Sony FE 50mm f/2.8 Macro review: Image Quality
The Sony FE 50mm f/2.8 Macro gives sharp images with attractive out-of-focus blur
You can’t really go wrong with a 50mm lens, and the FE 50mm f/2.8 Macro is no exception. At f/2.8, it is sharp in the centre, and provided you have the corners within the depth of field these are also acceptably sharp. Stopping down aids this further, with the lens reaching its optimum at around f/5.6-f/8. At these settings there is very little difference in sharpness between the corners and the edges. Even shooting at the minimum f/16 aperture produces acceptable results, despite a drop off in resolution due to diffraction.
Autofocus may not be the fastest but it’s still OK for moving subjects
With no noticeable distortion in our real-world tests, and an acceptable level of vignetting, the lens performs its duties well, producing sharp macro images. There is some magenta/green chromatic aberration visible, although the built-in raw profile for this corrects automatically for the worst of it. Removing the sliver that may remain on very high-contrast edges took a nudge of the slider in Adobe Lightroom CC.
Here the lens has done a good job shooting into the light with just a little flare
