Sony 35mm F1.4

Marc Heijligers, 06-02-2016
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The 35mm F1.4 is known for his good sharpness, and its beautiful rendering of bokeh. I had the opportunity to try out one lens (and compare it to the Sigma ART 35mm F1.4). Unfortunately this lens showed significant blurring on the top-right side, hinting at a skewed internal lens element.
Bookshelf
For the bookshelf, in the centre the lens is a bit soft at f1.4, starts to become reasonable sharp at f2.8 (bot not at the corners), and at f5.6 shows good overall sharpness. In the top-right corner there is quite some blurring, indicating an internal skewed lens element.

Cityscape
Similar observations as for the bookshelf.

Summary

The 35mm f1.4 shows an immense blurring problem at the (top-)right side of the lens. This is in line with other observations on the web, i.e. lens rental (“the variance is WITHIN a copy, not just copy-to-copy, none of the 10 copies we tested had even corners”), diglloyd and various forum topics, e.g. dpreview and fredmiranda (for a 55mm). Though the lens shows decent sharpness at f5.6, up to f2.8 this sample of the lens cannot impress me, and I don’t understand its huge price tag of €1699.
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No second lens for comparison.

Detailed examples

Use the filter button below to select which cases you want to see and compare in detail (the buttons will limit the selection), and use the slider to compare the 2 lens samples.
  • Centre @ f1.4 - A bit soft, and quite some color fringing.
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    Scene Bookshelf,Position Centre,f1.4
  • Centre @ f2.8 - Decently sharp in the centre.
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    Scene Bookshelf,Position Centre,f2.8
  • Centre @ f5.6 - Decent sharpness.
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    Scene Bookshelf,Position Centre,f5.6
  • Left @ f1.4 - As soft as the centre.
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    Scene Bookshelf,Position Left,f1.4
  • Left @ f2.8 - A bit better than f1.4, but still not impressively sharp.
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    Scene Bookshelf,Position Left,f2.8
  • Left @ f5.6 - Decent sharpness, like in the centre
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    Scene Bookshelf,Position Left,f5.6
  • Right @ f1.4 - Extermely blurred, which given the fact that the centre and right are OK, points towards a skewed internal lens element
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    Scene Bookshelf,Position Right,f1.4
  • Right @ f2.8 - Like f.14, still significantly blurred
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    Scene Bookshelf,Position Right,f2.8
  • Right @ f5.6 - Reasonable sharpness, with still some “echo” on the bottom of the letters.
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    Scene Bookshelf,Position Right,f5.6
  • Centre @ f1.4 - A bit hazy, with visible purple fringing.
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    Scene City,Position Centre,f1.4
  • Centre @ f2.8 - Good sharp.
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    Scene City,Position Centre,f2.8
  • Centre @ f5.6 - Impressively sharp.
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    Scene City,Position Centre,f5.6
  • Left @ f1.4 - Quite blurred, not impressive for a €1699 lens.
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    Scene City,Position Left,f1.4
  • Left @ f2.8 - Still a bit hazy.
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    Scene City,Position Left,f2.8
  • Left @ f5.6 - Decently sharp.
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    Scene City,Position Left,f5.6
  • Right @ f1.4 - Very blurred.
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    Scene City,Position Right,f1.4
  • Right @ f2.8 - Still very blurred.
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    Scene City,Position Right,f2.8
  • Right @ f5.6 - Decent sharpness.
    Stacks Image 1232
    Scene City,Position Right,f5.6