New Large Aperture Wide-Angle Prime Lens is the most compact and lightest in its class, with superb sharpness even at F1.4
SAN DIEGO, Sept. 20, 2018 – Sony Electronics, Inc. – a global leader in digital imaging and the world’s largest image sensor manufacturer – has today introduced an exciting new addition to their acclaimed G Master series of full-frame E-mount lenses, a 24mm F1.4 prime lens.
Expertly engineered to deliver best in class performance across all aperture settings, the new FE 24mm F1.4 GM (model SEL24F14GM) utilizes Sony’s most advanced optical technologies to satisfy the needs of the most demanding photographers. The new lens is the most compact and lightweight in its class, measuring approx. 3.0 inches x 3.64 inches and weighing only 15.7 ounces, with a filter diameter of 67mm. Built to meet the strict standards of Sony’s flagship G Master series, the FE 24mm F1.4 GM offers exceptionally high resolution and beautiful bokeh, two qualities that are signature attributes of the G Master brand.
“We are continuing to evolve our lens lineup to maximize the power of our innovative α camera lineup, ” said Neal Manowitz, vice president of imaging solutions at Sony Electronics. “The new 24mm prime brings an exciting new perspective to our flagship lens series. With its incredibly lightweight design and signature G Master quality, our 30th native full-frame mirrorless lens opens up a new world of creative opportunities for today’s photographers, videographers and multi-media creators.”
Realizing consistently high resolution across the entire frame, even at F1.4, the FE 24mm F1.4 GM boasts a new optical design comprised of 10 groups with 13 elements, including two XA (extreme aspherical) and three ED (Extra-low Dispersion) elements. The incorporation of two XA elements effectively suppresses sagittal flare to ensure that point light sources like distant stars can be accurately reproduced, making the FE 24mm F1.4 GM a compelling proposition for astrophotography. For impressive clarity, Sony’s unique Nano AR Coating is applied to reduce lens flare and ghosting, even in landscape shots where the position of the sun can be problematic with a normal lens.
This outstanding performance is packaged in an extremely compact and lightweight body weighing it at only 15.7 ounces, a welcome relief for landscape or adventure photographers that are hiking, climbing or travelling over long distances. This advantage is further compounded when the FE 24mm F1.4 GM is paired with one of Sony’s award-winning α7 / α9 cameras. The lightweight lens design has been realized in part by the development of a new high power DDSSM (Direct Drive SSM) that delivers approximately three times greater thrust than the previous focus system, enabling fast response, high positioning accuracy and quiet operation for both stills and movie shooting.
This incredible lens is also a perfect complement to Sony’s APS-C sensor mirrorless cameras such as α6500 and α6300, and brings the total number of native Sony α E-mount lenses to 48.
In addition to its landscape and starscape shooting abilities, the FE 24mm F1.4 GM also has excellent close up performance of 0.24 meters (0.79ft.) and delivers soft and natural bokeh, a feature that is common across Sony’s entire G Master series of lenses. This is achieved by extreme control over factors like spherical aberration, and axial and lateral chromatic aberration, at the design and manufacturing stages, as each lens is individually tested and adjusted to achieve maximum performance.
The FE 24mm F1.4 GM also includes a number of professional controls that aide ease of operation for both stills and movie shooting. These include an aperture ring that allows direct, intuitive aperture control, and a focus ring that features Linear Response MF for fine, responsive manual focus control. There is also a customizable focus hold button and a focus-mode switch that makes it possible to quickly select auto or manual focus to match changing shooting conditions.
Pricing and Availability
The FE 24mm F1.4 GM will ship in October 2018 for approximately $1,400 US and $1,900 CA. The lens will be sold at a variety of Sony authorized dealers throughout North America.
pretty obvious knock at canon's inability to mount R glass on M bodies. Classic sony marketing ;)
That ability to easily use filters with the 11-24 is one of the most compelling reasons I am looking at one of the new line of bodies.
Agreed, we won't see an RF 11-24, there's a chance we could see a 14-24 f/2.8 though, that makes more sense.
Will the VND and CPL produce X-banding/banding when the filter is placed closer to the sensor as opposed the front of a lens at short focal lengths?
They had to do everything they can while the RF system is still reeling from its early growing pains because once the Canon ML system finally matures, history might repeat again.
However they are heavily marketing their new lens as ~200G lighter than competition, well, 24 1.4 II is almost a decade old now and perhaps Canon is about to update it with (again) 60g less than Sony's.
Sorry, I don't think I got my question across correctly. I found that VND filters produced X banding at the shorter focal lengths (~24mm or less), which is one reason why I now prefer using a couple ND filters instead of the VND. I was just wondering whether or not a VND positioned at the rear of lens would be similarly affected. I'm guessing yes...
I have many EF lenses, and the idea of not having to tote a bunch of filters and step rings is appealing. Of course, I'm sure the RF counterparts will be even more stellar...
My plan is to sell one of my 1DX MkII's and get the higher spec version of the R when it comes out, mainly because I can use these adapters, there will be regular ND's available for them too.
(1). Similar size and weight, but better image quality; Or,
(2). Similar image quality, but smaller or lighter?
Can Zeiss take advantage of Canon RF and develop better image quality, smaller, lighter Zeiss RF 1.4/20 or 1.4/24 than Milvus 1.4/25?