35x35: We pair the new Sony 35mm f/1.4 FE Zeiss Distagon with the A7 II for an initial gallery sampling
posted Monday, March 9, 2015 at 6:05 PM EDT
We're in the process of dotting the i's and crossing the t's on our SLRGear review of the new Sony 35mm f/1.4 FE Zeiss Distagon lens released last week, but we wanted to go ahead and get you an early sampling of some real world gallery images for an early glimpse into how Sony's latest FE heavy hitter performs.
Considered one of the classic all-time focal lengths, and viewed by many old-schoolers as their most versatile lens in the bag, this new Sony offering is both a lot brighter than their previous 35mm f/2.8 FE released in 2013, and also (as would be expected given the bright aperture) much larger and heavier. Oh, and it's about twice the price as well, currently being offered for roughly $1600.
So what does the much brighter aperture, price and heft buy you? That's still being determined by our lens review team, and we'll have their full story to you shortly. Until then, we offer you some images I shot both around town and also at the Georgia State Panthers final home game of the men's basketball regular season this past weekend.
Did they win the game? You bet - and they also won the regular season title on the same day. Will the Sony 35mm f/1.4 FE Zeiss Distagon win our favor? Stay tuned, but it's been an ejoyable all-around lens for gallery shooting thus far.
[Images have been slightly altered and/or cropped in post-production and resized to fit this page. Clickling on any image will take you to a carrier page for that image, where you can access both the EXIF data as well as the full resolution image as delivered straight from the camera.]
I played trumpet in my high school marching band, but I think the saxophone is the coolest instrument on the planet. This is the best college band I have ever heard - truly unbelievable.
You can really start to see the bokeh quality of the lens by the time you get back to the tuba section.
Warmups are a great time to warm up the camera and lens as well, and this shot really caught my eye - the player's face has aspiration, and I love the overall pre-game mood of the shot.
"Flight: We have a mid-air collision at high-altitude."
Catching three bodies in the air with the ball and the scoreboard is a good goal, but I wish I'd gotten more of their facial expressions in this one. No matter, as the A7 II and the Distagon did their part.
What can I say, I had a good seat at the game.
Goats are fascinating to me. Awesome little creatures, and good subjects for this lens. Notice how sharp the eyes are, while the nose and tail are nicely blurred. This is what that wide aperture buys you, even shot at a distance. There are two more goat shots in the gallery, including an interesting close-up.
[Note that even though it's almost twlight, the bright aperture still allows for an extremely fast shutter speed of 1/800s. This is the additional benefit of the "faster" aperture.]
Fly-fishing tranqulity.
This shot is at f/2, but for the same shot stopped down to f/6.3 click here.
On the day of this post we're exactly one month from The Masters golf tournament in nearby Augusta.
For more gallery images and access to EXIF data and full resolution images please visit our Sony A7 II Gallery page and scroll down until you see "35MM" in the image titles.
Sony 35mm f/1.4 FE Zeiss Distagon
[quick links: Sony 35mm f/1.4 Distagon • Gallery • Sony A7 II]