I thought about running a comparison of the Sony E 1.8/50mm OSS and the Sony Sonnar T* FE 1.8/55mm ZA lenses mounted on my Sony A6000, but I ended up throwing some Canon stuff in my tests as well. So this comparison will have:

• Sony A6000 + Sony E 1.8/50mm OSS (E-Mount Crop lens, FF Equivalent 75mm, camera weight: 344 g, lens weight: 202 g);
• Sony A6000 + Sony Sonnar T* FE 1.8/55mm ZA (E-Mount Full Frame lens, FF Equivalent 82.5mm, camera weight: 344 g, lens weight: 281 g);
• Canon 5D Mark III + Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L II (EF Mount Full Frame lens, camera weight: 860 g, lens weight: 1025 g);
• Canon 5D Mark III + Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 (EF Mount Full Frame lens, camera weight: 860 g, lens weight: 290 g);
• Canon 7D Mark II + Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 (EF Mount Full Frame lens, FF Equivalent 80mm, camera weight: 910 g, lens weight: 290 g);
• Canon 7D Mark II + Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II (EF Mount Full Frame lens, FF Equivalent 80mm, camera weight: 910 g, lens weight: 130 g);
• Canon 7D Mark II + Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 (EF-S Mount Crop lens, FF Equivalent 27-88mm, camera weight: 910 g, lens weight: 645 g).

 

If you are thinking that this is a strange mix for a comparison, let me explain. My favourite focal length for portraits is 85mm, so I wanted these combos to be as close to 85mm as possible. The Sony A6000 has a 1.5x crop factor and the Canon 7D Mark II has a 1.6x crop factor, getting the 50mm and the 55mm in a range from 75mm to 88mm FF equivalent.

 

But first lets compare the two Sony lenses mounted on the A6000.

 

Please note all comparison photos were processed in Lightroom with the following:

 

The Sonnar T* 55mm is just a tiny bit bigger and only 79 g heavier than the 50mm OSS for crop sensor cameras (281 g – 202 g). The Sonnar T* is a Sony Zeiss lens and the 50mm OSS is Sony branded only. The Sonnar T* comes in a bigger box, with a nice pouch both include a lens hood, although the Zeiss has a nicer looking hood. The focus throw in the Zeiss is a lot shorter, but the 55mm gets closer to my desired 85mm than the 50mm (82.5mm against 75mm). And of course, the 50mm has OSS (Sony’s Optical Steady Shoot), even though it’s a fast lens at f/1.8. OSS might seem redundant in a lens this fast, but when you are trying to focus it helps a lot to stop the camera shake and nail it. But I have to say the Zeiss lens looks a lot nicer.

 

 

I ran the “out of focus test” by manually focus on nothing. Both cameras were focused at 0.6 meters, to pretend they have a close subject in focus and see how the background melts away.

 

 

For this part of the test I was actually focusing on something. I tried moving a little bit to compensate the 5mm (or 7.5 FF equivalent) difference between the lenses.

 

 

Back home, I ran a backlight autofocus test. The Sony A6000 had issues focusing with any of the two lenses, while the Canon 5D Mark III and Canon 7d Mark II were great focusing on my subject. All photos taken in Aperture Priority with +2 Exposure Compensation.

 

 

Then later, I did a bokeh test to compare what different combos would do to the background.

 

All photos were taken from the exact same spot using a tripod. No Exposure compensation on this one. I used a aluminum foil with a light modified with a blue gel for the bokeh, and a continuous LED light for the subject. The distance between the subject and the background was 40cm. Cameras set to Aperture Priority, 100 ISO, 2 seconds timer.

 

The setup.

 

 

The results.

 

 

100% crop.

 

 

It’s hard to bit the bokeh produced by the Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L II. The problem with this lens is the huge amount of Chromatic Aberration (CA), tho – and it’s well known. It does get better stopping it down, but then why would you spend a ton of money on a f/1.2 lens…

The Sony 55mm shows a better bokeh than the Sony 50mm, probably due to the 5mm (7.5mm FF equivalent) difference, but they are very close, and the 55mm does have CA more under control than the 50mm.

The Canon 7D Mark II could not autofocus with the Canon EF 50mm f/1.4. The only way to nail focus with this combo was to use live view, for some reason, but the background looks good. And the 50mm f/1.8 (nifty-fifty) performs very well for it’s price (it’s the cheaper lens tested by far).

To finish I had the Canon 7D Mark II with the Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 at 55mm (88mm FF equivalent) just for the sake of it. Although the obvious not so smooth background, a slower lens like this shows no CA and I believe this to be one of the sharpest EF-S lenses Canon has ever made.

 

But back to what started this comparison in the first place, The Sony 55mm ZA mounted on the A6000 has a focal length closer to the 85mm I like but it lacks OSS. The 79 g more in weight are not a bit deal and the lens looks a lot nicer than the Sony branded (having that blue Zeiss logo is like having the red ring on Canon lenses I guess).

 

Honestly, if you shoot with the A6000 and are not planning to move to a full frame camera like the A7R II, I cannot justify the difference in price between these two lenses. They are both great mounted on the A6000. The Sony 50mm retails for $298 in USA and the Sony Zeiss 55mm goes for $998.