Popular Photography on Campus April 2016

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FIRST LOOK
GREATER GLASS
Sony shoots for sharpness with its new lens line
FULL-FRAME FINERY
Sony’s new line of glass debuts with
three full-frame lenses. The traditional
24–70mm f/2.8 workhorse and an
85mm f/1.4 and 70–200mm f/2.8.
FOR YEARS NOW, the best lenses
you could get for Sony Alpha
cameras bore the Zeiss moniker
and were made to the high standards
of that esteemed brand.
Now, with the introduction of its
new series of G Master lenses for
FE- and E-mount mirrorless cameras,
Sony has come up with its
own set of high standards. The
first two lenses in the series, the
FE 24–70mm f/2.8 GM and the
FE 85mm f/1.4 GM, are currently
available for $2,198 and $1,798,
respectively. The third lens in the
series, the FE 70–200mm f/2.8
GM OSS, doesn’t have an official
price yet, but is expected to hit
stores in May.
These lenses throw image
circles that cover full-frame
sensors, but can also be used on
Sony’s APS-C bodies, capturing
the equivalent field of view of
36–105mm, 127.5, and 105–
300mm lenses, respectively.
We had a chance to use the
first two lenses recently on a
Sony-sponsored trip to Miami
Beach, and can say that the
image quality from both lenses
appears superb. Sony says that
it is trying to balance sharpness
and smooth bokeh in its new
glass. Extremely tight manufacturing
tolerances—down to
0.01 micron—aim to make their
new XA (Extreme Aspherical)
elements serve up extremely
smooth out-of-focus discs without
the ring-like effect that can
arise with some lens designs.
Furthermore, new direct drive
supersonic motors and duallinear
supersonic motors help
drive fast, precise focusing. That
said, given the 85mm’s heavy
glass, you can’t expect it to focus
G MASTER
LENSES
KEY SPECS
FOCAL LENGTHS:
24–70mm; 85mm;
70–200mm
MAXIMUM
APERTURES:
f/2.8; f/1.4; f/2.8
MOUNTS:
Compatible with Sony
FE and E mounts
FILTER SIZES:
82mm; 77mm;
77mm
DIMENSIONS:
3.4x5.4 in.; 3.5x4.2
in.; 3.5x7.9 in.
WEIGHTS:
1.95 lbs; 1.81 lbs;
3.26 lbs
PRICES: $2,198,
street; $1,798, street;
price not yet
determined
INFO: sony.com
as quickly as the 24–70mm, or
smaller lenses with lighter elements.
Both lenses are well built
and weather sealed to fend off
moisture and dust; they should
easily stand up to daily use.
According to Sony, G Master
lenses deliver a baseline resolution
of 50 line-pairs per millimeter—more
than double the 20 lp/
mm you might expect from film
era lenses. Why so much res?
Sony has endeavored to make
glass that can deliver more when
paired with cameras that boast
extremely high pixel counts.
From the images we made with
the lenses mounted on Sony’s
A7R II, we think that the company
is on to something. Both the
24–70mm and the 85mm served
up some of the sharpest images
we’ve ever seen with creamy outof-focus
areas. —Philip Ryan
30 POPULAR PHOTOGRAPHY ON CAMPUS APRIL 2016