of the Sony G Masters are of course substantially more than the
Sigma and Samyang options, with the Samyang particularly being really quite affordable.
Physically theres a big difference as well. They are all roughly the same size for the most part,
but there is a noticeable weight difference between the Sony f1.2 and the sigma f1.4,
and the new sony and samyang lenses both feel really nice and lightweight.
They all have a 72mm front filter thread apart from the new sony f1.4 which has a 67mm thread.
Both of the Sony lenses are leading the pack in terms of features. With
two assignable buttons on each and an iris ring which can be declicked
and locked as well as an autofocus manual focus switch. The sigma is very similar,
but with only one assignable button. It also has an Iris ring which can be declicked and locked.
The Samyang is a bit simpler. Theres no iris ring here, but there is a button and Samyangs
custom mode switch which most of their modern lenses have now. By default this is set to
change the focus dial from controlling your focus to controlling your iris, but that can
be changed with their optional docking station to do a bunch of different things if you’d prefer,
even just working as a regular manual focus autofocus switch. Theres also a button which
can also be changed with their dock and by default is set to focus hold just like the other lenses.
Lets look at some of our image quality comparisons. I can’t see any noticeable
colour shifts between the lenses particularly, although both sonys do look ever so slightly
less saturated than the sigma and samyang lenses. All 4 lenses are really very sharp and detailed,
even wide open. This is 4K footage from the a7 IV cropped into 500% in the center.
The new sony f1.4 is probably the sharpest, with the other 3 all looking pretty similar to me.
However both sony lenses have no signs of chromatic aberration here on this chart,
while both the sigma and samyang do have a bit.
If we stop down to f2.8 they get even closer in performance. The Sony f1.2 has got much sharper,
however I still think the new f1.4 is more detailed. But its very close between all 4. And
if we move over to the edge of the frame things are still very impressive. The samyang is perhaps
the weakest here wide open, but they are all pretty good really. These are 4 very sharp lenses.
We also found they were very close in terms of autofocus performance. In this fairly simple test
of me walking back and forwards they tracked me perfectly. If we zoom into the background
you get a better sense of how smooth each one is. I’d say the Sonys are both the smoothest,
followed by the sigma and then the samyang. But as you can see the all do just fine.
There were a few areas where we found a big difference though. This is a focus breathing
test and the Sonys both have a noticable amount of breathing. Plus the focus ring when manually
changing focus on these tests was very difficult to control smoothly and precisely. These are
definitely auto focus first lenses. The sigma on the other hand was a dream to manually focus
with a nice amount of dampening that tricks you into thinking its not a fly by wire lens,
which of course it still is. But it does let you control the focus very precisely even if it
wouldn't be repeatable like a cine lens. However this definitely the lens with the most breathing
here. This is not the sigma’s strong point. If we look at the samyang though its pretty impressive.
Theres barely any focus breathing which I was very surprised with so hats off to samyang.
Theres also a big difference in the Bokeh rendition. This is wide open on each lens and we
zoom into the corner you can see the difference. I think the sony f1.2 is the clear winner here with
nice smooth natural looking bokeh. These out of focus lights look very clean and although
they are a slight oval shape here in an edge corner, they still are quite soft and round.
The new sony f1.4 on the other hand is still very clean but with much more defined points
on either end of the oval. The sigma looks nice and soft as well, but does
have a bit more going on inside the bokeh, some slight onion skinning, but the shape is good.
And the samyang is my least favourite here, theres some uneven cutting going on and some
noticeable noise and markings down the right hand side of each bokeh ball. Nothing too problematic,
it still looks great when not cropped in, but not quite as good as the other 3.
So, all in all, these lenses are actually pretty close. Certainly much closer than their
price tag would suggest. And close enough that it makes my job pretty hard in terms
of which one to recommend. The Sony lenses are pretty consistently better in every way,
but then they kind of should be for the price. The only area I think they aren’t better than
more affordable lenses is in manual focus. The sigma particularly has much more dampening and
resistance on the focus ring which is much nicer to manual focus with in my opinion.
But apart from that, the Sony’s are unexpectedly the best lenses here, and choosing between the
f1.4 and f1.2 really depends on whats important to you, size and weight or that maximum aperture.
On the other end of the scale in terms of price, theres the Samyang, which really offers
some fantastic value for money. There are some areas here where it comes out on top, like its
lack of focus breathing and it holds up well in pretty much every other area as well. The sigma
is just perhaps that bit more consistent in its performance across the board though, so I do think
my advice would be to step up to the sigma if you can afford to. I think the sigma is the best
all-rounder here for video work. But the samyang is smaller, has less focus breathing, is much
cheaper and its autofocus and image quality isn’t that far off really. So even though its the least
impressive lens here for me, I wouldn’t blame people for choosing it at all. But what do you
think? If you want to buy any of these lenses head over to proav.co.uk and let me know which one you
would prefer to use in the comments below. Thanks for watching, and i’ll see you in the next one.