Is Sony About to Announce a 50mm f/1.2 GM Lens?

Is Sony About to Announce a 50mm f/1.2 GM Lens?

This is one that will grab many fans’ attention. Is the Japanese giant just weeks away from announcing a 50mm f/1.2 GM? How much will it cost and will you be placing an order?

Sony Alpha Rumors is reporting that Sony has various product announcements ready to drop, including a batch of microphones on March 9 and a lot of lenses on March 23. What might catch most people's eye is the prospect of a 50mm f/1.2, which is slated for release on March 16.

As it stands, Sony’s fast fifty is the Zeiss Planar T* FE 50mm f/1.4 ZA that was launched back in July 2016 and currently available for $1,498. Since then, Canon has upped the mirrorless game somewhat with its RF 50mm f/1.2L ($2,299), and Nikon followed close behind with the NIKKOR Z 50mm f/1.2 S ($2,096.95).

With its slightly smaller throat, plenty have speculated that a high-quality 50mm f/1.2 wouldn’t be possible for E-mount cameras, so we might be about to find out if Sony is going to prove that suggestion wrong.

Fans who don’t have two-and-a-half grand to drop on a 50mm lens might prefer Sony to update its nifty fifty, which, while affordable (currently discounted to $198), feels a bit pedestrian when put up against those made by its competitors.

So, is Sony about to catch up with its own super-fast 50mm prime? More importantly, will you be buying it? Let us know in the comments below.

Andy Day's picture

Andy Day is a British photographer and writer living in France. He began photographing parkour in 2003 and has been doing weird things in the city and elsewhere ever since. He's addicted to climbing and owns a fairly useless dog. He has an MA in Sociology & Photography which often makes him ponder what all of this really means.

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22 Comments

Would love to see a 24-105 or so GM lens, not a 24 -70 gm!

Yes, a 24-105 f/2.8 GM would be nice, but probably heavy as *@#%!

The 1.8/55 ZA is more outdated than the 50's. It only supports half the frame rate of the Alpha 1.

says who? I mean... almost all Sony lenses are capable of at least 20fps ... the GM's are all in the 30fps area (except the 85gm) and the 50 Planar is also capable of "Just" ... 20fps ...

however 15fps is just for 3rd party lenses.. they should update their AF motors asap.

i mean even 15fps is much more than any DSLR Canon L lens, just saying.

The R3 is a 30 fps sports camera. If Canon's lenses are incapable of that speed why make the camera?
Prove they can not do 30 fps.

Nikon tried to make a huge thing and tell people how superior their big mount is... althought it just means that their engineers are that bad that they cant develop a good lens on a smaller mount.

M-Mount Nocticlux... a few years ago on a much smaller mount.... and the Noct... 4 times as big... well done nikon.

Sony also showed clearly that their Mount can got as fas as up to f0.69 ... so why do you guys repeat those biased BS whenever there is an Sony Lens announcement?

You know Bojan. Fstoppers became new clickbait for some time...

Perhaps the mount size determines complexity and balance. The small Leica rangefinder mount supports .95 lenses so the diameter doesn’t seem to be a limiting factor to discuss.

If it's as compact and IQ as good and about the same price as their 24 and 35 (I don't own these), I may consider it. When I'm shooting indoors, a lot of times, a 35 can be too wide and a 75 too tight.

There's no way a 50/1.2 will be as compact AND have IQ and price about the same as the 24/1.4 or 35/1.4.

My guess - much larger, IQ who knows, I'm sure it'll be good, and probably $800-1100 more expensive than the 24 and 35GM lenses. Nikon has the cheapest 50/1.2 at $2100 (canon $2300), so I don't see this being cheaper than either - maybe on par or in between, possibly more than either.

Honestly I don't care... 1.4 is more then enough heck I even shoot 1.8 and clients don't care video and photography wise. I don't need to drop another probably 3 grand for .2 of a stop.

It's actually half (0.5) of a stop, but yes, I agree with you. Don't understand the desire for f/1.2 lenses these days, when we can comfortably shoot at ISO 6400 or 12,800.

I don't even care about f/1.4 - which is why I love Nikon's f/1.8 Z primes. Pro quality build and image quality without the outrageous size or price of f/1.4 lenses.

Whoops my bad I was just referencing the actual number wasn't paying attention. And I totally agree.

If they can make a 50/1.2 GM that is similar in size, weight, performance, and price to the 24/1.4 and 35/1.4 GM lenses they'll sell a lot of them. It will be backordered for years. If they make something the size, weight, and price of the 85/1.4 GM it will just be another expensive bit of glass that most Sony shooters will ignore. Not many people interested in dropping $2k on a single prime, even if they can afford it.

As for me, one of the things that attracted me to Sony was a compact & lightweight system that didn't cost the earth. With that in mind I prefer their 1.8 primes. 20/1.8G, FE35/1.8, FE55/1.8ZA, 85/1.8, and the Tamron 17-28/2.8 28-75/2.8 combo. I'm not likely to be one of the people waitlisted for a 50/1.2GM.

I know-- it's crazy how much weight and cost you save by dropping from 1.4 to 1.8. I have the 85gm and I use it all the time for weddings but I never take it hiking or for personal shoots. If I had the 75mm 1.8 I bet it would get a lot more use. The diff in the out of focus look between 1.4 and 1.8 is really not that noticeable.

The sony mount has had lots of manual focus 50mm f.95 options for years so I don't think anyone was wondering whether a 50mm 1.2 would be a problem. I've been using an old nikon 50mm 1.2 for years on my sony. I just saw another one announced recently.

You can stick an adapted 85mm 1.2 with AF on a sony too so there's that. Until they start making f0.5 lenses I don't think anyone needs to worry about mount sizes.

The Leica M mount has about a 10% smaller throat diameter yet has no problem with a 50/0.95 either. I really don't get where these weird rumors come from. Disgruntled Canon/Nikon shooters maybe?

Fstoppers is apparently new Petapixel. Never thought they can go that low with repeating nonsese Sony mount size versus F1.2 primes..
The funny thing Is that will be smaller then Nikon version and better lol.

Yeah, it's very weird. The Leica M mount has a considerably smaller throat diameter and has no problem with a 50/0.95 lens. Who makes up these weird rumors?

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This would be my preferred lens and would probably make me jump over to Sony.