Near the end of that post I started my conclusion with this:
I hope you were not expecting a suggestion… I got nothing. All of these lenses are great. In many cases, a reasonable person could use any one of them for every purpose above. This post was of a “what I like about each” variety. If you are so inclined to choose just one it is my hope that it will assist in that endeavor.
Welp. A friend inadvertently called me out. We both have the same precious portrait lens after he followed me down the bootleg 105mm f/1.4 by way of a discontinued SIGMA mount and MC11 rabbit hole. He then asked me what 50mm lens I would recommend.
Oof.
Now that I have been cornered I can not recommend my “got to catch ’em all” multi-year path at all. I will admit that makes no sense. I do still stand behind the belief that I have no way of knowing what lens would be for someone else. But for the first time, I was asked a different question. Not what lens would I let go of (None.), but:
Knowing what I know now which lens would I buy if I did not have any of them?
I will not beat around the bush. To my surprise, the answer came to me very quickly.
If I could only have one 50mm-ish Sony lens I would get the Sony Sonnar T* FE 55mm F1.8 ZA used.
Why? I am glad I imagined you asked.
I shared with him that at around $400 used (here and here), it offers the sharpness and IQ, or at least close enough, of the larger more expensive Sony f/1.4 and f/1.2 lenses, is nearly as compact as the cheaper f/1.8 lens, and is brighter than the 40mm f/2.5. With so many clean used copies on the market I would not spend $500 more for a new copy.
I further stated that I could not recommend the 50mm f/1.2 to a rational person. It is overkill for most purposes. I had a specific mission to obtain an alternative for medium format. In a way it saved me from buying into a medium format camera and lens system I was eyeing feverishly, that I need like a hole in the head, once I used them side by side. (Spoiler alert: The slower AF of the GFX 50SII did it in and I can in no way justify the outlay for a 100MP variant let alone a new lens mount to feed.) For any other purpose, the 55mm is far better than good enough.
Well. I surprised myself when I wrote that list bit.
My Sony 50mm-ish lens recommendation in 2024 is a lens that was released in 2013… 11 years ago.
Sony really knocked it out of the park with this lens early on. Used side by side with much newer and more expensive Sony FE glass I saw no noticeable difference in AF speed and accuracy which is kind of amazing. The 50mm f/1.8 came out years later and does not perform as well.
I further blathered on:
- It offers that Zeiss IQ I find hard to describe but I see it in every Zeiss prime lens I have used.
- Very sharp, the colors are rich, and there is an almost 3D feel to the images and an organic look like a very good film images.
- Check out the back of a school bus image in the gallery as an example of this.
- I always wanted the 55mm since they released it soon after the first A7 but I could not bring myself to spend a thousand or more on an f/1.8 prime. But I was always blown away by the images I saw taken with it.
- After staying sky high even used recently the used price finally dropped to something halfway normal.
- Then when Anthony mentioned that he wanted to use it for portraits I added that the 55mm should be perfect for portraits. Just that bit of extra reach reduces distortion just that bit more over a 50mm when close to the subject.
For the next part of this post I will cut and paste my comments from that 50mm-ish lens overview and follow up with some closing comments.
Sony Sonnar T* FE 55mm f/1.8 ZA
What I Like
Everything. It is the lens I always wanted, but was unwilling to pay for. And it has ZEISS written on it, which I am always a sucker for. Only acquired a copy recently after a used copy finally dipped to an amount I was willing to pay. My issue? F/1.8 50mm lenses did not cost nearly $1,000 in my universe. That is it. Otherwise, it is the business. It is reasonably small and light while being a well built metal affair. It is sharp with lovely bokeh and colors. On the other side of 50mm from the 40mm above it is well suited to people photos while still being flexible at 55mm. Amazing given its age, since it was one of the first Sony FE lenses offered, it had an autofocus performance that keeps up with the latest and greatest Sony bodies. That is more than I can say for the much newer FE 50mm above.
What I Use It For
It is the lens I bring when I really want to use the next lens (Was referring to the Sony FE 50mm f/1.2 GM) but the occasion does not warrant such or I would prefer a smaller, lighter package. And while a great optical pairing for high MP Sony bodies, it is yet another lens that is a great match for the A7C.
Sample Photos
Conclusion
I referred to the Sony FE 50mm f/1.2 as the most perfect 50mm lens I have ever used. To then say I found this significantly less expensive 5mm lens a reasonable alternative is quite the endorsement.
So… I guess I can offer a suggestion.
Psst… If I could not swing $400 I could make do with the Sony FE 50mm f/1.8 also. The more I think about it… Unless you just wanted the best of breed or had a specific use case, like replicating a certain look, or just had the cash to spend, I would not likely recommend the other larger, faster lenses to others.
Still, I can respect one choosing any FE lens. Different strokes for different folks. And there is not a bad lens in the bunch including other FE lenses I listed in that post as well as any other FE lens on the market. We are beyond a time of good and bad lenses in my opinion. At most there is a range lenses of varying goodness where any number of reasons and use cases may make a case for one lens or another.
In that regard, the last post still stands as being a “what I like about each” proposition.
But one would do quite well with the Sony Sonnar T* FE 55mm F1.8 ZA alone. After the close I will add a few more sample images.
Happy capturing.
-ELW
Eric L. Woods 
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