When I look back into Phoblographer’s archives for 35mm f1.4 lenses for Sony, I run into four specific lenses. There’s the Sony G Master, which is beautiful in its own right. There’s also the much older 35mm f1.4 Minolta port that’s got a very classic look to it. And the Pergear 35mm f1.4 is still probably one of my favorite lenses for Sony E mount. But the one that really has my heart is a lens that I reviewed back in 2015 — the Sony Zeiss 35mm f1.4. To this day, there isn’t a 35mm lens that I remember as vividly as this one. This lens is perhaps one of my very favorite 35mm f1.4 lenses that I’ve ever tested.
Luckily, you can get the Sony Zeiss 35mm f1.4 at a very cheap price these days. This lens blew everything else out of the water back then and even today, I’d say that it still does so. Something about how vivid the color is right out of camera means that you never really need to do any editing to your images. Plus it works so well with Sony’s human and eye detection focusing.
Granted, this lens didn’t have the weather resistance that newer Sony lenses had. But this one was really about the character. It has to do with the colors, the bokeh, the way that it renders light in such a way that you’d think you’re shooting a medium format camera, and how it renders lens flare.
When I tested this lens, I was able to use it with various Sony color profiles and got looks similar to Kodak Ektar.
Back then, I awarded it four out of five stars because of the price point and the big size. But today, I dream of more lenses like this. This is an older Distagon design and I’m saddened that lens design has taken a turn to be more versatile and friendly towards shooting video instead of leaning more into making really beautiful photographs.
For what it’s worth, if I want to shoot video, I’ll use a Camp Snap 8 instead.