Alright ya’ll, in my six years of using Sony cameras, I had never actually used a GM-series lens. I always thought they were just a status symbol and didn’t expect they lived up to the hype (and high price).
Well, like with most things in life, I was wrong. Recently, I rented out the 24mm GM for a few weeks and let’s just say I was blown away. In this review, I’ll be sharing my impressions along with dozens of sample photos. Let’s roll.
Pros:
- Top notch images
- Incredible build quality
- Not as big as you’d expect
- Perfect auto-focus
- Fully weather-sealed
Cons:
- GM lenses are big lol
- Expensive (you get what you pay for)
Verdict: The Sony FE 24mm F1.4 GM offers a perfect blend of incredible image quality, a robust build, and spectacular autofocus. It’s a classic case of “you get what you pay for”. Read what others have to say about it (affiliate link) or keep scrolling for my full review.
Size & Weight
Starting this off as I do with all my other reviews, let’s talk about size & weight. The 24mm is definitely pretty big, but it’s not as huge as some other full-frame lenses I’ve used.
It’s chunky, but not terribly cumbersome. I spent a lot of time wandering the city with it and didn’t feel like my wrist was breaking or that I constantly had to toss it in my bag to get some relief.
Build Quality
As far as build quality goes, it’s about as fantastic as you’d expect from a GM lens. Premium materials, no cheap or plastic-y feeling bits. Even the lens hood has a soft “felt”-like interior.
Speaking of the lens hood, it has a small push button to release it. I've never seen this on any other lens and I like it.
The lens is, as you’d probably expect from something that costs over a thousand dollars, completely weather-sealed. I didn’t get a great chance to test that particular aspect out unfortunately, as my area has an unusual streak of incredibly nice weather.
Usability
The Sony 24mm also comes with a nice suite of physical buttons and switches (goodness, I love physical buttons ya’ll). Like most other Sony lenses, you’ll find the standard AF/MF switch and a nice customizable button.
If this is your first time looking at a lens with a customizable button, they're awesome. You can set them to any function similar to how custom buttons work on your camera body (anything from focus mode to silent shutter).
What got me really excited though was the physical aperture ring! As a fan of vintage lenses, I absolutely love a good aperture ring… and this one certainly delivers. It also comes with not only a physical ring but a click/de-click switch! I personally prefer clicked apertures for the satisfying tactile feedback, but I know many others (particularly video shooters) prefer it to be smooth.
Autofocus
When it comes to autofocus, well, this is a GM lens. There’s nothing to complain about and it’s probably the best autofocus I’ve ever seen with a lens. My hit rate was essentially 100% even in challenging situations like low-light (I did a lot of night street shooting with this lens).
Absolutely zero issues with tracking moving subjects, whether that be fast-moving cars or slow-moving cosplayers (lol). EyeAF is super effective when you actually get close enough to make use of it. The focusing motor is, again, as you’d expect, entirely silent and I didn’t observe any focus breathing when shooting video.
The lens does offer some seriously close-focusing distance which is interesting. You’re certainly not going to replace your macro lens, but it’s cool for getting some weird and interesting perspectives.
For my fellow manual focus enjoyers, know that while the lens is focus-by-wire (no hard stops or tactile feedback), it still feels well dampened and fairly accurate. But honestly, you’re not buying a lens like this to manually focus anyway.
Image Quality
Finally, let’s talk image quality. I could rant and rave for hours on this thing, but I’ll keep it short: photos out of the Sony 24mm F1.4 look insane.
Now my lens tests don’t get very scientific, as I prefer to actually go out and shoot with them rather than photograph sharpness charts in my studio, but here’s what I’ve observed.
Shooting wide open at F1.4 looks pretty solid. There’s a bit of softness near the corners but centers look razor sharp. In most cases, when I’m shooting at F1.4, I’m generally not worrying about the corners anyway.
Stopping down just a bit (even to just F2.8) sharpens up the corners to perfection. Dropping to F5.6, F8, etc. looks incredible. Definitely a top-tier landscape lens in my book. Details and contrast are top notch.
A couple quick things to note, however. I live in a big city, so I don’t have much of an opportunity to do astrophotography, but I’ve heard from other astro shooters that this lens does suffer from a bit more comatic aberrations that you’d expect. It sounds like it’s not entirely a deal-breaker, but if you’re an astro-focusing photographer, consider something else.
For the rest of us, know that the lens has virtually no distortion, near perfect chromatic (not comatic lol) aberration performance, and minimal issues with flaring. I had a few situations where I got some serious ghosting when shooting into bright sunlight, but it seemed rare and I couldn’t figure out how to reliably recreate it.
Bokeh, for being a 24mm lens, actually looks pretty nice. You’re not completely blowing out backgrounds like you would with a telephoto, but there’s decent separation and subject isolation. Pictures are worth more than words so I’ll drop a few portrait samples below.
Should you buy?
So, should you buy this lens? Honestly, yeah. In most of my reviews, I’m able to say something like, “consider this or that lens as an alternative,” but there’s really no contest here.
The Sony 24mm F1.4 GM offers top notch… everything, really. It’s a classic case of you “you get what you pay for” and if you want to pick it up for yourself, I’ll drop a link down below. Thanks for reading, I think you’ll love your new lens!
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