Sony FE 24mm F1.4 GM

THIS fast wideangle prime for Sony’s full-frame mirrorless system sets new standards in its class. As a member of the firm’s premium G Master range, it offers stunning optical quality, combining spectacular resolution across the entire image with attractive rendition of defocused backgrounds. As a bonus, it’s also substantially smaller and lighter than its equivalents for full-frame DSLRs.

The newly developed optical formula employs 13 elements in 10 groups, including two extreme aspheric (XA) elements along with three crafted from extra-low dispersion (ED). This delivers stunning sharpness even at f/1.4, coupled with minimal distortion and chromatic aberration. In addition, the lens suffers from barely any coma flare of point light sources at the corner of the frame, making it highly suitable for astrophotography. Nano-AR coating suppresses flare and ghosting, while fluorine coating shrugs off water and grease from the front element. Sony’s latest high-power direct- drive supersonic motor (DDSSM) system offers fast and silent autofocus that’s also unerringly accurate, even with off- centre subjects at large aperture settings. Manual focus is similarly well behaved thanks to the Linear Response MF system, which offers a very intuitive feel similar to using a traditional manual-focus lens. Overall, this is without doubt the best fast wideangle prime we’ve tested.

‘This fast wideangle prime sets new standards in its class’