The new Sony 35mm f/1.4 G Master delivers professional image quality and beautiful bokeh, all in a light and compact form factor. First impressions of the new lens are rolling out and reviewers are calling it the best 35mm on the market. See more of their thoughts in our review roundup below. 

See what reviewers across the web are saying about the new Sony 35mm f/1.4 G Master lens.

Gerald Undone

“This new lens from Sony is fantastic. It’s easily one of the sharpest 35mm that I’ve seen and it has stellar control over chromatic aberration and flair, with very pleasing bokeh.” – Gerald Undone

Miguel Quiles

“In my own experience, I took some photos at a park – took some pictures of some flowers and random things to try to test this lens out. With really strong backlit conditions, I was impressed to see that number one, chromatic aberration was basically not even existent which was pretty awesome. Ghosting and flaring was something that I also was not seeing in the photos that I took which is very exciting to see in a 35mm lens that is this fast and this compact.” – Miguel Quiles (Sony Artisan)

B&H Photo Video

"This new 35mm f/1.4 feels like a must-have for serious E-mount shooters. A more versatile focal length that will provide them with amazing image quality and sharpness and pro-level performance to go along with their Sony mirrorless camera system. I love the 35mm on a full frame sensor. It lends itself to such rich versatility and compositions and the bokeh on this 35mm G Master was unreal. I never wanted to take it off the camera." – Jake Estes

Julia Trotti

"During the Eye AF test, I found the lens was working lightning fast on the α7C. I tried my absolute best to lose the focus point but it always kept up with me no matter what."

"The focus accuracy was great and something I felt like I could rely on for a client shoot." – Julia Trotti

Gordon Laing

"The FE 35mm f1.4 G Master is Sony’s best 35 to date, exploiting their latest lens technologies to deliver superior results not only to the earlier 1.4 Zeiss version, but also more recent rivals including Sigma’s 35mm 1.2 DG DN. 

Like the 24mm f/1.4 GM before it, Sony’s created another very well-corrected lens that’s sharp across the frame even wide-open. Details toward the centre are bitingly crisp, while the rendering of blurred areas is satisfyingly smooth with minimal outlining or textures in bokeh blobs. There’s little to no fringing, and the geometry is well-behaved even without compensation. Focusing is fast, accurate, consistent and operates in virtual silence, and the whole feature-set packaged in a compact weather-sealed barrel with a de-clickable aperture ring. I really can’t think of anything to complain about and it’s a perfect example of how far lens design and construction has come in even the last five years since the Zeiss 35mm f/1.4 which, lest we forget, most of us including myself were rather fond of." – Gordon Laing

See his full written review at cameralabs.com.

Sidney Diongzon

"I've been playing with this lens for a few weeks now and I love it. It's so good, like no exaggeration I really, really like this lens. The build quality is superb as you'd expect from a G Master lens. The lens construction is weather-sealed so you can definitely take it to harsh environments." – Sidney Diongzon

ZY Productions

"The images this is capable of producing is beyond rewarding. 35mm is an incredibly useful focal length and it's also my personal favorite to shoot with, and I think it's just great that it's now joined by a worthy member of the G Master family and with quite a strong presence I would say. This is a crazy good lens in almost every aspect – easily the perfect 35mm lens for Sony E-mount. It's definitely a lens that you want to keep close by for low light photography and also for getting those shots with just the right amount of bokeh." – ZY Productions

The Art Of Photography

“With the 35mm f/1.4 G Master, Sony has combined exceptional optics with some amazing autofocus performance. You really do get the best of both worlds with this lens. They’ve done it in a package that is not massive. It’s a very comfortable size. In fact, one of the things that Sony intended with this lens was to have something that you could leave on your camera at all times that could just be ready to go, and I think they’ve done that very successfully.” – Ted Forbes

Tony & Chelsea Northrup

“One thing is clear, Sony lens quality has come so far in the past few years. This new 35mm f/1.4, it is cheaper, smaller, feels better and produces better quality images in every way I could think to test compared to that older Zeiss lens.” – Tony Northrup

TechRadar

“A feature that really stands out is the 11-blade circular aperture, which is two blades more than most other lenses. This ensures beautiful circular bokeh when shooting at the maximum f/1.4 aperture.” – James Abbott

Read their full review here.

Adorama

“As of right now, this is the best 35mm lens on the market. The resolution you’re able to achieve with this lens is superlative.” – Crissi Beth Cooper (Alpha Collective)

Jason Vong

“This lens is ridiculously sharp at f/1.4. Several of the portrait shots where I’ve gone with Eye Auto-Focus just blew me away. It’s just something about getting sharp eyes after you immediately take the photo. It just feels so satisfying. Even shooting landscapes at f/1.4, it is sharp across the board. It’s really living up to it’s G Master badge. Corner-to-corner sharpness is excellent.” – Jason Vong

Manny Ortiz

“The GM is sharper, there’s just more clarity in the image when I’m pixel-peeping. The color is better. What is color? It’s so subjective. In my opinion the color is just more vibrant on the GM, consistently. With the skin tones and the portraits of my wife, the skin tones just look better, they look more vibrant and the colors all around – it just renders color better. I think there’s a slight advantage with the GM there.” 

“...there is really nothing missing from this lens. The backgrounds are beautiful, the colors. I’m a huge fan and this is definitely going to go in my bag because I am a huge 35mm fan and shooter. I love it for environmental portraits. I’ve been using the f/1.8 for most of my stuff, but I think the f/1.4 is going to be the new king of the 35mm for Sony right now.” – Manny Ortiz

DPReview TV

“It's a great walkaround lens if you’re just going to take one for the day, but it's also light and compact if you want it as an additional lens in your camera bag. The focusing speed on this lens is excellent – very swift, very quiet. You could certainly use it for street photography, action, family stuff, candid shots – it would excel there.” – Chris Niccolls