Testing Sony’s G-Master Prime Lenses!
Back in August, I had the incredibly fortunate opportunity of going on a camping trip with some friends! Initially, we were supposed to go to the Smoky Mountains. And after an over 9 hour road trip to Knoxville, Tennessee, we realized that going to the Smoky Mountains during hurricane season was kind of a bad idea.
And after desperately searching for places to stay at night and escaping from a super sketchy Days Inn motel that had a shirtless guy with hatchet in his hand a few doors down from our room, we finally settled on changing up our plans.
And so, we went to Shawnee National Forest in the most southern part of Illinois!
Thank goodness we didn’t give up our vacation because that trip was so worth it (minus the daddy long legs and bug bites)! The hikes were beautiful and I got to take some beautiful photos and video along the way!
I chose to take only the Sony a7SIII because I wanted to test its photo taking capabilities even though it’s a mirrorless camera tailored more towards video. However, I also wanted to test a couple new lenses that I got: the Sony 35mm f/1.4 GM and the Sony 24mm f/1.4 GM!
Sony’s G-Master lenses are Sony’s top-of-the-line glass. They are known for their incredible corner-to-corner sharpness and detail while wide open, along with a very unique look. So I got to test these lenses out and here are my impressions:
I’ll admit that I haven’t really used the 24mm that much but their qualities are rather similar with the 35mm. I personally love the 35mm focal length so that was why I leaned more towards that lens.
These lenses are amazingly sharp!
White Moss at 35mm f/1.4. ISO 2000. Shutter: 1/200.
My goodness, I had a wonderful time shooting with these lenses. They’re lightweight yet they produce absolutely stunning results. They fit very well on the a7SIII. The bokeh when wide open looks very pleasing and subjects really pop out from the background!
There was hardly any chromatic aberration or distortion when shooting at f/1.4 (if at all). And if there was, it was easily corrected in post.
I really love the aperture ring on these lenses as they give you more flexibility rather than fiddling with the camera controls in order to change your aperture. The declickable ring was also a nice touch for anyone shooting video and needing a smooth aperture ring.
Shawnee Rocks at 35mm f/1.4. ISO 250. Shutter: 1/5000.
Most people who shoot video will most likely be very concerned with focus breathing, when the image distorts slightly when pulling focus. And unfortunately, this is one of the main drawbacks with these lenses, especially on the 35mm. Since they’re photography lenses, focus breathing isn’t really much of a concern for people who primarily shoot photos. But for video on the other hand, it can be rather distracting.
Thankfully, while the focus breathing does exist on these lenses, they weren’t that distracting when shooting video. It’s most likely because I was shooting a lot of slow motion and so the focus breathing wasn’t that noticeable.
Speaking of focus, the autofocus performance on these lenses are fantastic! They’re all able to keep up extremely well with my subjects and the a7SIII’s eye-tracking autofocus really helped nail some great portrait shots.
Friend taking some photos at 35mm f/1.4. ISO: 640. Shutter: 1/5000.
So overall, I really love these G-Master lenses! From a technical perspective, they are insanely sharp, low distortion lenses that can produce wonderful photos in high resolution. Creatively, they look amazing with an overall neutral look but still has great skin tones.
Here’s the finished film, by the way. I can’t wait to try them out some more on future projects!
In the meantime, I’ll see ya round!