At this price point, one can expect nothing but the best regarding construction. This lens is all metal (barrel, mount, hood) and you can feel it. At 420gr is neither light or heavy but it couples really well in the camera (tested in α7 II or α7c). Although, far from being a portable lens, even with the hood it is quite acceptable and easy to carry.

The lens has its marking engraved, the F stops on the outer ring and the distances markers in feet and meters. The lens posses a mechanism that allows a seamless rotation of the aperture or in other words, a “clickless” mode.

Part of the appeal of this lens aperture and the compact size. To achieve a 1.2 aperture you need a lot of glass, and the 8 elements in 6 groups denote that. The 2 aspherical elements in part allow this an introduce desired correction that enable the use of this lens in the maximum aperture with an excellent center performance.

One possible criticism in this section is that the lens do not possess weather protection. At this price point is debatable whether this is necessary or not in this lens, but a little protection would be nice.

As said, at 420gr is neither light or heavy. Probably with taller bodies the camera will tip towards the front of the lens. I’ve tested in a Sony α7 II and α7c and this is the case. Although in the case of the α7c is barely noticeable.

One aspect that is often discussed about this lens, is that the grip to remove the lens is in an awkward position, making it more difficult than it should to get it out of the camera. I have to say, that using it for a long time, you get used to the motion.

The hood, as it shown in the pictures, is not that big. Depending on the position of the light source can offer some protection from it. Rather, I recommend using the hood to protect the lens and the front element itself. It doesn’t add too much to the lens and can be deciding factor between a dent in the hood or the lens itself.

Manual Focus

This lens posses electronic contacts that communicate information to the camera. This translate in two things, if you have the magnifying option activated, whenever you rotate the focusing ring the zoom kicks in and second the distance meter appears in the screen, whether you have activated the magnifying option or not.

The focus ring is big and easy to grasp, the resistance rotating the ring is smooth and precise. This allows for fine adjustment of the focus and with muscle memory one can accomplish this fairly easy. There’s about 130° of rotation available and the lens extends about half a centimeter from infinity to the closest focus distance of 0.35 m.

There’s hardly a better experience in modern manual focus lenses than this lens can offer.

Aperture ring

The aperture ring works wonders in this lens, is tactile feedback is on point and you have stops between the usual ones to adjust accordingly (between f/5.6 and f/8, f/6.3 and f/7.1 are available).

As previously stated there’s an option to activate a clickless mode of the aperture ring.

To accomplish this follow the next steps.

1. Push the aperture control ring (3) towards the aperture ring (4)
2. Turn the aperture control ring 180 degrees.
3. Aling the 2 indexes (9) and (11)
   1. The white dot indicate a click stop mode
   2. The yellow line indicate a clickless mode