The Sony 40mm F/2.5 Lens Review

Stellar Everyday Lens

This Sony 40mm lens could be considered an unusual focal length. Not as ubiquitous as a 50mm. Not as versatile as 35mm. But perhaps a perfect middle ground between the two. Many photographers swear by the 40mm lens — including me. In fact, many fixed-lens cameras have a 40mm or similar focal length — notably the Ricoh GR III (which I reviewed here) and the Leica Q3 43. Arguably, it’s the focal length that’s closest to the human eye’s field of view that creates incredibly natural-looking images. But how does the Sony 40mm f/2.5 G lens stack up, and is it an essential lens for your kit bag?

Build and Design

Coming in at just 173g and 45mm in length, one of the first things you’ll notice about this lens is how compact it is. It balances nicely on any of the full-frame Sony Alpha line-up, and is a notably killer combo with the A7C II and A7CR (more on that later!). The trade-off for this smaller size is a slower aperture range of f/2.5 to f/22, but for most use cases, this is perfectly fine. You might not get the most outrageously shallow depth of field from the lens, but that’s not what a compact lens like this is really for, and the f/2.5 aperture will still get you some lovely-looking bokeh.
The all-metal body feels well-constructed and is resistant to dust and moisture. There’s an included lens hood, which is a nice touch from Sony. The hood is designed to accommodate filters directly onto it. Because it’s so small, I rarely remove the lens hood, but both the lens and the hood share a versatile 49mm filter thread. In the real world, I usually leave a UV filter on the lens itself, and the hood can still be attached comfortably above it.

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Lens Features

The lens features a de-clickable aperture ring — a feature now included on most Sony lenses — making it suitable for both photography and video. It also has a useful customisable focus hold button on the side. It might be a small lens, but it’s not missing any of the things we’ve come to expect from Sony’s lens line-up!

Image Quality

It’s impressive how well this lens performs considering its small package. Centre sharpness is top notch across the aperture range, and other than a bit of vignetting and a hair less sharpness in the corners, there’s not much trade-off to shooting wide open — and that clears up by f/4.

There is very little barrel distortion from the lens, resulting in a remarkably natural look to the image at the 40mm focal length. The bokeh is pretty pleasing, although some would say it’s more ‘textured’ than it is ‘creamy’ — but that’s down to personal preference more than a good or bad thing. Personally, I’m a big fan of how it looks! Color rendition is accurate, and it has a nice amount of built-in contrast, while CA is nicely controlled. All in all, the image quality is stellar for a lens that sits below Sony’s famous G-Master range.

Focus

The 40mm features dual linear motors for fast, precise, and nearly silent AF. I’ve found it to be accurate and speedy, with solid tracking features. In low light, I’ve not noticed it suffering from much hunting, but it’s a little worse than it might be if you’re shooting out in daylight. It does have a fair amount of focus breathing, so that’s something to bear in mind if you plan to shoot video with it. It features an impressive minimum focus distance of 28cm in autofocus (and 25cm in manual), which is plenty close enough for most situations.

When in manual focus mode, it has a linear response to give the illusion of mechanical control, but, like many modern lenses, it doesn’t quite have the same tactile feeling as lenses with a more typical manual focus ring. Still, it’s responsive and accurate, and almost feels like a mechanical lens.

Who’s It for?

I think 40mm is a perfect everyday carry focal length. It’s wide enough to capture a scene, but not so wide that you can’t isolate a subject. It’s a popular focal length for street photographers, or for an EDC lens when travelling or taking photos of family and friends. It’s also great for video shooters who want something lightweight for a gimbal. The other two lenses in the compact trio — Sony’s 24mm and 50mm G lenses — share the same size and weight, making them a brilliant kit for gimbal users who want a great image and autofocus without adding a lot of weight.

A killer combo is combining the lens with an A7R body. Suddenly, you have a camera much like a Leica Q343, but in a body with interchangeable lenses, for less money, while keeping a 60MP sensor. You could even pick up the other lenses in the set and have a set of lenses that are the same size across a range of focal lengths. It’s a really satisfying and lightweight combination to carry around, and perhaps an alternative to Fujifilm excellent X100VI or the Leica if you want a full-frame interchangeable lens option (although you can’t go wrong with the others either!)

Cost

The Sony 40mm G ships for over $700. It’s not the cheapest lens in the world, but you are getting what you pay for. Sony has packed a lot of features and image quality into a tiny lens, and I think it’s an almost perfect everyday carry lens for Sony shooters who need something lightweight and portable.