Sony A7r and 55 f/1.8

A7r, 55 FE, f/1.8, 1/80s, ISO 320.  Click through to zoom in.

Ok, this is a post for the camera gear nerds mostly.  A lot of photographers are talking about the Sony A7r and the two primes released with it (the 35 and the 55).  It seems everyone is writing a review and normally I'd just be out shooting with new toys but since I'm tied to sitting in one place and then another my options are limited.  So I photograph what is within reach and usually means just the kids.  Many are reporting the new lenses are sharp and I can verify, yep they are.  The image above was shot hand held at 1/80s, looks pretty good to me.  I used the eye focus feature on the A7/A7r and am generally finding that it works very well.

Close up of the eye, looks great to me.  I sharpened my standard amount of 70/0.8/44 in Lightroom and at ISO 320 the file holds up to the sharpening well.

I noticed that qualitatively the 55 f/1.8 has fairly pleasing bokeh and so I wanted to compare against the Leica 50 f/1.4 Summilux.

Sony 55 out of focus highlights

This is kind of torture test for bokeh and this is actually quite good.  There is faint bit of green fringing on the edge of the highlight with the Sony.

Leica 50 f/1.4 Summilux out of focus highlights

The Leica is also good but omits the fringing of the Sony.  I also compared sharpness and found the Sony to be as good if not better than the Leica at all apertures, especially at the edges.  Not bad for the Sony at 1/4 the price, even if it is physically larger, but you get AF.