Photography Life

PL provides various digital photography news, reviews, articles, tips, tutorials and guides to photographers of all levels

  • Lens Reviews
  • Camera Reviews
  • Tutorials
  • Compare Cameras
  • Forum
    • Sign Up
    • Login
  • About
  • Search
Home โ†’ Reviews โ†’ Cameras and Lenses โ†’ Zeiss Loxia 50mm f/2 Review

Zeiss Loxia 50mm f/2 Review

By Nasim Mansurov 22 Comments
Last Updated On November 9, 2024

«»

Summary

The Loxia 50mm f/2 is yet another great addition to the growing family of native lenses for the Sony FE mount. Although it is a manual-focus lens, the ability to instantly zoom in on the Sony A7-series cameras makes the Loxia 50mm f/2 a breeze to use for pretty much any kind of photography. Thanks to the tight collaboration of Zeiss and Sony, gaps are getting filled quickly and the list of dependable lenses is growing very fast. With the two Loxia lenses and the newly announced Batis lenses, Zeiss is clearly putting a lot of bets on Sony’s mirrorless cameras, so it looks like both companies are anticipating tremendous growth in the coming years. And they should, because they are doing everything they can to bring innovative and groundbreaking products to the market. Sony’s much anticipated A7R II looks extremely promising and if the company puts enough resources on more high-quality lenses to compete with DSLRs, it will get harder for Nikon and Canon to compete.

I have been enjoying both Loxia lenses ever since I got a hold of them a few months ago. When coupled with the Sony A7-series camera bodies, the two lenses felt at home, thanks to their sturdy construction and superb handling. I took both the 35mm f/2 and the 50mm f/2 with me to Jordan and Sri Lanka trips and I found myself using those two over Sony lenses pretty much all the time. If I did not have to test Sony lenses, they would stay glued to the cameras. The Loxia 50mm f/2 might have a simplistic optical design when compared to other 50mm primes, but the lens has superb colors, beautiful bokeh and amazing sharpness – what more could one ask for from a lens?

Zeiss Loxia 50mm f2 Sample Image (37)
ILCE-7M2 + E 50mm F2 @ 50mm, ISO 200, 1/1000, f/2.8

At $950, the Loxia 50mm f/2 is not a cheap lens, particularly when compared to the faster and AF-capable Sonnar T* FE 55mm f/1.8 ZA, which sells for $50 more. It is a tough lens to compete with, thanks to its stellar sharpness and all-around performance, as shown earlier in this review. At the same time, Zeiss does not always put sharpness as the ultimate goal of every lens design – many of the classic lenses are optimized for beautiful rendering and colors first, sharpness second. The same goes for the Loxia 50mm f/2 – it is not a razor-sharp Otus and it is not meant to be one. The reasons for choosing the Loxia 50mm f/2 over the Sonnar T* FE 55mm f/1.8 ZA are: superior build quality and ergonomics, more compact design, better colors and bokeh (subjective) and rendering of images (also subjective). For these reasons, I personally prefer the Loxia to the Sonnar.

And this sounds silly, because both lenses have the Zeiss label on them! You might be wondering about the differences between the two and who designed and made them. “ZA” lenses with the Sony name in them are either designed by Zeiss, or designed by ex-Minolta engineers at Sony and later approved by Zeiss. The manufacturing process is fully controlled by Sony corporation, which often sub-contracts the manufacturing process to other companies in Japan and other parts of Asia (mainly China and Thailand). In contrast, Zeiss-labeled lenses like the Loxia 50mm f/2 are 100% designed by Zeiss engineers and the actual production is sub-contracted to companies like Cosina in Japan (Zeiss ceased most of its lens production in Germany a while ago). Zeiss fully controls and oversees the manufacturing process, ensuring that every lens made strictly adheres to the strict QA and testing standards established by Zeiss Germany. The reason why Zeiss continues to make manual focus lenses, is because it does not have to license and pay royalty fees to the owner of the mount (which in this case is Sony). So keep this in mind when looking at Sony lenses with a Zeiss label – those might have little to do with the Zeiss name in reality…

Zeiss Loxia 50mm f2 Sample Image (29)
ILCE-7M2 + E 50mm F2 @ 50mm, ISO 50, 1/1, f/16.0

Overall, I really enjoyed shooting with the Zeiss Loxia 50mm f/2 lens and I would certainly recommend it to anyone who is looking for a high-quality standard prime for the Sony FE mount. I cannot wait to see Zeiss produce more of these high-quality lenses for the Sony mount!

Where to Buy

B&H is currently selling the Zeiss Loxia 50mm f/2 lens for $949 (as of 01/12/2020).

Zeiss Loxia 50mm f/2
  • Optical Performance
  • Features
  • Bokeh Quality
  • Build Quality
  • Focus Speed and Accuracy
  • Handling
  • Value
  • Size and Weight

Photography Life Overall Rating

Photograhy Life Gold Award
4.6

Table of Contents

  • Overview and Specifications
  • Optical Features
  • Lens Comparisons
  • Summary
  • More Image Samples
  • Reader Comments
«»
Looking for even more exclusive content?

On Photography Life, you already get world-class articles with no advertising every day for free. As a Member, you'll get even more:

Silver ($5/mo)
  • Exclusive articles
  • Monthly Q&A chat
  • Early lens test results
  • "Creative Landscape Photography" eBook
Gold ($12/mo)
  • All that, PLUS:
  • Online workshops
  • Monthly photo critiques
  • Vote on our next lens reviews
 
Click Here to Join Today
 
Disclosures, Terms and Conditions and Support Options

Learn

  • Beginner Photography
  • Landscape Photography
  • Wildlife Photography
  • Portraiture
  • Post-Processing
  • Advanced Tutorials
Photography Life on Patreon

Reviews

  • Camera Reviews
  • Lens Reviews
  • Other Gear Reviews
  • Best Cameras and Lenses

Photography Tutorials

Photography Basics
Landscape Photography
Wildlife Photography
Macro Photography
Composition & Creativity
Black & White Photography
Night Sky Photography
Portrait Photography
Street Photography
Photography Videos

Unique Gift Ideas

Best Gifts for Photographers

Subscribe via Email

If you like our content, you can subscribe to our newsletter to receive weekly email updates using the link below:

Subscribe to our newsletter

Site Menu

  • About Us
  • Beginner Photography
  • Lens Database
  • Lens Index
  • Photo Spots
  • Search
  • Forum

Reviews

  • Reviews Archive
  • Camera Reviews
  • Lens Reviews
  • Other Gear Reviews

More

  • Contact Us
  • Subscribe
  • Workshops
  • Support Us
  • Submit Content

Copyright © 2025 ยท Photography Life

You are going to send email to

Move Comment